This quilt is called my QuiltCon reject. It was one year ago today when I nailed down my design for my first-ever entry into QuiltCon. I was so excited. I had heard about the Michael Miller Challenge for QuiltCon (here is a link to this year’s challenge), and although I didn’t get the free fabric, I decided to enter anyway. How? by buying all of the fabric. But I would go all out, using only the challenge fabric for my quilt top and quilt back. It would be epic! I asked the QuiltCon site if I would be allowed to participate even if I didn’t get the fabric from them and they said I could.
I started ordering fabric. Cutting it up. Putting it back together. And before I knew it, it was October. November was the deadline, so it was almost time to have a finished quilt to submit. I quilted it the fastest way possible, with straight lines. Leaving one pinwheel unquilted so I could do something extra special in that one. I hand quilted a sashiko star and I was over the moon with how it looked. I handbound the quilt and finished it just in time to submit to QuiltCon. And I did submit it. I had such flawless luck on my Hoffman Challenge Quilt that not getting into the QuiltCon show was not even a thought in my mind.
QuiltCon Reject
One morning I woke up with an email in my inbox. I got that email…
“Thank you for entering your quilt to QuiltCon 2017. There were many outstanding quilts submitted and unfortunately we couldn’t accept them all.”
I was crushed! But over the week the hashtag QuitCon Reject started to trend and I realized that there were a lot of us “rejects” out there. QuiltCon gets somewhere around 1500 entries, meaning they have to reject more quilts than they accept. This also means that about three out of four entries will be rejected. It made me feel much better. On some blogs, I read that it is easier to get into other shows.
I am taking it as a learning experience. Getting a little knowledge under my belt. And as crazy as it sounds, I am going to enter three quilts into QuiltCon this year. I will be going to QuiltCon in California next year, so I would be so happy if I actually get a quilt into the show. It is now on my bucket list… has become my unicorn. An internal challenge. So wish me luck as I start to plan my quilts out for this upcoming deadline. I am sure it will get here faster than I realize.
And if you get a rejection email next year or if you have gotten one before… I feel for you! I am right here with you so let’s dust ourselves off and quilt on!
Happy Ends
On the flip side, this quilt inspired my free downloadable pattern that I released earlier this month called Double Pinwheel. Which design do you like better? The QuiltCon Reject quilt or the Double Pinwheel quilt?
