If the quilt hanging at the front entrance of her home doesn't give you a clue, then the room devoted to her hobby will give it away.

Judy Bernstein is a passionate quilter. Her husband, Stan, says when she's focused on her needle and thread, she is "in the zone."

Stan said he "lost her for a few months" on her latest venture, making a quilt for Hancock Fabrics' 2008 Quilt of Dreams benefit for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

It was an effort that paid dividends for Judy, as well. She won first place in Georgia, earning a blue ribbon for her entry.

"It's always nice to get a little recognition for what you do," she said during an interview at her North Hall home Sunday afternoon. "I've never entered a quilt in any type of contest. This is the first contest I've entered, and I won something."

Her husband said he was proud of her efforts.

"Judy is an exceptional person when it comes to things of the heart," he said.

"When the opportunity came to do this quilt, she had asked me what I thought about it and would I be willing to be patient with her while she worked on it. And I said, ‘Definitely.'"

Judy has been sewing since she was 12, learning the craft while in Girl Scouts.

She has been quilting for 20 years, after nostalgia drove her to take a class - Bernstein remembered a quilt that her grandmother had made.

"When I was little, it was a treat to be able to go to Grandma's to spend the night, and she would only take one of us at a time," she said. "So we would go to her house and sleep on the couch and cover up with this one quilt.

"That feeling ... has always stayed with me."

She found out about Quilt of Dreams through an e-mail she received from Hancock Fabrics.

At the time, she was thinking about doing something to show her gratitude for having two healthy grandchildren. She had just returned from visiting them in North Carolina.

"When I read about (the contest), I thought, that's what I can do," Bernstein said. "I can do that."

Her work, which involved getting materials and contest information, began in June. She had to complete the work by Labor Day, the contest's deadline.

She incorporated the "dreams" of St. Jude's young patients in her quilt. The children's hopes and wishes varied from what they wanted to be when they grew up to where they wanted to travel.

Bernstein particularly latched on to Shiloh's dream "to see everybody here at St. Jude well again," stitching a design of the hospital with a "closed" sign out front.

She had her grandson Jackson, now 7, write the names of the patients. She used his handwriting as part of the quilt.

Bernstein sketched the children and their dreams as she imagined them, having the picture of only one of them.

She has kept photographs of her work, including one of the completed quilt.

The time spent on the project was "well worth it," said her husband. "The finished product was just unbelievable."

But the quilt itself is gone.

"All the quilts go to children, but some of them they auction off to raise more money," Bernstein said.

"I have no idea where mine is. I'm just assuming it's on a little child's lap and he's looking at all the pictures trying to guess what the dreams are."

Through the years, she has given some of her quilts away. Others are treasured at home, such as the purse with her grandchildren's pictures on them.

Her next project is a quilt for the master bedroom.

"It's the biggest one I've ever made," Bernstein said. "It's a king size."

It's also likely that her sewing days are far from over.

"I love it. It gives me such a peace, a comfort," she said.