He’s done it again!  Eli is now 25-0 for the season, and has repeated as Eastern Regional Champion in his weight class!!!!  This year, Camden-Rockport Middle School was the sponsoring school for the event, which was held in the high school gym.  There were 3 mats set up, and it went surprisingly smoothly and quickly.   Here’s how Saturday went for Eli:

In wrestling with 8-person brackets, the rule is that if you want to end up in the championship match (for first and second place), you need to win two before you lose two.  So here’s Eli’s first match:

First match, ended in 30 seconds with a pin. It happened so fast I had barely hit "On" on the camera that I didn't get any video....

I managed to mess up the photography, alas, despite doing test-runs last week.  I brought out the GOOD camera, the DSLR Nikon and I really need to spend more time learning how to make it do what I want!  But I got some good shots.  And I took video…or so I thought…on my everyday digital, but I had taken it off Video and put it on still photo during the week and forgot to switch it back.  So this first match ended so fast I didn’t get a chance to correct my error.

Second match:  this one took a little longer.  Remember there are 3 periods in wrestling; in middle school the first period is 2 minutes, then 2nd and 3rd are one minute long.  In high school, matches are 3 2-minute periods; in college, it is 3-2-2-.

Second match: PIN! At 1 minute 31 seconds in the first period.

At least I got a really good photo…. the point of the match is to win.  A great way to win instantly and end the match is to pin the opponent’s shoulders to the mat.  That is why Eli is “T”‘d off on the kid on the bottom—you get the best leverage being chest-to-chest (Eli is a little far over) and at right angles–like a T–to the kid on the bottom.  The Ref is using the hand with the red band to smack the mat to show Eli (in red…the other kid has on the green ankle band on his rear leg, but it is hard to see because he’s wearing tights under the singlet) wins by fall (pin).

Next:  the championship round against a kid from Hermon, whom he had not wrestled during the season.  This boy was also–up until Saturday–undefeated, but had fewer matches than Eli.

Murphy's Law lives at wrestling meets. No matter WHERE in the gym the parent is, the ref is ALWAYS immediately blocking the parent's line of sight to their kid as here. By the way...we LOVE this ref. He is one of the best in Maine, and happens to head up the Ref's association. He is fair, compassionate, understands kids, and when ref-ing--even when the kids make mistakes--takes the time to instruct ant teach while making calls. He's "the bee's knees!"

Here is a few moments earlier in the match, but a better shot:

Eli nearly gets the Hermon boy in a "cradle" for a pin. Alas, the Hermon boy got Eli in an illegal headlock which the ref did not see, so Eli had a bit of work to get out of it. He did, but the match went into a second period. In the photo above he is just about 2 seconds away from pinning the boy 30 seconds into the second period.

Three matches.  Three wins.  Three pins.  Still undefeated.

The "Win" hands-up went up and down so fast I missed it, so here the refs are checking with the scorekeepers and Eli is running his bout sheet back to the head scoring table after the win.

Eli, as winner, gets to keep the bracket sheet which shows who wrestled in the weight class, with him as Champion:

Eli on the winner's stand! Alas, the camera was having trouble metering with the bright window behind and I missed the shot with the other 3 boys up there....

ALL the kids on the team wrestled their hearts out and did their coaches proud.  One other kid, Elvis B., won his weight class, so he and Eli will continue on to States on March 31.

L to R: Coach True Bragg, Elvis B. 124-lb Champion, Eli at 138-lb Champion, and Asst. Coach Paul Smith (aka dad); photo taken in the high school wrestling room.

The other great news came on Sunday with the results of the Western Regionals.  The winner was the boy from Bath, whom Eli has beaten in each of his three head-to-head matches with him.  So there is a chance for Eli to win states!   Paul reminds the kids that you are one move away from getting pinned by someone you have never heard of, though, so Eli will have to continue to keep his focus and determination.    Stay tuned for results next weekend.  No colds or injuries allowed between now and then!   The Bath kid will have hometown advantage, as the State Finals will be wrestled in Bath, but we know Eli will excel.  As a friend told Eli, TOTAL DOMINATION on the mat!

Time-suck alert:  WARNING!!!! Reading this post may cause you to spend several extra hours surfing the web….but your soul will be refreshed! and PS…pictures are clickable to view larger.

Incoming Tide by Winslow Homer (from Maine!), from the US National Gallery of Art

The U.S. National Gallery of Art just launched NGA Images, an online resource to view and USE portions of their collections.  Here is how they describe it:

NGA Images is a repository of digital images of the collections of the National Gallery of Art. On this website you can search, browse, share, and download images. A standards-based reproduction guide and a help section provide advice for both novices and experts. More than 20,000 open access digital images up to 3000 pixels each are available free of charge for download and use. NGA Images is designed to facilitate learning, enrichment, enjoyment, and exploration.

Astonishingly and wonderfully (this is one of the things the U.S. Government does so well), the artworks no longer under copyright are FREE for you to download and use and enjoy (just be sure to make sure you read their terms of use).   Thank you to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation which made this wonderful resource possible!  And thanks to Uncle Sam for doing this.

One of the most popular paintings in the collection is Leonardo da Vinci’s Ginevra de Benci.  The painting is relatively small, even with the frame it is smaller than your typical college-dorm poster.  And the detail is phenomenal…you can see individual hairs on her forehead.  Just imagine, he and this young woman lived over 500 years ago and there she is, still alive for us today in this portrait!

