Saturday, March 26, 2011

Time flies between posts!

I've been back home since Tuesday evening, but haven't been inspired to write. I sold some inventory at the show, traded a few pieces for a fabulous hand woven chenille scarf.



What looks like beads on one side are actually little loops of one of the threads.

Also got to visit with some friends at the show, some that drove a couple of hours to see the show(and me!), others that are also venders and the only time I see them is at shows. About halfway thru the day I knew I had made the right decision to stop vending, I was ready to leave.

We had a great visit with kids and grandkids, we really do need to get there more often.

It always takes me a day or two to get back to creating once I get home, this time was no exception. I have managed to do some quilting on the not so big leaf, the leaf itself is done and I'm now working on the background. But that's it for now.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Never say never!

I've been spending time this week getting ready to vend at a quilt show, even though a year and a half ago I said I was never vending again! A few months ago I got the invitation to do the Winnemucca,NV quilt show. I was preparing to contact the vendor chair and let her know that I was no longer doing shows when Don said "why not do it, you have inventory". Plus it's only a few hours from a couple of our kids and their families, which we haven't visited in about 10 months. So tomorrow we head for Winnemucca to do a one day show, all my inventory will be at 25% off. I sold my booth setup after I did my last show and I no longer take credit cards, but I'll be there. So if you are in the area, come to Winnemucca. For those of you that have no idea where it is, you take interstate 80 to the middle of Nevada, or if your going from Idaho like I am, you take US95 south for 5hrs. Winnemucca is about 2 hours minimum from anywhere. But I've always had fun doing the show and the guild members are great!

After the show we get to go spend a few days with kids and grand kids. My reward for doing the show.

On another note, I made a case for my ipad.



the other side.

Monday, March 14, 2011

It's my birthday!!

Todays my birthday and I'm in a celebratory mood! Last year I gave my self a birthday party, this year I'm stretching the celebration out. It started last Thursday when we went to Boise with friends. We went to the Apple Store and I bought an ipad for my birthday, it was $100 off because the ipad2's were coming out the next day. Oh I'm loving it, have downloaded some fun app's and am trying to learn all that it can do. We also went out to a great Brazilian restaurant for lunch, did some other shopping and had a great time. I also got a beautiful mango that by this morning was perfectly ripe, I devoured half and the rest of it went into a mango ,blackberry, banana smoothy. Yummo!



Since last weeks post I've entered the big leaf quilt in 2 more shows. I also have someone here in town that wants to buy it, so I'm feeling much better. I've been working on the not so big leaf quilt and yesterday I started quilting it. This is how it looked before quilting.



Today I'm also starting an online photoshop elements class. I've had the software on my computer for over a year and only use it to resize photos, so it's time to learn something new.

I'm off to celebrate my day, having lunch with a friend and then ??? I'll find something to do!

Monday, March 7, 2011

Rejection and starting something new

I've been feeling a bit down since I rolled out of bed this morning, most likely because I had trouble getting to sleep last night and this morning was looking like another rainy grey day. So I putzed around getting some errands done and was about to get to work in the studio when the mail came with a letter from AQS. It was a thin one, which means that the big leaf quilt was rejected.



So I threw away the letter(I never keep rejection letters), made a bag of popcorn and ate it. Then I had some of my favorite very dark chocolate, Lindts 85% dark, which is always on hand. Still feeling a bit bummed I remembered that Don had bought me my favorite chips awhile ago and I had hidden them away. Hidden no longer!


I'm not much of a chip person, but I love these. I ate most of the bag!
Can't say I feel any better ,but I am full. Does this mean I'm an emotional eater????

I did finish the hand stitching and machine quilting on the piece I showed last week. I was trying for a nebula, but it looks like amoebas. The title is the Amoeba Nebula. I'm having a difficult time getting a good picture of it.



I've got a new project in the works. The art guild has decided that I should do the art work for this years raffle, which has always been a painting. I'm making another big leaf, only not as big. I've got it drawn out and should get into the studio and do some work on it. It will be about 28" x 42" and made with fabric leftover from the first one. After it's quilted it will be mounted on stretcher bars so that it hangs like a painting. The leaf shape is just a bit different from the last one.



Now I need to find another show to enter the big leaf in, I've usually had good luck with rebounds. Whenever a quilt gets rejected I try and find another show to enter it in right away.