The Machine Quilting Unlimited April 2013 E-News is showing the cover of the May/June issue which features my “Prairie Fire” quilt and my article. This issue will be available  in late April.

I have resisted getting involved with social media, because I feel like I am stressed to keep up with everything as it is! But Studio Art Quilts Assoc. has a Pinterest page for the SAQA Benefit Auction and they have posted my donation, “Northern Cardinal” along with others there. And IQA has posted “Who, Me?” on their Facebook page about “Celebrate Spring”. When I looked last week there were over 600 hits! People love puppies!! Celebrate Spring debuts in Cincinnati April 11-13.

Last night was First Friday at the Topeka Art Guild Gallery and the presentation for awards for the judged show that is up right now, “My Earth, My Art”. This is predominately paintings, a few photography works and my quilt art. One of my entries, “Bignonia” won the second place cash award!

It’s a great show, if you are in the area be sure and check it out before the end of May. My “Colorado Kids” is also there on display.

Also in the area this weekend is the Kaw Valley Quilt Guild Quilt show at the Toyota dealership on Hwy 59 (Iowa St) in Lawrence, KS. It’s always a great show and three of my pieces will be there, “Merchants House”, “Mon Grand Pere” and “What’s Up at the 4-H Fair?”.

I will be there late Sunday to see the show and pick up my things.

Empty Spools at Asilomar has posted the teachers for the 2014 workshops, including ME in the first session; not sure when it is open for enrollment, as the current 2013 offerings are going on now.

I finally finished the quilting on the dogs quilt – oh, dear – I really do need a name for it! I still need to block, trim and bind it though. I am looking forward to starting the next one!!

Busy, busy with the sewing, this is the best part!

Just to make it more interesting, and also to make it say “Springtime” I added the tulips. The wonderful hand dyes for the tulips and some of the leaves was purchased in Houston this year at Festival from Friestyle Handdyed. Just perfect!

Yesterday we went to the German Oktoberfest because Bierocks for lunch sounded good – and they were! But the plum kuchen wasn’t as good as it looked. There was rollicking beer drinking music and dancing, too, but my photos of that were not so good. It was 46 degrees, overcast and breezy so we were glad for  jackets as we watched the Weinerdog Races.

There were 48 entered so they were broken up into heats of 6 to start. We decided to leave before it was over, after a man got in front of me and took away my small window of photo opportunity.

This little guy caught my eye for his unusual color. The owner said they had petted him so much they rubbed the black right off!

On the way home

we saw this guy and had to stop and get a picture. Maybe the most unusual leaf man we’ve seen in a while!

We had a hard frost last night so finally had to bring the deck plants inside. Filling two of the three windows really closes in the studio. When I add the two Amaryllis plants, it’ll really be full! Nice to have flowers in the winter though….

This spring’s first sighting of a hummingbird was this morning! We have had the feeder out for a week at least, in anticipation.

Here is my newest acquisition for the shade garden, a double Columbine in pink and white. The flash kind of washed out the color, but it is really quite lovely. I hope it makes it here.

This Iris aptly named Kansas Blizzard is blooming now. Other Irises blooming now are yellow, purple, blue and some the color of orange sherbet!

I love this tiny Euonymous ground cover, the largest leaves are about a half an inch long and look nice against the Hosta which is a medium sized variety. I lost a couple of Hostas this past winter. Must have been too dry, it sure wasn’t too cold!

Thunder is rumbling so I need to shut down the computer.  I think these rain cups are about to be filled!!

This gorgeous Minerva Amaryllis was a Christmas gift. It has been blooming for at least two weeks! This is the second stem and they have both had four blooms. Wow!

This red one is over two feet tall and I have had it for at least three years, maybe four, now. It only has three blooms per stalk, but they are huge, each eight inches across!

It’s lovely to have things blooming when it is so cold and dead outside. Perfect weather to stay inside and quilt. The harrier must be at least half done now, with just some foreground and the sky left to do. I’m finding that I can’t quilt for 6-8 hours like I used to do, 5-6 hours is about all I can take!

Driving to Springfield, MO on Monday, the skies were at times threatening with dark clouds and at times sunny with blue skies – you never know in the mid west! I only encountered a few raindrops though.  This was my first trip in the new car and it was quite comfortable, I’m still getting used to the differences from my old one which I think I like better, but this one is gaining favor!

Could this be the spot that inspired the “Longhorn Splashdown” quilt? There were no longhorns visible this day.

Roadside wildflowers are beautiful this time of the year.

