Once again I have been fortunate to be invited to submit a piece for a show curated by Jamie Fingal and Leslie Tucker Jenison and even luckier to be included in “The Space Between.”  You can read more about the show itself here, at their Dinner at 8 blog.  I’m in some rather heady company, so thrilled that my quilt, Clothed in Color, made it in! The show will debut at the International Quilt Festival held this summer in Long Beach, then we hope it will travel to Houston as did its predecessor, Beneath the Surface.

Clothed in Color, 36x48 inches

Jamie and Leslie have asked each of the participants to answer a set of questions, and I have LOVED reading the responses, here.  I encourage you to go visit the Dinner at 8 blog and see how our answers are similar and different—when I read my friend Susan Brubaker Knapp’s I had to write and tell her I had NOT read hers before I wrote and submitted mine!  We’re like twins separated by geography!  Anyway….here are  the questions and answers.

1.  What do you call yourself – art wise?

Quilter.  Art quilter.  Textile artist.  Interrupted by life!

2.  How do you jump start your creativity when you are in a slump?

Don’t know that I’ve had a slump per se.  Usually I am just too busy with life interfering with art or too tired.  That means I have a surplus of ideas and never enough time, so I just pick whatever quilt is hollering most loudly inside my head and let that one out next.

3.  If money wasn’t an issue, what would you do with your art?

Make more!   Give some of it away… I would love to do a “quilt mural” project for the local middle school (first panel is done), the continuation of “Be Inspired, No. 1” into a series of six quilts with people and places from around the world.

4.  Do you keep a sketchbook, journal, etc.?

Yes.  I’m not as diligent as I would like—it’s that lack of time thing.  But I have learned how useful they can be, am constantly inspired by my friend Kathy Daniels’ journals, so am trying to develop my own better “noodling around” habits.

5.  Where can people see your other work this year?  shows, books, magazines, etc

My book (ThreadWork Unraveled), my blog (www.sarahannsmith.com/weblog) and website, in my classes, the 2010-11 Quilting Arts Gifts issue, and whatever shows I get in (as long as I remember to apply in time).

6.  Do you teach?  where?

Have paycheck will travel–yes, I definitely teach!  I prefer to teach places where I don’t have to fly—detest airports–will gladly drive 2-3 days each way instead!  But I’ve been all over, and would love to go more places even if it involves an airplane.  Australia or Hawaii anyone?  My current bookings are on my website at https://www.sarahannsmith.com/schedule.php.

7.  Is there a particular artist who had influenced you in your art life? and why?

Vincent Van Gogh:  COLOR!
Henri Matisse:  exuberance and line
Auguste Rodin:  passion and form
The artisans of the Sutton Hoo burial grounds (UK–in the British Museum): design and ornament
Edward Steichen:  The Family of Man book/exhibit; grew up poring over the photographs and still do
The 8th grade neighbor girl who made the apron for my Barbie when I was 6–that got me started with sewing!

8. Where or what show do you hope your work will be in someday?

IQA-Houston, again I hope…
And if I ever make work I think suitable, Visions and Quilts=Art=Quilts, or if I can afford shipping the UK’s Festival of quilts and the Tokyo show.

9.  Describe your studio workspace

In progress.  We moved in February 2011, so at the moment most of the boxes are unpacked, but I still need to paint the floor (I have a large semi-unfinished space in the basement) and get some closet doors made before I can really settle in.  Despite only having four small windows near the ceiling joists (space is semi-finished, we spray painted the joists and under-floor white so it would look more ceiling-like), I installed good lights with daylight bulbs so it is bright and cheery.  I’ll have a 22 foot closet made by putting up design-wall-panels-as-sliding-doors on one wall for the detritus of art and teaching (file cabinet, teaching items, books for sale, art supplies and stored quilts  inside–don’t like working with too much visual clutter).  I hope to have a reading area, and my beloved Hoosier will be my desk.  I may even get to add a sit-down mid-arm machine this year….

10.  What 3 tools could you not live without?

MistyFuse.  Is MF a tool?
My Janome 7700 sewing machine.
Digital camera!
[and if they had allowed a fourth, my computer…my lifeline to the art quilty world and friends!]

