Congrats to Lisa and Deb!

Yesterday brought exciting news to two members of Fiberexplorations, Lisa and Deb.  They entered the 2012 Quilting Arts Calendar Contest, whose theme was Are You Feeling Pet-ty?  (We used the same theme and guidelines for our fall challenge, AKA "the pet challenge.")

The news:  Both Lisa's and Deb's "pet portraits" were chosen as finalists in the contest!  Way to go!

What are the odds that two people from our small group of 10 would both make it this far?  There's some real talent in this group, and if I could remember to take my camera to the meetings, you'd see evidence of that talent right here!   Deb and Lisa now have to mail in their actual 12" x 12" quilts, and the 13 winning quilts for the calendar will be announced on February 11th.

Until then, though, I have only photos of my own projects to share. 

Soon, I promise, you'll see more of a variety here.  In fact, my camera will record our first "play day" in early February, where we'll experiment with fabric painting, stamping, stenciling, screenprinting, etc., all in preparation for our next challenge.  More details on that later!

What I'm working on

Machine needlefelted, hand beading in progress

 

Machine needlefelting; what next???

I think I'm drawn to working with these two pieces (they're at least 2 yrs old) because they're so colorful, and our winter in Oregon has been so dark & gloomy.  (Even more than usual!)

The first two weeks of January brought over two feet of beautiful, pristine snow to our cabin at Camp Sherman, as well as temps near zero.  While this photo shows sunny skies along with the snow, here in the Willamette Valley, the sun was blocked by layers and layers of clouds.

Our cabin from the back.

But my daffodils are up about 3", so spring is on its way!

F O C U S

FOCUS . . . Focus . . . focus

That's my Word of the Year.  (Forget that it was one of my TWO "Words of the Year"  last year, along with FINISH.  2011 is a new year.  A fresh start.  A new opportunity.)

Within the first week of January, and I finished a UFO:

"Love Note"

 Hmmm . . . maybe I should still include FINISH as a Word of the Year!

["Love Note" was from a class taught by the wonderful Beryl Taylor at (Portland's) Art & Soul Retreat 2008]