Hello-
We are deep in winter now so the sight of my Christmas Cactus blooming is a nice bright sight. I have had a good week. I went to the opening of the New Members Show at the Manlius Library on Sunday. There are six of us who are showing about six pieces apiece. It was great fun to talk with the other artists and the public too. I had great support from several of my friends and that added to my positive feelings. 
Before the day was over, much to my delight, I sold two of my works. Fox Tails and White Iris both have new homes now. It is a great feeling of confirmation when a stranger likes your work.
Progress Report: Joy I This work is 24”w X 23” l. It is also a rework. The curvy cut quilt was made in 2012 and was set to be donated to the Helping Hounds shelter. But I pulled it aside and added the JOY graffiti on top instead.
This second shot shows the word pattern in paper. The blue was cut following this pattern then stitched down on top. 
I am exploring the use of my stylized lettering with this work. 
This last shot is of the “O” in the center of the word.
Glyph IV This shot is of the lower right side of the “O” in the Owl Glyph quilt series. This work is number 4 as the number indicates. I am glad to be working on the biggest letter in the grouping now.
New Ice 
The work goes slowly forward on this piece. I am rough cutting out the stones now. The upper right corner is my test run of various fabrics for the ice overlay part of this work.
Plantain Selling Fox Tails got me going on doing another wash out plant piece. 
I did the machine drawing on the wash away just as Amanda taught us in Oct. Then I pinned the work to the Styrofoam and washed away the “plastic”. The dry work is now ready to be stitched down to the felted background.
6X6
The call for six by six came this week so I pulled some pieces to work on. It was so easy to excess them now that the studio is in order.
Collage 1 
One of my resolutions when I was cleaning was that I would do a collage every week too. This work is 8.5” X 11” a size that I think I can work with easily. I did find someone to pass a lot of the paper stash on to so I will use making the collages as a way to sort and share the materials as the year goes forward and I make pieces..
Joy II This is the base for my next JOY quilt. I pieced it and then added a bit of inner facing to the back to stabilize it. The same pattern is used as in JOY I . Because I am working from the back
the word is turned upside down for marking the edge and then it will be cut out. The result will be a positive and negative from this same fabric. The interfacing will cut down on the distortion when I stitch it down to the contrasting base.
Hand work 
I am doing my daily studies of stitches on this work. It is beginning to feel very solid to me.
Magic Card This card represents how I feel about myself and my fellow artists. We all are really Magicians. In our processes of taking raw materials- with paint, clay, pencils and fibers we work magic with them. Just looking at the elements, one never knows what they could and do or become in artistic hands . With sparks of creativity and the magic of our hands, we bring into the world things that without us would not exist. That is true Magic.
Keep Creating
Carol