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The Holiday Bloghop and Giveaway!

Tuesday, November 12th, 2013

Hi all!   Guess what?  The first bloghop and giveaway was so much fun, I’m doing another with the help of some internet friends!   The schedule this time will be a bit flexible due to travel for Lisa, an extended internet outage for Marie, and U.S. Thanksgiving in late November.  On the appointed day, I’ll post a bit about each of these wonderful, creative women, and they’ll do a quick review of my video workshop, Art Quilt Design:  From Photo to Threadwork with Fusible Applique and Machine Quilting.

To order a DVD, visit my Store page here, or to order either the DVD or a digital download, visit Quilting Arts' Interweave Store, here.   And, of course, you can enter the various giveaways thanks to the generous quilt artists who are helping me give away copies!

To order a DVD, visit my Store page here.

You can also order either the DVD or a digital download, visit Quilting Arts’ Interweave Store, here. And, of course, you can enter the various giveaways thanks to the generous quilt artists who are helping me give away copies!

Here’s a tentative schedule:

Thanks to Quilting Arts/Interweave for donating review copies as well as some DVDs and downloads.   For the three reviews done outside the US (Brenda in Australia, Daphne in Canada and Lisa in Australia), they’ll be offering a free high def download.  The three reviewers in the US will offer a DVD to be mailed (by me).  And for the Grand Finale I’ll do the same as I did last time:  anyone around the world is free to join in, but I might ask for a bit of help on postage if the winner is outside the US.

In between all this fun, I’ll continue to share the fun I had in Houston and blogging about what I’m up to now that this year’s teaching is done!

International Quilt Festival, Houston, 1 of many posts!

Sunday, November 10th, 2013

Well it has been a very busy couple of weeks, both at Festival and re-entry coming home.  I sold out of ALL the books and DVDs I had for sale in Houston, so spent my first day home unpacking, my second day home filling orders and getting them shipped out, and then dealing with all the accumulated “stuff” in my email inbox, laundry, groceries and the usual nonsense!   Finally I’m at a point where I could process photos for the blog, so will have LOTS to share with you!  I think I’ll start with some eye candy (photos of quilts!) then go more or less in chronological order.  And interspersed with the Festival posts I’ll start the second/final Bloghop and Giveaway for my Art Quilt Design:  From Photo to Threadwork DVD on the 12th!

On Preview Night, Wednesday, I did a quick run-through on the floor to find my quilts and see what I could, as I new I would be busy until Sunday, by which time I would be TIRED.  Here I am doing a Vanna White with my Tomatoes, Basil and Garlic, which was in the Juried Show.

On Preview Night, Wednesday, I did a quick run-through on the floor to find my quilts and see what I could, as I knew I would be busy until Sunday, by which time I would be TIRED. Here I am doing a Vanna White with my Tomatoes, Basil and Garlic, which was in the Juried Show.

Then I went to find my quilt, Listen to the Song in the Night, in the Dinner@8 exhibit “An Exquisite Moment.”  I had been worried because it is a fairly dark quilt and would be displayed on black (you can see in the photo above how the dark background on my quilt disappears into the drape!).  I was relieved that it looked good!

This photo was taken on Friday (I can tell because I'm wearing the Sarah-teaches-applique-vest, and that class was Friday!), but I was pleased to see the quilt looking good!

This photo was taken on Friday (I can tell because I’m wearing the Sarah-teaches-applique-vest, and that class was Friday!), but I was pleased to see the quilt looking good!

I’ll confess, I TOTALLY love taking pictures of people taking pictures of my quilts!  What a rush that someone likes my work enough to want to take a picture!

Love it when someone likes my quilts enough to snap a photo!

Love it when someone likes my quilts enough to snap a photo! (I’m thinking that might be Ann R. from Brunswick, Maine, whom I met a couple days later?  Ann, is that you?)

While doing the kamikaze run through the quilts on Preview, I snapped some pictures of quilts that really sang to me, not wanting to risk missing these when I finally had my day off (Sunday) to see the show.

Betty Busby's Desert Fox is one I returned to several times.  I'll share more pictures in a future post.

Betty Busby’s Desert Fox is one I returned to several times. I’ll share more pictures in a future post.

And here's the signage from the show about the quilt above.

And here’s the signage from the show about the quilt above.

Then,

Jocelyn Leath's Seasonal View was amazing...fabulous quilting, color, line.

