After years of hinting to me that her customers would love a landscape class, I finally agreed to teach one at Maine-ly Sewing (www.mainelysewing.com) in Nobleboro, Maine.  (Contact the store to sign up, etc.)   The class will be Saturday, Feb. 28th, from 10-4 !

Birch Pond, Summer

As usual, I figured why make one quilt when you can make two…. So I made the fusible applique quilt two ways, autumn and summer.  I am so pleased with the results that I think I’ll do the four seasons, write it up as a pattern and sell it…let me know what you think?   The pattern is actually quite easy, finishes about 22×25 inches (depending on your border and your final composition of the scene…there is definitely fudge-room here!).  PS–photos are clickable for a slightly larger view.

I did easy quilting so that beginning quilters and machine quilters won’t feel intimidated…I PROMISE, it really is easy to do the quilting on these patterns even when you are new to it!  Here is a detail photo:

Initially I did the autumn version… I just love the glorious colors of Maine in Fall.  However, given that Fall is behind us, and it has been winter for quite a while, Marge and I decided to use the Summer version (hope is eternal!  It WILL come again!) to advertise the class.  But, I wanted students to see that they can make the quilt in many ways.  Frankly, I kinda think it would be fun to do it another time in totally wild colors, like plum and turquoise and mango and lime…. wouldn’t that be a hoot?  Anyway, here is a more realistic, autumnal version:

And a detail of the Autumn version; note that I did the leaf canopy two different ways… in summer I used the twist-and-chop way to cut chunks, for autumn I used the slice it into confetti method!

Hope you like the quilts, and hope to see some of you in class!

Birch Pond, Autumn, detail

A large envelope arrived from the International Quilt Festival folks in Houston yesterday; despite its size, I figured it had to be a sorry, no thanks.  WRONG!   I am teaching in Houston this coming Fall!!!!!!!!  I am elated beyond belief… it has been quite the effort to float down to be able to reach the keyboard LOL!

After I met yet another deadline I checked to see when applications were due…it was in six days!  So I quickly put together everything (I had last year asked on my blog for letters of recommendation and received several…thanks Betty, Jan, Mathea and Rebecca for your help!) and overnighted it ($16 well spent!) to Houston to make the deadline for certain.  Well, yesterday I received the results, and will have four days of teaching (I wanted 3 or 4):

Monday, October 12,
Fine Finishes (bindings and edge finishes)

Tuesday, October 13,
Machine Applique Three Ways
(the Blue Gingko pattern)

Wednesday, October 14
Tame Fiddly, Fussy Threads for Machine Quilting
(the More Machine Quilting class)

Thursday, October 15
Chunk and Jigsaw Fusible Applique–
total fun!  fabric postcards plus

The classes will be in the Janome machine classroom (yeah!) except for the Wednesday class, which will be in the BabyLock classroom…better go find a BabyLock dealer and see how their machines are set up!

I’ve set it up to do small kits for the classes, as that makes it a lot easier for both the students and teachers.  They get what they need that is unusual (they are asked to b ring their own fabric, batting, etc….usual items) like crisp interfacing, water soluble paper, fancy threads, that sort of thing.

So, now I’m going to go eat breakfast (Irish oats and a banana) and float again!  THEN, after I finish a project to submit for consideration for the 2009 Quilting Arts Gifts issue (comes out before the holidays) and get that mailed off, I need to start getting my set-up done to use the video camera and digital projector in my teaching.  I actually signed up for a Jan Krentz workshop this may tho I pretty much never do traditional piecing any more just so I can watch how she teaches.  She’s coming to Maine in May at the invitation of the Pine Tree Quilt Guild, and I can’t wait!

Saw this here at Maggie Hunt’s blog today, and thought I’d play along too!!!  I also think this means I am hereby opting out of the getting tagged thing on blogs… this’ll have to do it!

Here are the rules: Bold the things you’ve done and post on your blog!

