OMG!!!

"Frei" - my entry to the AQC Challenge (theme 'free')

My (secret) quilt has taken the first hurdle, it is off to Australia!!! I just received this confirmation in the mail:

Dear Quilter,

RE: AQC 2013 CHALLENGE ENTRY

Thank you for entering the 2013 AQC Challenge: 'FREE'.

We are pleased to advise that your quilt has been selected to proceed to the next step. We invite you to send the quilt for the finalist selection and judging. To do this, please send your quilt to the address below to arrive before March 28.

Upon seeing the actual quilts, the organisers reserve the right to decide which quilts will be included in the exhibition.

Please ensure your quilt is labelled clearly with the title and your name.

It can be either posted, couriered, or delivered by hand, but must be able to be folded and transported. Ideally it should be in a cloth bag which is also clearly labelled.

We are delighted that you have been chosen to proceed with this next step and wish you well.

Can anyone tell me, how great are the chances of being accepted? They don't say when they let you know about acceptance, not before 28 March obviously. I said if it was accepted I would go to Melbourne over Easter - do I need to start looking for flights?

Some details:

This is the brief summary I sent in with my entry:

"ARBEIT MACHT FREI" (labour frees) said the sign at the Nazi Concentration Camps. The surviving prisoners were freed more than 60 years ago, but is our world today truly free?

This quilt is a glance at what the world might look like once it is freed from human kind – some traces still remaining, but soon to be completely taken over by nature, with only the word ‘FREI’ (free) remaining.

I am OVER THE MOON!!!! Shortly after I first read about it, the idea was born and then percolated for some time. Mid February I went to work in earnest and managed to complete it just in time for the 1 March deadline. It is made up of hand printed and commercial cottons, overlaid with hand painted silk chiffon. The flowers are hand felted by my mother Ilse Seidel, wrapping around a machine stitched chain-link fence I had stitched onto wash-away fusible. I raw edge appliqued various objects - especially the rusted sign from above the entrance. I also thread painted flowers and fmqed in different scale to give the piece depth. I am very pleased with how the piece turned out though it is very different to what I usually do! One piece of warning, if you want to burn fabrics to make them look rusted, try to keep your hands away from the hot fabric, I ended with some not so nice burns on the back of my fingers!

I have done little other quilting, have been very busy and very happy in my new job, but this weekend will be spent adding hanging sleeve and label so I can put "Frei" in the mail to AUS on Monday. I will have to look into the whole insurance thing, too - all things I never have had to worry about before!

Happy Sewing!!!

Linking up to Leah Day's FMQ Friday