Award at La Connor Textile and Quilt Museum Festival

One of my goals this year was to submit to some Calls for Entry. It may have been half way through the year before I got to this, but I submitted 3 of my art quilts for the La Connor Textile and Quilt Museum Festival in La Connor, WA -- and all 3 of the pieces were accepted!

Then the next exciting news was that one of the pieces had won 3rd place in the Abstract Pictorial category. The piece that won was "Rabbits in the Grass." Here is a picture of my daughter in front of the quilt. I think they did not allow photos at the exhibit, but they let my daughter "sneak" in a photo because I couldn't be there in person.



Nothing like an award to get you motivated to create!

These are the other two pieces that were in the exhibit. My daughter said that her favorite of the three was the squirrel.



I've been continuing my series with rabbits and am now working on a largish piece. It will feature a line of duplicate rabbits and then one large rabbit.

Here are the duplicate rabbits in process. The faceless rabbits have sparked some more ideas!



A full hand of rabbits! I made seven, but am not sure how many I'll use in the current piece. It was great fun to make a batch of duplicate rabbits (the same fabric selection for each piece is the same of all rabbits) and fun to have a stack of them ready to use.

One Rabbit, Two Rabbit

I've just finished two more of the rabbit series that I began in Katie Pasquini Masopust's workshop "Working in a Series." I've been using this rabbit image for quite a number of years, but Katie gave me the push I needed to experiment with color!

This is the first rabbit piece. I took it easy and only expanded my palette with the color blue for all the dark and light values. I call it "Outta' Here."



I had such fun with color on that piece, I decided to go all out on the next one - a rainbow rabbit! I call this one "Creative Spirit" and it is inspired by the architecture of the resort and creative environment of the Alegre Retreat.

Colorado Canyon Rabbits

It seem like ages ago already after being back to reality for about a week from the our trip to the Gateway Canyons Resort for the Alegre Retreat. The retreat and trip were everything I hoped for and needed. I would definitely recommend it and will be saving up to hopefully go there myself again in a couple of years.

The location is self was quite inspiring and luxurious. I took quite a few pictures! To make it easier on you, dear reader, I'll group the photos by class photos, landscape, and cars - in that order. That way if you are not interested in canyon landscapes or antique cars, you don't have to read that far!

First the class report. I was in Katie Pasquini Masopust's "Working in a Series" workshop. The idea for the workshop was to bring an existing piece and then build a series from there.

The piece I brought was the one on the left, "Rabbit on the Run." For my first tentative foray in the series, I decided to add a touch of color to my usually naturally colored rabbits. I substituted blue for all the dark and light values in the rabbit. Fun! Then I had to come up with a background for this rabbit. Thinking of keeping with the theme of "rabbit on the run," I thought I'd call this piece "Outta Here" and design a setting to give the impression of a speeding rabbit running "outta here."



I had such fun adding that bit of blue to the rabbit, that for the next piece in the series I decided to go all out with the color and created a rainbow rabbit! The background is inspired by the adobe buildings of the resort and muted blue sky. I'll probably be adding more details, but was anxious to move on to the next piece!



For the final piece, I decided to stay colorful, but also go BIG! I used cool tones in this rabbit and am thinking of doing a matching facing rabbit in another piece that will use warm tones.



Here are all of the rabbits together for the final walk-through of the classes (everyone at the retreat walked from class to class on the final day to get a look at what everyone else was doing).



Now I'm revved up about my rabbit series once again and can't wait to continue letting these rabbits multiply. I currently finishing up the quilting on rabbit #2 and should have it done in the next week.

Okay, now on to the stunning and inspiring landscape of the Gateway Canyons.

The first two pics are of our room and view from our room.



The outstanding feature of the landscape around the resort was, of course, The Palisades, that monumental tower of red rock.



A small, but dedicated group walkers went out every morning at 6:30am. We had some morning greeters on one of the walks.



The Gateway Canyons Resort was built by the founder of the Discovery Channel, so it is not surprising that there are lots of fun stuff to discover around the property! We saw this "dinosaur nest" on one of the early morning walks.



After the retreat was over, we stayed an extra couple of days in Grand Junction, CO to relax and see the sights. The first grand vista was seen from the Bed and Breakfast where we stayed, The Los Altos Bed & Breakfast. (I picked this inn because of the name - we use to live in Los Altos, CA!) It was a lovely inn inside as well, and the breakfasts were always yummy.

On one day we toured around the nearby National Monument Park. Lots to inspire in this park. I loved the colors, textures, and sweep of the vista.



If you love antique cars, or just cars in general, you must plan a trip to the Gateway Canyons Auto Museum. This is John Henderick's collection of American cars. It is incredible even if you aren't in to cars. The museum is set up to display the cars as the works of art that they are, and unlike a lot of car museums, every one of these cars is completely restored to running condition! Wouldn't it be fun to take a spin in anyone of these beauties?

Don't ask me what any of these cars are. I just loved the colors, shine and beauty of design!