Those charity quilts are coming along. This week I quilted and bound the big one and yesterday got the binding strips sewn onto the last small one.The hand work won’t take long. I am SO ready to start the next Inspirations piece!

I have also been knitting and completed 2 more sweaters from that fun one piece pattern; one for a new baby girl and one for her big brother.

They are knitted exactly alike, just with larger needles and yarn for the bigger one! Quick and fun!

Yesterday I entered two more shows and discovered that it was too late to enter one that I had planned on. It is surprising how long it takes to do show entries. They are all different so it never becomes routine.

A new book is out, “Cutting Edge Art Quilts” by Mary Kerr. I have quilts in it and my copy finally arrived. It is a beautiful book and I have enjoyed looking at all of the amazing work!!

“Just Dandy” is in the Topeka Designer’s Show House and I have reports that is looks wonderful there. I hope to get by and see it soon.

I was really glad to be asked to participate because it is good for people to see how nice quilted art looks in a home setting.

In between all that I am still battling the weeds, a never ending war that I seem to be loosing. Now that the weather has turned hot, with no rain all week I am having to water the new things.

Monday it was just beautiful here, with a record breaking high of 77 degrees then yesterday it was 0. We went on a fabric quest but with no luck. I used this batik in the shadowed areas of the Kom’s coat and when I was working on the background, I decided it would be just perfect there, too.

Unfortunately, I have only a little left and it is old. I have searched in vain online, so now I appeal to you. have you seen it anywhere? There must be a shop somewhere that still has some they would love to get rid of. It is a greyed blue mottled background with lighter frosty looking wheat. Kind of large scale with the wheat portion being 3-4 inches. I’d love to find a half yard or a yard somewhere. Please let me know if you have seen it anywhere.

The newest issue of American Quilter just came with a nice article on Seasonal Palette and one of the quilts they showed was “December Dawn” Both as a nice full view and as an installation shot. Great coverage!!

Good news, two acceptances. “Colorado Kids” will be going to AQS, Lancaster and “Who, Me?” to “Celebrate Spring” at the IQA shows starting with spring. “In The Bleak Midwinter” is currently showing at the Topeka Art Guild Gallery and we had a great crowd last night at First Friday in spite of the cold.

I sent “Longhorn Splashdown” up to LaConner, WA for the LaConner Quilt Museum show and have received word that it has won an award. Won’t know what til after they have their awards presentation on the 9th I think.

“Bignonia” has been juried into it’s first show, Pacific International and was shipped out Monday to go there.

They are having a quilted post card sale at IQF in Houston this year to benefit a big Houston dog rescue organization and I started a little pieced postcard for that yesterday. It feels good to be sewing again, even if it is small!  I’ll show you a picture when it is done.

It’s been quiet around here lately because I have been so busy! I finished Bignonia

and the wind turbine piece and have started another.

I got word from IQF in Houston that my entry, “Prairie Fire”, for the World of Beauty contest was accepted so I will have three pieces on display there this year. In addition perhaps a piece in the silent auction, if I can find the time to make something.

Word just in that “Longhorn Splashdown” was juried into LaConner Quilt Museum’s fall show in Washington.

Currently showing are “What’s Up At The 4-H Fair” and “Haybales Study at “Culture and Agriculture” an all-media art exhibit in MN, “MonGrand Pere”, “Spring Encounter” and “In The Bleak Midwinter”at The Aullwood Audubon Center in Dayton. OH, “Harrier Hunting” at “Celebrate Spring” at IQF- Long Beach, CA. and of course “Chicory” and “Coneflowers” at the Topeka Art Guild Gallery right here in KS. These can all be seen, including detail shots, by clicking on GALLERY in the side bar. It’s almost a full time job just keeping up with what’s where and what’s next!

Sunday afternoon I cut the grass pieces. I don’t know when I will get the time to sew them, but there is no rush, it’s not due til Oct.

I have been doing a lot of computer work, getting the things ready to send in for the Seasonal Palette portfolio. I thought they had to be there by the first of June but no, it’s the first of July. So for once I am ahead of the game as it is going out today!!

Last year I missed the entry deadline for Houston because it is June 1 and that just seems too early for a show that isn’t til fall. So I prepared that for this year, and it will go out today too. I wanted to enter “Longhorn Splashdown” but it I goofed and entered it somewhere else so it will not be available. Again – Houston requires the work to be there in August for an October show, so it messes with my mind. This is the last year that one will be eligible to go there, too. Juggling these things is a full time job!! I couldn’t do it at all without my spreadsheet to keep track of everything.

My SAQA Auction quilt, “Blue Pacific” has been posted and you can see it here. This year I let them take the photo as I was having trouble getting the tiny beads to show. If you click on the image you’ll see more detail. While you are there, check out the rest of the entries, and do check back because there are bound to be more before the deadline in June.  I noticed in the line above mine, there is one with three wind turbines!

