Good news from Houston

A quick recap of ancient history:

In 2005 I started a quilt in a Nancy Crow workshop that never got finished.  In 2011 I wrote about it in my blog, eliciting a comment from a reader, Norma Schlager, that she really liked it.  She said "So don't throw it away.  You can always send it to me VBG."

So I did.  Norma finished the quilt and it looked great, and entered it in the International Quilt Festival competition, where it was accepted, and it won an award!  Last night the winners were announced and "Brown Planet a Collaboration" got third prize in the Art -- Abstract, Large category.

Norma was there to accept the award, which is only fitting because she did most of the work to turn the quilt from idea to reality.  I feel proud, but kind of like the mother who watches her child be valedictorian.  Sure, he wouldn't been there without me, but it wasn't me who actually did the deed.

So congratulations to Norma!

And a quick recap of more recent history:

In June I wrote a petulant blog post about how nobody loved me, everybody hated me, and I was going to go eat worms.  Among other petty slights, I complained that shows couldn't get my name right -- although I go by Kathy 99 percent of the time, including in person and in my blogs, I like to be called Kathleen in "official" usage.  Such as when my work is displayed in a show or gallery.

Norma, my collaborator and faithful blog reader, immediately wrote back, "Oh, oh!  When I entered our piece into Houston, I put down your name as Kathy!  Sorry!  If it gets accepted I will see if it can be changed."  So after it was accepted, she contacted the show organizers and was assured that it would be shown as Kathleen.

Guess what -- it wasn't.  Every silver lining has a cloud.