SAQA Benefit Auction 2014

For the 4th year in a row, I am participating in the SAQA Benefit Auction.  My pieces have sold every year, so I am hoping I can keep the streak going!  If you get a chance, go to www.saqa.com to check out all of the wonderful pieces up for auction.  It begins Sept. 15th.  In the meantime, here is my work in progress:

And the finished product:

I created this 12"X12" piece by starting with a glue gel resist.  I then hand painted it, let it dry and hand stitched it in the resist areas.  Finally I accented the image with beads and sequins. What do you think?

What have I been up to?

All this year I have been participating in exhibitions opportunities.  Since my last posts about the quilt festival, I have been very busy.  My Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) quilt sold for $150 again this year.  I was a little worried that it wouldn't sell because the design looked so simplistic.  Believe it or not, there was some thought and effort put into it.  I am very thankful that I was able to help raise money for SAQA.

In other SAQA news, the members from Texas had an opportunity to participate in a traveling trunk show exhibition entitled "A Texas Experience".  At first I thought about the Alamo, but wasn't really inspired by that.  It seemed too stereotypical.  The deadline seemed to creep up on me, and I decided that I wouldn't have enough time to get it done.  Then the deadline was extended, and I remembered that I wanted to do a small series about cowboy boots a while back.  The problem was that I didn't own any and hadn't taken any pictures of any.  Coincidentally, the next day, my fashionable co-worker strutted by in her brown cowboy boots accented with purple stitching. I convinced her to let me take her boots on a little trip outside to photograph them.  I then took one of the photos, manipulated it on Photoshop, and stitched over it like crazy!  Here is the result:

"A Cowgirl Necessity"

SAQA Benefit Auction

I have completed and submitted my auction piece for this year's auction.  This is my third year participating.  Studio Art Quilt Associates is an organization that I am a part of which promotes and educates about the fiber art medium in the form of quilts.  This auction is the largest fundraiser for the organization.  Check out the other 12" X 12" pieces at www.saqa.com.

SAQA Benefit Auction

Dove's Paradise

For the second year in a row, I created a 12" X 12" quilt for SAQA's benefit auction.  The background was created using fused applique' and machine quilted it with horizontal lines.  I tried my hand at making freezer paper stencils for the tree and birds.  Then I free motion quilted the painted images.  This year I actually beat the earlybird deadline, so maybe it'll be included in some of the ads!

I'm super excited!

This past weekend was the International Quilt Festival in Houston.  I have attended every year since I found out about it, and this was the second year that I had a small journal quilt exhibited at the SAQA booth.  I actually had two quilts in the exhibit, and to my surprise, both of them were sold.  I was so grateful for the opportunity to show some of my work, and the fact that they sold was the icing on the cake!  Thank you to those patrons who purchased my work!  I feel even more inspired and motivated to keep on creating.

I'm so excited!

I haven't had (or shall I say made) time to post lately--there's always so much going on!  This time we'll blame it on getting used to being back in the classroom after a 5-month maternity hiatus. Anyhoo, imagine my surprise when I discovered that my SAQA benefit auction quilt had sold! This was the best news I've heard in a while.  It has really fueled me to create--and not just jot down ideas and sketches in my sketchbook.