PIECES BANNER

I had a Quilt Shop in Renton, on Burnett Street.

I opened it in 1996 and sold it in 2000 and it moved to the Fred Meyer Center.

It closed this week.

I received the banner I had made back in 1996 in the mail today.  It was a pleasant, yet sad, surprise.  This banner was used in our booth when we would take the store to events, such as quilt shows.  It has seen it all and holds the memories of the store.  It represents my dream, the hard work  of a lot of people, many of them my family, and the good times and bad times.

Thank you to all who helped make the dreams come true and thank you to all who patronized the store over the years.


This banner is an odd shape, it's about 3' high and 7' long.  Not useful as a quilt or a wallhanging, and it's not great art.  But, I love it and want to keep it.  I want to turn it into a bone fide quilt, something I can use and maybe when I'm gone, something that someone else can appreciate and want to keep.


I told my sister Sue I was going to take it apart and slash it up and add to it and turn it into a quilt and she was sort of upset!  She thinks I should keep it just as is.  I told my sister Julie my plan, she didn't sound too upset, so I asked her what she thought.  She said, it was my quilt store, my dream, my banner and I should do what I wanted with it.  


I'm going to think about it for a while.


What do you think?

SNITZEL WON AWARD AT RENTON RIVER DAYS

I usually try to put something into the Renton Annual Art Show.  This year I had two distinctly different entries because along with my usual industrial type painting I entered one of my Snitzels.  

I was pleasantly surprised to find an invitation in this Tuesday's mail, with complimentary tickets, to attend the Preview Party on Thursday night because I had won a prize.   It didn't say what prize or which piece had won the award.

Last night I was delighted to see that the Snitzel was the one that garnered the attention.  It is so much different than what I usually do.  And different from much of the other art in the show.  This piece is a fabric collage, more or less.  This is one that I have been posting about it's progress on this blog.

It won the Lucille Culliton Award of $100.  Cool.

We have fun at the Art Preview.  They serve free catered food and wine.  I head straight for the wine!  Then we look at the art until they serve the dessert.  This year it was Tiramisu. 

I have only one complaint (if anyone is listening) - I wish it started earlier in the evening.  What's with waiting until 8pm to even begin?  Maybe we could start at 7pm?  That would be nice.  Thank you very much.

RENTON RIVER DAYS AWARD

I was pleasantly surprised earlier this week when my husband brought the mail in and there was a letter from the Renton Art Show Committee stating that one of the paintings I entered into the show had won a prize, and enclosed were complimentary tickets to the preview party.

Last night was the reception preview party. Even though they don't start it until the ungodly hour of 8pm, we went and had a good time. There is a real nice spread of hors d'hoeuvres, wine and dessert. Which is where we both headed first! Me to the wine and Darrell to the food line.

It was a very nice show with some very impressive pieces. I saw some people I haven't seen for a year and we had a nice time.

I'm always impressed with the quality of the young students that show their work. It makes me wish that I had started out so young and winning awards. It might have inspired me to head in a different direction in my life and become a professional artist.

This is the painting that won the Jurors award of $200 "Little 17th & Roxbury". It's acrylic on canvas, 12" x 9". This has been on of my favorite paintings since I painted it. When I put it into the show I was reluctant to have it purchased so I placed a very high price on it. I liked it so much I did another version that is 20" x 30". That's why this one is called 'little'.

Maybe I should enter the larger one into a contest, also.