I am woefully behind, can’t believe it has been so long since I have posted, but I have been busy!

I did manage to get a photo of “Jesse At The Lake”, on display at the art guild.  This guy was impressed that  I had even included the pulley mechanism!

With the sewing machine off to the shop getting cleaned I was able to spend some time working outside and drawing some new projects for later.  After I got the sewing machine back, I made 25 more matted 4X6’s to donate to the Topeka Art Guild’s fundraiser, last time I checked there were only 7 left.  30 @ $7.50 = $225.00 for them- nothing for me!

I also made my annual 12 x 12 for the SAQA auction, which needs to be there by the 1st of June.  It went into the mail this morning.  I had a challenge to use the hand dyed material

that I made at an art quilting group that I belong to, so I used those fabrics in the flower and leaves plus another hand dye by Judy Robertson for the background.

The little quilts will be auctioned off online this fall.

While the dogs quilt was hanging on the design wall, finished, I saw something that bothered me, so after I got my machine back I fixed that; time was becoming an issue as it needed to be entered soon.

Actually there were quite a few entries that needed to be made, entries that were due from May 29 – June 6, so for the last two days I have entered IQA World of Beauty and Raining Cats and Dogs, AQS, DesMoines, Aullwood and the SAQA auction.  It sounds easy, but involves getting and preparing photos with differing requirements for each one and generally jumping through a lot of hoops.

It was cold and rainy, a good week to stay inside, though my husband ventured out and found some of the best morel mushrooms ever. Big and plentiful, we enjoyed as many as we could handle and froze the rest for later. The asparagus as well. To further mark the arrival of spring the hummingbirds and orioles have begun to arrive. Alas, I have seen no bluebirds yet. Still planting new stuff that loves this kind of weather in which to get established.

I finished the dogs quilt and named it “Fur Family Portrait”.  No photos til after the entry as requested by the venue, sorry. It is bound and only needs to be taken outside in the bright light to be scrutinized for stray threads. I plan to do that tomorrow when the temps return to the sunny 70’s. It’s time to get the deck furniture out!

Yesterday I took my sewing machine in for a past due cleaning and tuneup since I thought I had a small window of time when I could part with it. Sadly it is going to be three weeks before they can get to it. I have a spare if I get desperate.

Today is First Friday at the Topeka Art Guild Gallery and I will be there from 2-8. “Jesse At The Lake” is still there on display. The members were challenged to do a small artwork to fit in 4×6 mats to donate as a fundraiser for the gallery. They are to be sold for $7.50 each to benefit the gallery.

Mine of course are quilted. I showed these plus one more last night at my small quilting group and one, a landscape was snapped up early!

“Eagles Soar” has been accepted to the Denver National show which will be May 1-4 in Denver. I’m shipping it out today.

My entries to the Kaw Valley Quilt Guild show both received Viewer’s choice awards in the wall quilts category. A First for “Snow Buddies”

and a Second for “Harrier Hunting”.

Thanks, everyone who voted, and thanks, MeaBernina for the $25.00 gift certificate!!

I’m hoping to finish the quilting on the new dogs quilt today or tomorrow, it seems to be taking forever, but as usual I am putting in a LOT of stitches! I have been spending quite a bit of time outside weeding and planting and am paying for it with spring allergy problems, which sap my energy.

The last two times I tried to post here, it didn’t work.  I’m trying again.  So……I’ll try to update what’s been happening and see if it works this time.

First Friday at the Topeka Art Guild revealed that “Jesse At The Lake” was awarded  an Honorable Mention in the judging.  This must be my month for HMs.  I’m always happy to get any recognition in an exhibit intended predominately for fine art!  I forgot to take my camera to get a photo of it hanging there but it has a good location and looks nice. Stop in if you are in the area ( Fairlawn Mall ) to see the show, “Journey Through Topeka” which will be up til the end of May.

