The Trimmings Challenge.

We Played Space Guns, Badskirt 2015.

We had tea and store-bought chocolate brownies.

I'm not sure if that's the proper way to celebrate when your quilt wins a prize. It's a new experience for me, but that's precisely what we did. We feasted on chai tea and chocolate brownies. We also ran circles around the house playing space guns with the Dymo and a tin raygun. I'm fairly certain the latter isn't the normal reaction at quilt shows.

On Friday, I was fortunate to learn that my Trimmings 2015 quilt, made for the Umbrella Prints challenge, was selected for first prize in the quilting category. The announcement took me by surprise, as I had been watching with interest as people worked on and posted their projects on social media. A cursory glance at this year's Pinterest board of entries, gives you some idea of the quality of the submissions, but I urge to you look closely and click through to the blog posts that go along with the entries. You can see detailed shots of the projects and read their stories - each creative and unique. Every entry is a winner.

Among my favorites this year are Lara's Alexander Girard-inspired triangle quilt based on his Rain design and Dorie's improv-style half-pieced geese. Another friend was taken with Erica's deep blue improv quilt. My husband picked Grace's pieced turtles and Miss Leela's Sunrise. The entries were amazing this year. Narrowing it down would have been hard. I am honored that Maura of Folk Fibers chose mine.

Those seven different quilting patterns I tried? The effort now seems somewhat justified.

You may also remember that I found one of the Golden Tickets this year making me doubly lucky in this year's challenge. So along with the big news, I thought I'd share a photo of what I won with my golden ticket and show you how nicely the Umbrella Prints pair with other prints in my collection. A mint, mustard and pepper quilt is calling...

Golden Ticket prize from Umbrella Prints 

Umbrella Prints paired with fabrics in my stash

If you live in the greater Melbourne area or are visiting in July, the Trimmings 2015 quilt has been entered in a non-juried exhibition held in conjunction with the Craft and Quilt Fair and the Melbourne Modern Quilt Guild. I'm still awaiting confirmation, but hopefully you'll soon be able to see it in person July 23-26 at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre. If you're a modern quilt lover, like I am, be sure to stop by and enjoy the guild's display.

Thank you again to Umbrella Prints for hosting the competition and to Maura for selecting mine - with such an outstanding field of entries, I'm sure the choice was difficult.

happy crafting from amy badskirt.