This past Frayed Edges meeting was an extended one for the best of reasons: Deborah came to visit us from what I think of as her exile in Dallas (sorry to all Texans!)… woooohoooo! She flew up on Saturday, called me from the airport in Boston as she was about to head out with the rental car for Kate’s house, and I was about to leave Camden (and I arrived only half an hour before she did LOL!).

Kate, alas, was not there. Kate, bless her sweet soul, cleaned house for us and invited us to stay in her empty-of-her-family (but not their homey presence) house!!!! That qualifies as sainthood points! So Kathy, Deborah and I had a sleepover at Kate’s house, minus Kate! It was WONDERFUL (except for missing Kate and Hannah, who was home with her four daughters and hubby). If you’ve read Kath‘s and Deborah‘s blogs, you’ll already have seen our food pictures, but here are more:

…. we talked as well as ate, but sure didn’t sew or create much. We DID however kibbitz on each other’s pieces, talked about what we might do if, etc.

On Sunday, after breakfast:
I had to head to Portland for a long-planned family outing, Deborah had plans with Joanne S., and then reconvened at Kate’s house on Sunday evening with Kate and Hannah (and they finished the last of the Molten (chocolate) Lava Cakes (a specialty from the local chain, and worth a trip from Texas to Maine!), and improved on their greatness by adding Starbuck’s coffee ice cream…YUMMM. A good idea gets better!

On Monday, we had our “regular” Frayed Edges meeting at Kathy’s house and was it a blast. It was actually the first time the five of us have all been together, so we got pics:

I think we look like five happy, well-fed, artsy women!

We shared:

And shared:

And shared:

We ate, at Kath’s beautiful table:

Don’t you love these little vases for the lilies of the valley, and the colors of the glasses?

Deborah brought us gifties…pincushions, with personalized shrinky-dinked pins!!!!!! Mine is the aqua! Yeah and THANK YOU! (and it is already in use at my machine!)

We talked about and made decisions for our August show at the Camden Public Library (opens on Aug. 2nd, through the 29th, Artists’ Reception on Saturday the 11th from 1-4).

After a nice looonnngggg day, which was gloriously sunny and perfect outside (and hooray! no blackflies or mosquitoes yet!), we hugged good-bye to Deborah, who headed south for one more night at Kate’s house before heading for Logan / Boston on Tuesday. And of course, I had to snap pics of Kath’s flowers and garden–the photo at the top and this one:
When I got home from that 52 hour sojourn, I felt as refreshed as if I’d been on a perfect 2 week vacation, and I KNOW it is thanks to my Frayed Edges pals.

Well, folks, we hit a major milestone today: I got my 50,000th visit! Some of you have logged in many visits, others are new. Some seek me out on purpose, others stumble across the site via a Google query or a random link on the ArtQuilters blog ring or link from another blog. To one and all: THANK YOU!

I have never journaled much at all…. so I find it somewhat mystifying and wonderful that I have kept up these “letters to the ether” and even more amazing and mystifying that folks surf in and many, many return. I’ll be migrating the blog to my website later this summer (including all the archives) and when Gloria, of GloDerWorks (she and Derry and their staff in the US and UK are web-meisters extraordinaire), does the move and re-vamp, not only will I give you all plenty of warning, provide links, keep this one going for a while, etc., but I’m hoping there is a way to archive all the posts to a disc. It’s fun to go back and see how I’ve chronicled what I’ve done! Oh, and when I do make the switch, I think I’m going to bite the bullet and pay for that cool SiteMeter that posts the countries that have visited by showing flags in the right, like at Lisa‘s and Dijanne‘s sites.

Now I have to head upstairs and lint roller the Chapter Banner, as tonight is photography night: taking pictures of the banner and the koi quilt to enter them into Houston. I got into the juried show once before, and I’m hoping this will be my lucky second time.

And once again, thank you! {{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{All of you}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}
(Those are cyber-quilty-hugs by the way!)

Today you get a tour of U.S. minor league baseball, Maine-style! because I’m still slamming on the koi quilt… as a teaser, here’s a close-up of one of the koi and some of the beading. More soon…I know I keep promising…. I finished the beading after dinner tonight, and started the facings (hand sewing). Hope to take pics tomorrow, then send the entries to Houston on Weds. or Thursday. And oh yeah… work out again. I remember that. My expanding waistline keeps reminding me….

In the meantime, I’m clearly hopping all over my Frayed Edges / Portland long weekend..during which I took nearly (Gasp, Gulp) 200 photos! I started with the last thing first, which was my previous post about Jan and Dwight’s artists’ reception for their art quilts and photos. I worked like a madwoman on my koi quilt until 3:05 pm Saturday, and had to be a 90 minute drive away in about 110 minutes (but needed a shower!). Fortunately, the car was already packed except for rolling up the koi. Anyway, I left home finally at 4 pm Saturday, and got home about 5 pm Monday, and it was such a wonderful break that it felt like a restorative two week vacation!

