To continue the story of my trip to Quilt Nebraska….

The next day, Friday,  I was in the new convention center located a short walk (less than from the far reaches of the Hilton in Houston to the convention center floor, and they are all attached!), which was lovely.  The rooms had not been completed when they toured the facility (it was still under construction, the place is SO new), so some of us ended up in rather cozy classrooms.  The students were incredibly gracious about the tight quarters…not one single person complained (at least to me) and they all just figured this was what we had, so work with it, and we did!  I moved my stuff to the floors to create more workspace, and the rooms had these really nice counters in back which we appropriated for work and cutting surfaces.  They also has an awesome front-of-room thing with a white board, pull down screen, and two “doors” that covered it that could hold either a large pad of paper or on which you could PIN stuff… PERFECT!

Friday, the second day, I taught one of my all time favorite classes to teach:  Fine Finishes.  I teach four basic techniques, but share a number of others.  Depending on how quickly students work, they can explore some of the other techniques… I just have them tell me which one, then I explain that one to them….there are enough hours in a class day to teach all the techiques, so I cover the essentials then let students learn what they came for.  My theory is that I am there for them to pick my brain and learn as much as they can and as I can teach, so I share as much as possible!

One of the best moments was toward the end of the day when a student asked something I’ve never been asked before:  how to bind an *inside* corner.  Fortunately, I remembered how.  We used one of her quilt mini-sandwiches to do up a sample.  I liked this so much I’m going to make up a sample to have on my own to add to the offerings!

Two students shared their bias strips to try piping with a binding…they look great!

This striped fabric looks a bit bold, but when used as a piping it was subtle and fabulous!

And on Saturday, another totally fun class, Hawaiian Applique by machine!  Stay tuned for the many photos in part 3!

The last week of July, I headed to Nebraska (with trepidation given the weather forecasts for 100+ days everywhere in the midwest).  I left a cloudy Maine and snapped this photo on the way out of the midcoast:

Outbound...love the picture of the land through the clouds.

To get anywhere, I either drive a long way and spend the night (more expensive for the guild) to catch a plane out of Portland or Boston, OR I leave from Rockland/Owl’s Head, which is about 30 minutes from home.  Mo bettah!  Still not inexpensive, but less costly than an overnight.  The plane is small — here is a blogpost from last May — perhaps 9 passengers total, one of whom sits next to the pilot.

Once I got to Nebraska via Rockland to Boston to Detroit to Omaha to a car to 2-3 hours to Kearney (phew), I taught three classes:  Art Uncensored, Fine Finishes, and Hawaiian applique.  Since there are a ton of photos (and I’ve skipped a bunch), I’ll break it into two posts.   I must say, I seem to have taken cooler weather with me.  The 100+ temps abated and it was a quite tolerable (thanks to A/C) 90-ish during the days.

The first day I taught in a conference room in the Holiday Inn since the class was small.  This is the first time they have offered classes on Thursday, and I think many were low on students.  We still managed to fill up the room!

three students filled up the entire conference table (along with all the STUFF I schlep for them to try)

They did a great job and produced a lot of nice surface-designed fabrics, using both my carved blocks and the raw materials and ideas of their own:

An end-of-class collage of pieces made

And even more end-of-class samples by the students; techniques include lino-cut rubbings, rubbings with Shiva painstiks, stamping, printing, stenciling.... lotsa fun!

I particularly liked how the student used the sequin waste and shaded colors to create the berry clusters here:

The green-on-white is a "paper snowflake cutout" stencil, the other two are the berry/grape/hydrangea (take your pick) clusters... really like them!

And one lady actually made a postcard…

collaging fabric to make a landscape

I’ll be back in a couple of days with the final two classes:  Hawaiian Applique and Fine Finishes.

Hi all… at 2 pm east coast time today, the SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) annual fundraising auction began here and here.  If you’d like to help support SAQA by bidding, or just would like to see and enjoy the stunning small (most are 12×12 inches)  art quilts, surf over to the SAQA site.  The price begins at $750, then is reduced this week in increments…does one risk waiting too long for a lower price and losing a gem?  If I were independently wealthy….

SAQA is a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote the art quilt through education, exhibitions, professional development and documentation.  Their quarterly journal has become one of my favorite “magazines” because it not only profiles great art quilters, but also addresses issues of interest to us from creative blocks to marketing.   Anyway, Martha Sielman, the SAQA president (and also the curator behind the two wonderful Masters Art Quilt books from Lark–click on the links for more info for Volume 1 and Volume 2) invited us to be virtual curators ourselves and pick some of our favorites as an online show.

La Mere de la Tranquilite by Genevieve Attinger, above, is one of my favorites.  The Title translates literally to the Mother of Tranquility, but is also a play on the French for the Sea of Tranquility on the moon.  Stunning!

Mary Pal’s study of Jane Goodall is stunning in its simplicity and its complexity.

Composition XIII, by Deidre Adams, is another favorite.  Though I generally prefer representational art, I am one who is thrilled by the quilting line, and this piece thrills.  One of these days I hope I’ll muster the courage to quilt something, then paint it!

Kate Themel’s GottaHavaCuppa is another joyous celebration of line and stitch…and steam!

