Two for two!

Well, we went to the Virginia state Fair today. Both of the quilts I entered won ribbons! The safari quilt got Honorable Mention in the Crib/Small Bed Quilt category.
And the auction quilt got First Place in the Art Quilt/Wall hanging category!
We're tired and happy here at our house!

Safari quilt

This is one of the quilts I'm entering into the state fair. The other is the auction quilt, which you've probably seen before. Tomorrow morning, Amy and I will drive up to deliver them (she's entering a couple quilts as well). This quilt, which I call the Safari Quilt, was made for a friend who was having a baby. We fell out of touch (but have reconnected thanks to Facebook). Anyway, I had it nearly done except for one missing line of quilting and the binding. So it still fits the rules of being finished in the past year. I actually only finished the binding a few days ago! The design is mine. I took the safari pictures and cropped them. The giraffe's head sticks out of the frame because if I had cut a rectangle, a predatory animal would have been in the bottom right corner, looking at its lunch. So I took another giraffe image and appliqued it onto the brown border and green fabric. It was needle turn applique, and those horns are small! That's why there is blue fuzz showing a little. I may need to break out the brown Sharpie before tomorrow morning.
I was really anal about the layout. If you look carefully, you'll see that no predator is looking toward prey. I'm such a softie!