Yesterday I took the day off and went to an Art Fair in the KC area with friends.The weather was good, the art was especially nice and it was a fun day out and a yummy lunch. Then we visited a couple of galleries for more great art.

Before that, I spent all of Friday working on the Heron while it rained outside. I did some tweaking like adding more of the yellow/orange to the right side to bring in some light and adding to the legs. Sewed a bunch of seams and I needed to cut the cat tail leaves that will go between the sections so I can complete that portion on the left.

Not sure that I like that dark fabric; maybe it needs to be lighter. A nice medium tone would be more realistic but it would get lost against the background.

Nope. It needs to be dark to balance the other side, but that bit of dark between the leaves needs to go. Adding to the water and sewing more seams helps.

OK, better. It’s starting to come together now.

So far, I have the top almost half quilted, but for one reason or another, have not been able to post. If it’s not the computer, it’s the camera, or else my ineptitude or crazy schedule. These pics are from last week.

There is actually a little more done, than shows here.

Saturday I enjoyed a road trip with friends to a nearby town to visit museums and galleries and enjoy lunch together. Our weather has turned nice again and it was a gorgeous day to be out. I took some photos I wanted to share, but cannot figure out how to get them from the phone to the computer. I know— you say that is easy— but for me it is not working!

Sunday the weather was still beautiful and I spent most of the afternoon outside trimming and pulling weeds to get a head start on Spring. The whole week is supposed to be lovely. Perhaps too nice to stay inside and quilt!

I finished the freezer paper, including the tic marks yesterday for the new project and am anxious to start the cutting and sewing! But first I want to show you my students from “Empty Spools”. I am so proud of them!
I’ll go around the room in the order that they worked.

Joyce was working from a photo of her grandmother in her wedding dress, a very ambitious project for her first attempt at Picture Piecing but I think she is doing an amazing job! That little bit of blue in the eye is only laid in to keep Grandma from looking like a zombie for now. Joyce enjoys making portraits in various styles and she will probably ink the eye in later. The flowers with dark background fabric was a lucky find at Back Porch where we shopped Wed.

Susan is working from a photo she took of a Mama Robin showing her baby what a birdbath is for. This photo only gives basic information so Susan brought reference material and is really bringing them to life! This is her second Picture Piecing project. Another lucky fabric find is the Marsha Derse light green that she has laid into the birdbath to be the water. It has the perfect color and built in ripple lines. She will cut it up and add the reflections of the birds.

Linda is making this beautiful Sanseveria plant for her first attempt at Picture Piecing and I think it is going to be wonderful! That lovely hand dye is the perfect background to set off the leaves. She probably does not have enough of it so is trying to distribute it throughout, mixed with other fabrics which will only make it richer. Bits of lighter leaf edge fabrics in chartreuse and blue green will accent the dark leaves and add sparkle to the piece.

Janet’s rendition of this photo of her son in Ireland is being done in a combination of straight seam and curved seam piecing. She has done Picture Piecing before so she is up to the challenge and is doing a great job. I love that she chose to do that amazing tree with curved seams. Can you see that his red hair is a piece of autumn leaf fabric? Genius! Janet gets two pictures because I want you to see the curved seam part that didn’t make it into the first shot.

Barbara came to the workshop with no photo, just a sketch, because her inspiration came to her in a dream! This was her first try at this process and she made excellent progress. There will be a second elephant a little darker than the first. That batik she used really gives the illusion of elephant skin wrinkles and look how she found the eye and the ear within the print! Her very well behaved Boxer, Shelby was our mascot for the week!

Last but certainly not least, was Robin with her photo taken on a visit to Yellowstone. The orange that accents this scene is sulfur and there is steam from the geysers against the dark hills. She brought wonderful fabrics to portray the scenery and was able to find the perfect gray cloud fabric for the reflections on our shopping trip to Back Porch.  This was her first time using this technique and she made an amazing amount of progress in the time we had available.

It was a pleasure o work with these ladies and I hope to be able to share “finished” photos with you later!

