A new year, a fresh start

Happy New Year!

Just a few days until February, so you may think I'm late with these wishes but the lunar year 4715 just started yesterday. Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Instead of giving you too much information about last year, though that might slip out, I'm concentrating on the here and now.

And now, I'm in the middle of a terrific online workshop called Photoshop Elements: Essentials 1 from the terrific Deb Cashatt and Kris Sazaki, aka the Pixel Ladies. Here's one result of the first week's lessons:  

It's a reduced image for posting on the web and it has a watermark. The piece was juried into Breakout: Quilt Visions 2016 at Visions Art Museum, San Diego. 

A much deserved shout-out goes to two machine quilting instructors: Sandra Palmer Ciolino, for setting me on the path of thinking critically about the quilting; and Jenny Lyon, for opening up and narrowing the quilting possibilities. Couldn't have gotten there without them! 

Over the moon

One of my pieces has been juried into Breakout: Quilt Visions 2016! Yay, I am over the moon!

Last fall, after finishing Terra Verde for Color Improvisations II, I was on a roll and kept going by finishing others that had been hanging around the studio for years. Vernal Vortex, formerly nicknamed High Anxiety, will be in Visions.

Here's the top after piecing:

pieced but not trimmed

I blogged about developing the design and piecing it here and here. That was 2012. Had no idea how to quilt it. Later that same year, I focused on fmq and wondered if I will ever get to the stage when I could tackle this. Tucked it away.

Three years later, I had a plan and was ready to tackle it. Want to see how? Here's a detail in the midst of quilting:

small area for quilting redo

All that fmq practice and I'd used a walking foot.

I have a thing about posting the finished piece before it debuts at a show. So come see the whole thing at Visions Art Museum in San Diego. I'll be at the opening on October 15, 2016 and the show runs through January 8, 2017. Otherwise, you'll just have to watch for a post after the opening.