Bummed after 'coming down' but also thankful for HobbySew

I try to make my blog posts positive, in fact I try to be positive in my life generally (always aiming for the feeling of relief, or the silver lining), but I just feel like sharing that I'm a bit bummed today.

After looking over my quilts and reflecting on the show, I regret not having the quilts completed earlier for the show.

I guess I had anticipated that the people hanging the quilts would try to flatten them a little. I understand they wouldn't have time to fiddle with every quilt, but my largest one was jammed into a pillowcase for the trip to the raceclub (by me), and still looked like that on Saturday when I went to see the exhibition :(
I take responsibility for giving it to them all scrunched, but these are things I guess you have to learn along the way.

I had looked for the timing for quilts to be submitted by, and couldn't see it, so decided I'd just do am much as I could til about 4pm and drop them in. I got phonecalls left right and centre at 230, saying the cut off time was 1pm and everyone's quilts are hung so where are mine!? Because my quilts were the last in, they hung my largest one with the tiger bedrunner behind it. That meant it didn't have a large one behind, to help straighten it with hanging.

I also feel pretty dumb for using what is apparently "craft wadding" bought from Spotlight for my large quilt. It says "Ultra fresh wadding" on the receipt, and all my other quilts have been quite lofty (except when I've used pellon) so I never would have known. I would have continued to use this if Jody hadn't let me know, so I know it's a blessing, no matter how disguised.

I really love my most modern quilt, but as I posted last week, it was so hard to go from the thickest wadding in town, to quilt lite which is like interfacing. Since it was my first try at this wadding I made some quilting mistakes and it just dampens that pretty quilt for me.

I'm embarrassed that those quilts were a representation of my standards to everyone at the show, when (in my opinion) I'm usually pretty careful and end up with a quality finish.

I guess when you throw yourself in the deep end you're going to learn lessons along the way. I never anticipated winning, I didn't even know what winners receive, and at least $7 from each quilt entry went to charity, plus my $6 entry too. I'll definitely take part in the show again next year, but I'll enter only quilts which are finished or MUCH closer to finished.

Thanks for listening to me whine, have you had a similar experience in the past?

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I have just read a post on Quilt Club Australia on facebook reminding us about the Aussie Hero Quilts (and laundry bags) and I'm seriously thinking of donating my big green one. I'll ask Carol Lee when my son isn't in the mood to want to consistently reach for the computer's "off" switch, later.

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PS On another note, we are lucky to have Spotlight down the road, Lincraft just opened another store locally about 6 months ago, and I just visited Erina's HobbySew store yesterday.

They stock the genuine accessories for my machine, so I have a genuine walking foot and stippling foot coming to me for Mother's Day woohoo! I was really impressed that they stock moda and kona fabrics, and will definitely be popping back in! I could have spent a million dollars yesterday there was a lot of fabric I hadn't seen before. Including Monkey Minkee which even sounds cute when you say it LOL.

I felt they were aimed mostly at quilting (fabrics) and stocked the rest of the store with notions, machines, and parts, which I am really thankful for.
Thanks Hobbysew, until next time!