Validation

I do what I do because I love it, but it's always nice to know that someone else likes it enough to accept it into a juried show, or give it an award, or even buy it.  I've had some nice validations recently.

The CT group of SAQA is going to have a traveling show, Local Color, that will debut for the first time at the Ruth Hass Library at Western CT State College in Danbury, in May.  The show will travel for two or three years and will be at several venues throughout CT.  You can read about it here.  It is a juried show and you could enter up to three pieces. We had discussed the show last year at one of our regional SAQA meetings and everyone agreed that it was a great idea, but the entries were slow in coming.  We needed at least 50 pieces to put on a show. Well, in the last two days people stepped up and there were over 90 entries. I had assumed that everyone who entered would have at least one piece in the show, but I was wrong.  I know of two people whose work I greatly admire have all three pieces declined.  I was very surprised, so I was extra pleased when they accepted two of the three that I entered.

These are not new pieces and you have seen them before, but here they are:

Of Cabbages and Kings

Hope Springs Eternal

Next, I had blogged before about the Arts and Crafts Competition for Woman's Club and showed some of the things I had made.  These all had to have been made within the last year.  I entered 6 items and won 4 first place and 2 second place. One of the second places was a second to my first, since I had entered two things in the same category.  The first place winners will go on the the District Day competition, to compete with the winners from the rest of the clubs in the district. If you're really interested you can scroll back and see my silk evening purse, the purse I made out of a recycled sweater, my Itajime Shibori quilt, my bead cluster necklace, and there were two fabric postcards that I forgot to photograph.

Next I had showed you a small quilt that I had made for our guild's "Black and White and One Color" challenge.  They had an overwhelming response with 54 entrants.  We usually only get about 30 or less, even though we are a large club.  I guess this appealed to a lot of people.  They were separated into two categories: contemporary, of which there were 37 entires and traditional, of which there were 17 entires. It was viewers choice and you got two votes in each category  It was so hard to choose.  The contemporary quilts were especially fabulous.  It really was so hard to vote for just two.  So I was surprised and delighted to get a third place. The committee had made the cutest ribbons with black and white polka dots and stripes and the color of the ribbon. The quilts will be displayed with their ribbons at our big quilt show in May.

Fractured II

And lastly someone emailed me to tell me that she had purchased one of my small quilts on display at the Katonah Museum of Art.  They are currently having an exhibit that will run to June 16, called Beyond the Bed: The American Quilt Experience.  To quote the brochure, "The quilts on display illustrate a variety of techniques (whole cloth, pieced, applique) and traditional designs (album, log cabin, crazy, pictorial) representing diverse cultural styles and geographic areas (New England, Amish, Gee's Bend)."
Our guild was invited to make small quilts that would be mounted on 6" x 6" artists canvas.  You could make up to three and I made two.  They are to be sold right off the wall and replaced as they sell. I'm not sure which one sold, but here is a picture of my "Green Ginkoes".

So all in all it's been a good couple of weeks and it spurs me on to keep on going.