life after quiltcon rejection

One e-mail after another.

Three times I optimistically clicked on "you've got mail".

& three times I read:

Dear Robyn,

Thank you for entering your quilt to QuiltCon 2015.  There were many outstanding quilts submitted and unfortunately we couldn't accept them all.  We regret to inform you that your quilt,  was not chosen by our panel of jurors to be included in the show. Please do not be discouraged. We received more than 1,350 quilt submissions and the jurors had to make many difficult decisions.

Thank you again for your submission. 

Best,

Heather Grant

Director of Marketing & Programming

The Modern Quilt Guild

The Christmas chaos allowed me to accept those words and disappointed, put it behind me.

At our modern quilt group Christmas gathering, someone introduced me to the world of "instagram". I read of so many others disappointed by their feelings of rejection. 

And then I viewed some of their quilts left unchosen.

WOW!

If those were not to be included, I am even more excited to attend quiltcon and see what was!

Viewing their quilts and reading of their frustrations, I became acutely aware of how different all these quilts are. And as hard as I try to truly grasp it all-

I still can't fully understand what a modern quilt truly is or IF I am a modern quilter.

Now, I don't strain forward over a frame to quilt by hand... nor do I create block after block of "traditional" familiar patterns to be quilted the traditional way.

I grow bored and have little patience for the commitment this requires. That is not to say I am not in awe of those magnificent quilts and the meticulous work that goes into them.

I love the feel of crisp bold fabrics and can feel my heart aflutter when our local shop shows off the new arrivals. 

Civil war fabrics do not inspire me. Nor do pastels or batiks.    

I do not like preprinted panels for themed baby quilts. And if I never sew on another piece of minky it will be too soon. Lastly- I will NEVER try to quilt a king size quilt on a standard machine again. (OK Rant over)

My passion is art quilting. I love converting photo's into quilts. So I joined SAQA... but I'm not sure I am like their artists either.

I love drawing my own patterns for applique. 

Sometimes I just need to stitch mindlessly... yay precuts! 

And when I do decide to follow someones pattern or technique- I always like to put my own spin on it.

I do like to do my own quilting... so I tend towards throws or wall hangings. 

I do not have a long arm and I am still struggling with my free motion skills on my Babylock.

I don't do well on deadlines. (Although they do force me to avoid the UFO pile)

And I REFUSE to comply with the rules of my local quilt police. (and that is all I will say on that overly sensitive subject)

so,

after all this rambling I return full circle. Am I a Modern Quilter??? Perhaps quiltcon will help me know

my favorite submitted quiltcon rejection: