bits and pieces

last year, when I was working on the piece that is now hanging in the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum, I did a 12" by 12" sample piece to try out some techniques

I worked it through all of the fusing, then I set it aside, having solved the design ideas and needing to meet a deadline for the bigger piece

this week I decided to finish it and donate it to the annual SAQA fund raising auction -- so about half of the quilting is done now

I hope to get this finished in time to submit it for the "early bird" auction entries which are eligible to be used in SAQA's advertising -- which would be good exposure for the piece

the third columbine is finished

this week I will start on the background

and this will be a much bigger piece than the first columbines -- the big flower is wider than the whole first piece was!

the work on the dog piece has begun

in order to do the eyes (which need to be the first thing done on an animal piece), I had to get some silk fabric in the right color

I need to select all of the other black/white/gray/blue fabrics that will make up the "fur" on this piece from my stash -- this should be an interesting "shopping trip" into the many fabrics I have on hand

I redid some of the rake piece and made it longer because I wasn't sure I liked the square format

and now I'm not sure I like the longer format and I may cut it off

and yes, now the mountains in the background are bigger and darker, but I have no idea where I'm going next with this

so it's hanging on the wall for me to look at for a day or so to decide where I'm going with it

so it's time to create the background for those 5 mailboxes I made earlier

this is the concept plan for what the finished piece will look like

we'll see how close we get

time to get to it

the work continues

last year I did a commission piece of columbines

it was a small piece and I did it in a pretty cramped time span, so I felt like I hadn't really "finished" with the subject matter

so I'm working on another one

in this case, the big flower (which is now complete) is almost  as big as the entire first piece was --- it's sort of columbines on a Georgia O'Keefe scale

and I'm about 2/3 finished with the second columbine too

moving right along!

I've been working on the design for the next piece in the Parched Earth series -- and while I like the overall design, I'm not sure how I'll execute some of what I want to do

so I'm working on a smaller section to work out those details, which I had gotten this far, and have now decided that it needs some changes because it is going to be big enough to stand on it's own when it's finished

on February 3 I was able to attend the opening of the Evolution 2017 show at the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum

very cool to see my piece hanging in the exhibit

 

Benson likes hanging out in my office or my studio while I'm working

on Valentine's day he had fun chewing up a piece of cardboard, and one of the pieces is in the shape of a heart -- cute!  a Valentine for mommy -- and like any proud mommy, it's hanging on the wall

time to get back to it!

reasons for a better plan

the plan was to use at least two of these pieces to enter in a show that had a January 31 deadline

uh, not so much

it helps if you read the Call for Entry closely (and really, I had no excuse -- after all I WROTE the call for entry for this show!)

each of these pieces was ineligible because it was too narrow for a call that had a minimum requirement of 24 inches in width AND height

big oops!

fortunately, I have been working on a series of pieces, and these two pieces were big enough, so I was able to enter them

now we wait to hear from the juror

meantime, I'm working on another piece in the Parched Earth series -- this one will have 5 beat up, rusty mailboxes in it

and two of them are ready -- moving along nicely

  

there is another call for entry coming for a show this summer that is just dog pieces

I took some photos of this lovely dog in a bead store in Ft Collins last fall, and then ran it through some steps in PhotoShop and I plan to do this piece in the same technique I used for the dog I did last year.

looking forward to seeing how this comes out

and then there was this unplanned for addition

after last summer's trial of having a very young puppy, we weren't really looking for a new dog right now

but Benson found us

he is a lab/heeler mix and he's about 8 months old, rescued by Big Bones Canine Rescue out of Roswell, NM, where he was picked up as a stray --  and as we've had him this week, it's clear that he was someone's pet

he walks on a leash like a real gentleman, and while it wasn't my original thought to be acquiring a personal trainer, it's pretty clear he has that job!

he's going to be a great companion