What a THRILL!   I’ve been published many times now (how lucky am I?!!!), but I am elated to share that I my traditional quilting has also made the cut.  I have three quilts in 500 Traditional Quilts, juried by Karey Patterson Bresenhan, founder and CEO of Quilts, Inc., and founder and Director Emeritus of International Quilt Festival.  The book is part of Lark Book’s “500 Series,” and I was proud to be included also in 500 Art Quilts. You can find 500 Traditional Quilts here (on Amazon, available other places too) and 500 Art Quilts here.  My blogpost about 500 Art Quilts is here.  What is so wonderful is that I made the cut in blind jurying:  that means the juror has no idea who made which quilt, you are juried in on the basis of the quality of the quilt.

I’m in 500 Traditional Quilts, Karey Patterson Bresenhan, juror. Well, three of my QUILTS are in this book, not me!

My three quilts included in this book are From the Schooner Coast, Haleakala Sunrise and Nourish the Body, Nourish the Soul.  Avid quilters will recognize the works and names of many of the quilting world’s top traditional quilters, so I am particularly honored that three of my quilts made the cut.  Even better, the two Hawaiian-style quilts of mine will be in an exhibit of selected works from this book that will debut at International Quilt Market and Festival this October-November.  For me, this is huge: my work meets the standards for publication and exhibiting at what is probably the most prestigious quilt show in the world.  WOW!

The theme for this spread is clearly sailing ships. Mine is the blue one in the middle, with a detail of the quilting no less! This quilt is called From The Schooner Coast.

Any reader of this blog will immediately recognize my Haleakala Sunrise quilt which is the background for this website. I just love bright, clear “Caribbean” colors. This was my first original Hawaiian-style design, and I still love it and Hawaiian quilts in general.

Nourish the Body, Nourish the Soul, is on the left. I made this quilt to be in my Threadwork Unraveled book, a “bible” of thread used on/in a sewing machine. Due to length, we ended up cutting the applique section out of the book, but I remember finishing the design for the center block while sitting on the floor of Joshua’s hospital room in 2007 after he was hit by a car (and it’s somewhere back in the July/Aug 2007 blogposts!). So glad he is completely well, doing well, the book did great, and my quilting career actually exists!

I have to be honest:  I have not “read” this entire book, yet.  This is a book to be savored. Dip into it, browse the beauty in its pages.   Yes, I am an art quilter.  But first and foremost I am a quilter, and these quilts are art even though they are traditional–I love ALL types of quilting.  Karey called these quilts “the crème to la crème of traditional quiltmaking today.”   I can’t wait to see the exhibit of selected quilts from the book in Houston (I’m teaching again this year, but blessedly have a couple days to be a civilian and just enjoy the show).   Hope to see you there!

Wow… this is fun:  I am shipping out FOUR quilts to various shows and exhibits today!   The first one to go on display is Conversations 1, at the big AQS show in Paducah!  Then two are going off to be in the Traditional Treasures special exhibit for the International Quilt Festivals in Chicago and (in fall) Houston, and then the pug-love is headed off to a round of exhibits with Mary Wilson Kerr’s Dare to Dance exhibit!

Conversations 1 is going to Paducah!

Next on the exhibit trail is Mr. Wiggles Does the Circle Dance.  This portrait of Pigwidgeon’s joy when getting his supper is in Mary Wilson Kerr’s soon-to-be-available book and exhibit “Dare to Dance:  An Artist’s Interpretation of Joy.”  You can read more about the exhibit and where it is going here.  This quilt is going to log a LOT of miles, starting in West Virginia, heading to MANY Sew Expo’s, MANY Mancuso shows and will return home after (get this!) two and half years on the road!   Wave hullo to our beloved pug when you see him!

Mr. Wiggles Does the Circle Dance is going on the road! If you look closely (at least in person) you can see below the bowl that I’m asking him “Are you hungry?” That questions sets off the dance which begins with three (always three, only three) counter-clockwise (same direction always) circles. He then runs behind your legs and bumps you in the direction of the closet which holds the kibble!

Then, to my utter astonishment and complete delight, I have TWO quilts that made it into a **traditional** exhibit at International Quilt Festival, the Traditional Treasures that will debut in Chicago in June and return again in Houston.  This is the first time I’ve had traditional quilts juried in to a major national show, and I am elated!