In next week’s auction (there are three sessions), Terri Stegmiller’s quilt charms me:

A Little Bird Told Me, by Terri Stegmiller

Which quilts are your favorites?  I’ll try to post again in the next two weeks with more of my favorites… so many quilts, no lottery win (yet)!

A brief moment of whimsy….  the wild turkeys are plentiful around here, and in August we were treated nearly daily to the extended family outings…we love the family sitting on the nearly-rotten fence that divides the area we mow from the lower meadow:

The turkey clan hanging out on the fence....

and one more–there are 19 of them including 4 adults and 15 “chicks” (currently the size of chickens!):

The turkeys forage in the meadow, then take a break on the fence. We've actually seen them all fly...they are BIG birds!

Gobble gobble!

Alas, I missed Maine Quilts this year, where these quilts debuted.  (The good news is that I was teaching at Quilt Nebraska…more on that soon!) Here is the display (thanks Louisa for the photo!) of our challenge quilts at the Maine Quilts show:

The Coastal Quilter's Challenge quilts on display, with curious viewers

And a close up of someone looking — and the photos and tags:

A close up of Louisa Enright's A Thousand Flowers and my quilt, the clipper ship

From all reports, the quilts and display got lots of attention.  On the far left and far right I included a blurb about the challenge itself (the requirements I talked about in the previous post).  I then pinned photos of each of the products and asked viewers to figure out which photo went with which quilt.  I numbered the quilts, then made tags with lift-up fabric to reveal the  identity of the quilt by number, the maker, the title, and the product.

And here is the right hand panel that I’ll feature today–you’ll note that the photos don’t necessarily correspond to the quilts on that panel, I wanted to mix things up!

The right hand panel

A Thousand Flowers is at the top left:

This honey is a locally produced, raw, organic honey available at the local Farmer's Marke, again Louisa got the OK from Clay and Maggie King to use their label and wording. Quilters could use colors seen through the packaging as well as the label, hence Louisa's honey colored hexagons!

A Thousand Flowers by Louisa Enright. Using the traditional paper-pieced hexagons for the honeycomb was perfect, and very time consuming! Louisa also stamped bees onto the quilt, words, and more... absolutely WONDERFUL!

I wanted to do something Maine-ish, and trolled the aisles looking at labels for a while.  I found my inspiration in something I don’t usually drink:  beer!

Shipyard Ale. I thought the town on the label looked more like Wiscasset, but I wanted to make mine the Camden Harbor (the library is on the right!).

While at Quilt Festival last November, I chanced upon John Flynn’s booth.  I had mulled over how to do the storm at sea border that I had in mind:  fused?  painted?  Then I spotted his miniatures quilt.  Yes, insane.  The small square in a square block FINISHES at 1 1/8 inch!   I also learned that miniatures are VERY bumpy and I would have done better to set aside my beloved “skimming” free-motion foot and used the hopping “darning” foot.  I had to tug to get the lumpy bits under the skimmer foot, and that wasn’t so good for the quality of my stitching.  Bummers.  Oh well…lesson learned!

Sarah's quilt...of course can I remember the name right now? No! Sheesh.. I think it is From the Schooner Coast (since this area was known for shipbuilding and the windjammers). This one is based on a photo, used with permission of Capt. Jenny Tobin, of the Schooner Louis B. French. The library is to the right of the sail and the hills are the Camden Hills silhouette.

Millie chose sardines for One in  a Million:

Notice the Reny's (a Maine store) sticker!

And her interpretation in cloth:

Millie Young's One in a Million. Isn't that fish GLORIOUS?

Barbara Melchiskey is a master at appllique, which she used to great effect with Heinz 57 Ketchup:

Heinz 57...notice the tomato....

Barbara Melchiskey's Tomato on a Vine. Love the gold beads to make the 57!

Next is Maggie’s Maruchan kid…she even got written permission from Maruchan to make this design using the logo on the ramen package:

Maruchan ramen

Perfect! Maruchan by Maggie Schwamb. The workmanship is impeccable!

And in the final dash to done with me was my co-program chair Gail Galloway-Nicholson.  She sent me this photo and said it was a Cline Vinyards wine.  I immediately replied:  “Cline Vinyards?  From California?  As in Nancy Bunting Cline?”  Now how the heck is Gail supposed to have a clue what I’m yabbering about…

Cline Vinyards Cashmere wine

So I head (where else) to Google, source of instant knowlege.  Yes indeedy, it is Cline Cellars!   And why is this such a big deal?  Well.. I went to high school in California (just north of San Francisco, San Domenico School)  with the then-Nancy Bunting.   A few years later this funny lady (she is still witty) married a guy named Cline.  And they started their own vinyard.  And I can now go buy their wine here in Camden, Maine!!!!!! How utterly amazing is that????????? I checked the Photo Gallery pictures and yes indeedy that is Nancy…like me a bit older, a bit of gray, but still Nancy!  Shall we all join hands and sing a chorus of “It’s a Small World After All” while enjoying Gail’s quilt, with 3-d awning over the shop and soft and fuzzy fabric for the Cashmere in the window?

Gail Galloway Nicholson's Cashmere--notice the "C" on the label and on the awning!

I cannot tell you how thrilled I am at the challenge, the results, and the outstanding work done by these 11 ladies and one gentleman!   Here’s to the next two years of challenges!