11.  What drives you to make the work that you do?

I can’t NOT make my quilts–it would be like asking me to stop loving my kids and hubby or do without oxygen.  Just can’t be done!  I love to make things with my hands…to make something from inside my head become real.  There are so many things I want to learn how to do in terms of creating the image, both conceiving it and then physically making it.

12.  How do you balance your life?

Balance?  does *any*one have balance? (Picture Sarah ready to teeter off a rope while tossing a thousand items up in the air.)  I seem to lurch from one urgent thing to another, hoping I haven’t forgotten something important.  I know the insanity will slow down eventually, but right now I just try to make sure the family gets everything they need, and that I can still make enough art to keep myself sane!

I look forward to seeing all the quilts in the exhibit and reading all the artist interviews!  Well done, Jamie and Leslie and artists!

P.S.:  Since this post is long, I’ll do another tomorrow with some detail shots of the quilting.

Marshwood is *the* major regional tournament up here, and occurs at the end of the middle school wrestling season, this year the first weekend in April, a week after the Maine state tournament (in which Eli placed second!).  Wrestlers from six states come up to Portland to the Civic Center to wrestle “half-mat” matches of 1-1-1 (minutes per round instead of 2-1-1).  There are seventeen (!!!) matches going at once! The little kids wrestle first– kindergarten through fourth grades.  Then 5/6 and 7/8 wrestle starting about midday.  Unlike the regular season where you wrestle your weight class all season, at this meet you weigh in the night before, and they set up 8-person brackets who are closest in weight.

Eli's first match, photo taken from up in the stands. Here, the start of the first period.

Eli in red...grinding the kid on the bottom into the mat....ref's hand is down to touch them to let them know the period just ended.

Eli's second match: win by major decision (more than 8 points ahead--score was 12-0)--I actually got him with his hand raised! The hand goes up and down I almost NEVER get a photo

Eli made it to the finals by winning two before he lost any matches!!!!! and finished SECOND in his weight class!  He won his first two matches handily, thereby securing a place in the championship round.

The bracket sheet heading in to the final round

There was a long break as consolation round (3rd / 4th place) matches were wrestled.  Then warmups began inside the “cage”–the civic center is used for hockey so there are these tough plexi panels around the goal ends of the stadium.

Some of "our" boys milling around. From left to right (green arrows) Colt from the HAL (Hope Appleton Lincolnville) team, Eli, Ben from Camden-Rockport also, and Coach True.

In the finals, Eli wrestled a boy from Rhode Island who was a couple inches taller.  I had thought based on what I saw that they were evenly matched in strength, but afterwards Eli said the other boy was definitely stronger, which makes Eli’s performance all the more amazing.

Most of the match looked like this: evenly matched, score at 0-0

At one point, it looked like this, but Eli wasn't in enough control long enough to get any points. Drat! In the background in red you can see hubby/asst. coach Paul, coach True, and behind them teammates Ben and Chris (who ended up being Champion in his weight class and then Grand Champion in the 4-weight-class wrestle-off among the champions--this meant Chris had been champion all four years of middle school---way to go Chris!).

Then, just before the last twenty seconds of the final round (when it looked like they would go into overtime for first place)….

Eli had been on top, but the other boy managed to get free. At this point it is 36 seconds left in round three (three red dots on the clock--the one on the right) and score is 0-0. About ten seconds later the other boy escaped/got a reversal and scored 2 points. Not enough time for Eli to score in the remaining 20 seconds, tho he tried mightily!

And the trophies are awarded, Eli heads to shake the hands of his opponents’ coaches as his opponent receives a hard-won trophy and goes to shake hands with Paul and True.

Eli goes to shake hands with the other coaches after receiving his trophy, and the boy who won gets his first place trophy.

WELL DONE, Eli!  and Well DONE to all the wrestlers from our town who decided to go to Marshwood, whether they placed or not.  What counts most is attitude, drive and determination.  Hooray for these kids!

I have a treat for you today:

Oreo in the garden graces the cover and gives you an idea of the fun within the covers of this book.

This little gem of a book features Ann Fahl‘s Oreo quilts (Oreo being her cat whose colors are, you guessed it, the same as the favorite cookie) and a poem written by my friend Jacquie Scuitto to accompany the quilts. There is also a visual “index” at the back with smaller shots of the quilts that includes their size, date, blurb about each quilt, and the page on which that quilt can be found.

