Ellen Lindner has done an article on borders in which she uses an image of one of my quilts as an example. It is in the second part.  Currently there is a discussion on borders on QuiltArt.  I think that there are no hard and fast rules about borders and they should be decided upon based on the needs of the individual quilt. Most of my borders seem to be designed into the quilt to subtly frame it as in the example shown. But the quilt that I just started probably will not have one at all because I don’t think it would be appropriate.

I finally took the time to make myself a spreadsheet to keep track of and make sense of all of the show information. It should save me time in the long run as I should no longer have to search for information and dates. I got a few more entries out recently, as well as some quilts to various places. But I’m finding some things that I wanted to enter in certain shows don’t fit the size requirements.

The sales tax return was mailed ahead of schedule and I have a pretty good start on assembling the needed information for the Federal. I feel like I am drowning in paperwork but I keep plugging away at it and I know that I am making progress even though it doesn’t always feel that way!

If I am going to meet the Feb. 20th deadline for Tactile Architecture and In Full Bloom, I need to get busy on them. It seems like quite a while since I have touched fabric!

In response to Del’s question, I cut the pieces for the flowers with the centers from the lighter areas of the fabric. Then I added the detail in the center when I did the quilting. First with very pale blue thread which didn’t show up, then with darker blue. This is what you see in the last photo, but I still thought it needed more, so I added a few beads and now it is done!

Del, you BETTER finish yours! I’m anxious to see it. This isn’t a contest and everyone just needs to do a little piece to represent their “voice”.

The new Vinca quilt has been finished for a few days – finished unless I decide to add some beading to the centers! It’s only 10.75″ square, so how long could it take! It looks appliqued, but it is pieced. There are two different backgrounds, they give the look I wanted,  but they are too similar to each other. The fabrics in this are mostly hand dyes with a couple of batiks added.  I liked the hand dyed blue for the flowers because of the shadings in it even though it is not the proper periwinkle color.  It was not necessary to finish the edges as they are going to mount it behind a mat with an 8″ opening, but I  just couldn’t let it go unfinished like that. I hope they don’t mind!

My previous problem with posting was due to my own technologically challenged status and I guess I have been procrastinating trying to post again, lest I prove my incapacity. But – it went well, as predicted by my wonderful web masters at Gloderworks!

In the meantime I have been keeping busy catching up on other things, like doing the books in order to get the sales tax in on time, entries and general decluttering. Considering the things I have been doing, it occurred to me this morning that what I was REALLY doing was avoiding facing this blog photo thing.  So now that is behind us, we can move on!

The deadline for “SAQA’s Meet the Artist – SAQA’s 20th Anniversary Trunk Show” is coming up fast. They only need a small piece of work that showcases a process, technique or style that represents your artistic voice.  The size of the piece needs to fit a 12″ square mat with an 8″ square opening. So that seems do-able in a short time and since I am a member and really looking forward to going to their conference in May, it seems important to participate. I decided since it is so small I would of course do my picture piecing, but with curved seams instead of straight to really show mastery of the process. I chose a photograph that I took last summer of Vinca flowers to work from.

Vinca

I think I will be able to complete the piecing today and the quilting shouldn’t take long at all since it is so small.

Here we are a week into 2009 and I hardly even know what day it is, I have been so busy meeting deadlines. In fact I missed a much anticipated meeting with friends because I simply forgot to look at my calendar!

If I was one to make resolutions I guess I would have to make one to try to keep up better, but in fact I know that I already do the best I can, I just have too much to do, but nothing that I want to give up. I have enough stress without imposing resolutions on myself!

This morning when I tried to get into my blog to post, I could not get in. Now I can, but it looks entirely different so I guess this will be a new challenge to conquer – can I figure it out?

The deadline for “Celebrate Spring!” is quickly approaching so yesterday I tackled that. They require a photo,  but when I got to that, my photo printer ran out of ink so that necessitated a trip to town to buy more.  My little HP Photosmart prints the best pictures! So now that entry is ready to go out today.  One to AQS went out last week. So, early in the year already, I have two entries pending.  “Form Not Function” opening tomorrow with “Mon Grand Pere” and a couple of things in the mail, both coming and going. So with a little luck you’ll find my stuff out there somewhere.

 

“Spring Encounter” 46″W x 40″H    Completed Jan 4, 2009

It was such a relief to get my sewing machine back, even though it did cost almost $300.00 to get it fixed. I spent most of the weekend quilting and I think that this quilt has more than I usually do and I do a lot! Here’s a photo of the many spools of thread I used just for the quilting.  Changing threads so often requires lots of burying of the ends which adds to the time spent. But I think the result was worth it

Notice that I replaced all of the quilting on the fawn.  What I had put in earlier just wasn’t pleasing or sufficient and I like this much better. Un-quilting took longer than quilting, though!