TWO YES, ONE NO

I just had to turn down a show! It was a really good opportunity, too. It wasn't a request for a donation to an charity auction where no one cares about who I am, they just want stuff as cheap as possible.....Where the only thing worse than having to donate a very nice piece that will be auctioned off for a fraction of what it should sell for, to an organization that will not think of you twice until this time next year when they want more free stuff, is if no one wants it at all and it gets shipped back to you...A sad, rejected little something. Or worse, being the featured artist at a shop in a tourist town (I'm not making this up) and being obliged to stand next to the display of your work at the back of the shop. Right next to the keg. So of course all the stoned snow boarders coming in for a free beer feel obliged to talk to you to cover up the fact that they're only in there for (could it be true?) the free beer. I remember it well. Made me feel so special.

This wasn't like that. It was a real show in a real gallery and I was obliged to say "Sorry, no can do."

See, the thing is, I actually have two other shows lined up about the same time this other shining opportunity would have occured, and there's just no way I could do it. But the gallery curator was very nice about it, and said maybe I could do a show there in 2009, and I said "absolutely!" So we'll see. Now I'll have to spend the next two years emailing her images of new work so she doesn't forget who I am. Such is life.

So one of these shows I'm working on is all quilts.......Made of fabric. Now some of you who aren't that familiar with magpie tendencies will say "big deal girlie. What gives?" But up until this show in September I will have only ever shown mixed media quilts that have been made of things like wine foils and old letters and clothing labels and the like. I realize maybe I'm moving in the opposite direction from a lot of folks, putting the wacky mixed media on hold to do something people are more familiar with, but I don't care. I love making quilts and I'm excited to show mine. Here are two I'm working on:





These two are both silk, and I'm calling the pink one "Posh Baby", and haven't decided on a name for the other. Any suggestions?