Archive for September, 2010

SAQA Auction Sale

Tuesday, September 28th, 2010

MY piece sold to Larry and Carol Denning of Texas for $250.00! Compared to previous years things are very slow this year across the board, with fewer sales for less money.

I wrote that on Saturday – then apparently forgot to post it!  Perhaps I hit “preview” instead of “publish”.  As I was looking at the auction pieces I decided that there was one I would like to have for my guest room. “Under the Oaks”. I’m working on a hand appliqued, hand quilted “Oak Leaf and Acorn” quilt for that room and it’s border is the same fabric as the binding on that one! Perfect! Why didn’t I see that before? It was at $150 and available.  Then I got the idea that I could get two for the same price if I only waited a few hours, so I chose another in the same color range for that room, “Under the Sea”,  and at the crack of 2:00 I sent my bid. But as luck would have it, in the meantime someone else snapped up “Oaks”. Oh, well.  I can see how this auction thing could become addictive!!

Sunday afternoon was the opening reception for “Kansans Paint Kansas”.  There was a nice turnout and some beautiful work.  All three of my entries were accepted and I was thrilled to receive a President’s Award for “Grasslands”.

SAQA Benefit Auction

Thursday, September 16th, 2010

Only four more days till the SAQA auction! This is the annual fundraiser and this is my third year of participating. There are hundreds of wonderful little 12 x 12” quilts to choose from, and you should check them out even if you don’t plan to bid!

Mine is on page 2b, “At Rest”.

This was cut from one piece if Judy Robertson hand dyed fabric (thank you Del!!) that had the most perfect built in reflections that just needed to be water.

You can bid in SAQA’s 2010 Benefit Auction starting September 20th: http://www.saqa.com/news.php?ID=1423

Old Men

Tuesday, September 14th, 2010

So, I was sitting at The Topeka Art Guild making out my entries for the next show and I hear:

“That’s awful. I don’t like that painting.” The woman with him said “It’s not a painting; it’s quilted.”

THAT got my attention.

“Well it’s terrible and I don’t like it.” “Why not?” she asked.

“Well, just look at it. It’s a picture of a cow jumping off a hill into broken glass. A cow wouldn’t do that. It’s no good and I don’t like it.”

I couldn’t help it. “It’s a splash,” I said, “It’s water.”

“Well it looks like broken glass to me, and I don’t like it!”

The old curmudgeon was thankfully on his way out and I wanted to shout after him- “You are entitled to your own opinion even if you are full of sh–!” But of course, I didn’t.

The guy sitting across from me said, “I guess when you are 92, you can say anything you want.”

You gotta love old men.

Or not.

Henry’s Plant Farm

Tuesday, September 7th, 2010

Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend with a break from the usual routines! Here it was pretty much the same as any other day. Sunday afternoon we visited a local nursery that has wonderful gardens to see. I like to wander around and get ideas. It’s especially nice to see what can actually grow and look good in the difficult circumstances here in Kansas.

This is a shot of the Butterfly Garden seen from above on the viewing platform. Pretty cool, huh?

There are lots of livestock and fowl around too – here’s one of the peacocks hiding out in the shade.

An angel in the fern bed.

They were having a sale so I got a flat of 18 perennials for $18.00 to share with my daughter – what a deal!! Got most of them planted yesterday.

The snakes are getting ready for winter, too, look what I found:

These were both over 4 ft with belly scales on that top one about  2″ wide!  They are just Blacksnakes, good to have around except in baby bird season.

No wonder we don’t have a lot of frogs anymore; I hope they are getting the mice too.

First Friday Art Walk

Saturday, September 4th, 2010

It’s been a busy week! last night was the First Friday Art Walk and the reception for my Artist of the Month Exhibit at the Topeka Art Guild Gallery. As usual, I forgot my camera and will have to rely on the pictures of others at a later date. There was a very nice turnout, though, and even some sales! Great to see old friends I haven’t seen in a while. The small Iris sold (thanks, Jill!) and quite a few of the note cards.

On Thursday we discovered a small tumor on the Komondor which was thought to be malignant and was removed Thursday night. He is quite uncomfortable, but recovering now at home.

We have had over two inches of much needed rain in the past few days, along with cooler weather so I have been able to get outside and do some work in the gardens. it has been a brutal summer for the plants, especially the new ones and I have lost that gorgeous Hot Papaya Coneflower and probably the Black Lace Elderberry.

In amongst all of that I have been quilting on the Mt Goat quilt whenever I can fit it in. It will have a LOT of quilting on it and is coming along nicely. It is slated for an exhibit in Nov and Dec, so needs to be a priority.