Sometimes I don’t know how my art happens. I started playing around with some of my dye-painted fabric that is in the background. I pulled out some fused silk pieces and started cutting some shapes. I ended up with squarish pieces. Then I added that black X . I really liked the silliness of that polka dotted X sitting there. I used rainbow hand-dyed Perle cotton for the seed stitching. I love how that looks as the color changes.

I was going to name it X Marks the Spot, but I was totally into the feeling of being in a happy, silly and colorful place. It seemed like it might be what it is like over the rainbow. This is a small piece — 9.5 inches square. It is for the SAQA at 20 exhibit. Each piece will be mounted with a 12 inch square mat with an 8 inch opening. After touring around, some of them will become part of the permanent collection of the Quilt Study Center at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. I barely made the deadline. I had to Fedex this today.

Tomorrow morning, I am doing another gallery talk for my show for about 10 people, some of them are Portland area people who were on the trip to Israel. It will be fun to do this when I am feeling healthy. They are taking me out to lunch afterwards. On Sunday, I was finally able to sit and look at my work and really enjoy seeing it all around the room. I am still getting such positive feedback. The Arts Commission has been doing gallery shows for some time, but they are normally, paintings, watercolors or photography. My fiber work seems to draw people in for a closer look. Many people are very intrigued with the stitching and surface design.

On Saturday, I have 9 people coming for my fiber collage class. We are going to do Valentines. I think that will be fun.

I have to get serious about the 12 X 12 chair challenge. I also just realized that I get to choose the next theme. I am collecting ideas — got one?