The fuss this week...

Wow... fun week, lots of stuff happening over here, some of which I'm able to share.

Drops - 2013

I guess I'll start with what I think was one of the more exciting events.  I sold a quilt - yes, a very beautiful special quilt.  I'm super excited as I've only sold small items in the past, this is my first competition piece that I've offered for sale so it is kind of special.

Drops now belongs to a private collector in Rhode Island -- she treated herself for her birthday.  Isn't that awesome.  Wow, it makes me feel fantastic that one of my quilts is that special to someone else.  I am smiling from ear-to-ear, I am feeling beyond blessed.

I guess all this falls under artistic growth.  I've always been artistic, drawing, doodling, painting, and then the quilting started.  So to combine all of them was great on its own, but to combine them and then have them go to a point where others are purchasing my work... yep, that's growth.  So it got me to thinking, maybe I should start making some pieces for sale.  I'll still be making my competition pieces -- I love that part, but I'm thinking I may start making pieces specifically for sale.  I'll have to think on this and see where the ideas go, but something is definitely simmering...

Down the Rabbit Hole - 2013

What else?  Oh, Houston notifications went out this week.  They were supposed to be on Wednesday, but due to some technically difficulties didn't go out until yesterday.  I opened this wonderful email first:

Congratulations! Your entry, Down the Rabbit Hole, has been selected as a finalist to be exhibited at the 2014 International Quilt Festival/Houston in the annual IQA fall Judged Show, Quilts: A World of Beauty. This year’s jury selected 355 of the 602 submitted entries for display. We genuinely appreciate their diligent efforts.

Awesomeness again!  This will be my fourth year having a quilt accepted to Houston - if you don't know, that is a big deal.  Like the email says, 355 quilts out of 602 -- that's like just under 60% right? Now, you did read that right, I submitted two quilts this year.  Unfortunately, my second email went more like this:

The reality, however, is that we must limit our show to 58% of the quilts and garments entered this year, and those were selected by a jury. Narrowing the entries was a very difficult task for our jurors. Regretfully, your piece, The Thing With Feathers, was not accepted into the show this year.

Bummer... my second quilt was one of the 247 that didn't make it but, I'm okay with that, seriously.  I can now submit it to another show that the dates happened to overlap -- yay.  It kind of works out. And there are many reasons why quilts get turned away -- it doesn't mean the quilt was awful.   So here is a peek at The Thing With Feathers, just because.

The Thing With Feathers - 2014

Oh, and I can't forget that I finally made it to a PSLCQ guild meeting.  It's been forever since I've been to one, at least if feels like forever.  But while I was there I picked up some beautiful dyed fabric pieces from Helia.  The first one is 17x44 and will be used for applique flowers:

The second is 31x44 and will be used as a backing for an orange-pink silk wholecloth that's almost ready to be born:

And the last piece (the largest) is 89x44.  This one will be the backing for the pelican quilt that's been simmering on my back burner for far too long.  Now to get the rest of the silks for that one!

And while at guild, this amazing storm rolled in:

And to keep all that wonderfulness in balance there was this:

I had a needle bar issue on my 2003 machine and although I know a lot about quilting and stitching, I still don't know everything about repair.  No worries, she's all fixed now thanks to the wonderful customer service peeps at Gammill.  I called and Lis walked me step-by-step through everything I needed to do to fix it - she was awesome.  Now the machine is back up and stitching beautifully! And here I thought it was jealous of the new machine... nope, she really needed a little loving.

Well, that was pretty much my week.  Hoping you're all having a wonderful summer and stitching up something beautiful!