My 2013 Art Prize entry “Sleeping Bear Dune Lakeshore” took first place, winning a cash award of $200,000! This is the largest art competition money given in the world and is the most money ever awarded to a quilt in the history of quilting! This is a huge win for all quilters and textile artists and I am very proud and delighted to be the person to represent the quilt community and have achieved this amazing award.

I believe my stars all aligned this year with my art prize entry. This was my third year entering art prize, each year I created a little larger piece and fans kept coming back to the Ford Museum to see what I made . So repetition and being at the Ford Museum worked in my favor. This years piece resonated with the Michigan public in that it was a favorite Michigan vacation spot. People could relate to my entry. I was at art prize “campaigning”, sharing and talking about my art for 15 days out of the 19 days of voting. Most people thought my quilt was a photograph or a oil painting but then amazed as I explained it was an art quilt. It was unique and different.

Art prize now owns my winning art prize entry and they will be displaying it in Grand Rapids in a public space to be announced soon.

Now that art prize is behind me I am planning my next move. I am working on a book which will be a gallery and a step-by-step book on my “Collage” technique to be published in September of 2014. I will spend some quiet time this winter creating new designs and then have some lecturers and teaching events lined up for spring 2014.