The first part of this mini-vacation to be planned was Sunday. As soon as tickets went on sale, Paul bought our “summer” Sea Dogs (minor league team for the Boston Red Sox) tickets. We’ve made a tradition I guess of going on Memorial Day weekend, which we combine with Paul’s birthday. The unseasonable heat of Friday (92! in Camden) and Saturday (upper 80s) was abated, and Sunday was glorious and even got a bit chilly by the end of the game, which the Sea Dogs won. We ate dinner out at Fuji, an awesome Japanese restaurant in downtown Portland, and spent the night before returning home.

I am absolutely NOT a sports fan, and especially not of pro ball. But the Sea Dogs are totally cool, and it is baseball the way it ought to be! The stands aren’t so vast, and you can see the faces of the players even if you are in the back row. There is usually someone from the team signing autographs during the first few innings down near the concessions stands, and vendors hawk “Sea Dog Biscuits, get your Sea Dog Biscuits Heaah” (that’s Mainer for ‘here’). The team has fun stuff between innings, and Slugger the Sea Dog (a name for a seal) mascot.

The game began with a trooping of the colors, followed by the National Anthem. Since it was Memorial Day weekend (for those of you not in the US, this is a national holiday the last Monday in May, the unofficial start of summer, and is to commemorate the folks who have served our country in the military throughout its history), Veterans from the American Legion paraded onto the field with the flags.

Here is the first “fun” between innings: the shopping cart toss! Two folks from the stands get to try to lob balls into a gargantuan shopping cart; the one with the most balls in wins a $75 shopping gift certificate. This time, they tied so both got the gift:

Then there is the favorite “Lobster Toss.” In this game, two folks man opposite sides of an old-fashioned lobster trap (but with top open) while groundscrew toss stuffed-animal lobsters in their direction. The goal is to catch as many lobsters as they can; if they catch a minimum amount, they get a seafood feast at a local restaurant:

There’s a chance to win a car (the light colored SUV on the right), but it’s really hard to win on this one…you have to get 3 out of 3 shots through the small opening in the board down near first base… haven’t even heard of anyone doing that one:

Then there is Slugger, who is a ham despite the fact that he is a fuzzy aquatic mammal. And good with the kids:

After I think it is the 5th inning, they play the Village People’s YMCA song, and everyone gets up, stretches and does the Y-M-C-A wave thing with Slugger (note he even has his own Village People tool belt, for those of us old enough and living in the US who can remember this group!):

During another inning break, one lucky kid (of the small size) gets his or her name picked from out of a hat to “race” Slugger around the bases and see who wins. The kid always runs the regular way, from home to first, then secon, then third, then home base. Slugger always gets confused and runs the “wrong” way, and they pass each other (with a high five) between first and second base.

Someone is always out on the field to help the sometimes-confused kids run the right direction. And Slugger always trips and falls on the way to home base which, of course, ensures that the kid wins to major cheers from the crowd:

Just before the game, we dashed down to the Portland mall, and bought Joshua his heart’s desire: Black Converse high tops, plaid shorts, and an Inspi(Red) t-shirt. Here are his adored high-tops, which he had to wear to the game:

And out on Hadlock’s Field’s version of Fenway’s Green Monster (that’s the very high wall over left field at Fenway Park in Boston, for those out of the US, which makes it almost impossible to hit a home run out of left field!), a new sign: the Eastern League Championship for 2006!

Last but not least, you always want to see the lighthouse. To do that one of two things needs to happen: if the Sea Dogs win, it rises up from behind center field with the light on. Or, if a Sea Dog hits a home run, it not only rises up from behind the wall, but sparklers (like on the Fourth of July but lots bigger) shoot out sideways like beacons of light. As you might guess, it was a good game because the Sea Dogs won and the lighthouse came up:

And I promise, I will return to both quilting and the koi quilt!!!!! But I just wanted to share a bit of Americana, Maine-style. I’m so totally NOT a sports fan, but this is just good fun!

And last but definitely not least, the day I wrote this post was my dear hubby’s 60th (??? Egads how did THAT happen?) birthday. Here’s the birthday boy opening his birthday gift:

and holding the smallest, cutest member of the family — Pigwidgeon:

or more accurately, down Route 17 from Augusta, Maine. So here I am on Weds., working out after errands, and the phone rings with an unknown number on caller ID…well out of state, didn’t even know the area code. Female voice: is this Sarah Smith? yes. The quilter? yes. Sarah Maleady Smith? (??? She knows my maiden name???) yes. Hi! This is Susan Clayworth! YES!!!!!!!!!!!

Susan was my absolute best friend and life saver in high school, and she was in Maine! Said she and her boyfriend had rented an RV to go to Acadia, but she couldn’t be so close and not try to reach me. So, we agreed to meet in 30 minutes in town!

We had lunch at Marriners, on the deck (which became a tad cool in the breeze) that overlooks Camden Harbor, and it was like 32 years evaporated. HUGE GRIN! Gotta run now to an Art Quilts Maine meeting, and still need to blog about last weekend with the Frayed Edges, and the progress on the koi quilt (slow but good), but just had to post this photo of us (above).

