Backside of Masterpiece Quilt "Spirit of Mother Earth" by Sharon Schamber

While I was at the NQA show in Columbus, Ohio this week I happened to be standing near the quilt made by the newly named Master Quilter Sharon Schamber when the white glove lady picked up a corner to show us the backside. Well, you can go several places on the web to see the front of this quilt (Sharon's website, for example) but I grabbed the chance to take photos of the back. I have read that Sharon spent two years working on this quilt. The women standing near me were overcome with admiration and awe for this quilt and made comments along the line of "It is beautiful!" "Gorgeous!!" and "I could never come close to making anything like that!" (Also note the ribbons awarded to a Masterpiece quilt by the NQA judges.)

My reaction was a bit different. I felt the quilt had been stitched to death and I felt that Queen Victoria, the woman who loved fringe, bows and excessive ornamentation on everything would have been pleased. The looped piping on the edge of the quilt was, for me, a sign that I am out of touch with what pleases judges in the 21st century. (But since I never enter contests it doesn't matter. LOL)

I suppose that some longarm machine quilters get carried away with the grace and flow they can execute with their machines but it seems like some of them don't know when to stop their machines and give the machines (and the quilts) a rest. Please note that I have said "some longarm quilters" .... I am not making a blanket statement here.

Judy in Ohio