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis (SHUDDER)
10. Sang a solo (in my car, alone, to a collective sigh of relief)
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea.
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15.  Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice–but I’ve BEEN to Venice, and on a vaporetto
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37.  Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance–my son was the one hurt, he’s fine now
47. Had your portrait painted
48.  Gone deep sea fishing (my dad did…does that count?)
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie-do home movies count:>
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58.  Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60.  Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74.  Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78.  Been a passenger on a motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book -in progress!, been published in others
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car – my minivan!!
83. Walked in Jerusalem (as a child…don’t remember it!)
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85.  Kissed a stranger at midnight on New Year’s Eve
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating – ew, ew, ew….I stand corrected, thanks Deborah… I had clearly put the lobster homicide episode of last summer WAY out of my mind!  SOB!
88.Had chickenpox
89.  Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Got a tattoo
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

OK folks…I’m trying to decide.  Do I keep the current/past flags display and counter, or get the “NeoPod” instead.  You can click on it to see the flags/nation/visitor count, see the dots on a map and other stuff, but the NeoPod is dark, and on the flags page keeps moving (which I find a bit distracting).

Tell me which one I should keep… I need to decide by Friday, when I need to renew one or the other for the coming year…your choices are:

Keep the old, LONG display

Go for the NeoPod which moves sometimes…..

Thanks!

Yesterday I had a grand time!  It was my first chance to get to Augusta (Maine) for the quarterly statewide meeting of the Pine Tree Quilt Guild.  Better yet, I was the featured speaker, and debuted my lecture on Journal Quilts and Journals for Quilters.  The lady who invited me to speak said I should plan on 100-150 attendees, so I brought 150 handouts… and we ran out!   So I am going to post the contents of my handout here, at the end of this message.  Feel free to select and copy that section to print out at home!

Also, I realized I have never added my 2007 and 2008 journal quilts to my website, so I have done that today, too.  I have shared these journal quilts on the blog before, but here they are again.  The first quilt is Windows of Hope, picturing a little girl in the rubble of bombed out Tokyo circa 1946:

I’ll add the detail photos to the galleries along with technique information, otherwise this blogpost will be miles too long! (addendum:  I realized I never blogged about my 2008 journal quilts…eeek!  So I’ll do that in the next week or two….)  The next journal is Ancient Earth, which didn’t make it in to the juried 2008 Journal quilt exhibit, but I love it nonetheless.

And finally, Aslan’s Song, also made for (but didn’t get in) to the 2008 Journal quilt exhibit.  Details about the title and techniques are in the gallery section.   Click on the title for the link.

Last but not least, here is the handout from the Journal Quilts lecture:

The Journal Quilts and Journaling for Quilters
with Sarah Ann Smith

Websites:

www.quiltart.com
www.sarahansmith.com
www.quiltingarts.com
www.dickblick.com
www.mariaelkins.com
www.beadjournalproject.com

Books:
•    Creative Quilting: The Journal Quilt Project, Karey Patterson Bresenhan
•    Art Quilt Workbook, Jane Davila and Elin Waterston
•    The Decorated Page, and The Decorated Journal, Gwen Diehn
•    Journal Revolution, Rise up and Create, Woods and Dinino
•    Quilters Playtime, Dianne Hire
•    Thinking Outside the Box, Sandi Cummings
•    Quilting Arts magazine
•    Cloth Paper Scissors magazine

Ideas for journal quilts and journals:

•    Beautiful things
•    What have you collected?
•    Things that make me mad!
•    Places you’d like to go / see / visit
•    Good smells
•    Favorite foods
•    Quilts I’d make if I had the skills and time
•    Song titles/lines/phrases
•    Quotations
•    Make 100 stamps
•    Flowers
•    Groceries
•    If I looked in your closet, what colors would I see?
•    Favorite clothes/shoes you had
•    Who inspires you?
•    Tell me something good that happened to you today!
•    Cut  fabric swatches and write why you like them
•    Pictures from a  magazine ..why do you like them?

•    Focus on….

Line Circles Numbers Letters Leaves Colors…..
Bugs you love/hate (or animals, or birds)
Maps…your home, your town, your mind, an imaginary planet….
Favorite books
Hubcaps, or how to fill a circle….
Artists you admire (Matisse!  Van Gogh!)
Your friends’ best qualities

What you need to journal:      a notebook, a pen or pencil, and an eraser!  Awake helps, too…
Optional:  glue stick, camera, pens, watercolors, waterbrush

Be Inspired!  Journal, quilt, and make art!!!!