I heard today that I've been chosen to become a Lost Art Creations artist, where I use the wonderful collage sheets, transparencies and fibers on offer at the website www.picturetrail.com/lostartcreations to make samples to be shown there and in their adverts. How truely exciting. I feel like I'm now really a mixed media artist as well as an art quilter.

I can barely wait to get started and in fact, I'm getting started immediately as I already have quite a few of their gorgeous goodies!

An article has appeared about me, my life and my art in the January 2007 issue of the DGB (= Dumfries, Galloway and the Borders)  magazine, written by Celia Eddy, a well known free-lance journalist who has written many books on quilting.

It's strange reading about your own life. If it had been someone else, I would think: whoa, what an exciting existence she has led.

But living it seemed pretty straight forward at the time, just taking it one day at the time. Yes, looking back it has been an extraordinary journey but I am pleased on the whole that it is behind me and now I can simply make my art in my little corner of paradise here in the Scottish Borders!

 

 

I sometimes wonder if there is something wrong with my mental sense of perspective. I've recently discovered one of the ATCs I entered in the House of Cards II exhibition has made it onto the poster, selected from hundreds of ATCs. This gives me just as large a feeling of achievement as winning the European Quilt Show recently. Yet this is a very prestigious event with quilts from over Europe. Maybe it is because when I made my quilts I feel on safe ground. I know I can do it and do it well. ATCs and the other mixed media techniques are still so new to me and I'm still experimenting with all the different techniques. So discovering that they too can be so successful is a revelation. Specially as the one that made it onto the poster is in fact a traditional embroidery technique, rice stitch on canvaswork, only innovation is the addition of a nostalgic fabric image.

Can't wait to see where all this will take me but I'm willing to enjoy my steps on the journey!!

Of course it's always wonderful to win another prize with my quilts and mixed media work but it also brings with it the continuing worry that I've made my best work whereas I like to think the best is still to come.

Still I simply could never stop making quilts, sending fabric postcards or swapping ATCs so I'll just carry on as normal, enjoy the wins if and when they happen, and then go back to my studio and make more!