For many years I have been an exhibitor in Fine Arts at the State Fair.  In fact their acceptance of a piece that was rejected at a quilt show was how I decided to continue making art.  Over the years I have had a lot of good hang spaces and have even sold a couple of pieces (also have won ribbons and prize money too).  The show has a lot of entries and a huge rejection rate, so it is a good thing to even get accepted.  I had an idea for this piece, but after going to Santa Fe and house sitting a bunch of geriatric dogs and a naughty cat (she bit me quite deeply on the hand) I did not have a lot of time to work on my entry.

So this is where I started, with a drawing of a lion.    I usually spend a great deal of time dithering about fabrics, etc.   but I really didn’t have time to do this, so I just banged it out.  I will admit that I bought some of the fabric in Santa Fe.   Some of it worked and some did not make it into the final piece.

It doesn’t look much like the vision in my head, and it would have been better with more fabrics, but it was more or less together, and I found a piece of background fabric that I thought worked with the face.

I crammed it in my domestic sewing machine (not the giant industrial) to quilt it.  As I did this I was glad it was not a more complicated design.

I finished sewing the last bit at 10 pm the night before it was due.   And later I realized that I forgot to put the whiskers on it, but

it was accepted into the show!   So I was pleased, and can’t wait to see it hanging in place.