AQS Quilt News: Winners - AQS It's In the Bag Contest

AQS Quilt News: Winners - AQS It's In the Bag Contest

I'm a winner!

Best Bag Winner

I won "1st Place" and "Best Bag" with these purses I designed for the American Quilting Society contest, "It's in the Bag". All bags entered will be auctioned off after the upcoming Quilt Show in Paducah, Kentucky to support the Quilt Museum. I painted the front door garden with watercolor on fabric

Back of bag 1st place Winner

Front of bag 1st Place Winner

Spring Snow

Oh, such a pretty sight!   Here it is April, my daffodils and lilacs were blooming here in California. Roses and Iris budding - Now we get freezing weather and snow last night!  This is not just a powdery snow, but heavy 3" of  ICE! My sago palms are covered in icy snow - California palms don't like that.   My yard is really going suffer - good thing I picked a bunch of lilacs for the house the last couple of days!  We usually get snow once a year, but not this late in the spring. 

Spring has sprung - somewhat

Enjoying all this wonderful weather we are having. 

 

This is my favorite time of the year in California. Weather is just nice and comfortably warm, grass is getting greener from the rains and flowers are blooming on trees and in the garden.  While my roses are really sprouting new growth the daffodils are in full bloom. Got some very nice orchids coming out, this photo is one on my front porch and on the patio 4 huge stalks are getting ready to open any day now.  They say rain is coming again next week, but it does make the air fresh and the gardens sprout.

Now, there are those pesky weeds and I will have to find time to get out there and clean them out - maybe next week after a rain and the ground is soft.  The older I get, the harder it is to bring myself out on my knees, then trying to get up.  I love my yard and flowers, but it suffers somedays  when I can't find time to get out there and fuss with it.  Also, with having time spent in Oregon each summer, my yard really misses me.

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New Quilt "Connections"

Full Quilt

Closeup

This is a new quilt I have been working on the last few months.  Comprised with multiple panels, stitched together with free motion stitching on water solvable stabilizer with 30 wt. cotton thread in the bobbin and 12wt cotton on the top. I dyed all the doilies and did a lot of beading and embellishments.  I had it accepted in the Oklahoma Quilt Show this last weekend and just saw on their site I had won a 1st place ribbon in the "innovative/art" category.  Always exciting to win a ribbon.

New Class Quilt

Getting back to creating and here is a class project coming up in April. I always find that new students to art quilts are very intimidated with being creative. I designed this small quilt "Visiting Steampunk" to demonstrate some easy, basic techniques to use.  Students will learn techniques which includes tabletop dying with Seta Silk dye for iron/heat setting, some of my favorite simple free motion quilting styles, cutting up the dyed pieces for a quilt, connecting blocks with free motion stitching, embellishing with found objects and old jewelry for the Steampunk theme. Students will also learn about different supplies to use in art quilt that you won't find in the quilting aisle. 

Sold

Sold, oh how nice that expression sounds. I received notice today, that my 12" Block on the Members Wall "Fall is Coming"  has been sold.  Such a wonderful feeling!  See September Archive for photos.

Haven't been up to much this last month.  Between the Holidays, taking care of my daughter after her surgery and having surgery on my foot, creative work has been slow to get done. Just two gimps trying to help each other!    Did do some dying for a class project I am designing -- hope to have photos up soon.  Want to work on some more zentangles too!  Oh, so much to do and so little time.