This morning I was wondering how the judging went over the weekend in New Hampshire at the Crochet Guild of America (CGOA) Chain Link conference. I entered my freeform crochet capelet "Purple Daze" in their Design Contest, in the Women's Garments category. Soon after I had that thought, I received a call at work from a woman with CGOA. She informed me that my garment won Honorable Mention in the category! I was ecstatic! She told me that there wasn't a monetary award, like first, second, and third place had. I told her I didn't care, because just placing among the professional, published designers was honor and reward enough! So, needless to say, I was doin' the Happy Dance for the rest of the day. Wow.

On Saturday, I drove down to Long Beach for the first International Quilt Festival to be held in Long Beach at the Convention Center. I arrived around noon, and didn't leave until closing at 7:00 p.m. It took me that long to see everything. There were over 500 booths in the vendor area, plus many display areas for the quilts. LOTS of art quilts to see, and such gorgeous eye candy. So much to see, and so much walking....those motorized scooters were lookin' pretty good by the end of the day! I was tickled that my Journal Quilt was on display, and when I found it, a woman was standing there reading it. I was thrilled. Here is a photo from a distance of the 2008 Journal Quilt display, and then a group shot, with my quilt at the top (on the inside of the constructed display).

Here is a photo of my "haul" for the day. Not bad, considering how much was for sale. The only disappointment I felt was that most of the booths featured traditional quilting supplies, and specialty materials for art quilts were harder to find. I bought the Lutradur, ExtravOrganza, and plastic texture plates at the Interweave Press booth (featuring their publications Cloth, Paper, Scissors and Quilting Arts, both of which I subscribe to). I met Patricia "Pokey" Bolton, editor of Quilting Arts and host of the new Quilting Arts television show on PBS (which I TiVo). She was working at Interweave's booth. I found the threads at the YLI booth and the 1/2 yard cuts of fabric from Creation Station (batik spiderwebs and skulls!). I couldn't resist the small purse, which I bought from some Hmong ladies who had a booth with their native handiwork. The magnetic sign ("Only Bad Witches Are Ugly") will go on my file cabinet at work, as my cubicle area features witchy decor.

Needless to say, I took lots of photos and I am feeling very fired up and mucho inspired. Yes, it has been a very good last couple of days!

Amazing how fast a month goes by! I've been working away on many things. Currently, I have five knit and crochet garments in various stages of completion. I just finished this summer hat, from Garnstudio DROPS pattern number 107-14. The yarn is Lily Sugar 'n Cream (100% USA Grown Cotton) in color Caramel; it photographed much lighter than it is. I made the smaller size and it came out rather large....good thing I didn't make the bigger size. The jumbo 14 oz. skein was on sale at Michael's for $5.00, and I still have lots of yarn left. I would like to try making another hat out of some of the cotton chenille I have on cones, and make some flowers for the front. It was a fast project, taking me two evenings to complete.

And since I am nothing without a deadline, I have fall art shows coming up that I need some new work for. Today I started creating something in techniques which are new to me. I need to stretch my creative repertoire, so I am experimenting. It's fun! Lack of time is my major problem, and when it's been really hot on weekends I don't feel like doing much fiber art. This weekend was a bit humid but overcast.

I had been feeling stuck with regards to things that require sewing, as my interest has been more in the "things created from yarn" area. But my mojo is back, I feel inspired, and I have some ideas that I want to see come to fruition. Today I spent a lot of time uploading photos to add to my page on the Fiber Arts/Mixed Media group. You can find that page here. It's a really neat social networking group, and I've been neglecting it in favor of Ravelry, but my Ravelry groups have been slow lately....probably because it's summer. Anyway, I'll have more photos and projects to post here soon!