LICORICE AND LACE

 I have  a net friend in Germany named Birgit Schueller.  I have never actually met Birgit in person, but I have "known" her for many years.  We used to correspond on the About.com Quilting forum.  Then a small group of us moved to Yahoo groups and talked almost every day. During this span of time, I think I was the first to enter a quilt into competition.  Then three others in our group started competing.  I did okay considering I have only had 3 quilts in.  They were never competitive enough to make it big.  I had an art quilt that did okay, Best whatever in several shows.  I had two miniatures that did okay in the few shows they were in.  One went to the museum in Paducah.
Anything I ever did pales in comparison to my friend Gail Stepanek that has done big , big things in the three or four quilts that she has had in competition.  Then there is my friend Birgit Schueller.  The youngest among us.  She bought an APQS long arm maybe 5 years ago.  Mind you, she may have been one of less than 10 in a country that didn't have long arm quilters that quilted as a business.  Talk about getting into the ground floor of a business!   So she was pretty much on her own as far as learning how to work it and what to do with it.  I think that she has done a great job and I am very proud of her.
This is a link to her latest competition quilt.
LICORICE AND LACE  Julie is also a friend of Birgit.  I wish I could have commented on her blog, but the function just didn't work.
Anyway, Several years ago, Birgit talked about the cost and worry of shipping her quilts from Germany to the shows here in the U.S.  I remember the time when she made quilts for the Hoffman Challenge, and they got 'lost' in the mail and were late to get there.  I could see how much talent she had, and I thought it was important to make it easy for her to share her work with all of us.  I volunteered to be a quilt-sitter for all of her competition garments and quilts.  So for several years, I have had the privilege to  show all of her wonderful pieces to my guilds, and have made sure that they arrived safely to all of the shows that she has entered.  She has done very well, and I am glad that I could make it easier for her to make a name for herself in the quilting world.  It won't be long, and Licorice and Lace will be in my hands.  I can't wait to see it up close.