Below is a piece as it was a week ago on my design wall with just some fabric choices and a rough idea of shapes and placement.
Now here is the piece as it is right now after I have cut and machine appliqued all the fabric in place and am in the process of determining bead placement. It is not yet quilted, but definitely looks better than the previous pic (doesn't it??!!). Sorry about the dark picture, it is in my sewing room on the floor as that is how I have to audition the beads on it. I'm thinking about quilting most of it in black threads (metallic, sliver, rayon, etc.).
I just found out that two of my pieces were accepted into the Pacific International Quilt Festival in Santa Clara, California which is near San Francisco. It is my understanding that this show usually has a lot of innovative quilts so I guess mine will fit in well. The two that will be going are "Twilight" and "From Winter We Emerge" which are both pieces with lots of beading, and they are two of my favorite ones. Please wish them a safe journey as I am still gun shy after losing my small auction donation quilt in the US mail (although these will be shipped UPS!)
The Yellowstone Quilt Fest in Cody, Wyoming happened over the weekend, so the SAQA Fibrations exhibit (that my piece entitled "In A Heartbeat" is traveling with) was probably taken down . That show will now travel to the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum in Colorado for a longer exhibit there. I am anxiously awaiting pictures from the show in Cody to see how the quilts were exhibited and what the other 47 pieces in the show are like!
I took a few of my smaller (translate: lower priced) pieces into a small co-op gallery in Hamilton, Montana to see if they would be interested in displaying some of them. I haven't heard back from them yet as the artist/members need to look at them and then they will let me know. At the end of this month my mom and I will be traveling up to Kalispell, Montana for their quilt show and stopping in Big Fork to visit a gallery there and show them my work. Last time I spoke with them they didn't have room for another artist, so I'll just try again. Hoping that showing them my pieces in person will endear them to my work and they won't be able to resist!
A friend of mine gave me a small mixed media piece using some silk fibers and asked me to create a quilt around it so that it could be used as a demo for our next TARTS (textile arts) program. The piece turned out really nice and we both like it. Below is a picture of the center mixed media piece that my friend made, minus the red beads which I added. The completed quilt is at In Good Company right now so I can't show you pictures of it yet. In the meantime you can imagine what could be done with this little gem! 
My son has started first grade and I am looking forward to a week of working in my studio uninterrupted. Summer was fun and I love my little boy, but I can't say I'm not glad that school has begun!
I'm ready to spray baste the work in progress at the beginning of this post and then to begin quilting on it, so I will try to include another in-progress picture before posting the completed piece.
