New Year's News

Well, I have survived through the holidays and I sold a few ornaments for some spare change (but not much else)! Now I am hoping for some success in this new year in selling a few pieces and maybe getting something published. I am planning to submit some articles to see if there is any interest in publishing my writing but first I need to get images to go with them. Most of the magazines seem to want images illustrating your discussion up front so that is what is currently holding me up. Hopefully I can work on that in between upcoming deadlines.

Our yearly TART's show of fiber art will be February 11-13 at the Hamilton City Hall (old Bedford Building) at Bedford and South 2nd streets in Hamilton, Montana. I will have some pieces in the show and am currently working on a piece for their challenge. Hopefully I will have some new work that no one has seen yet. This has always been a pretty good venue and I usually sell a piece or two so I'm hopeful!

There has not been much success in getting people to sign up for the classes at Patchwork Quilts and I think I will try to come up with a condensed class that will be more inexpensive for people. Maybe just a one day class on a Saturday. I'm planning to work on that this week . Since I have all the plans outlined for the three session class I'm sure I can work up a shorter class fairly easily. I certainly understand why people don't want to spend the money I'm asking for, so I'll just have to adjust my plans and see if I can't offer what they want. That is really the goal, isn't it?

I have mentioned that my piece, "Blackberries and Dandelions" is in the Art Quilts XV show in Chandler, Arizona. I was interviewed by a reporter from the Phoenix newspaper (Arizona Republic) about my piece. The article was about the new space that the Vision Gallery is occupying and they mentioned several other artists in the show who are from Arizona and the names and prices of their work. She went into a little more detail about my work and my background. The reporter incorrectly stated that I created the batik fabrics in the piece, but they are commercial fabrics. I did dye one of the fabrics in the piece and she misunderstood what I said about that. Unfortunately they did not publish a picture of the quilt as she had hoped and they didn't give my website address, but it was nice publicity to be mentioned prominently in the article. The reporter told me that my piece was her favorite in the show which was very flattering since there are almost 100 pieces and many much more seasoned artists than I. Hopefully the article will send some more people to the show--and someone will buy something. I heard that only one piece has sold so far. I believe the exhibit is supposed to be taken down on January 18.

I am currently working on a small piece to send to Studio Art Quilt Associates for their Traveling Trunk Show. The pieces are supposed to give people an idea of the great variety of techniques and styles being used in art quilts and hopefully my piece portrays what I am doing. I have finished the piece and need to write up a description of the work and techniques used so I can send it off. The pieces are sent out to lots of places all over the country for interested people/groups to look at and be inspired by. We had some of them come here locally last year and enjoyed the variety and quality of the work very much. I regretted that I hadn't submitted anything for that grouping, so I'm making to sure to get one in this year! I'll put a picture up soon...

Friday evening I attended the opening of the Missoula Art Museum's auction exhibition at which one of my pieces, "In A Heartbeat" is displayed. It is in the silent auction which will take place the same evening as the live auction in February. It was a wonderful exhibition of art from many local artists (and others) and I enjoyed the great variety and quality of the work. I do hope that there is interest in my piece as I would be somewhat embarrassed for them to have to give it back to me! There was only one other fiber art piece and it was quite different from mine (by Nancy Erickson) and I don't believe it was a recent work. This was a juried submission process so we had to send images of some pieces to be considered and I was honored to be included.

I have been somewhat disappointed in the lack of comments on my blog and wanted to ask if there are any problems people are having doing that, or if you just don't have anything to say. Please e-mail me at heidi@heidizielinski.com if you experience any problems with commenting. I'm curious as to how other bloggers get people to make comments and get feedback for what they are sharing. If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them!