Judy Sheridan's eyes lit up as her husband David handed her a large brown box that had just been delivered to their Skaneateles Falls home.

“It's scary sending your stuff off,” Sheridan said, rushing to take her quilt out of the package. “It is Christmas when they come home.”

Sheridan, 58, is accustomed to sending her quilts away to various quilting shows across the country. But recently, she had to part with one for an especially important event: the annual American Quilter's Society Quilt Show & Contest in Paducah, Ky. The event, now in its 23rd year, is from April 25 to 28.

“It is very hard to get in,” said Sheridan, who has been rejected by the show once before (but also accepted in 2000).

Sheridan mailed this year's quilt, titled “Twilight Friends,” to show organizers earlier this month. Sheridan is one of 412 competitors in the show. Her entry, which features squirrels, acorns and oak leaves, was chosen from a field of close to 750 quilts.

Sheridan's interest in the arts and working with her hands began at the age of 8, thanks to her favorite aunt and godmother Jane Porten, of Auburn.

“She taught me sewing, embroidery, crocheting, knitting and just about everything in between,” recalled Sheridan, an art teacher at Weedsport High School.

About 10 years ago, Sheridan found herself looking for a new project and began work on her first quilt. That quilt, a multicolor collection of squares, triangles and other shapes sewn together, now sits draped over a rocking chair in her living room, a symbol of the beginning of what has become more a passion than simply a hobby.

“They kind of overtake everything,” Sheridan said as she looked at one of the walls of her studio, where she hangs the pieces of her work-in-progress.

On the adjacent wall hang ribbons from past quilt shows, and nearby are organized, color-coordinated shelves of fabric and spools of thread. Sheridan, who attends quilting camps over the summer and teaches classes at Patchwork Plus in Marcellus, proudly wears a shirt that says “I only quilt on days that end in Y.”

“It's very rare for me to have a day when I don't come home and pull the quilting out,” Sheridan said. “It's really how I unwind from the day.”

It is fitting then that Sheridan's idea for “Twilight Friends” came about when she was trying to calm down after a long day at work. While stopped at a stop sign around 5 p.m., she looked up and saw a squirrel in the branches.

“It just kind of touched me,” Sheridan recalled.

By Saturday she had drawn the design - she always creates her own - and by Sunday she was sewing. The project grew from one small square to a quilt that is 62 inches wide by 66 inches long.

“Twilight Friends” took three years for Sheridan to create, the longest that she has spent on one one quilt thus far. Usually Sheridan's quilts take anywhere from 18 months to two years.

When she's off from school in the summer, it's not uncommon for Sheridan to quilt 10 to 12 hours a day.

“You Zen quick time,” Sheridan said, noting that she plays a lot of books on tape while she quilts. “You're off in your own little world.”

“Twilight Friends” has already won first place in the Quilters Consortium of New York State event in Syracuse, Best Hand Workmanship at the Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza in Fort Washington, Pa., and has most recently competed in the Indiana Heritage Show.

She won't be traveling to Paducah, largely because she is the coach of the Weedsport Odyssey of the Mind team headed to the World Finals in Michigan. But the show will definitely be on her mind.

“It's the art teacher in me,” Sheridan explained. “I love the challenge of creating something and sending it and having someone else look at it.”

Still, she confessed, “It's hard to stay home when your quilt is that far.”