This may be one of my favorite quilts. It is inspired by a beer carton (for our grocery challenge, see blogposts here and here). I revised the harbor to be Camden, Maine, and the schooner to be the Louis B French. The miniature storm at sea is mostly from a John Flynn quilt kit, with the small square in a square finishing at (EEEK) 1 1/8″. At least when I pieced them accurately! Finished size is 20 1/2″ square.  This quilt and the next one will also (yippeee!) be included in Lark’s forthcoming 500 Traditional Quilts book!

And my Hawaiian inspired quilt, Nourish the Body, Nourish the Soul, will also be in IQF’s Traditional Treasures.  There are apparently only 25 quilts in this exhibit, so I am totally gobsmacked and humbled to have two quilts included.  Nourish is 64 inches square, is available as a pattern, and is the basis of my Hawaiian Applique by Machine class:

Nourish the Body, Nourish the Soul, by Sarah Ann Smith. The blocks are either food (taro, pineapple or breadfruit) or things that are beautiful: the plumeria with its heavenly scent and the bird of paradise.

Have lots of things to share, but am so busy I don’t have much time to blog!  Will try to post again in a couple of days!

If it was Tuesday, that meant I was teaching Tame Fussy, Fiddly Threads! As always, the students were brilliant!

Tuesday is the “down” day between Market (the trade show, which is only open to industry professionals, not the general public, ends on Monday) and Festival (which opens with a Preview night on Wednesday evening, then is open Thursday-Sunday).  Folks who attend Market often stay to take a class, and folks who attend Festival come early so they can take classes, then be free to enjoy the show and vendors on Thursday.  This year, I got to teach one of my favorite classes, Tame Fussy, Fiddly Threads, which is all about using metallics, holographics, and heavy threads (the kind that go through the needle, not bobbin work).

A student plays with heavy 30-wt So Fine thread from Superior Threads early in the day.

Since so many of my classes are fusing, I thought I’d mix it up when I formulated this class.  Instead, we make a stencil out of freezer paper and paint with Lumiere and ProFab textile paints.  Students can use my model or do their own thing (which I LOVE when they do that!).

This student chose gingko leaves pointing away from the center on the north-south/east-west axes. She then penciled in quilting guidelines on the black background.

In the supply list, I suggest a black background fabric.  I love this small black and charcoal check!  Her quilting is great…love the nestled-in quilted-only leaf next to the stenciled leaf, as well as the shading on her leaves, and how she alternated painted and not in the spray of leaves on the right.

This student was having fun!  Her background of black and gold fabric is somewhat visually busy, so she is wise to concentrate her stitching on the painted leaves as the print could obscure the lovely stitching.

Then in mid-morning a fun surprise!  The best thing about Festival is seeing folks you know from (mostly) the internet…the quilts are great too, but the quilters are the bestest!

Luana Rubin, founder with her husband Paul of eQuilter, was at Festival and popped in to the classroom to say hi! We are both members of a small online group–there are not so many of us and we are VERY tight! We respect everyone’s privacy closely, so we can share and be sure that we will support each other and keep mum. I also got to see Luana AND her daughter Sophie later on the show floor (photo in a future post).

Practicing on a sample sandwich before working on the stenciled piece. (Note her shirt, from Lopez Island Resort; Lopez is the island next door to San Juan Island where I used to live.  I swear everyone on the planet has either been to the islands or knows someone who lives or lived there!)

Another set of gingko leaves, this time on the diagonals, partially quilted.

And the same leaves at the end of class. Fabulous!

Oak leaves are popular, too, and easy to draw! notice how she varied the thread for the leaves.  Would love to see how she quilts the acorns; we talked about doing a dense zigzaggy thing for the caps!

Love the quilted border!

A happy student–the maker of those wonderful gingkos– in a happy and talented classroom. We got to use the Janome 9900s in class, which is similar to the machine I use at home. FAB!

And those glorious gingkos from above at the end of the day. LOVE THIS!

My next Houston post will share quilt pics, then I’ll do more on classes I taught, then more quilts, then even MORE quilts!

Today, I’d like to introduce you to Vicki Welsh (blog) and thank her for participating in my bloghop and giveaway to celebrate the release of my video workshop, Art Quilt Design From Photo to Threadwork (available for pre-order here or as a download and pre-order here).  Please pop over to Vicki’s blog and leave a comment there to be entered in Vicki’s part of the giveaway!