Last weekend was the Kaw Valley Quilt Guild show in Lawrence which was good as always.  I entered “Snow Buddies” and “Harrier Hunting” and worked there Sunday afternoon, receiving many compliments. Judging there is by Viewer’s Choice and the results will be announced at the next guild meeting.

I’m still quilting on the dogs quilt, it came to a halt when I ran out of two necessary threads and had to go to town yesterday to look for more; fortunately I found exactly what I needed and will be able to carry on.  I have been spending quite a bit of time this past week outside pruning and weeding, planting and fertilizing and generally cleaning things up.  Keep hoping for predicted rain to materialize but so far it’s bypassing us and I have had to water things.

OK–crossing my fingers, and hitting “Publish”……

The quilting and blocking was finished on Sunday and yesterday I did the binding and the photography. I love how this piece came out! It finished at 33 x 41″, a nice size.

I had considered doing a facing on this one instead of a binding, but liked the way this, the darkest batik looked, so I went with that instead.  Cut on the bias there is a nice subtle stripey effect. I think it frames it nicely.

As usual, it is very heavily free motion machine quilted with a variety of different threads to compliment the different fabrics. I met the deadline and it will go to it’s first show next week at the Topeka Art Guild Gallery. Be sure and stop in if you are in the area!

It was a pretty gray day with heavy snow falling in the afternoon so I’m not real happy with the pictures and will probably re – shoot, but this will do for now.

The snow did not last and it is supposed to be in the 70’s by the weekend. I will be so glad when we are past the freezing nights so I can get the outdoor plants back outdoors and start working in the garden!

This week I finished my 3 pet postcards to send off to Houston IQA for the Pet Postcard Project, so I am cross posting this to Nina Marie’s Off The Wall Friday. These will be for sale at Festival for $20.00 each. Last year if I remember correctly they earned about $20,000.00 for a no kill shelter in Houston and should surpass that this year. I hope lots of people will participate for this worthy cause.

These cards were super easy as all I did was to machine quilt the printed fabric and bind them, but i think they came out good.

I got word this morning that my entry to the LaConner Quilt Museum show in WA., “Foxglove Fairy” has won an award! They won’t say what til after the Award Ceremony, so we’ll just have to wait and see!

Exciting news on the teaching horizon as well – I have a five day retreat workshop scheduled for 2015 at the Hudson River Valley Art Workshops in New York!! I’m looking forward to this new direction in my workshops as I will be doing one this coming February at Empty Spools in CA., as well! If you would like to learn to design and piece your own original work of art, just choose your coast and join me!

It’s been a whirlwind week with so much to do and catch up on. I finally downloaded my pictures from the Colorado trip. I didn’t get much before my battery went dead and I had neglected to bring the cord to recharge. Now I know why it went dead so fast! I accidentally had it set to video, so where I thought I was getting one shot it was really many. Spent some time this morning deleting hundreds of duplicate pictures.

The perennial borders at The Denver Botanic Gardens may give me some ideas for planting combinations at home. I have been inspired to spend some time in the garden since coming home, as the rain and cooler temps tempt me to transplant and weed. Actually there aren’t so many weeds anymore as I seem to have gotten pretty much ahead of them this year!

The blister beetles have stripped the Clematis Ruguchii which was gorgeous this year. They sneaked in and stripped it overnight and I am afraid

it may not recover as usually it puts out new growth right away and there is nothing there now but a skeleton.  They moved on to the Sweet Autumn Clematis, but I have fought back and that is doing OK.

A couple of mornings have been lost to paper work, show entries and shipping quilts and patterns.   It always takes so much longer than you think it should.  I discovered that I have nothing to send to Asheville or PaNational this year, but I did get two quilts shipped off to Houston, which will give me three pieces there this fall plus I hope to get a Silent Auction piece made for them.  Next in line is quilting the Eagles, but for now I am concentrating on getting the book keeping caught up, a job that I hate, so I always let it get away from me!

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.