Posts Tagged ‘entries’

Keeping Busy

Saturday, February 6th, 2016

Yesterday was First Friday and I worked at the Topeka Art Guild Gallery where we have a new show up. It’s a good one! My entries this time around are “Fur Family Portrait”

FurFam

and “Poppy!”

Poppy Workshop Samp

If you are in the area, definitely come see!!

I’m two days into my new Flint Hills landscape and having a great time sewing and creating again. It’s going to be a fall scene. Maybe after today, I will have enough done to post the progress……we’ll see!

Good news, “Splash” was accepted and will be showing at the MidAtlantic Quilt Festival in Hampton, VA, Feb 25-28 .

Splash_40x40_full

Artsy Stuff

Wednesday, January 27th, 2016

Yesterday evening was my presentation for the Topeka Art Guild, “Painting With Fabric” and there was a nice turnout. It had been postponed from a week ago when the roads were so icy and the weather cooperated this time! I even pulled some non-members in and away from the local quilt guild which was also meeting last night! Everyone seemed to enjoy it and I think it went well.

I am also enjoying my time auditing the watercolor class at Washburn U and even did my homework! As an auditor my work is not graded, but I hope to find the time to keep up and do the homework as it is such a nice opportunity to learn from a master.

I am also trying to find the time to get started on my next art quilt. I know what I want to do, but am finding it hard to get inspired to draw the scene that is in my head. At least I have gotten started with the drawing and pulling some fabrics off the shelf to try and help me decide which season of the Flint Hills to feature, the greens of summer, the colors of fall, or even another prairie fire.

flinthillsFabric

At this time I am leaning toward fall. I find the fall color in the Flint Hills to be quite lovely; a quieter beauty than what I grew up with in New England, but still….beautiful!

On the business side of things, I got the sales tax filed last week, EARLY, yeah! but still have book work to do for regular taxes, got entries submitted for a few more shows and have had to spend time packaging patterns and shipping – that’s a good thing to have to do! But still, it all takes time.

After The Storm

Sunday, September 27th, 2015

On Friday, I finished the quilting on this new piece and blocked it. On Saturday, I trimmed it to size and prepared the sleeve and the documentation tag, which meant I had to come up with a name. “After The Storm” won out.  The finished size is 39.5 x 24″.

AfterTheStorm

I love to see this fleeting vision when after the storm everything is clean and sparkling, the sky is still dark but the sunlight comes in and lights the foreground against the dark storm clouds. It was a lovely fall day here, so I sat out on the deck to do the hand work and listened to my Art History lectures on the tape recorder. Perfect! I met the deadline and will enter it into the next Topeka Art Guild show with the Kansas theme later today.

August

Thursday, September 3rd, 2015

August has been  busy month! My last multiple day engagement for Guild programs/workshop in Oklahoma happened and it was a fun trip with lovely ladies.  Even fitted in some fabric shopping, though we did not find the one I was looking for.  One more trip – next week to Kansas City, then I will be officially retired!!

We went to Wichita over the weekend for the Opening Reception of the Wichita National All Media Craft Exhibit where “Snow Buddies” is being exhibited. It has a great spot , well lighted where you see it as you enter the gallery; looks good!

WCFTA-SnowBuddies

While we were in Wichita we visited the Botanic Gardens, The Indian Museum and the Zoo.  The weather was near perfect and I was exhausted by the time we got back home! But it was fun!

Since coming back I have finished the Heron top using some of the fabrics that I found that looked like they might have possibilities.  I un-sewed some of the previous work to insert the new fabrics and I think it is going to be OK. HeronTop

Yesterday I squared it up and selected a backing fabric but have not yet layered it for quilting.  I think another deadline has squeezed in that will need my attention first!

News came that all four of my entries to the Visions of the Flint Hills Art Benefit and Sale at the Buttonwood Gallery in Kansas City were accepted.  “Harrier Hunting”, “Prairie Power”, “Drifted”, and “Grasslands” will be there.  This is an art exhibit so it is always gratifying when my quilts are recognized as art! The opening reception is on Oct 2 and the show runs through Nov 27.  Sales benefit the Friends of Konza Prairie.  Be sure and check it out if you are nearby.

HarrierHunting

Quilt Show News

Saturday, February 28th, 2015

Quilt show news to report–

“Snow Buddies” which is currently showing at Mid Atlantic Quilt Festival in VA has received an Honorable Mention Award.

“Splash”, which was rejected by Quilt National,  has been juried in to the AQS show in Paducah in April.Splash_40x40_full

I spent yesterday afternoon checking it over for loose threads ends and adding it’s documentation tag and re-blocking it to get rid of the facing marks so it would be ready to go when the time comes.

Then I prepared the backing fabric for the prairie fire quilt. I am using a piece of home dec fabric which I like because it has good body and should hang well. However, it is treated to repel water, which could be problem when I try to block the finished wall hanging. I soaked it and scrubbed it in really hot water but it still may be a problem. I hope to get it layered today and maybe even start on the quilting.