Someone sent me this photo snapped at the recent KVQG show in Lawrence of the famous David Taylor of Colorado, as she said he was examining one of my entries. Apparently he was teaching in the area and had some down time. We both compete in the same categories, sometimes he beats me, sometimes I beat him….

Reading through recent posts, I see some need updating. The show at Warehouse 414 looks great! The opening reception was very well attended. Everything comes down this Saturday, though, as it was only for a month. The current show at the Topeka Art Guild Gallery. “Earth, Wind and Fire” goes til the end of May. It was a juried show so the quality is very good. One of my entries, “Prairie Fire” was awarded third place.  I also had an entry at AQS in Paducah this past week, and several things in the Kaw Valley Guild Show in Lawrence, which is my local guild.  They only do Viewers Choice Awards and I have not heard the results of that yet.

Yesterday I sent “Majesty” off to the Denver National. “Watermelon Wine” has not made it home yet from Florida where it was in “Faces of Color” . That show ended around the first of April and it should have made it home by now, I think. So far, I have not gotten a good answer as to where it is. It’s always scary to put things out there, as you never know what will happen.

I remembered an old fabric, realistic waves in a gray colorway, that I have used for stormy skies and horse shadings, but never as waves! I decided to find it and use it for my SAQA Auction 12×12″ square. This was over a month ago and the piece that I made was boring and not very satisfactory. I thought perhaps I would skip the auction this year. If I finish it I will call it “Gray Atlantic”.

Then, I found this same print in blues and greens in the stash. I forgot I had it! So I remade the design with the more colorful fabric and so this is my entry this year. You really cannot see it in this photo, but I have beaded it for added sparkle. I’ll call this one “Blue Pacific” and it was sent off yesterday. I am letting them do the photography for the auction site and hope they can get the beads to show up.

My little 7 year old niece has leukemia (she’s doing well, we are waiting hopefully for the word remission in a day or so) Anyway, I have been knitting her a chemo cap. I found this lacy pattern and some nice soft yarn with sequins. I hope it makes her feel pretty!

Her mom says she loves the color!

I’ve been getting things ready to take in to Topeka this afternoon, 9 quilts for Warehouse 414 and 2 quilts for the Topeka Art Guild gallery. Looks like they should both be great shows, 414, “Spring Fling” with 12 artists and over 100 artworks and TAG. “Earth, Wind and Fire” a juried show, with prize money. If you are close enough, I hope you can come by and enjoy them. I will be at 414 for First Friday on the 6th from 5:30 to 8:30.

Spring has arrived with lots of rain lately and I have tried to pull some weeds. Usually they come up easily after a rain, but right now the ground is just TOO wet. The muddy soil holds the roots too strongly. Yesterday I bought some annuals that need a place to go.  This weekend should be better.  On the bright side, everything is bursting into bloom; the fruit trees we bought last year are covered with blossoms but the saucer magnolia, I think, didn’t make it.

I finally went to the Dr and got antibiotics and a serious cough medication and am happy to report that I am feeling much better. I have not done much of anything though so there has been little of interest to discuss here.

There have been a few quilts shipped including two to the MidAtlantic Quilt Fest ( “In The Bleak Midwinter” and “Longhorn Splashdown”) and next week  ‘The Merchant’s House” goes off to AQS in Lancaster. “Harrier Hunting” has been juried in to IQF’s Celebrate Spring and will debut in Cincinnati and travel for a year. I had an email nibble about purchasing it this morning but am not sure how serious it was!

My sewing machine is back from it’s checkup and I haven’t even plugged it in yet, but I get more behind everyday so I have to get back in the groove. Next up is probably quilting the Seasonal Palette piece but then there is also the SAQA 12 x 12 to do…..

In the meantime about all I seem to have the energy to do when I am not sleeping, is reading, TV, occasional bookwork and jigsaw puzzles! Here’s the third one since Christmas:

Friday I finished the quilting ( I thought!) and blocked the quilt, prepared the back, binding and sleeve so it would be ready to finish Saturday. Ooops! I forgot to quilt the orange areas. legs, feet, beak plus a little bit of the sky. Finished that and by evening I was hand sewing the binding to the back, Sunday morning I took the pictures for entry, even though the binding is only partly sewn, it looks finished from the front. It finished at 51 x 42″. Looking back, I see that I started the quilting on Jan 19, so it took 10 days  to get it done.

Sunday afternoon I met friends for brunch and a matinee performance at Topeka Civic Theater where we saw “The Last Days Of Ballyhoo”. It was good but made me miss entry day for the Topeka Art Guild’s next show. I had planned to get in on Saturday for an early entry but was just too busy. So this will be the first time in all the years I’ve been a member that I will have nothing there for the next two months!

Sunday evening after dinner, I did the online entry for Celebrate Spring, so now it is out of my hands. I had been trying to think up a good name for it, but faced with no more time and an empty line, I typed in “Harrier Hunting”. It will do. It was entry # 48 with a couple of days to go.