And The Winners Are....

The gold circle which will now be named "Sickle Moon" thanks to Allison Brown-Cestero who said she couldn't think of a name but did. (45 votes)
and
the red circle which will be called "Red Sun Rising" thanks to Betsy True. (31 votes)

Tomorrow morning I'll send in the application as well as FOUR sets of note cards to my name givers and the two winning voters chosen randomly by my daughter:


Carol McFee from North Wales over the pond in the UK (her foil techniques have me salivating!) and Sylvia Wier. You must check out Sylvia's figurative work, especially "Sweet Land Of liberty." I've popped over to many of your blogs and websites and must say I am inspired by your work. What lovely company to be in!


I added up the e-mails and comments I received (58 in all). Wow. Thanks!

Now to see if the entries are juried in. I've been involved in enough juries that I know it's entirely up in the air. I'm closely examining my high res. pics to see if I think I can take better ones. I do know poor images knock you out of the running instantly and I'm thinking that not every speck is as sharp as I'd like it to be.

The Learning Curve

Just a quick thanks to those of you who give me gentle hints about how this blog "thang" works. I've changed the settings so you don't have to have a google account to comment as well as moved the comments to a pop-up window so that you can see what you are commentatering on.

Decision Time

New Year... new goals, new projects. What do I want to be and do this year. Aside from the first priority which is of course wife and mother. So long as those relationships are running well what do I do as Lyric the "Artist?" I'd like to concentrate more on entering my work into the local fine arts market rather than nationally juried art/quilt shows. I'll still do a few of those if I have work that suits but the shipping is a killer.

So... by Friday I need to decide which pieces to enter into the Raleigh Fine Arts Society show. A very nice juried show at a very high end venue... Meymandi Hall at the Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts. And good grief I just don't know what to enter. It's always tough when they don't have an "other" or "mixed media" category. Just painting/sculpture/graphic arts.
Want to help? Here are your choices... vote for your top two and the winners will each get a set of three note cards featuring the An Apple A Day. I'll tally the votes Tomorrow around 5pm.

I also don't have titles for the last four. So name suggestions for the circle pieces would be great.
1-An Apple A Day (triptych)
2-Fundasies (triptych)
3-Circle (pink background)
4-Circle (brown and gold)

Doodles

Spending too much time on the computer of course but I've enjoyed finding and being inspired by other bloggers who post their artwork. I was inspired to spend a little time doodling in my sketchbook by Kathleen Marie's artwork. Especially her doodle, "Birds In The Air." She just let the pen go where it wanted to. Thought I'd try it and enjoyed the process immensely. It was interesting to try the mindless wandering and then watch the brain kick in and control where every texture and line wanted to be.

New Names, New Samples

So during the past week when I was trying so hard to avoid my deadlines I threw in another one. I chose to apply as a teacher for an event in 2008 and had a stack of paperwork to fill out. And of course decided one of my class offerings had a boring name and sample. So now "Photos On Fabric" is called "Vintage Vignettes" and will have an optional kit available. And of course I needed a new sample. I had purchased this fabulous photo on ebay... inquiring about copyrights first so that I am sure I can use it. Ten minutes in the studio and a couple hours of stitching waiting for a band concert and during hockey play-offs. Amazing what you can get done if you have a project that can come along in your purse. (And I only carry little bitty purses!)

Twas the week before Christmas

And I've been ready for the big day for quite a while. That is mostly because we only buy one gift per child plus a few small things in the stockings including some sort of "making" thing they can keep occupied with that day. After all... it's not our birthday! I'm thinking that even though we've already done our family service projects we'll try to find another one for that day.

I read "Unplugging The Christmas Machine" a number of years ago and it gave me permission to do what I wanted to do for Christmas... which was spend time with family, friends, and music. I cut out everything else. No baking. Decorating only if I want to and have time. Minimal gifts, service projects. We send out Valentines cards instead of Christmas cards. Now we have a fun time during December.

So... the Christmas decorations are only half up and when we had guests over this was the most convenient place to throw the tubs.

Also notice bags and boxes everywhere. I got a wonderful box of scraps from the floor of the most amazing artist Carter Smith. I haven't had time to go through it. I'm also behind on my deadline for three quilts that need to be done soon for a group exhibit. And on a class I'm writing up for Quilt University. Granted they were deadlines that I moved up on myself to give myself more time for an even bigger "project" after the first of the year. Ah well. It's good to slow down for a bit.

Up and Coming

Got it done! My most recent article is off and in process at Quilting Arts Magazine. Another rather technical subject but I think you'll like it! And when it rains....

At the same time I was working on this article someone else was working on the same thing for SAQA's journal. A few pictures of mine will be in the article.