American Lotus was accepted by the Adkins Arboretum for their upcoming show. A lovely way to start the year.
I have three other shows that I want to enter. So, it's time to get those photos and labels ready, do the email entries, then finish some bindings or facings. It's the finishing work that slows me down.
The weather is very, very cold here, 15 degrees and dropping more for the night. Brrrr. One more reason to stay inside and work on new creations.
Stay warm and cozy.
Karen
I do work well with deadlines. So, I set some for myself for the next two months. And I met the first one today. There was a call for entries for the Adkins Arboretum on the Eastern Shore of Maryland with a theme of wild nature and landscapes of the Mid-Atlantic coastal plain region. Just up my alley with my marshes.
A couple weeks ago, I worked with thin strips as described by Ann Brauer in the Dec/Jan issue of Quilting Arts. I wanted to try something different that could be part of a marsh. It's not so easy to stitch 3/4" strips and keep it all straight. I like that it is a sew and flip technique and thought it could be a good background.
In some ways, it is, but not for fusing on top of the stitched strips. After I fused the leaves and flowers, I noticed that the rows underneath became part of the fused image. Not what I wanted. You cannot see the lumps but they are there and not to my liking.
I ripped the lotus flower off and replaced it with a new flower shape on top of batting and revised the shape to give it more body.
Stitching came next. I first used a satin stitch and then covered that up with regular FM stitching. I really want to remember that I do not like satin stitching with fused appliques.
The next realization was that the leaves faded into the background. I used some interference paint (has mica in it) to give the top of the leaves some punch. Stitching in the bottom of the leaves seemed to do enough.
Finally, it was time to email my entry to the Arboretum and take time to blog. A deadline met. Success!
What would a day be without a bit of frustration? It seems that blogger.com will not let me upload photos from my computer. So I have played with Picasa, not as simple, but here we are.
Time to make some dinner. Let's hope my entries are accepted.
Karen
Isn't it crazy how December whooshes by us and then all of a sudden, it's January and cold. And we wonder what has happened. Briefly, the holidays were great with my family. Snow fell on Christmas Eve, so I stayed home and celebrated the next day.
On a sad note, my dear friend Peg passed away Christmas morning surrounded by her closest loved ones. She ferociously battled cancer for over two years. Hospice care was so helpful to her and her husband during the last few weeks. A celebration of Peg's life is planned for next weekend at her home. Peg was one of my go-to friends, especially for medical issues (she was a nurse). I will miss her very much. It is just plain hard to lose the people close to us.
I have taken some time to be with the loss of another friend and to be grateful for all my friends and family. I spent hours working on two huge 1000 piece jigsaw puzzles. Putting pieces together always gets my creativity going as well.
Today I plan to finish another marsh piece - with a deadline of Monday to enter an exhibition on Maryland Eastern Shore images. Hopefully, I'll have photos to post tonight or tomorrow.
That's it for now. Remember, it is only 75 days until the first day of spring. Blessings for your new year.
Karen
