CALENDAR CONTEST

I FINALLY got this sent out to Quilting Arts magazine for their 2010 calendar contest. At least I hope it's going out. Its traveling via a friend of a a friend who is flying back to Walla Walla, Washington, tomorrow and promises me it will be sent out by U.S. Postal Service. Due date is March 6, 2010. It should make it, I hope, I hope.

This project was met by one little problem after the next. That's where the FINALLY comes from.

The theme of the contest is "fresh picked", celebrating the bounty of gardens and growth. I was inspired after reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and decided to portray on fabric an image promoting the support of local growers.

After taking Pamela Allen's class in early October, I began using my fabric for more compositional work, and also incorporated more hand stitching. I think it was finished, but without the border, by the end of October. I added it to my suitcase of fabric (not to be confused with my suitcase of clothing and personal items) and brought it to Mexico for finishing.

Once settled in my Mazatlan studio, I found a good purple in my stash and set out to complete the border. Two inches before the final stitching and my foot pedal blows up! That was another month of waiting ... sometime around Christmas I was able to call it finished.

I knew I needed to send in 3 photos so I carefully photographed iy with good lighting, meticulously cropped it by computer, transferred the images to my USB chip (I can't remember the correct name for this wonderful little tool) and set off for the photo store 3 blocks away.

Lo and behold, their cropping is totally different than my cropping and I had to retake the pictures. Then, just before sending off the perfect set of pictures, I decide to re-read the entry rules and realize the photos need to be 8"x10"....damn! Off to the the Kodak store again for bigger prints. (I have a lot of history with not reading directions CAREFULLY!)

And while I was at it, I stopped at the papeleria (stationary, etc.) and bought the perfect size (tamano carta) of envelope (sobre) for my entry. (I love those built-in Spanish lessons1)

From experience, I know that Mexican postal service is very slow, so I asked Tom to stop by the private postal office (similar to Mail Boxes Etc.) to see what they could offer. He returned, sobre in hand, and said they only accept letter sized envelopes for their service from the states (they have a truck that takes mail once a week up to Arizona). Otherwise, my option was Mexican post and they said 3 or 4 weeks...5,6,7,8.....who knows.

So the friend of a friend option is what I chose. I kissed it before handing it over, wishing it well on its journey, visualizing my farmer's market scene on the COVER of the calendar.

I just love the HEART on his tie-dyed shirt!