I’m still moving kind of slow. and not getting a lot done. I did prepare a back for the Seasonal quilt and got it layered and pin basted. I had purchased a panel to use on the back as I thought it would be a good thing to show that I did not just use a whole panel on the front, but that I cut it up and pieced it in.

A little bit of the top is peeking in at the bottom, but since it was made larger than the finished size, that will probably get trimmed away after the quilting.  That piece of blue fabric for the majority of the back is one of the first pieces of fabric I bought way back in the 80’s when I started quilting! It was the perfect color for this purpose.  The batting I am using is Matilda’s Own Wool.

I have spent the better part of three days now quilting on it and have about one third of it finished so I think I am in good shape to meet the deadline.

Friday I finished the quilting ( I thought!) and blocked the quilt, prepared the back, binding and sleeve so it would be ready to finish Saturday. Ooops! I forgot to quilt the orange areas. legs, feet, beak plus a little bit of the sky. Finished that and by evening I was hand sewing the binding to the back, Sunday morning I took the pictures for entry, even though the binding is only partly sewn, it looks finished from the front. It finished at 51 x 42″. Looking back, I see that I started the quilting on Jan 19, so it took 10 days  to get it done.

Sunday afternoon I met friends for brunch and a matinee performance at Topeka Civic Theater where we saw “The Last Days Of Ballyhoo”. It was good but made me miss entry day for the Topeka Art Guild’s next show. I had planned to get in on Saturday for an early entry but was just too busy. So this will be the first time in all the years I’ve been a member that I will have nothing there for the next two months!

Sunday evening after dinner, I did the online entry for Celebrate Spring, so now it is out of my hands. I had been trying to think up a good name for it, but faced with no more time and an empty line, I typed in “Harrier Hunting”. It will do. It was entry # 48 with a couple of days to go.

Yesterday I tried to update my blog, but WordPress would not let me in!

Last week was pretty busy and I only found time to work sporadically. Time is running out though and I was determined to finish the Harrier on Saturday which I did!

I was not happy with the way the tail sort of disappeared and it is hard to tell the tail from the wing (which I hope will be remedied with the quilting) The leading edge of the tail feathers are seen at an angle and so they do not stand out as much. I laid in some snippets of white which some Harriers actually have and I thought that it would be worth working another day to unsew and add in an edge of white to the tail feathers.

I think it was worth it!  Love that sky which is a hand dyed fabric that I  got at the Kaw Valley Quilt Guild fall sale.

Today I will start the quilting.

Last summer when I got he books caught up, I had every intention of keeping up. But did I? Of course not! Now here I am having to do 6 months worth in a few days so I can file my sales tax by the 15th. Since the state put me on a yearly basis this past year I didn’t have the deadlines to keep it up, and unfortunately deadlines rule my life these days.

So, there has been precious little sewing time. It took all of Saturday morning just to do his feet! And a few stolen hours here and there to get to this point:

I think changing to a darker color around his face might pop it more:

Now that Thanksgiving is over with, it’s time to get back to work.

I got my entries in for both Lancaster and Paducah, and for good measure, Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival which isn’t even due til late Jan! It feels good to be ahead. In reviewing the upcoming list of shows and contests. I see that if I am to have anything for Celebrate Spring this year, I’ll need to get started as the deadline for that is Jan 31.

I finished off the Alaska piece with a faced edge and will enter that in the local Topeka Art Guild Christmas sale where nothing can be priced over $100.00. I was prepared to have nothing there, but remembered this piece which everyone who sees it seems to like.

Since it is fused applique and is not in my “real” style, I can let go. It is about 15 x 21″ and really is nice and squared up, the photo is a little keystoned.

I got acceptance from “Road To California” for “The Merchant’s House” !

Thanks, everyone, for your comments! Great to know that the Lancaster deadline was extended;I will certainly get something entered – and maybe even Paducah at the same time. Early would be good!

Rose, I love your mending strategy. The 2 pairs of jeans were brand new and just needed shortening. The work clothes will never go out of style and needed their useful life extended one more time. Yeah!! It’s done.

Now it is time to set my sights on Thanksgiving – shopping today, starting the cooking tomorrow, we are the “go to” house..Wishing you all a happy turkey day with much to be thankful for.

I knew that the deadline for AQS Lancaster must be soon, so I decided today would be a good time to take care of that. Alas, the deadline IS TODAY! So, nothing for me at Lancaster next year. The deadline for Paducah is Jan 2 so I should attend to that soon. Why do I always wait til the last minute!? I entered two things to Road To California and got the email that one of them was rejected, but nothing about the other one. The official notification date is not til Dec 1, so I will hold out hope..

