Reasons for happy dancing!

Yesterday was one of those days that you hope will happen at least once a week!

this piece, titled Tsalagi (Cherokee) Trail of Tears has been accepted for the Hands All Around exhibit at the Houston quilt show at the end of October

I entered it on a whim at the last minute before the deadline, with the idea of "if you don't enter you can't get in"

I was stunned when the email arrived late in the afternoon telling me that it got in -- Wooo Hooo!

the second great news was that after one day on the market an offer was made and accepted to sell my parents house

another big Wooo Hooo!

in addition to those big things to celebrate, there has continued to be creative work done here

after the first backing had to be discarded, I have now successfully backed and edged this piece so it is now ready for the fringe and the necklace work

the final placement of the corn stalk has been determined and I will begin stitching it down (adding some batting to give it dimension as I go)

my plan after that is to do some additional quilting and to add some color/shadows with inktense pencils

the very first tentative stitching on the dog nose was done yesterday -- lots of positive affirmation going on as I work on this piece!

and some utilitarian sewing is taking place too -- now that the daybed is in place, I have no excuse not to make up those pillows I've been talking about and get that big bag of pillow filling out of my studio!

here are the first two -- there will probably be 4 or 5 more

and of course all of this under the supervision of the studio dog!