Ginevra de Benci by Leonardo da Vinci

And one of my favorites is Gaugin’s Fatata te Miti.  When I was an undergraduate at Georgetown University, I would every now and then take my books and hop on an “even 30’s” (32-34-36) bus line which ran from Wisconsin Avenue, NW in Georgetown down Pennsylvania Avenue, past the White House (the street was open to cars  then) and down to the National Gallery, and sit in one or a couple of the galleries to do my homework.  I could look up between paragraphs or assignments and just absorb all that incredible art!

One of my favorites, Fatata te Miti by Gauguin....just LOVE the color!

At least as astonishing as NGA Images is GoogleArt or, more accurately, The Art Project powered by Google.  All I can say is HOLY COW!   WOW!!!!!!!!!!! This resource lets you explore museums around the world and you can zoom in so close, the photography is so phenomenal, you can see brushstrokes and small cracks in the paint!!!!!! I mean, you can see details that you’d need to be standing 6 inches away in real life to be able to see that well (and I expect in many of the museums you’re not allowed that close!).

Just SOME of the museums on GoogleArt are

• The Museum of Modern Art (New York City),
• The Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam)
• The National Gallery (London)
• The Van Gogh Museum (Amsterdam)
• The Versailles Museum (Versailles)
• The Uffizi Gallery (Florence)
• The Hermitage (St. Petersburg)

I mean you’d need to win a BIG lottery to be able to travel to just these museums let alone all of them.  And to be utterly greedy, I hope that as more and more of the repositories of our world heritage bring their collections online, they will become a part of this phenomenal resource.  And the Art Project not only lets you see the artwork, but the museum spaces, too…. oh sigh drool dream!  It’s like you are standing in the rooms…..sigh, drool, dream!

In this image captured from the site (and gosh I hope that is OK to have done!) you see Les Vessenots à Auvers by Van Gogh.

Van Gogh's Les Vessenot à Auvers in the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid

If you go here, to the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Spain, look in the lower right for a slider bar that allows you to zoom in.  You can SEE THE BRUSHSTROKES and daubs of paint….

Zoomed in to see the individual brushstrokes and daubs of paint

Have I said recently how much I love the internet?   WOW.  And remember…not my fault if you forget to pick up the kids after school or make supper <GRIN>  HAVE FUN surfing the web!

WOWIE ZOWIE!   When you’re a quilter, there are a couple of real “biggie” things that can happen.  Getting in to one of the major shows (done that), winning an award at a big show (done that! Second Place at Houston, Honorable Mention at the NQA show), being published (done that, a lot fortunately), but up there with winning an award is being on the cover (still hoping) of a major magazine, or featured on the last page in what I think of as the Grand Finale page where most magazines profile one quilt.  Guess what…… DONE THAT thanks to Jan Magee (editor) and company at The Quilt Life magazine, which is one of my favorite quilt magazines (along with Quilters Newsletter).  My art quilt “Fields of Gold” made the final page!

Here is that last page, 86… I mean PINCH ME?  Is this real?!?!?!  It MUST be, because I finally have a copy in my happy hands!

Page 86, April 2012 issue of The Quilt Life

And talk about WOW… they included me on the page with the other quilters in this issue…what a line-up…and me, next to them!!! Plus, I’m right next to the amazing Suzanne Marshall, who was my roomie when I taught at AQS-Paducah in 2008.  Suzanne is so much fun!  I can hardly believe I’m on the page where, in the last issue, Noriko Endo’s quilt was featured!  Who ME?????

The quilters in this issue page....I'm on the right and LOVE that they chose my favorite "head shot"...the one with the dog! so much more fun than the usual mug shot! It's a PUG shot!

And a final bit of kindness… I had thought this would end up only on their website or blog (blog link here), but it’s on p. 18–a note that this quilt is, sadly, one of two lost.  The whole sad story is here.  Thanks so much, Jan, for adding this note.  If there is any hope of someone spotting this quilt, this will help SOOOOOO much!

Note about this quilt being lost....sigh....

Thank you to Jan Magee, the wonderful editor of The Quilt Life, for asking to publish my quilt, to Ricky, Alex and the entire gang that put together The Quilt Life for such a fun magazine….now I’m off to read it cover to cover and pinch myself yet again… wow, this really happened!

Last year it looked like this on April 1st (no, not a joke, that’s when the blizzard hit):

April 2011

This is what it looked like today:

Today, 21 March 2012

And, drum roll, the weather station said today:

Yep, that is EIGHTY degrees.  In March.  In Maine!   The weather guy said he could not find ANY records this warm this early in the year as long as he could find in the records…. INSANE!  Of course, as Eli said, he loves low humidity 80 degree summer days…oops…it’s the start of Spring!

Hi all!   Several years ago my Frayed Edges friends and I were lucky to be included in Lark Books’ Creative Quilting With Beads, and my pomegranate notebook cover was the cover of the book.  Lark has re-issued the book as a paperback, and added a few more projects to the cover including Deborah Boschert’s houses and trees!

Lark graciously sent me a copy to do a drawing, so guess what…. leave a comment by midnight (East Coast of the US time) March 28th, and on the 29th I’ll do a drawing using a random number generator for the lucky winner.  To make it even sweeter, I’ll add the pattern version of my notebook pattern.  As always, you have more real estate on the page when you publish an individual pattern, so there is more “how to” in my pattern.

Hmmm… I just discovered that I never (DUH! Sarah) put that pattern on my website for sale!  Guess what I’m adding to my to-do list.  Anyway, it is the full-length version of the pattern in the book.

To read about the book at Lark Crafts click here, and over on Amazon, click here.  You can read my original post about the book here, but please note I am not selling the book myself any more.  You’ll need to order from Amazon or another source.