Mandala Progress

My little art quilt group received a challenge from Karen, of Blue Pearl Yoga, to create Mandala's for an art show in her sitting room. Blue Pearl Yoga is housed in Batavias old Masonic Temple on Main St, a very grand interior.
I had my vision, but knew I could not get it done without my friend Julie's (Red-Dog Enterprises) help. Julie is very knowledgeable with Photoshop. We sat at her computer, manipulating, colorizing, changing, pulling and duplicating until we came up with this very personal symbolic mandala.
I plan to do much hand stitching and maybe add a few crystals. Not sure what else will happen with it, but it's a start!
We will have an artists reception on Friday, September 20. The show will be open for viewing until the end of October.

Yesterday, our guild meeting was held once again, at the Batavia Nursing Home on Bank St. The room is full of windows that look out onto a small garden area, the ceiling is high and the vibe is great in this space. After the meeting over 20 women stayed to participate in the 1st ever Jelly Roll Race! What fun was had by all. Lori, sporting her uber chic hairstyle, post chemo, was my table mate. While chatting and sewing we all managed to finish a "potato chip" quilt. Melanie and her mom, Mary Anne, had jelly rolls of 40 2 1/2" strips ready for us to piece. Quite an accomplishment and addition to the tally of community service quilts our guild makes and passes out to various charitable causes throughout the year. I hope we do this again!

And that said, I loved making it...the speed at which a very acceptable quilt comes from bits of fabric, that I spent 4 hours today cutting, stitching and ironing a quilt for Sophia!

I have a few projects in the works for a couple of shows RAFA will be participating in. The Rochester Lapidary Society has asked that we create works using gems, minerals or fossils, combined with fiber, to be exhibited at the show. I have a few idea's that will require me to do some things I haven't done before! I have a slice of a cool mineral that looked like a brain to me the minute I saw it. How cool is that?!
The other show will be at a relatively new, spectacular art gallery called Main Street Arts in Clifton Springs. No size restrictions and 3-D allowed. We can show pieces we have shown before but I would like to make something new. They want the works to be for sale. I would like to have "Deployment" finished for this show, but it will not be for sale.

Here is a midstream picture of my progress on it. Loving it. Much.

Mela at 3 weeks..

I have learned:

1. Ditched the Ruzzle app. You just use the same short words over and over. I found Hooked on Words More fun and challenging
2. Michael passed his JFO class. Much in the field testing. 
3. UB School of Dental Medicine is a gem of a facility. It is a teaching school for dentistry. I needed to have a tooth extracted, an emergency after a root canal start on Thursday revealed a crack that couldn't withstand a repair. I have been taking antibiotics for 5 weeks now and still, even after the tooth was pulled Friday, there is still signs of infection.
4. Kahlua on the rocks. Mmmm.