time flies when you are having fun

last weekend was a gem show in the Merchandise Mart in Denver

this event takes place several times a year, but I had not been to any of them as we were kind of busy with moving and remodeling when the other shows were here, so we made a quickie trip to check it out on Friday

my plan was to try to find something that would just reach out and speak to me in terms of creating a new piece of jewelry

this is a piece of bumble bee jasper -- to me it looks like a landscape painting

I'm pretty sure it will be the first of the pieces I brought home that I will be turning into a necklace -- or maybe not, I did bring home 14 polished stone cabs to work with

my local quilt guild hosted an "in town retreat" last weekend too

it was a nice way to get to know some of the members a bit better

and the first evening was devoted to a charity sew in

I finished this little quilt top and added it to the pile that will go to the long arm quilter that does the pieces for the guild and then it will go to a local child who has been hospitalized for some reason

it was kind of fun to work with pink for a change!

 my goal for personal work was to get the rest of the shed doors quilted

I didn't get all of that done, but I did finish this one completely -- I really love how cool the mortar on the brick section looks

and this piece is ready to have the edge done

this is what it looked like before -- and I just felt like the background color was much too strong

my solution to that was to put a layer of silk organza over the entire piece, do some stitching and then cut away the silk over the lock parts

pretty cool technique -- I'll probably use it again

on Sunday my daughter was here, and I helped her make up a stack of pillow cases

my grandson's birthday is right around the corner, and she decided that instead of giving each kid that attends his party a plastic bag of stuff that will end up in the trash in a week she would give each one a pillowcase with a print that is the party theme

so that top case is the odd, random one she made for Mr Cute that has a Star Wars theme, but the other 5 are all Ninja Turtles, which will be the party theme

pretty cool idea if you ask me!

and then there was the less fun portion of the program

what do these 3 pieces have in common (other than being my work)?

each and every one of them received the dreaded "thanks, but no thanks" rejection letter from the show in which they were entered

Ouch!

there is definitely a sting to feeling like your work isn't good enough even when you know you are up against stiff competition and that only a few pieces get in and that it's all based on one person's opinion of the moment

even so, it's not fun to get 3 rejections in 10 days

{sigh!}

time to get on with the next project