Although I’m mostly about art quilts, from time to time I’ve blogged about the fact that I love ALL Quilts and Quilting—traditional, contemporary, modern, art, you name it!   Like me, Vicki crosses the lines but in a very different way:  she is all about dyeing fabric and surface design, worked into more traditionally piece quilts.

Vicki Welsh’s blog is aptly called “Field Trips in Fiber” and her Etsy shop of hand-dyes is a Visa Accident waiting to happen!  So much fun! Vicki’s quilts are clearly inspired by tradition, but they are definitely a contemporary take on the traditional.  One of her quilts that makes my heart go thumpity thump is Illuminated Blocks…all I can say is it’s a good thing I live far away because I could SO be tempted into a little larceny!

Illuminated Blocks by Vicki Welsh. WOW…just WOW. Her blogpost is here. Right click for a larger look!

This quilt, made from Paula Nadelstern’s printed fabrics, has me wondering:  what if you dyed fabric in mandalas and shibori style, using a coordinated palette of colors.   How would it look to piece an Ohio Star, as in this quilt (look carefully but also go visit her blogpost about it, link in caption), but using one’s own hand-dyed fabrics?

Two of Vicki’s recent tops are Grandmother’s Choice Shibori top (read more about it here):

Vicki Welsh’s Grandmother’s Choice quilt using her shibori and hand-dyed fabrics. Her Etsy shop is here.

And another recent top fascinates me–I’m usually all about the color, but I love the muted tones and kaleidescope effect in this quilt top, her Grandmother’s Choice Symmetry:

Vicki Welsh’s Grandmother’s Choice Symmetry quilt top. Read more about it here.

I love the play of patterns, the secondary designs.   I feel a traditional phase coming on thanks to her inspiration!
Thank you, Vicki, for being a part of my bloghop!   Here’s to meeting you in PERSON one of these days!  In the meantime, we can all go visit her on the web.

Someone from one of the Janome yahoo lists that I am on asked me a great question, and since my answer was detailed, I thought maybe it might help others so I decided to post it here.  Apologies in advance for the length.  Here’s the incoming (shortened) inquiry followed by my reply.  Bottom line, I am THRILLED with the Janome machines I have had the fortune to use since 2004:  each new version just keeps getting better and better.  They have been utterly dependable with great stitch quality and all the features I need most.  What you need to do is figure out what YOU need, then find the machine that best meets those needs.  There is no such thing as the one and only perfect machine–just what is best for you.

Here’ s Gandalf, “my” new Janome 8900.  He replaces Rubeus Hagrid, the brilliant Janome 7700.  I must say, I DO miss that ruby red, but I think the changes on this machine make it even better (hard to fathom!) than the 7700.  As always, thanks to Janome America for their support since 2004!  (And that odd black thing hanging on the machine’s harp is a Martelli quilting ring…go back a couple of posts for more information.)

Hi Sarah,
I’m sorry to bother you.  ….!  I hope to retire within the next four years and dedicate more time to sewing/quilting.  In the meantime though, I would like to invest in a very nice sewing machine.  I currently sew with an XXXX .  I am curious in your opinion of which brand I should buy.  Thanks for your time. (Note: she specifically asked about Bernina and Janome machines, hence the brands in my reply which follows.)  Signed, XXX

Dear XXX:

That’s a decision you’ll have to make, alas.  Berninas are brilliant machines, at a very high price.  Some of the machines (all brands) have become–for me anyway–too complicated!   I like having the computerized machine, but there is a point where you need a Master’s in Computer Science to navigate all of it.  Just too much…and sometimes too finicky.  Where the line is depends on the individual user.

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING:  figure out what you need and will use.  When we built a house in 1997-8, our builder told us to list Need, Want, Wish.  All items on the “need” list should be in the house, a number of the wants, and even a wish or two.  For example, we needed three bedrooms, a kitchen, and two baths.  We wanted an extra half-bath and a studio space for me.  That sort of thing.   So sit down and list what you need on a sewing machine.  For me, the list would be something like this:

• Harp space for Free-motion quilting.
• Really good balanced tension.
• Good satin stitch.
• “Single” (not boldface) blanket stitch
• Small increments to increase/decrease stitch width and length on zigzag, blanket stitch, straight stitch, and blind hem stitch (.01 as opposed to .05, that sort of thing)
• Good lighting
• Good local dealer/support

Bernina machines I sometimes say are all the quality at double the cost.  Janome gives outstanding value for the price:  what you can get on a 7700 or 8900 would *easily* cost $2-3000 (yes thousands) more in another brand, and the other brands might not be as reliable.   Bernina has the best presser foot system (changing, quality of manufacture) in the industry bar none–but their feet are expensive.  So buy a sturdy metal  foot for $40?  Or buy a Janome foot that does the same thing for $10 then replace it in a decade if/when it wears out?    So far, I’ve not had a single Janome foot die from over-use, and I use my machine a lot.