I’ve only seen Susan once since 1975, at our 25th reunion. What is amazing is that apart from both of us being a tad thicker in the waist, we look the same…. Susan’s hair is a little bit shorter, but we could still share clothes! I used to call her Mom “Mumsie 2” since she was like my second mom and I spent so much time at their house. I can remember one night when my dad was really getting on me and making me insane…it was summer in late high school. Well, after getting off the phone maybe 10 minutes later, Susan shows up, in baby doll pj’s under a coat in their ancient Nash Rambler (white, with aqua interior with wool carpeting that smelled, well, wooly, when wet in winter) and said “you’re coming to my house, NOW”. So I did. That’s a friend!

Now, to manage to keep up with each other in this insanely hectic era in which we live.

Oh yeah…how did she find me? She called a local quilt shop, the one nearest to Camden where I live, and asked them if they knew me. They had my teaching brochure, so they gave her my number! QUILTERS ROCK! and so does Quilting Divas shop in Rockland. WooohooO!

I collect Geminis. My hubby is one. My beloved sister-in-law, who is like a sister to me, was born on the exact same date as hubby seven years earlier. Best friend Marie was born in between the two (in years), but two days later. It’s odd how that happens…. I have a friend who collects Libras… has at least four good friends whose birthdays are all early October! Anyway, that means May is time to shop and sew. And today it is time to join in a rousing chorus of Hippo Birdie, Two Ewes! for Miss Marie, aka zquilts!

Last year when we went on the Disney cruise, I put together a small travelling pouch of art supplies to keep me content (the magenta LL Bean pencil case above): a notebook (mine was a Moleskine, but any one you like will do), a small set of Staedler pencils in a box (the tin keeps the points sharp and from soiling the bag), an eraser, a washable glue stick (for gluing in boarding passes, ticket stubs and such), a pencil sharpener, blunt-tipped (as in OK to take on planes) kindergarten scissors, some watercolor pencils (colored pencils that, when wet, turn into a watercolor), and a Japanese water-brush — just to the right of the pencil case, with an aqua handle (next to the bag it came in), with the Mars Lumograph pencil box to the right of it. Instead of taking out the pencils, tho, I put my mini-box of Caran d’Ache Neocolor II water-soluble crayon-pastels (same idea as the pencils, different form) in the photo.

These water brushes are totally cool gizies: the tip is like a felt-tip brush pen or a small sumi brush, but the barrel is a plastic tube that you can fill with water (or probably some inks or watercolors, depending on the size of the pigment particles). I bought mine at the local art store, but you can get them online at Dick Blick here. They can be used not only with the water color pencils, but also regular watercolors and things like the Neopaque II pastel crayons. Jane Davila (who has a great new book out, co-authored with Elin Waterston, which I’ll review soon) did an article recently (past two months or so) in Quilting Arts magazine about using the Neopaque IIs on cloth.

SO…. I made Marie a birthday package for art-on-the-go. My bag last summer was a perfectly serviceable pencil case, but I couldn’t send wonderful Marie a plain ol’ pencil case! So I whipped out some whimsical cat fabric (she loves cats at least as much as I do!) and whipped up a quick and easy bag. Of course, why make just one? So I made two… one for her, one for me. Since her’s is intended to be a travelling bag, it is narrower on the base so it will pack flat inside a suitcase or tote. Mine has a wider base since I decided I’d use mine to tote show-and-tell stuff to classes (lots nicer and more quilty than a ziploc baggie!).

I’ve been impressed with how easy Joan Hawley makes it for people to sew bags–no wonder her line of Lazy Girl Patterns is so successful! So I thought I’d learn from her and try to make something simple (for once!). I cut rectangles of two fabrics and batting. Placed fabric right sides together, and batting on the side with the outside fabric. Sew about 1/4″ around all edges, leaving an opening on what will be one of the top/zipper edge for turning. Turn right side out. Hand-sew (!) or fuse (yep) opening closed. Quilt quickly and simply…in this case, in matching blue thread amongst the kitties…think of an unwinding ball of yarn; do not quilt withing 1/2 inch of edges.

Sew a zipper to one side, topstitch. Sew the other side of the zipper to the other edge, topstitch. Sew side seams using 1/2″ with seam allowances opening to the outside (so the contrasting lining fabric shows. Decided how wide you want the base; align side seam with imaginary center-bottom line, make a triangle and sew across it. By leaving the flaps and seams on the outside of the bag, it is cute, shows of the lining fabric, and I think the flaps give the base a little bit more stability. Sew tabs on either end of the zipper (my zippers were too long and needed to be shortened). I LOVE scraps of ultrasuede for this sort of thing…sturdy, don’t soil as quickly as cottons, and raw edges are very tidy, but you can also wrap with cotton, too. Here’s what the end of the bag looks like:

Fill bag with wrapped goodies and send it off! Or fill bag with goodies and use! Here is the inside of the bag, minus the goodies: