Northern Lights: Off to the Fair

It's really done.  Ta-da!  Isn't it beautiful?  I got the label on last week, just in time to ship it off to the Topsfield Fair.  I love the name my aunt came up for it.  She said the colors against the black made her think of the northern lights, and I said aha!  That's it!  That's its name!

It took a while to photograph it.  First, we had to find a good place to set up to capture the whole thing.  Then there were lighting issues.  The afternoon sun was in the wrong direction and washed out all of our shots.  Thank goodness we were able to get some good photos on Saturday morning, since I delivered the quilt to the fair that afternoon!  (It also helped that I had a very patient photographer, who took dozens of shots, before I had what I wanted.)

I couldn't believe how tall this quilt is.  Look at how it towers over me!  Spread out out on the floor I could see it was big, but hanging off of the house (it touched the deck!) I could really feel it's size.  I've worked on it close up for so long, it was a very different experience to stand back and view it from a distance. 

The full-quilt photos just don't capture the quilting.  The back looks pretty neat in person - you can see the rings of colors of the thread on the back, in the same pattern as the fabric in the front.

Quilt residence for the next 3 weeks

It was hard to part with it.  The woman who checked me in told me not to worry - they'll take good care of it.  I got this tiny little slip of paper to reclaim my quilt after the fair.  My mother is picking it up.  I told her way too many times not to lose the ticket and not to forget to pick it up!  I'll be happier when it's back home.