can you hear me now?

back in January I selected a word for the year

my plan was to try to stay focused on getting enough work done to apply for "Juried Artist" status with SAQA by the end of the year

with all else that has needed to be handled already in 2016, I'm feeling like that goal is not attainable this year

but I'm going to try to do better in the next few months and we'll see where that goes

this piece is finally coming together

the corn stalk is attached and the shading at the edge of the leaves (which I'm doing with InkTense pencils and sticks) is in progress

I still need to add some shadowing beneath the corn and do a little more quilting in some of the "cracks" to finish this one

the quilting has begun on this piece -- it's been kind of like the first time I cut into a piece of $85/yard mohair fabric to make a bear -- I've been afraid that I would ruin it -- but being BRAVE is part of making art, and so far I'm pretty pleased with how the stitching is going

and this piece has been begun ---

of course it would make more time to create art quilts if I didn't still do this kind of work, but this feeds my artistic drive as well

and I do occasionally sell these pieces, so I'm going to keep doing this too

this one is finished now and listed in my Etsy shop

and this one has been started

there has been some additional utilitarian sewing going on too

two more pillows put together for the daybed --- more fabric and pillow fillers out of the studio

YEAH!

and I helped the DH set up a new shelving unit in his workshop

(with ulterior motive -- I got the old one for my storage area in the studio!!)

we had a few days of nice weather a week ago, and decided it was time to put out the flower garden on the back deck

so of course we've had days and days of gray, cool, cloudy, rainy ever since

but this weekend we'll probably be in the 80s -- got to love spring in the Rockies!

this week's gratuitous cute puppy picture -- she's getting longer -- and taller

we got her a hard plastic wading pool to use when the weather finally gets hot enough -- she had tried to use her outdoor water bowl for a pool -- which just doesn't work

glad to have a big enough deck to set it up on!