SAQA Auction Piece

This week I started my week in the studio thinking that I need to get a move on if I am going to have a quilt to donate to SAQA for the auction. So I spent a good part of the day drawing in a 12" x 12" space. The one that excited me most was a new dragon. Above is my first draft of him. I already see a few areas that I want to change tomorrow before I begin playing with the colors to make him come to life.

Last year, 2012, was the year I can't remember. It was such a stressful and bad year that I think I was in survival mode and that's it. If I was in the studio for a month all year it was more than I can remember. I began to come out of it around December after leaving my job. I did not submit a quilt to the auction last year. Didn't even turn my computer on for months. But the year before I did submit one and it did sell well for $150, which makes me glad to have been helpful. It was a floral of three sunflowers. I was thinking this morning about what is marketable. Will a dragon be something someone will want to buy and place on their wall? I started drawing florals. But I haven't been drawing them for a while and I just realized that I am in a different place than I was two years ago. Flowers just don't thrill me much anymore. For the past three months I have been immersed completely in a world of wolves, dragons, mermaids, goddesses and snakes. It's been fun. Like it or not the drawing I have chosen is the dragon. 2012 was the year of the dragon, so I will give a nod to the year that wasn't in the year that IS becoming exciting.

My little muse, Miss Super Mario, keeps me company every day now. I spend a lot of time shooing. She loves ironing  boards, in-progress quilts, stacks of stash, behind the machine (even when I'm stitching), and on my lap. She is a face licker. But as annoying as it can be to stop what I am doing to shoo her out of harms way, she is great company and she is really helping me focus.

As an aside, I was reading my emails today and noted one from my SAQA group in yahoo. A quick note from Carole Lyles Shaw carried two links to youtube tutorials on how to do a mitered corner when putting on a quilt binding. I watched them both and felt they were clear, concise and very helpful. They have had over 44,000 hits. Thank you Carole for sharing with us and I would like to extend the share to all my readers.

Quilt Binding The Barb Sackel Way--2 part video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9PiqUgZ9PE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXtRWz3q1fw 

Hope you find them helpful and thanks to Carole and to Barb Sackel.