2012 Quilting Arts Calendar competition

Detail from my submission for the 2012 Quilting Arts Calendar.

On Friday, I learned that the piece I submitted for consideration in the 2012 Quilting Arts Calendar has made the list of finalists! There are 21 artists and 22 pieces on the list on editor Pokey Bolton’s blog. And I know a bunch of them; all are wonderful artists. One, Faith Cleary, is a woman I met at International Quilt Festival last year while taking one of Judy Coates Perez’s classes. 

Faith Cleary with one of her pet portraits on a Christmas stocking.

Faith and I struck up a conversation, decided to have lunch together, and had the most wonderful time. Then this year, when I was back in Houston for Quilt Market, she showed up in a class I took with Bonnie McCaffery! It just seems like fate that we know each other. It was my birthday, and she offered to take me out for lunch at an authentic Mexican restaurant she knew, and then she drove me all over Houston to see points of interest, and took me to her house to see her darling studio. After seeing her wonderful work, I encouraged her to talk to Quilting Arts, and to enter the calendar competition, because it is right up her alley this year. 

Detail of Faith's work

Faith specializes in pet portraits sketched in thread, and this year, the theme of the competition is “Getting Pet-ty.” Take a look at Faith’s amazing work on her website. She creates very realistic thread-sketched portraits, then frames them or places them on pet carriers, handbags, chairs, pillows, stockings, you name it.

So imagine my excitement when I saw that both of Faith’s entries were on the list of finalists, too! I am so thrilled for her, because she is simply a sweetheart, and because she is an amazing artist.

This is part of what I love so much about being part of the quilting community. There are all these warm, wonderful people who share a passion for quilts, fabric and threads, and every time you turn around, you meet and make another fabulous friend.

I don't think there is any rule about showing the piece you have submitted, but I prefer to wait until the calendar comes out, or the pieces are shown for the first time (this year, at International Quilt Festival in Cincinnati). So the little photo at the top of this post is all I’m revealing for now. The final list of 13 pieces (one for each month and one for the cover) will be announced on Pokey’s blog on Feb. 11. I have my fingers crossed for both Faith and me.