The Spring issue of the SAQA Journal has arrived and it contains a wonderful article about Del and The Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection, entitled “Growing a Contemporary Quilt Collection”. Congratulations, Del, on the nice article and the recognition!

I am happy to say that the collection owns several quilts by me and one of them, “Early Birds” is pictured in the article!

Also in this issue is a photo of “Burlingame Fire” in the Members Gallery of Pieced Quilts!

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!

Yesterday went well and there should be an article in the paper in a couple of weeks. It was about the AQS show in PA and the two quilts that will be there, “Burlingame Fire” in the contest and “The Old Homestead” in the SAQA exhibit. I am looking forward to flying out to PA to attend the show next month – thank you Rose!

Between that and watching the men’s short program (Olympics Figure Skating) that I had recorded from the night before, I only put in a couple of hours on the kids.

Most of this is not yet sewn and subject to change.

Yesterday was gorgeous! Who could believe temps in the 70′s in late February? After my walk, I stayed outside for a couple of hours pulling weeds; it was just too nice to be inside. If only the grass in my lawn was as lush as in my flower beds! The snowdrops that I planted last fall are blooming – so pretty!

These ones were growing in Wales on the grounds of Manorbier Castle and inspired me to try planting some here. In comparison, mine are pretty scraggly, but I hope they will thrive and multiply to become a yearly reminder of that fantastic trip.

Working at a very leisurely pace for me, I have finished The Merchant’s House, blocked and trimmed it, and it awaits binding. But now there is no rush. I’ll post it when it is finished.

There are two more deadlines soon, but they are both for small works. Yesterday I made the sketch and working pattern for the SAQA 12″ square. Last year I made that fairy quilt for them – “Don’t Piss Off The Fairies” – this year I’m doing another bird quilt. I’ve been wanting to do a Yellow Headed Blackbird and now’s the time!

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.

I will leave today for my drive up to Omaha to be with the Omaha Quilter’s Guild until next Wednesday when I will head home. I am really looking forward to the trip. I especially like to go places that are within driving distance so I can bring lots of quilts and this drive should only be around 3.5 hours.  The weather looks to be better than predicted, though snow is still not out of the question!

Most of the market mess is put away but now there are piles of quilts everywhere, as I try to put  them in order for the lecture and workshops.  I think folks don’t realize just how much work goes into these trips before and after the trip itself!

Just a reminder – the SAQA auction starts Monday and “Don’t Piss Of The Fairiesâ€� will be amongst the first group to go. They all start at $750.00 the first day and drop in price each day after that. It should be fun to watch the progress and I hope that I will be able to check in occasionally from Nebraska.

Until Wednesday ………..

Here’s what I have been doing for the last almost a week. This is my donation to the SAQA Foot Square 2nd annual online fund raising auction which goes live November 10. You can see the entries here.

“Don’t Piss Off The Fairies” is 12 x 12″, of course, and was great fun to do. Shopping for p-o’d fairy flesh fabric was a bit challenging but I think I found the perfect piece of batik. I just love searching for the right fabric! I found that wonderful background in PA while I was there. She is entirely pieced and quilted by machine.

I am having computer problems again and cannot access email on this computer. I can get email on my old computer, but I can’t do much else online on that one. So I read email over there then come here to follow up and do other stuff, which may or may not work because there is something wrong with this computer! My computer guru is temporarily unavailable wouldn’t you know, so everything takes longer than it should.

It’s really starting to feel like Spring! The first batch of morels have been picked and there are some of the biggest ones we’ve ever gotten! Those big ones are about 6-7″. Yum!

This is a sure sign of spring along with the asparagus and the blooming redbuds. It’s a beautiful time. I’ve been doing some rock work, making a space for the hammock in the shade garden. And planting and transplanting things as the weather, being cool with rain predicted, is perfect for that. And pulling weeds. Always, there are WEEDS!

On the quilting scene, I’m doing some drawing and planning for my donation to the SAQA One Foot Square thing. More on that later if I come up with anything.

Yesterday I posted the two newest works to the Gallery pages on the website – Burlingame Fire and Nasturtiums. You’ve seen the teaser shots here in the blog, but they have been accepted, Burlingame Fire to IQA’s Tactile Architecture and Nasturtiums to In Full Bloom, so now you can see the full shots by clicking on Gallery on the left.

In the meantime I need to go out and put down some mulch before the rain comes today.