Jocelyne Leath’s Seasonal Flow was amazing…fabulous quilting, color, line.

The signage for the quilt above

The signage for the quilt above

Detail of Seasonal Flow by Jocelyne Leath.  Gorgeous!

Detail of Seasonal Flow by Jocelyne Leath. Gorgeous!

A few of the Silent Auction quilts, including my little green one.

A few of the Silent Auction quilts, including my little green one.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I apparently (!!!) forgot to take a photo of my little quilt before it left the house.  Thankfully someone bid on it, but don't know whom to thank yet!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I apparently (!!!) forgot to take a photo of my little quilt before it left the house. Thankfully someone bid on it, but don’t know whom to thank yet!

Down at the far end (hall A), was an exhibit inspired by maps, and of course I LOVE maps!   This quilt was just “the bee’s knees.”  LOVE IT!

It's the Journey by Patricia Chanty, in the Maps exhibit.

It’s the Journey by Patricia Chanty, in the Maps exhibit.

And the signage:

The sign for the Maps quilt, above.

The sign for the Maps quilt, above.

And talk about a stop-you-in-your-tracks quilt, Moonglow Anemone 2 by Carla Stehr:

Moonglow Anemone 2 by Carla Stehr

Moonglow Anemone 2 by Carla Stehr

Signage for Moonglow Anemone 2 by Carla Stehr

Signage for Moonglow Anemone 2 by Carla Stehr

Detail, Moonglow Anemone 2 by Carla Stehr

Detail, Moonglow Anemone 2 by Carla Stehr

I’ll be back soon with more pics!   Glad to be HOME, had a glorious time at Festival, and look forward to next year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DVD Video Clip

Wednesday, October 30th, 2013

For those who haven’t seen it yet, I thought I’d share the Quilting Arts / Interweave preview of my DVD workshop, Art Quilt Design From Photo to Threadwork:

You can order it from me, here, or a dvd or download directly from the Interweave Store, here.

Pink Lilies

Tuesday, October 29th, 2013
Pink Lilies by Sarah Ann Smith (c) 2013

Pink Lilies by Sarah Ann Smith (c) 2013

It’s done!   I’ll be sharing this quilt on Thursday afternoon at International Quilt Festival (Houston) at the Open Studios from 4-6 and then talking about it more at the Saturday Sampler from 10-Noon.   I hope you’ll be there!   Here’s a detail photo:

Detail of Pink Lilies by Sarah Ann Smith

Detail of Pink Lilies by Sarah Ann Smith

Thanks for the comments to my in-progress post.   Good point, Jan, that having folks fuse their own works way better logistically than me doing a printed photo version–that would have to be for a single class I think, or perhaps as part of a multi-day workshop.   But honestly, I like the idea of folks doing their own thing a lot better–no cookie-cutter-quilting in my classes!

Quilting the Good Life: Pink Lilies, a new art quilt

Saturday, October 26th, 2013

What a concept…I’m making an art quilt!  Not a very large one, but still!   I’ve been wanting to teach a series of workshops called Quilting the Good Life.  Part of it will be Quilting the Garden.  I figured everyone loves flowers, they aren’t as fiddly as getting a face right, and it is easy enough to change the colors to one that suits the student.   And lilies only have six petals, so easy enough to fuse up in a class and get right to quilting–especially compared to something like a dahlia or peony or rose!

Fused applique lily, in progress

Fused applique lily, in progress.  Cropped section of original photo on the left, fused top on the right with only the yellow-green in the centers stitched.

On Saturday at International Quilt Festival I’ll be participating in the Saturday Sampler and talking about Thread-Coloring, how I use thread like a colored pencil to tint or shade the fabrics underneath, to bring the fused applique to life.   I made this piece to help illustrate that demonstraiton, and hope to begin teaching it as a class.

Let me know if you ‘d be interested in a class like that, either in person or on line….would you rather fuse up the lily, or have me supply (for the cost of printing) the photo printed onto cloth which students would then quilt in class.  By quilting a photo (maybe printed by Spoonflower?), we could skip the fusing step (which can take a lot of time) and get straight to learning the thread-coloring bit.  Would that interest anyone?

I’m also thinking about doing some online teaching.  Should I?  I’d love to teach more QUILTING, not just the fusing part but the actual stitching.  And maybe my Edge Finishes / Binding class.   If you could pick which class(es) of mine you’d take online, what would that be?  THANKS!  Feedback is good!