July - All Fun & Games!

Happy Canada Day everyone!  I hope it was a good one.  Our hearts goes out to all the communities that could not celebrate due to massive flooding.  Many provinces have been affected.  Enough water already!  :(  Donations can be made through the Red Cross.

Handmade House
My art remains there until July 26.  I've been very good at keeping it stocked at all times.  You can check it out anytime and find lots of art. ranging from $40 to $475.

New: Handmade House Showcase Artist Meet & Greet
Thursday, July 17th from 1 to 3pm
The intention with this afternoon is for interested corporate buyers to stop by.  Handmade House is doing the invites, but please feel free to come by if you are interested.  If it's not raining, we'll set up a table outside.

Stitching in Public Demos - I have a few lined up:

Saskatchewan Handcraft Festival
July 18 & 19 (Fri & Sat) Afternoon
Alex Dillabough Centre, Battleford
* I won't have a sale booth at this event but can have art available for viewing by appointment outside of these festival demonstrations.  Just email me before then.

Saskatchewan Art Showcase
August 8 (Fri)
7pm to 10 pm at Prairieland Park / Saskatoon Ex
 * My son will be doing a demo with this Leathercraft at the same time.  He got a call one night from the organizing committee.  I'm so excited for him!  Please say hi if you are out that night.  Usually it is very quiet during evening demos.  We'll be in the hall with all the art.

Here's the latest announcement:

Dog River Days
July 25, 26, 27
Rouleau, Saskatchewan
***The Farmers' Market I will be part of is on Saturday July 26th from 11 to 4.
This is a three day event on the last weekend of July to celebrate Corner Gas: The Movie.  The wee town of Rouleau has been once again transformed into Dog River as the set of a long running Canadian TV hit comedy called 'Corner Gas'.  All vendors will be hardcore prairie-loving marketers.  I was tickled to get invited to this one!  I'll have a booth selling my wares during the Saturday Farmers' Market fyi.  Find out more about this one time only event HERE.  What a blast!

Above:  The cast of Corner Gas, Tara Spencer-Nairn, Lorne Cardinal, Eric Peterson, Nancy Robertson, Janet Wright, Brent Butt, Gabrielle Miller, and Fred Ewanuick.  (Photo not mine. I found it floating around nameless on the internet.)

* * * To help pay my way, I am interested in running a little workshop in Regina on Friday July 25th.  If you have space and a group of interested friends, email me at Monika@MySweetPrairie.ca to inquire.

AND...
Thanks for bearing with me as I create a mail list.  Canada passed and Anti-Spam legislation so I thought it was time to finally create a mailing list.  The rule is that you have to opt in to receive mass emails.  I'm not sure what else it all entails, but I'm glad I'm getting it done.  I've never kept a mail list.  If you were not 'spammed' by me over the weekend and would like to be included to receive occasional emails, write to me at Monika @ My Sweet Prairie .ca (no spaces).  It won't change your blogger email status.

Never a dull moment,

talk soon!  HAPPY SUMMER!!

Hits and Misses

The Showcase of the Arts is now over.  I went yesterday to pick up my entries.  I had an EPIC FAIL in photography.  lol  One of my photos of an abandoned building scored a roaring 5.  5 out of 40!  lol  Gosh, what can you do but laugh?  I got one out of ten for composition, one out of ten for creativity... oh my.  OH WELL!  Some other photo entries of mine scored very high, but no ribbon.  Onward.

I'm very proud to announce that my Prairie Postcards got an honorable mention!  I take that as very honorable.  It was a bit of a headache as they were re-categorized three times.  I entered them into quilting.  They ended up in home sewing.  They weren't judged per se since they aren't articles of clothing with seams and such.  Still, the judge wrote a very nice comment on the back of the form.  That made my day.  I love my postcards.

I put in 2 thread paintings in Creative Stitchery and 2 into Fine Art.  I didn't get a ribbon on my favorite piece, but it was judged against traditional hand embroidery like stumpwork and cross stitch, etc.  My work didn't really fit.  Actually - I was told a number of things by various people here and there.  "You shouldn't put things like that in a place like this," and "that's not art," and even, "you can't call that a thread painting".  sigh  So I opted to not enter anything next year and sit on the organizing committees.  I suggested a Fibre Art category that would include non-traditional stitched / felted / quilted / hooked wall art that is original and not from a pattern.  I think they liked that idea.

The refreshing news is that I got my first ever red ribbons.  Not one, but TWO!  I've been honorable mention since I was thirteen years old.  No kidding!  Here they are...

1st Place, Fine Art in "Multicultural" and 1st Place, Fine Art in "Mixed Media"

My stitched scene from Wanuskewin won a big red ribbon in the Multicultural category, and my photo/canvas/pencil crayon/thread piece of my bird Pippin won in the Mixed Media category.  One of the judges even gave me a full 50 out of 50 score and left a sweet note on the back of the form!

So - what a week.  Major hits and major misses.  I lived through it and I learned a lot.  : )

Whoopee! ( x3 )

Sunday, I went to do that demo at Prairieland Park.  It was so quiet in that gigantic hall!  With this weather, everyone was outside.  It was nice to take a break from mothering and sit and sew and visit with Brenda from the quilting guild.  I stayed for nearly 5 hours.  I didn't get too much done, but that's okay.  It was a nice break from housework motherly duties.

There were only a handful of passers by, most of whom stopped to chat.  I took a little break to wander around. Guess what I saw!??

Showcase of the Arts, 2011

Summer Train won Honorable Mention in the Photography / snapshot division!  Awesome!  I won Honorable Mention in the same category last year for this one, remember?

Showcase of the Arts 2010

That made me feel good!  It was a bit of a surprise because I didn't think it was as good as a couple others that I entered.  The judges hated the one of my clover at sunset.  But that's okay.  There were many 'stunners' at the show that had no ribbons, and several dark and even one dirty lens photo that got ribbons.  (!)  I think those judges got tired.  There were hundred of photos!  My gosh. I couldn't do it.

I wondered how my other work fared.  I wandered around the hall some more until I found this!

Spring on the Prairie received 3rd Place in Creative Stitching!  I am very proud of that!!  It's the one with those fine, fine threads for rain.  You can click on my flickr photo link to see close ups if you like.

So there was one more piece:  Poles Along Highway #7.  The framed one isn't overloaded with handstitching, but I really liked the way it turned out.  It became such a nice, clean composition.  So I ventured out a little further from my comfort zone and entered it into the Fine Arts competition.  I walked and walked and almost gave up (couldn't find it!).  Then I spied it... with a big blue ribbon!

Second Place in Fine Art / Adult Mixed Media

WOWEE!  This particular prize is pretty exciting for me, especially considering that I have absolutely no art schooling under my belt.  Very cool!

So there's how I did.  I came home full of smiles, and full of ribbons.  ; )

Showcase of the Arts, 2011

See you tomorrow for WIP Wednesday - a new link up at The Needle and Thread Network page.

~Monika