The past week was spent tweaking the Seasonal piece, changing and adding fabrics. It is still in two pieces but bulky and awkward to work on. I think that I have at least one more change to make and then I will just live with it for awhile and see if anything else demands attention. At this point every change requires that I rip something apart and add in new, sort of like mending, which I hate. I would rather go buy something new than mend or alter clothing! In the meantime the mending pile is growing larger as I see my husband has added yet another garment to the pile.

Last evening, I folded and put away all of the fabrics I was working with and swept up the bits on the floor, so now, if I actually DO this mending today as I plan, the studio will not look too bad for company on Thanksgiving!

So yesterday I was going to post an update, but when I went to download the photos my camera batteries were dead.

I had mentioned that I thought that the elk’s butt might need to be lighter

but I decided that the original was light enough.

Notice that I did tweak the antlers a bit! They are smoother now.

Filling in some background, I will use some lighter yellow areas of the hand dyed green. I think this dark shoulder is a little too much, it needs to be lighter.

This one is too light, though.

I think this one will work. But that highlight is too light and will need fixing.

This morning I was reminded that a challenge I had committed to was due soon – like next week I think!!

This is the fat quarter that I have to use:

Funny how the background, which is light blue with yellow spots reads about the same as my gray design wall. My piece has no info on it as to the designer or the fabric company, but it is certainly an interesting bit of fabric that must have piqued my interest at the time.

Accepting the free fat quarter meant that I accepted the challenge to make a small wall hanging  no larger than 18 x 24″ to donate to the guild’s charity silent auction.  I decided that I could get a butterfly out of it so yesterday I did a sketch and made a pattern for a fantasy butterfly that I hope to start today. The elk will have to take a back seat for the time being!

Since getting home I have been trying to catch up, but I am so far behind it doesn’t feel like I am making much progress!

I am still way behind on the emails, having taken orders and such that need timely responses, I am now chipping away at the lists that have backed up.

Lots of rain recently has made the weeds jump up. I thought I had them pretty much under control, but WOW! they’ve taken over again in spite of Preen and mulch. Yesterday I spent most of the morning pulling and pruning. Even desirable plants have taken over to the point they must be considered weeds and I dug several armloads of daylilies out.

These bluebells are going as soon as their blooms fade as they are crowding out a rose.

This iris showed up in the water garden several years ago. I didn’t buy it, so I don’t know where it came from but I think it is a lovely color.

I had never seen a moth like this before. Quite a nice surface design, don’t you think? Could be a batik fabric–

Didn’t realize till enlarging the picture it is laying eggs. I looked it up on Google and it is a Leopard Moth…well, duh, what else??

I am also trying to catch up on my book-keeping which is embarrassingly behind. Once I get it caught up I always say I will do it every week but so far that has not happened!

I did a couple of contest entries before I left, but somehow overlooked IQF-Houston who’s deadline is today and I missed it. So this will be the first time in a LONG time that I will have NOTHING there, unless there is something from SAQA that I am not remembering. I can’t believe that I forgot Houston!!

And then of course there is this blog which always needs my attention!

In my notes for future deadlines, I had next week listed for the Kansas Art Quilters “Raising the Edge” show, so I set aside the fairy to make something for that. It needed to be only between 8 and 10 ” square, so was doable at that late date. These little pieces will be displayed flat in a case and could be up to an inch thick, so I added some beading.

This is made from a bit of commercial batik that looked to me like a reflected landscape. I defined that vision with the quilting in two colors of Sulky rayon. It finished at 9″ square and I have yet to finish the hand work on the binding. When I took a look at the prospectus to see about the sleeve requirements, I discovered that the date next week was actually the date that it should not be received BEFORE and the actual deadline is in April! So for once I am ahead of schedule!  May add some more beading…..

Meantime quilting on the fairy progresses. I thought I might finish it yesterday but it was so nice outside I spent part of the afternoon walking, sitting on the deck and planting three Knockout rose bushes. Today will not be quite as nice as yesterday which was 75 degrees!

Before that I quilted most of the morning and listened to CNN about the terrible devastation in Japan. I was quilting beautiful water while watching how destructive water can be! There are five different threads used in the water quilting, three metallics and two variegated cottons.  I finished off three spools which will make more room in my storage space!