Those of us on the QuiltArt and Janome6500 lists are familiar with Jacquie’s wonderful poems (one of which about thread –thank you Jacquie!– graces the dedication page of my book) which are heartwarming and wise.  This little book is a chance for many more to get to know her.

The book begins with a peek at Oreo.

The poem and the quilts take you through Oreo’s days and things to do (bathe, eat, nap, be curious) and visit some of Ann’s other quilts (like the coneflower and iris where Oreo pokes about).

This book is perfect if you love quilts, love cats, love ditties, or all of the above!  The modest price also means that it makes a great gift for anyone who might enjoy cats, quilts or both!  You can purchase the book from Jacquie via an e-mail from her blog www.quiltmuse.blogspot.com (this method uses PayPal—you don’t need a PayPal account, just a credit card for secure online purchasing–scroll to the post dated April 1, 2011) or from Ann via her website .

Sample pages from A Black and White Tale

Just sitting with this little gem makes my stress levels go down—sort of like patting a cat but with less shedding hair!  It’s a wonderful poem to pick up and read and enjoy the quilts again and again!
I’m SO PROUD of Jacquie (and of course I’m biased, she’s my friend!)—congrats to both Jacquie and Ann on a well-conceived, well-done book!

Well, I actually took the photo in late March, but I loved the look through the car window and rain….

Have been really busy with painting the studio floor (which required soaking and scraping up lousy old paint left by the previous owners so the new paint stands a chance of sticking), Eli’s wrestling, Joshua stuff, more moving in stuff, paying bills and all the general nonsense….have many many many things to blog about…just need time…. anyone have any to spare?

PS—the photo is of The Market Basket entryway.  The Market Basket is a somewhat gourmet-ish deli / store / place at the intersection of Route 1 (the Old Atlantic Coast Highway) and Route 90 (which heads due West to Augusta, the state capitol, a town of under 20,000 souls one hour or so to the west).  They have WONDERFUL tuna salad, good  local and imported foodstuffs, and good breads and desserts.

Well…as I head out to the last wrestling meet of the season (Marshwood, a six-state all New England tournament in Portland, Maine), I thought I should get caught up and share LAST week’s results:   Eli placed second in his weight class –that’s all the kids in middle school wrestling in Class B schools (I think they “class” them by size, as larger schools would have a larger bunch of students and theoretically be tougher?).   The kid who beat him–Nate Boucher– is a two-time State Champ (and came in second last year in a 12-11 loss in the finals!), and is number 3 in all New England. I’ll add that the “middle” weight classes are the most competitive ones, with MANY really good young athletes.  Camden-Rockport had six boys in the finals, three of whom placed in the medals:  Eli, Chris Weiss (both got seconds) and Taylor Crosby (fourth).  Well done to them and to the entire team.

The customary congrats to the winner handshake--I love that the old courtesies are still observed in some places!

We are SO  proud of him:  Eli set himself a goal, he worked hard, he achieved it when he won Regionals and made it to States, and exceeded it by not only placing, but placing second!

The top four: Eli had beat all the others on the podium...way to go Eli!

Plus, he thinks now that he knows how Boucher wrestles, he can beat him if he wrestles smart.  Alas and fortunately, Boucher is an 8th grader, so they won’t meet again until high school.

The finals were closer than the 0 (Eli) – 6 (Boucher) score indicated as they started the third period.  There was a lot of back and forth… oh… in Middle school the kids wrestle three periods:  2 minutes, 1 minute, 1 minute. By the end of four minutes, they are totally exhausted it is so intense.

Boucher is on top (the place you want to be) in the 2nd round

Just a few moments later they are up and Eli is driving...

The third period opened with Eli looking grim but determined.  He had prevented a State Champion from pinning him for two full rounds, and was ready to go for it.

3rd round: Boucher is again on top, and Eli's legs are tucked, which means either he's in t rouble (easier to roll) OR he's getting ready to get up (hard to stand up with a squirming strong wrestler on your back)

REVERSAL! Eli gets out and swings around and takes control: Two points!

Eli said that Boucher seemed a bit stunned that Eli was able to get the reversal, but Boucher’s then 4-point lead was too much for Eli to make up in the final fifteen seconds.  Final score:  Boucher 6, Eli 2.  Well done to both wrestlers!   Eli, we are so proud of your determination, drive, courtesy, athletics and academics.  Way to go kiddo!