Once you’ve figured out WHAT you need, then figure out what simple set of things will allow you to test different machines.  When I bought a machine in 1996 just before leaving the rat race (and the nice salary), I took a quilt sandwich to each dealer and tried different things on it, writing my notes on the white cloth.  If you make garments and buttonholes, take some stabilizer and cloth similar to what you would use and test-drive the buttonholes.  Put notes right on the cloth (or safety pin or staple paper to the sample) to remind you what you thought as you made it:  was the process easy/intuitive?  Convoluted?

Repeat this process at each dealer/brand/machine.  Then think about it.  And don’t forget that a top dealer with good, courteous, prompt customer service is worth their weight in gold!

A couple years ago, when the Bernina 830 came out, I test drove it and frankly, it was amazing,  but so far beyond my budget… so I applied to be in the Bernina teacher program despite misgivings because Janome has been SO good to me.  Bernina never really answered.  And since then I’ve heard some grumbling about the 830 being TOO complicated and finicky but don’t know if that is operator error or what–there are always people who grumble.

I LOVE that the Janomes are so dependable, take any thread you put on them and sew well, etc.  And the price–even if I were paying full retail–is a fraction of the Bernina, Viking, etc.  Not sure about BabyLock as I have never lived anywhere that had a BL dealer, so have no experience with them at all.    And since that time, Janome came out with the 7700 which was pretty close to being my dream machine, and I’m thinking that the 8900 is even better (except I wish it still had that ruby red instead of the silver-gray!).

BOTTOM LINE:  I’m really glad Bernina didn’t offer me the opportunity to try their machines on a teacher loan program.  Since then the 7700 has come out and now the 8900, and they are simply FABULOUS machines.  I’m definitely a Janome girl!

As for Top of the Line versus better but not most expensive in a given brand , last summer when teaching at Vermont Quilt Festival, one of the muckety mucks from Janome ended up sitting in my classroom for an hour or so at lunch.  I had opted to stay and teach through lunch, and they needed someone in the class and were able to accommodate my desire to keep the classroom open.  Well, he must have liked what I was teaching and how, because he offered to have Janome lend me a 12000 that I could take home from the show!!!! So I went down to test-drive it.  Answer:  brilliant machine, thank you SO MUCH for the generous offer, but not for me.  It didn’t have the two feet I use most:  open toe accu-feed, and circular free-motion foot (the one in the convertible set).  [Note:  I’ve heard that the open toe accu-feed will be out this month, and there is now a free-motion foot that would meet my needs that fits on the 12000.]  That ruled the machine out right there.  Plus, to change tension you had to go through several screens on the computer.  I don’t like computer interface stuff–there’s nothing wrong with it, I just vastly prefer the simplicity and ease of turning a dial or knob like you can on the 6600, 7700 and 8900!  It’s one of those “what’s your favorite flavor of ice cream things.”   So I thanked the Janome honcho, said it was a fabulous machine but wasn’t the best machine for me.  The embroidery capabilities would be wasted on me…. I’d rather wait until whatever was going to replace the 7700 came along—and that I hoped it had the visibility around the presser foot of the 12000 on the 7700 body.  Well, guess what the 8900 is?  Exactly that!    So I think I’m going to be very happy with this machine.  It’s a matter of figuring out what YOU need and will work for you, then comparing the machines/brands/models until you find the best fit.

Hope this VERY long reply helps, and think I’ll post it to the groups, too, as others may have the same question!  Thank you for asking!

Cheers, Sarah

Author of bestseller ThreadWork Unraveled
website: https://www.sarahannsmith.com
blog: https://www.sarahannsmith.com/weblog
e-mail: sarah@…………

PS:  Someone asked about the knob/dial on the 7700 and 8900:  it is actually a dial that you see when you flip up the lid on the top of the machine.  If you think of the dial like a tire, the “tread” shows on the top curve of the dial.  Just above and to the right of the take-up lever area (which is that gray stripe up the front left of the machine) is where   the dial is located.  It is a manual adjustment and easy pease:  see, do!