So in the wake of my bad news last week, I'm reporting on my good news, which is "Morning Glories" one of my latest painted pieces was accepted into "Celebrate Spring, a Judged IQA competition to be held in Cincinnati, OH. Four show entries since I decided to get back into the quilt show arena and I have had four acceptances. Not bad?
Not sure about the rules for showing the piece so for now I won't.
I am back working on the large piece I had planned to enter in AQS Paducah, but time got from me and then too I got way-layed with that coughing episode that kept me down and out for week two months back. So I started quilting it again last week in an effort to finish it with no real destination for it in mind. In some ways that it good, I won't rush through it and bad, because I tend to procrastinate. And it does take some effort and muscle I must say to wrestle it through my sewing machine. More and more as i work on it, the HQ16 begins to look better and better to me.
I haven't quilted a piece this large 55" x 60+" in a very long time and I can't with it for long. So I take frequent breaks. Unlike smaller pieces that I do, 40" or less I go into a Zen state and can sit and quilt for hours.
At the rate I'm going it will be the end of Feb. at the earliest before it is ready to be blocked, trued up and faced. Will let you all see it at that stage.
In a couple of weeks I will have three ladies joining me in my in home/studio space to study with me for three days. Two are from Chicago and one is nearly local. I am looking forward to doing this. If all goes well, I might be open to doing it again if there is an interest in semi-private less of 2-3 students in the future.
When I am taking a break from the quilting I am trying to teach myself how to work in CorelDraw. I had CorelDraw 8 for many years, but it wouldn't load on my current laptop so I brought CorelDraw x 5 which seems a little more intuitive. But I haven't been able to master the parts of the program that will allow me to use some photographs of flowers and manipulate then into compositions.
If self study fails, all hope is not lost. Caryl Fallert is offering a 4 day class in this process at her studio that I am seriously considering taking.
Sorry there are no pictures again for the second blog post in a row. My daughter Lyn in the middle of the storm moving through the middle of Missouri, sent me a picture of the bench in her back garden. The snow depth is about three inches short of the 18" high seat. And it is still snowing heavily she said. So I won't rub salt into the wound by showing you sunshine, palm trees and near 80 degree tempertures.
To all in the path of the storm, stay warm, stay safe and creative.
3 comments:
Congratulations on the Morning Glories. Now the real anticipation starts.
I love to see how you forge on into competitions and shows. There is not a competitve bone in my body. I'm learning Elements 8 and I purchased a book called "Teach Yourself Visually Photoshop Elements". This book can also be found for Corel Draw. It's fantastic.
Hi Carol
I don't think I am the least bit competitive. I don't know what I am other than a goal setter and my very first goal as a quiltmaker was to get good enough to have one of my quilts finished in time for the Kentucky State Fair and when I did and won a blue ribbon I thought I had arrived. Back then KY had a reputation for producing great quilters and I wanted to be one. Then along came the AQS show and I was floored by the work being done elsewhere in the country and I set a goal to have a quilt accepted to that show. It waa nwver my goal to win a ribbon. Well I did get accepted, several times over. And now I have a ribbon. Back then there was only the show in Paducah. After that there came other show and other challenges. I entered those and got accepted. That alone was good enough. I got my share of ribbons during the following years. The quilting changed from traditional to art and from hand to machine and then stitch regulated and long armed. So many varitable. So I kept challenging myself to get better and I think I have, but I never enter any competition with thoughts of winning, I make what I like and try to hold my own and when I win it is always a good surprise and my efforts win or not never a disapointing.
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