Yesterday I taught a Machine Quilting class at Stitching Traditions in Topeka. It was the class that had to be canceled back when the weather was so bad, but that was not a problem yesterday. Spring was in the air with temperatures in the 60’s! The class went well and everyone made great progress on their way to becoming super machine quilters.

The morning e-mail brought news that “The Merchant’s House” won Viewer’s Choice at the current show at The Topeka Art Guild Gallery.

The show, “Paint Pink” will be up for another month.

When I got home my acceptance letter for AQS was in the mail. “Spring Encounter” was juried in and will be going to Paducah!

Lyric Kinard just wrote a wonderful post about the jury process on her blog. If you have ever wondered about that process check it out. I met Lyric in Houston the year we both had pieces in “I Remember Mama” and she is one of the nicest people I know! How she finds the time to do all that she does with small children at home is beyond me!

Thanks everyone, for the comments!

First thing yesterday I cleaned off the cutting table and put the fabrics away. The empty table makes the whole studio look bigger! The design wall is empty too, makes me want to create something new to fill the void.  Or I could just hang my “Colorado Kids” back up…..

When all of the fabric was sorted and folded, this is all that was left of the rock fabrics – good thing the piece was not any larger!

Most of these pieces were too small to keep and went into the trash. In a few weeks when I go to PA for the AQS show, I’ll be shopping for rock fabric.

I did get a nice start on the taxes yesterday afternoon so maybe it won’t be too long before I can mess up that table again!

The top is finished!! I scrolled back to see when I started and it was Jan 25 that I posted the photograph I would be working with. It has been a long process but I am quite pleased with the way it turned out. You can click on the tag Mt Goats to go back to the beginning.  At this point it measures 39 x 45″.

Several hours were spent yesterday just removing the freezer paper from the back. I am eager to get started on the quilting which will change and enhance it, but realistically, I must put it aside for now as it’s deadline is not until August and I have more pressing things to deal with – like taxes!

Thanks all of you who have hung in there throughout the process and especially those of you who posted. It’s been fun!

I was really hoping to finish yesterday and it was an intense day trying! Lot’s of unsewing takes too much time. I changed out six rocks, altered sections to improve hind legs on the middle goat and added a leg to the front goat. In the photo his fourth leg does not show, but I decided it needed to. I also gave him a highlight on the chest which was blending away into a rock. The middle goat got a nose and a lighter shadow for his neck and some of the smaller units got sewn together.

I should be able to finish today!

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.