Another Update

I must have been a good girl, Santa granted my wish!

We won the Division!

We only have 4 more stores to beat to be the number ONE store in the company!

Wow! Little ole Yulee! Go figure.

Update

Here's the last apron, an orange and white pirate ship named the Jolly Homer.

After a few minutes checking out the outside demo areas, they came in,

and I gave them each an apron.

Here they are with Santa.

And me with the president of the southern division.

I really wasn't crying, I just look that way.

 It was a very good visit, and Ann-Marie called our store and our team phenomenal!

merge

My work and my work seem to be merging.

 I was asked if I had any ideas on how to decorate the front of the store for Christmas.

 Of course, I did.

Our store won the decorating contest in our area (12 stores) for the two years prior to my arrival, so I can't take credit for the win this year either. I was a contributor on a team of several people, who all did awesome things. Our store looks great! We won first place in our area, then went on to place first on the next level as well. Now we are one of the top 20 stores in the nation.

Now we have executives coming.

It is customary, I am told, to give these executives a company apron, decorated with something that signifies our store or town. I was given 5 days, once I chose to accept this mission, to paint 6 aprons.

This one and the next one I relied on paintings I have already done.

Just pulled out some sketches and went to work.

I have one more to do, and to add the names of the people coming to visit. My reward? I am now 'invited' to come with the department heads and management on the visit. Have I mentioned that I like my job out in the real world? I do.  

Ready or Not!

Here I come!

Loaded for bear, paint-splattered, bleach-spotted and stray threads hanging on for dear life! I have somehow, once again, managed to put myself together for what the kids call my "quilt celebrity life".

Not quite Hollywood, but I am headed down to Davenport, Florida for their first ever Horse Creek Festival. Come on down tomorrow or Saturday, should be fun! Lots of artists from many different walks of life, great home cooking, and plenty of friendly folks.

quilts that are now available

Plus, now I have reproduction prints of these (and other) paintings.

horsecreekfestival.org

Well, I have one week to get myself ready for the Horse Creek Festival. I will be presenting my trunk show, A Florida Quilt Collage, several times throughout the festival. I won't say that it's old hat, or that I don't still have a stage fright issue. But it's going to have to take a back seat right now, while I get other things together.
In addition to the trunk show, I will also have a display of quilts that need to be left up the entire event. It needs to  be free-standing, compact enough to travel and also fit in with the flavor of the festival, Old Florida style.
Several issue have to be addressed.
1.The trunk show relies on the element of surprise as part of it's charm. The quilts are pulled out and hung in time to the stories being told. That timing, and the presentation of each quilt is part of what makes my trunk show unique.
For this reason, I would very much like the free-standing display quilts to be ones not used in the trunk show, as much as possible. I need them to reflect and represent Florida. Do I have enough florida quilts to fill a display plus present the collage? I'm pretty sure I'm going to have a couple that will do double duty.
2. I have a few items that I will use to hang quilts, as well as paintings and framed photographs. In theory, of course, this will work perfectly. In reality, I will have to assemble the whole thing, hang the quilts and the frames and my signage. Then I will take it all apart again, and pack it to be re-assembled in Davenport.
3. Signs. Don't I need a sign that says, "Julie Mainor Art Quilts"? Or something to that effect? Don't I need a sign that describes, or at least titles, each quilt on display?

I know all these answers, I just needed to sound it out, get all my possums in a row. Plus I haven't posted in a while. I wanted to keep all 6 of my followers up to date on what I'm doing! Curious minds want to know...

New quilt? Finally!

Most of the time, lately, I have gotten to this stage of a quilt....

and just hated it. Put it it the pile. Grrr.......

I started out with a fantastic background, one that had the right feel for the quilt that I wanted to create. This is very important to me, it's like I can see what I want it to become when I see the fabric. But...when it doesn't become what I see in my head, many times it's such a disappointment that I put it aside. Aside is a rubbermaid tub in the furthest reaches of the closet under the stair.  

I have been putting an effort into figuring out this dry spell I've been in, so I plow through. I figure, it's better to put a finished, ugly quilt into the Aside than a clump of fabrics with pieces falling off.

I even posted on facebook and asked friends, "What is wrong with this quilt?".  I got some great input, some from a design principle standpoint, some offered an emotional response, all were really good to hear. From the beginning, I envisioned a bird on this quilt, but I was so disappointed with it's progress, I had decided to just finish it this far and dump it.

But I liked it. I haven't liked anything I've done for a very long time. I hung it on the wall and let it percolate there. Every time I passed it, even with all it's problems, I liked it. Time to add that bird.

I woke up looking forward to making it! What a giant step in the right direction! I painted, quilted it onto Timtex, and attached it to the quilt. I made a sleeve and a nametag, "A Bird's Nest" (if you could see the back, you'd know). I printed the registration papers for the Suwannee River quilt Show, filled 'em out, and drove to White Springs. I turned it in to Lucy on almost the last day of registration.

If my motivation had something to do with wanting a new quilt for this show, because I love those ladies and I love that show, then so be it. I am just thankful to finish a quilt that I like.

Maybe I'll dig through the Aside bucket and find another orphan that wants to be finished.