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No give-away this week-I’ll be posting that next week. I’m still catching up from a whirlwind 4 days at Fiberlandia, the SAQA Conference in Portland. I find myself still vibrating from the energy and ideas that arose during those 4 days! There were insightful break-out sessions, enlightening presentations, rich conversations with other artists…and then there was Portland. Warning: I left my “real” camera in Montana and it was in transit as I was in Portland, so all these photos were taken with my smart phone-ugh. Somehow this conference made it easy to make connections with other artists. I met so many…
I’m on the road again, this time I’m going to Portland, Oregon for the Studio Art Quilt Associates Conference, “Fiberlandia“. I’m excited-I will “just” be a participant! I am not presenting, I’m not a Rep. I am volunteering for a few things, but I will savor the feeling of simply enjoying the presentations and the company of great friends old and new. I always seem to return from SAQA conferences energized and filled with new ideas. This year we are having a Maker Space where we will “learn through doing” in a social environment with hands-on activities-sounds fun! We have free time on…
I just returned from my very first visit to Montana and what an adventure it was! Wendy Gerke of Bearly Square Quilt Shop asked me to teach 2 days of free motion quilting. Last fall when I taught at Houston International Quilt Festival, Edna Gregory was the Bernina rep in my classes. She is an absolutely delightful person and I enjoyed getting to know her. Edna works at Bearly Square and suggested to Wendy that she consider bringing me in to teach at the shop-that was my entre. Okay, I left my camera in Montana so all these are cell phone…
There is a lot of preparation that goes into teaching so sometimes I don’t get to quilt for a long time. In a perfect world somehow there would be a balance between teaching and quilting. I know that I would not want to be a full-time studio artist-I would miss teaching terribly. April has been a very full month and it’s only the 16th! Check out my calendar-there’s a lot of blue on there. I am thrilled to be teaching so much but just wish I had planned for a little more time to create. I presented at the Northern…
I just wanted to let you all know that I had not been receiving your comments for about 6 weeks for some reason. I’m still trying to figure that out. But one thing I can tell you-I MISSED YOUR COMMENTS! I didn’t realize how much I enjoyed interacting and having conversations with my readers. I thought you didn’t care or that my posts just didn’t merit a comment. It was kind of bumming me out. Now I realize how grateful I am that you read my blog and care to comment. Thank you, each of you, for reading and sometimes…
My current theme seems to be “Go with what you know”. After a bit of angst about what to do for this year’s donation to the Studio Art Quilt Associates Benefit Auction, I ultimately went with what I knew. I had some great ideas but they were just going to take too much time to figure out. I went with the piece made with Kraft-Tex, the paper/fabric morph material. I enjoyed working with it and I’d like to explore other possibilities using Kraft-Tex. Yes, I forgot what I titled it but we will both find out the title when it…
This week I received my copy of Sandra Sider’s 1,000 Quilt Inspirations with 4 of my images. I also received a photo of a collaborative piece that I was a part of installed in the owner’s home. I’m doing my happy dance! I am so excited to have FOUR images in this fantastic book. I haven’t even had a chance to look at it, but just thumbing through it I see there is lots of eye candy for quilters and artists. I took some quick photos this morning so they’re not that great: This last one is a piece I…
I’m in a very frustrating place at the moment. The annual SAQA auction deadline for early deliveries is April 1st. I’m on my fourth attempt at a piece to donate. Technically we have until June 1st but if you make the early deadline there is a chance that your piece might be used in the publicity. So yeah, I’d like the opportunity to possibly have my piece publicized internationally! And April 1st is the “received by” date so I’ve got to finish this and send it off. Oh the money I have spent on overnight delivery for various entries….. My…
This was a “get it done” moment. The deadline for submitting a 6″ x 8″ piece to the SAQA Spotlight Auction creped up on me. All of a sudden I had 4 days to submit my piece and I was going out to a lecture/workshop for 2 of those days! I’m really excited that I will be attending the SAQA Conference in Portland, Oregon. One of our fundraisers is the Spotlight Auction. Members donate their 4″ x 6″ pieces and then can bid on what we like. It’s a LOT of fun and it’s so much more fun when you have…
I had a great excuse for not posting last week-I was taking a 2-day private class with Judy Coates Perez. Pinch me! Judy lives in my area now, so a group of 7 art quilters got together and proposed a 2-day class-one day with acrylic inks and one day with Tsukeneko inks. Sandy Wagner miraculously organized the timing so that each of us could attend. My personal goal was to become comfortable enough with both mediums to be able to confidently use them in my work. I may not make an entire whole cloth piece using what I learned, but…