Lucky HSTs

This is too good to be true, can somebody pinch me, please? My HST quilt top placed second in the Just the Top category of the Emerald Quilt Challenge over at a.squared.w. Wow, this is the first time I entered anything anywhere and I'm so excited and bursting with happiness.

I want to thank Sarah and Fiona, especially, for encouraging me to take part in the challenge. Not only had I not known about it, but I seriously doubt I would have entered without your kind words of encouragement. Sarah, you've also egged me on to finish the top in time. Fiona, you kept me level-headed. Perfect mixture for me. Thanks, ladies!

And thank you to everybody else who has been following along with the top's journey. Sharing this one with you has been so much fun and I'm still flabbergasted, but obviously overjoyed, by the amount of love it receives.

I can't wait to continue this one, see where it takes me, and take you along for the ride. The quilting should be a ton of fun and I'm planning a mixture of machine and hand quilting as soon as I can afford batting. Thanks to the sponsors and Ali I can definitely afford the backing and binding fabric now - what to pick?? Just a solid? A print? A solid combined with my 36 leftover HSTs?

Stay tuned, folks. And please check out everbody else's entries, not just the winners. Competition was definitely tough and inspiring!

Happy sewing and a most wonderful weekend!