Whew!

My week must have been busier than I thought! It seems like just yesterday (well, maybe the day before) that I dropped off the quilts, but it's been a whole week. The kids are all back at college and I'm getting some actual work done. We're off to Nashville on Friday for the big quilt show. Strangely enough, I don't have any plans to spend a lot of money, even though I have to confess the vendors hold more attraction for me than the quilts. And specifically the ethnic fabric vendors. No place around here to get kimono silks, or African mud cloth so I love hitting those booths at the big shows. Gadgets and doodads don't do much for me either, and I've been moving rapidly into a whole new spectrum of the type of fabrics I use in my work (nothing planned, I've just noticed it in the last year) and doing a lot of my own fabric, so the cute prints and commercial patterns just don't do it for me any more. That doesn't mean I won't grab some of every "new" music and Mardi Gras fabric I come across, it's just not a priority. And I will stay away from the heroin.....errr........bead dealers this year. Except maybe small tubes. And just a few. And only the ones I don't already have. And a couple of color ranges I need to fill in gaps on....At least my fiber supply is well stocked now (Thanks Vicki!!!) so I can stride quickly past those booths. The ethnic and hand-dyed stuff will be where I spend my time. Oh yeah, and I'll look at some quilts too.

Thank you all for the encouraging and supportive comments. I was sort of wigging out with the self-doubts about applying for the guild. Even if I don't get in, I can look back at the comments and feel good about at least trying.

Finally! Time to breathe.

No big secret really, just a hesitation to publicly announce it for fear of sabotaging myself, but I turned in all the pictures and documentation and quilts yesterday for jury consideration for the Mississippi Craftsman's Guild. Either I'll be in or out by the end of Sept, so telling people I've done it now won't change anything. At least the volunteer who checked the stuff in liked it. And I like it. Two of the three pieces I submitted to the guild will also be shown at the quilt show. I'll pick them up on Saturday at the guild and drop them off on Monday at the show. As quilters are so fond of saying, my quilts travel more than I do. At least the deadline for submission got me off my butt (at midnight, and at 0' dark thirty am) to get the pieces finished and not just add to my growing pile of it-only-needs that seem to be taking over my space. Three or four more that need to be finished and I'll be sort of caught up to a manageable pile of UFOs. Of course, this is the day I wake up with a whole new piece in my head that will probably sidetrack me before I hit a lick at a snake on the mostly finished ones already in existence.

We had to submit 3 finished pieces and photos of 5 other pieces, along with a resume' and artist statement. The resume' looked more impressive than I expected, and the artist statement sucked. Fortunately, I'm not being judged as a writer, but as a quilter. Hopefully my quilting skills will overshadow my (lack of) writing skills. So without further ado, the 8 pieces that went in for consideration.

The three actual quilts I submitted:

And the five photos of previous work:

The largest of these pieces (the 3-panel) is 40"x144" each panel, and the smallest (the guitar and keyboard) is a postcard 4"x6". Not sure if including the 2 together is a good thing or a bad thing, although I love both pieces. Just tilt your head to see Bird Parker correctly. At least looking at them all together makes me believe that maybe I do have a particular style and cross your fingers for me that they decide it looks like a "body of work" when seen as a group.

Dear Mr. Johnson,

Perhaps you can explain to me what my obsession is with you. This is probably my 4th or 5th Robert Johnson quilt, and the first I can actually exhibit and sell. The only two existing photos of him are both under copyright and I'm not going to pay a use fee, so that's out. I had it in the quilt shop yesterday looking for the background fabric and a woman from FL is already interested in buying it. Can't beat that for moving them out. It's going in the Jackson quilt show next month though, so if she's truly interested in it she'll have to wait. Commercial batiks and black cotton fabric, fiberglass window screen. 40x46. It will ultimately have a brick wall quilting pattern and probably black binding.

more work (since I don't have enough already!)

This is the beginning of a Pinetop Perkins piece I have in my head. It's turning out much less dark and brooding than I expected it to, so it may morph even more than it already has. Regardless of how it turns out, I'm liking the beginning. It's amazing how many black/metallic gold fabrics I have too. Funny how you don't always realize something like that until you start pulling fabrics. Or maybe it's only funny to those of us who use the closest-flat-surface method of sorting and storing fabrics. As always, the disclaimer that the terra cotta behind the shape of the piano is actually my dining room wall color. And the piano really is square with the stripes....I just hung it crooked.