The SAQA Benefit Auction started yesterday and my Northern Cardinal sold right away raising $750.00 for SAQA! Not bad for a little 12 x 12″ piece!!

There are still lots of wonderful works available and the price drops daily. Check it out!

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!!

A little over a week ago it was 87 degrees here and I spent the better part of two days working outside, trimming, weeding and transplanting! Now we are covered in snow again, I have never seen snow as deep as this on the branches, at least 7 inches!

It only lasted an hour or so until the wind and the birds knocked it off but it was pretty neat while it lasted.

The whirligig thing looked pretty, too, until the wind came up and the drifting started.

It was the kind of day you want to stay inside and hunker down with some fun project. I finished my 12 inch square for the SAQA auction which I was hoping to get finished in time to send it to them before the April 1 Early Bird Deadline.

In the past my entry has always been in the A group. but I am slow this year and it will be in the B group, I think. “Northern Cardinal” is from a photo I took after the last snowfall, and it came out even better than I expected! I want to keep it!!

The background fabric is a batik with a subtle tree branch print that I purchased especially for this piece. I highlighted some of the print with the quilting lines.

Since I had to fly out of Houston Sunday morning, I missed the entire last day of the show. It was not until I was back home that I was told that “Prairie Fire� had sold during the show. I had several inquiries about purchasing it, but so far I do not know who bought it. I hope they enjoy living with it as much as I have.

Before I left on Saturday, I checked the status of my “Prairie Fire Mini� in the Silent Auction and it was at $260.00. I’m anxious to see what it eventually brought and who got it.

There were lots of opportunities to purchase quilts at Festival, and I was lucky enough to come away with two 12 x 12� pieces from the SAQA Auction.

“Squirrel Food� by Nancy G. Cook and “Woman Of The Year� by Bodil Gardner. I feel very fortunate to have them as they are both beautiful and made by artists that I admire. It was great to see the actual quiltlets on display- they are even better in person than on-line, and I am thrilled to have them.

The purchaser of my little Yorkie postcard for the Pet Project came by where I was sitting with “Prairie Fire” to tell me how much she loved it and I was so glad someone got it that really appreciated the work in it.  I think I heard that this will be an ongoing feature at festival so I hope to get an earlier start on some cards for next year. I know that this year’s event surpassed the goal for the no-kill shelter in Houston.

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 piece sold to Larry and Carol Denning of Texas for $250.00! Compared to previous years things are very slow this year across the board, with fewer sales for less money.

I wrote that on Saturday – then apparently forgot to post it!  Perhaps I hit “preview” instead of “publish”.  As I was looking at the auction pieces I decided that there was one I would like to have for my guest room. “Under the Oaks”. I’m working on a hand appliqued, hand quilted “Oak Leaf and Acorn” quilt for that room and it’s border is the same fabric as the binding on that one! Perfect! Why didn’t I see that before? It was at $150 and available.  Then I got the idea that I could get two for the same price if I only waited a few hours, so I chose another in the same color range for that room, “Under the Sea”,  and at the crack of 2:00 I sent my bid. But as luck would have it, in the meantime someone else snapped up “Oaks”. Oh, well.  I can see how this auction thing could become addictive!!

Sunday afternoon was the opening reception for “Kansans Paint Kansas”.  There was a nice turnout and some beautiful work.  All three of my entries were accepted and I was thrilled to receive a President’s Award for “Grasslands”.

Only four more days till the SAQA auction! This is the annual fundraiser and this is my third year of participating. There are hundreds of wonderful little 12 x 12� quilts to choose from, and you should check them out even if you don’t plan to bid!

Mine is on page 2b, “At Rest�.

This was cut from one piece if Judy Robertson hand dyed fabric (thank you Del!!) that had the most perfect built in reflections that just needed to be water.

You can bid in SAQA’s 2010 Benefit Auction starting September 20th: http://www.saqa.com/news.php?ID=1423

I recently received an unexpected surprise in the mail – two yards of beautiful hand dyed fabric by Judy Robertson! Thank you Del! When I looked at the yellow and purple one, I saw wonderful reflections and knew it needed to be water. I wanted something to divide it and considered a heron, but ended up with this sailboat, even though I know nothing about boats. Abject apologies to any sailors out there! I do know that a sail boat has a thing at the bottom of the mast to hold the sail, but this one may be wrecked. It does seem a bit wonky.

It is only 12 x 12″, machine pieced and machine quilted, and will go to the annual Studio Art Quilters Associates Benefit Auction which takes place on-line in the fall.

The whole little piece is cut from the one fabric, the main backgound from the area that first impressed me with the effect of a reflected bit of land and the boat and it’s reflection from another section. There is no seam between the boat and it’s reflection which meant I had to piece in a v-shaped bit of yellow at each end.

There is still quite a bit of the fabric left to make it’s way into other quilts, perhaps flowers.

Some of you have been wondering where I have been -Arizona – that’s where! We flew out Thursday for a quick trip to attend a family wedding – home again on Monday. It was great to see folks we hadn’t seen in a long while. Besides the wedding we went to Taliesin West and Casa Grande Indian Ruins.  Since visiting Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Water in PA, I couldn’t be that close and not check out Taliesin West, but in comparison, it was not so good.  Of course tour guides make a big difference and we didn’t get a very good one. I have always been interested in the ancient cultures so I did enjoy Casa Grande more.

Home again on Monday and now the concentration is on getting everything together for my next trip – GA on Friday. Starting with clothes, I emptied the suitcase and started laundry. Load the machine and start water running into the sink for a few handwashables.  While that’s filling off to the other room to take care of something else, totally forgetting the sink and not remembering until the entire utility room is flooded along with the two bathrooms on either side and the hall carpet.   Let this be a lesson to you. After a certain age multi tasking may NOT save you time. In spite of wet vac, dehumidifier and fans the carpet is still wet.

Good news though– I was totally thrilled and very honored to have my Yellow Headed Blackbird in the SAQA auction snapped up in the first few seconds by none other than my good friend Del!  She seriously wanted it and I’m glad she got it!