Here I am at beautiful Asilomar in Pacific Grove, Ca., teaching Designing for Picture Piecing at Empty Spools Seminar. I have been so busy that I have only walked over to the ocean once, but I’m up early this morning and I intend to take the camera and see if I can get some photos before breakfast. (Yum! The food has been very good!)

I am finally able to find my way around this sprawling facility of many acres and lots of different buildings for each activity. There is a lot of walking involved and for the first few days I was often lost. But not for long!

My students are great! They seem to be enjoying the process and are making nice progress. There has been a lot of sewing going on and we will have good stuff to show when the open house happens tomorrow. The week is going fast!

My bags are packed, I’m ready to go, the weather is beautiful and I’m looking forward to sunny (?) California for a week. Asilomar, here I come! Can’t wait to meet my students and see all of the wonderful things they have planned!

Topeka Art Guild has opened their new show “Awesome America” showing til the end of March, and I have two pieces there – if you are in the vacinity be sure and stop in to see “Eagles Soar” and “Grasslands”.

It looks like the birds have been making quilting patterns in the snow… how neat is that!

Yesterday afternoon was spent packaging patterns and watching Pairs Figure Skating from Sochi. Also getting things organized for my up coming trip to Empty Spools. It looks like starting today the weather is going to warm up to above freezing and be clear so I can stop worrying about getting to the airport!

Here is Griffin basking in the glory of cold – don’t feel sorry for him – we have to force him to come in and get warm! He’ll be on guard duty here while I am gone, holding down the fort along with my husband.

Progress is slow on the new dog portrait. I think I will need to simplify the background which seems too busy right now. I have been pretty busy lately with other things and have had trouble finding blocks of time to really get on a roll with this quilt.

Yesterday I went to the Sewing & Quilting Expo in Overland Park, KS because I had committed to work at the SAQA booth there. The day turned out to be rainy, turning colder with the threat of icy conditions in the evening so, had I not signed up to work I would probably have opted out of the hour and a half drive and stayed home. I enjoyed the two SAQA exhibits, Deux and Georgialina ( a SAQA Regional exhibit from Georgia & S Carolina. Saw some gorgeous work. met some new people and reconnected with some old friends. We also had a meeting of regional SAQA members and did some brainstorming about future plans. It was a good day. By the time I made it safely home, just before 6, there was ice on the gate and some patches on the bridges. Today everything is coated in ice – it’s pretty but not to my liking. The birds are attacking the feeders and I am ready to go attack the work in progress!

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!

Today, I fly home from Denver where I have been working with the Colorado Quilt Council doing a guild program and one day workshop on Picture Piecing the Coneflowers Pattern. What a great group!! Everyone got a good start on some beautiful wall hangings.

I flew in a day early and the adventure began with a visit to The Foothills Art Center in Golden for the “Threads of Change” exhibit, and a short tour of the QN headquarters there. Then on to the Denver Botanical Garden for a tour and lecture complete with a light meal. What an amazing place! We went back the next day to see the rest of the gardens that we couldn’t see the day before due to time. After a delicious lunch there, we proceeded to the Denver Art Museum to see the SPUN exhibit, which actually was a series of different textile related exhibits spread out all over the museum. Just amazing!!

Thanks Barb, for a perfectly wonderful visit!!

This time next week I will know what I have won in Houston! I have been busy wrapping up loose ends and making arrangements. Trying to figure out what to wear and getting things ready.

Since my friend Rose, who usually travels with me to Houston was unable to go this year, I offered the extra bed to Gloria, the GLO in Gloderworks the company responsible for my wonderful website. She accepted and I am looking forward to getting to know her better. I admire Gloria‘s quilting work as well, and she is also a winner this year, in addition to being an author and computer guru.

I have permission from Quilts, Inc and SAQA to show the two pieces that have been kept under wraps so far and they can be seem in the “Upcoming Events” section of the website. “Prairie Fire” the winner in “World of Beauty” and “December Dawn” in “Seasonal Palette”.  They did ask that I announce that there is a catalog available for “Seasonal Palette”.