My time at the Ozark Piecemakers Guild for two lectures and a Coneflowers workshop was delightful! Had a bit of an equipment malfunction but nothing that couldn’t be fixed. My hostess and everyone I met there at the meetings and in my workshop couldn’t have been nicer!  If I lived closer that would be a guild to join!

When I tried to take workshop pictures I discovered that my camera batteries were dead. Again.  I had packed the charger but it was in the bag that got left at the venue, not the bag that went with me to my lodging. I guess  I need to start making packing lists!

I arrived safely home yesterday (Thursday) afternoon to a huge backlog of email and stuff to put away so  today will be spent catching up and hopefully tomorrow I can get back to quilting on the elk!

Yesterday it was 76 degrees on the thermometer! Most all of the snow is gone so I went to look and see if the Lenten Rose is blooming but no, some critter had nipped off the shoots! That is supposed to be deer resistant so I hoped that would extend to other creatures as well, but this is the second time it’s happened. It bloomed last year but I had a wire cage around it. The snow drops are blooming though, I know some of you are used to seeing things bloom in Feb., but it’s a big deal for me, here in cold Kansas!

The bird feeders have been extra busy this year, and recently there have been a couple of Carolina Wrens and Purple Finches joining the regulars. They all enjoy the waterfall at the water garden/fish pond and they have been VERY messy. littering the water with seed husks and droppings. I took advantage of the nice weather to vacuum a lot of it out yesterday. The fish should be happy about that!

Now we are back to cold and wintry snow forecasts and we plan to go to the garden show which opens today. Spring really is not so far away.

Over the weekend we went on the local Pond Tour and visited all ten of the water gardens on display. We started early and by the time we finished Saturday afternoon it was in the upper 90′s, the heat index was well over 100 with the humidity. Really, only one of the gardens offered much in the way of inspiration, but that one was worth the trip! The water garden/koi pond was well established and beautiful but the whole surrounding area was amazing with huge hostas and gorgeous flowers. There was a coneflower – Echinacea Hot Papaya that was “to die for”! I went to town on Monday and bought one for MY garden.

The one on the tour was huge, loaded with big pompom flowers with a depth of color that was actually quite red. I can only hope that this one will mature into something similar. I also got an Echinacea White Swan and a Butterfly Weed to add to my space.

I didn’t get to sew a stitch yesterday as I spent the morning doing other tasks including preparing to ship a quilt,  the afternoon in town meeting a friend for lunch and a movie, and running errands. We saw “The Princess and the Frog” which had some good music and fun moments, but was way too long and rather ho-hum.

My piece in “Meet the Artist: SAQA 20th Anniversary Trunk Show� has been chosen to be one of the 55 pieces archived in the permanent collection of the International Quilt Study Center at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln.  It will be available to researchers and students as a record of the art quilt in 2009.

Sandra Sider, who selected the works for the IQSC collection says  “One of the best parts of the 2009 SAQA conference was the three hours I spent in my hotel room, with the 20th Anniversary Trunk Show spread out over beds, tables, chairs, and floor.  What an explosion of creative energy! My curatorial task was to select approximately fifty pieces that would be donated in 2010 as a SAQA collection to the International Quilt Study Center. This collection documents the various techniques, processes, materials, and artistic styles in quilt art during the early 21st century, and the SAQA Board envisions these quilts as research tools, far into the future.  Your quilt was selected because it represents a particularly distinctive or original approach. Congratulations! Sandra Sider SAQA Vice President.�

During the past year, many people have viewed the Trunk Shows in venues across the United States and in several other countries.  They have been shown at SAQA Regional meetings, to Quilt Guilds, in Gallery shows, at IQF receptions, and I’m sure to neighbors and friends wherever the trunks have visited. Everywhere they’ve traveled, they have received an overwhelmingly positive reaction.

These were small pieces, I think they were 12 x 12″. Mine is called “Vinca” and shows the technique of curved seam picture piecing and machine quilting. It is indeed an honor to be in a collection at IQSC!

I only got to work a couple of hours yesterday, but I got the eye enlarged and the sections of the upper half sewn together. Also a few of the units in the lower half.

Today I need to go to town so may not accomplish a whole lot! It’s time to get “Burlingame Fire” off to AQS for the Lancaster show.

Here it is the first of March already and this little snowdrop, that I think emerged in January is still looking good.

It is only the second year for the snowdrops that I planted and they have not yet multiplied as I had hoped but at least they are hanging in there.

The ice is melting on the fish pond. Here is a glimpse of a big Koi, two of the goldfish and a Golden Orfe.