My first quilt that I finished was a wall hanging I designed for a challenge with the theme "Oh, My Stars!" It had two girls sitting on an Irish chain quilt spread out on the grass, gazing up at the stars. I embroidered a passage from James Agee's novel, A Death in the Family, in the border: "The stars are wide and alive, they seem each like a smile of great sweetness, and they seem very near....and who shall ever tell the sorrow of being on this earth, lying, on quilts, on the grass, in a summer evening, among the sounds of the night." On the back I embroidered a large star and finished the quote: " May God bless my people, my uncle, my aunt, my mother, my good father, remember them kindly in their time of trouble; and in the hour of their taking away."
My own father passed away during the making of this quilt and I did not finish it by the challenge deadline, but did finish it in time to enter it in the show under the "my first quilt" category. I took second place, out of two!