The snow is really coming down and we are in for significant accumulation this time so it’s good to have a project!

Slow Progress

Friday, January 23rd, 2015

Spring Semester has started and I am taking two classes – another Art History one because I SO enjoyed the last one, and Yoga! They are both on the same days, Tuesdays and Thursdays so I only have to drive to town and back one time each day, but there is about three hours between them that I have to try to fill. This is a lot of time to be away from my sewing machine! Yesterday I decided to go to a movie and saw “The Judge”. It was pretty good.

I had hoped to sew today, but spent the whole morning on the computer, most of that time was spent on-line entering “Wild Fabrications”, a SAQA exhibit about nature. I entered three pieces, the max allowed, that meant preparing and sizing 6 photographs and gathering all of the pertinent information and doing the online entry. It is very time consuming but better than the “old” days when I would have had a couple of trips to town for slide development!

I had been looking forward to getting a lot done on the new prairie fire piece today, but now it’s already after 3 o’clock, so that is not going to happen!

Here is where I left off:

horizon6

Thoughts on Judging and Originality

Friday, November 21st, 2014

There has been some controversy lately on QA concerning judging and originality, as some of this years top winners at IQF in Houston were pretty much direct copies of the work of other artists.    Nothing illegal there as the works were either in the public domain or used with permission. However this renders the new work NOT original as the decisions about subject, composition and sometimes color were already made by someone else.

My entry, “Jesse At The Lake” was inspired by a photo that I took myself and used artistic license to tweak the composition and the colors. All of the design decisions were original and my own. This prompted me to have another look at the judge’s sheets and all three judges marked the “Original in Design” space with a check mark for satisfactory. I feel it was very original and deserved a “+” mark. This is not a subjective decision that a judge can decide. Either it is original or it isn’t. I wonder how that space was marked on the entries in question. Entrants are required to disclose where the inspiration came from, and a simple check on that would have revealed that the works were recognizable copies and totally lacking in originality. As such they should not have been rewarded with an award in a category that requires originality.

Busy Week

Tuesday, September 2nd, 2014

All of the quilts are put away from the last trip. What a job! I have too many quilts and need to sell some!!

Today I must ship two contest quilts; “Harrier Hunting” to Asheville, NC

HarrierHunting

and “Eagles Soar” to PA National.

EaglesSoarFull

If you are in the vicinity of either of those shows, enjoy!  Yesterday being a holiday set me back a bit, but I think I can still make it.  Tomorrow “Bignonia”,”Majesty”and “Colorado Kids” should arrive home from Aullwood and “Bignonia” and “Snow Buddies” will go out next week to two different locations. This is all very time consuming, but I  keep track of it all on a spreadsheet, and even so, I miss deadlines occasionally!

Yesterday afternoon I un-sewed the problem areas on the Yorkie and hopefully today I will find a minute to fix them, but it’s looking like a busy day as I will have to go to town to ship and shop for ingredients for a dinner that I am hosting later in the week.

 

IQF Houston, Silent Auction

Thursday, August 21st, 2014

It is an honor to be invited to participate in the Silent Auction at the Quilt Festival in Houston and I usually try to send something, especially when I have something showing there…..This year I will have two things at the show, one in “Raining Cats and Dogs” and one in “World of Beauty”. I like to have my Silent Auction piece reflect my entry, so this year I am doing a dog.

YorkieBW

I like to make my photo in black and white as it is easier to see through the tracing paper that I use to do the layout. I generally ad hints and clues that will help later on, like the direction of the fur and the darkness of the eyes and nose.

YorkieLayout

After finishing the layout last week I spent some time transferring everything to the freezer paper and marking the tic marks to aid in the sewing,  pulling fabrics that might work and did some cutting in preparation for the sewing. It’s good to be working again!

Exciting News! Not So Much.

Friday, May 30th, 2014

It has just been announced that SAQA’s “Seasonal Palette” Exhibit of which my “December Dawn” is a part has been extended to include new venues. After showing in Brazil this summer, it will carry on to:

September 16-19, 2015 Carrefour Europeen du Patchwork, Alsace, France,

October 2015 Vicenza Festival, Vicenza, Italy,

April 30-May 29, 2016 Taiwan International Quilt Exhibition 2016, National Tainan Living Art Center, Tainan City, Taiwan,

The first SAQA exhibit to travel to four continents!!

DecDawn450

I was invited to enter “Fine Art Quilt Masters” at the International show in Birmingham, England this summer. I overcame my worries about shipping overseas and made the entry with “Snow Buddies”. Got the word earlier this week that it did not make the cut and I declined their offer to show it in a different category.  This week also brought news that ALL of my three entries to the KS Art Quilters “EDGE” group show were rejected by the juror.  First time my work will not be part of an EDGE show.