It was a wonderful two week trip…a week aboard the Disney Magic cruise ship, then four days in Sarasota visiting hubby’s aunt and uncle (where it was HOT HOT HOT and HUMID, yuck)…. it was wonderful all around, but deliriously happy to be home, and back in touch and on e-mail and all that good stuff. I had prepared several posts in advance, hoping to upload them while on the road, but couldn’t get into blogger, so will upload one of those just after this message, then will hope to get new stuff up over the next few days.

Woohooo…..what fun! Missed you all! Cheers, Sarah

I wanted a jacket to cover the teal “tank” shirt to take on our upcoming vacation trip. Paul and I will be (gulp and gasp!!! Imagine it?) going out to a dinner, a NICE dinner, with NO kids…for maybe the second time since Joshua was born almost 13 years ago (and NO, I am not exaggerating…we don’t have any relatives who can help us, and babysitters are too spendy a splurge for us). I bought the yarn at Maine-ly Sewing on sale, and decided to make a sewn jacket. Here it is:

I was initially going to lay the yarn out on water-soluble stabilizer only, but it just wasn’t working, so added a layer of black tulle. If we had had a decent fabric store nearby, I would have used a black or teal sheer, but the nearest one was two hours away, and time was short. So I used the tulle, water soluble stabilizer (think saran wrap that dissolves), spray baste and pins and created the jacket fabric from tulle and ribbon yarn.

Then I made the jacket—the body is all one piece, with only shoulder seams (covered with a layer of ribbon so it looks continuous). The sleeves are set in, and I used a piece of the ribbon-yarn to “wrap” the seam allowance and create a finished edge. Finally, I sewed two lengths of ribbon yarn together to make a “binding” for the edge, which I sewed around the sleeve hems and the opening/bottom hem of the jacket.

Best of all, it packs down to nearly nothing!

At LAST we can share.….the long skinny box has arrived in Dallas at Deborah’s house (you know her from her wonderful blog)! In January of 2005 (gee….only last year?) Deborah B., Kate C., Kathy D. (of Studio in the Woods blog) got together and formed a group and decided to call ourselves the Frayed Edges…

Then towards Fall came the news that Deborah would be moving to…gulp….Texas! Just as she was getting ready to move, she met Hannah B. and introduced her to us, and the Frayed Edges became five! Of course, our mantra from day one has been “no stress.” We wanted to make Deborah a farewell gift, but with the holidays just before her move mid-February, it didn’t happen. In March, we met at my house in Camden, (we had always met at D’s because of her little one, who is nearly our mascot!) and planned out what to do: four journal-sized-ish pieces with a common horizon line running through them all, and a “Maine” subject.

In April we met at Kate’s house in Bowdoinham and discovered to our great surprise and pleasure that they all worked together and that the white in my piece and Kate’s (the first and fourth) framed the piece nicely. From left to right the quilts are by me (Sarah), Kathy, Hannah and Kate. And here are close ups first of the two on the left (mine and Kath’s)–mine is of the Marshall Point Light at Port Clyde, both because it is quintessential Maine and because I so clearly recall Deb and Kate talking about letterboxing there! Kathy’s is of the glorious fiddlehead fern that unfurls in May and is a delicacy in quiche, salads and other local foods.

and the two on the right are Hannah’s and Kate’s. Hannah did a sunrise, because the sun first rises on the United States right here, and Kate did a winter scene of smelt shacks on a lake (ice fishing is a favorite pasttime here).

We talked about hanging the four, and talked about branches or sticks. Kate happened to have a “found” oar and two likely pieces of driftwood, one of which won out. Better yet, Kate had jute exactly the color of driftwood!

By June we had our pieces done when we met at Hannah’s house and played stamping and making screen prints in her basement, and I took the pieces home and bound them with the same yarn I couched to the outside edge of my piece.

In July, at Kathy’s house in China we put everything together and started to hang the quiltlets from the driftwood, but it needed more time and precision, so I brought the whole shebang home, tied them mostly evenly (unlike in this photo!) I hope, and made a box to send to Deborah!

We MISS YOU Deborah, and even though you’re half a continent away, we are still the five Frayed Edges! And by the way…any chance we might get you to lend it back to us for our group show at the Camden Public Library next summer for the 2007 Maine Year of Fiber Arts???

As I mentioned in my euphoria yesterday, I took the boys to Augusta for clothes shopping.

The big surprise was some of the shirts and pants that Joshua thought were cool…and he even wanted to get a red tie (or possibly a nice pale pink) to go with this outfit! Can you believe he is still 12? Will be 13 in November, looks…14?

Of course, once we started taking photos, he wanted me to take another, and another, and another and and and…… so here you go. I’m now waiting for hubby to tease me that (a) that MY genes are responsible and (b) they are from the shallow end of the gene pool.

Ahem…well……Personally, I’ll take credit for a boy with a sense of humor, good looks, good brains (of course, getting him to USE them in school is another matter entirely)….

And here’s the second son (who from time to time I swear channels his late Uncle Charlie, my half brother who died of cancer and about 96 years of hard living packed into 42 years back in 1982– it’s the impish grin that does it….). Mirriam-Webster may substitute his photo under the definition of CUTE! (not that I’m biased in any way of course…..)

Hmmm…..well…about that shallow end of the gene pool…. “grin!” I DO love my boys!

Tippety tap! Tippety tap! Happy alert!

So, this afternoon I was in the boys’ aisle at Kohl’s in Augusta doing school clothes shopping (with two increasingly restive and starting-to-lose-it boys) when the cell phone rings. It is hubby, with the news that he just spoke with Ricky Tims his own self, who called to tell ME (??!!!!????!!!!!) that I had won Best Composition and Design, one of three awards (the other two are Best in Show and Best Workmanship) in the Au Naturale show at Tims’ La Veta Gallery!!!!!

Major HAPPY DANCE! Here is the quilt that won the award, based on a photograph I took at Machu Picchu, when Paul and I were there in 1988 or 89 (forget which year):

and here is a link to it on my website, and here is another link to the detail shot! And here is the original photo:

I began the quilt in a workshop with Esterita Austin (here’s a link to her workshops page), but instead of doing one of her patterns, “did my own thing.” Boy am I glad–both to have taken the class and to have done my own picture!

I’ve NEVER, EVER won a national level award., and I’m most insecure about my design abilities, so to have won that particular award is REALLY special! I’ve won the equivalent of best in show at the San Juan County (Washington state) fair, and I’ve won blue ribbons and been in the top tier this year and last at the state-wide Maine Quilts, but I’ve never won more than $5 for a ribbon…this one is $100 and will pay for this show’s entry fee and shipping, and maybe most of the fees and shipping for a second show! WOOOHOOOO!!!!!!!

The show opens on Saturday, so am guessing that pictures of quilts in the show will be on-line either this weekend or early next week. I can’t wait to see the other quilts! Best of all, I called Ricky to say thank you!!! and he said that this show may be an annual, and the “BIG” Expressions the Art Quilt will run every other year. YEAH! I’m so thrilled at what he is doing for the art of quilting, and for having the medium gain acceptance as a true art medium. I look forward to entering again!