I learn faster than.....

I began a post earlier and got distracted by busyness elsewhere and I was chided for not completing my post that consisted totally of "I learn..." Well, Quilters, I'll finish my earlier unfinished post and tell you that "I learn faster than Judy in Ohio". I entered the Hoffman Challenge (the year of the cherry fabric) ONCE. I worked very, very hard on an original design with lots of measurements and careful cutting and what I thought was creative use of the fabric and I won NADA. Not that I expected to....basically I entered THAT time only to be able to say I had ENTERED. Still, I took the rejection as a serious statement of my quilting/design ability and have never entered another challenge with Hoffman nor with Keepsake. I realized that anyone entering those challenges is competing with mega-quilters with mega-talents and mega-creativity. And since my challenge quilt took me three times as long to complete as it would have if I were making a gift quilt, I decided I did not want to spend that much time again on the next challenge. So when Judy in Ohio said she was not going to enter another Keepsake challenge, it made me laugh over my breakfast cereal thinking she had joined me in "never again". I have admired her for her stick-to-itiveness and certainly DO admire her ability to take the challenge, run with it, sew together some fantastically off-the-wall creation. But now she, too, has decided to leave the challenges to those who spend countless hours, weeks, months on perfect creations using fabrics, beads, gems, threads, more threads, more threads yet. It is my opinion (humble indeed), that while my quilting, and that of the "ordinary" quilter, can be beautifully executed and of wonderfully original design, our more humble quilts will never be able to measure up to the elite quilters who take top prizes at national Q shows and Q challenges. Again, this is just my opinion, and not to be taken offense by those readers who may be in that elite group. As for Judy in Ohio, Ah, she's always inspired me and I stand in awe at her flair at whipping together colorful quilts that would take a prize if I were the judge.