Whatsa WIP you ask?  A Work-In-Progress!    In this case, one for Janome-America.  I have been incredibly fortunate to be associated with Janome since late 1983.  Usually as part of the artist/teacher program, you lend Janome things, but this time I decided I would make something to give them:  a quilted banner for their new Artistic line (longarms, software, embroidery, etc…..see all about it here).  I enlarged the logo from their brochure, then transferred that to some white fabric and have begun quilting.

In preparation for this project, I bought a second “convertible free-motion presser foot set” for the Janome 7700 I use for my quilting (one of these lovelies is included with the machine–since Janome owns the one I’m using I didn’t want to cut apart *their* presser foot!). 

The set comes with three interchangeable “feet”:  the disc (for echo quilting), the closed circle (shown attached to  the presser foot deely-bob on the left), and the U-shaped open-toe.  The two metal feet are my favorite, but when I videotaped myself quilting recently (in hopes of having a “why do I need this? how would I use these?” video on here before too long that I can share here), I tried the disc for the first time and think that I will definitely use it now!

Anyway, the two metal feet are close but not quite perfect–what I wanted was a round circle with a small opening so I could see where I’m going (as with the U-shaped foot) but that would *also* let me echo quilt without having to change the end.   So I took my trusty Dremel tool to the front of the circle and removed a scant 1/8″ segment!

My new and improved free-motion quilting foot

I LOVE IT!  It did just what I want… I can see where I am going, but I can also echo-quilt around those feathers you see in the photo above with ease.  YEAH!

And a teaser…here is what I’ve done so far… I used red thread and a triple-straight stretch stitch (and the open-toe accufeed foot) to machine quilt/outline the lettering.  I then free-motion quilted the flowers using a single line of red thread.  I want the background quilting to be subtle, but seen, so I quilted some feathers using a soft peach color.  For the feathers, I marked the spine with blue pen, then stitched the spine followed by the feathers.

W.I.P. made for Janome-America, with thanks for their support these past 8-plus years!

Next, using a wash-out blue pen, I marked curved lines randomly but with thought and an eye to design and the shapes created.  I like to separate areas of the background into smaller, more manageable “chunks” and alternate linear and curved designs from one to the next.  I also marked an outline around the lettering.  I began the background quilting using a fine 50-wt So Fine matte-finish polyester thread in white and a very small stipple around the lettering to make the letters “pop.”  Then I did one or two small sections, one with a cross-hatch/plaid, another with a sinuous vine.

The next question is:  do I paint inside the lines of the letters and at the appropriate spots on the flower?  The thing is…. the color on the logo is a slightly orange-ish red.

To paint or not to paint????

I like the orange colors just fine, but they don’t match the logo.  The Inktense pencil (on the right, numbered) didn’t work so well for what I want to do.  That means the acrylic inks (used for all the other color) are the way to do.  BUT, the red looks kinda like blood on cloth.  ERK.  The large upper rectangle and the two smaller blotches in the center are the most accurate for color-matching, but look most like blood.  The “really red” long rectangle on the bottom looks OK, but is the “Janome” logo color, not the color of the Artistic logo.  So do I color it in?  or leave it be?  If I color it, do I take creative license and use an orange?  Think I’ll run this one by my contact BEFORE I add paint…. I’d hate to spend umpteen hours quilting and then have it not work because of a wrong color choice!   Stay tuned… I’ll share again when the blue is washed down the drain and it is all finished and pretty!

On a clear day, you can see almost forever…or at least from Hope to Liberty, Freedom and points north and west in Maine….  Today we went for a walk onto a neighbor’s hilltop / blueberry barren, and it was glorious.   There were some woods on one side, but I stood and took photos in an almost-complete circle…more than 270 degrees.  When I got home, I discovered my Photoshop Elements would create a panorama for me automatically.  I fiddled a little to fine tune it, so here is a hilltop in Hope, Maine, about noon today:

A panoramic collage...click to view larger

Clearly it was GLORIOUS!   The puppy was hot and panting though it is only about 70 degrees outside.

Here are two shots, larger and not collaged, of the view:

The view to the northwest. The building in the center is the Robbins Lumber mill.

And a bit to the north/east of the previous photo--the house in the center is the one we look out on from our land (trust me, that small gray blob in the middle of the photo is a house), which is about halfway between where this photo is taken and the house on the next hillside over

I spotted some rocks that might be good for doing rubbings (grin), and these little gems will be wild Maine blueberries ready to eat in about two months–the flower is bunchberry, a form of low-growing dogwood (cornus canadensis I think):

Wild blueberries, currently not much larger than the head of the glass-ball-headed pins

Then we meandered home:

Looking east toward Camden...I am pretty sure that is Mount Megunticook with the knobby edge. Love the falling down old stone wall. They actually have these walls on the official town plat-maps.

Paul and, quite a bit farther ahead, Eli with the puglet!

I feel somewhat guilty, that I have neglected the blog.  I’ve been busy with end-of-year for our 8th grader (graduates Thursday), house stuff, quilting/work stuff, and generally not working myself into a ground up pulp.  I promise before too long I’ll take a few days and do nothing but write blogposts, prep the photos etc.!  Hope you are all having a wonderful early summer, Cheers, Sarah

Hi all…. just a quick announcement.  I cleaned my studio shelves!  That means I have three large flat rate boxes of quilt-shop-purchased, good quality cottons to sell.  I’m asking for $25 for the fabric plus $15 for the postage for each of these three boxes; I checked and the price of shipping in a flat rate box outside the US is crazy expensive.  I’m willing to ship outside the US if you are, but honestly think the postage pushes the price too high (it is $40 just for postage to Canada!):

Box 1: Mostly blue with some pink. $25 (fabric) + $15 (Postage) = $40 in the US

Box 2: Mostly green with some yellow. $25 (fabric) + $15 (Postage) = $40 in the US

Box 3: Earthtones including some orange/rust and black $25 (fabric) + $15 (Postage) = $40 in the US

I also have a “MiracleStitcher” made for a low-shank Janome machine such as the 6500.  Does NOT fit on the high-shank models such as the 6600 or 7700.  You use it to make fringe and other decorative stuff… in the original box.  Asking $15 plus postage (probably not more than $4 or 5 within the US).  You can see information here.

If you are interested, please use the contact me link in the menubar above on my website.  I can send you an invoice via PayPal.  You can then pay be credit card or paypal (you do NOT need to have a paypal account, just a credit card).  Let me know which box interests you! 

Here’s a little more information:  So why am I getting rid of fabric?  Well… these are mostly prints.  And my style has developed to where I use pretty much only batiks or hand-dyed cottons (by me) in my work, so I decided I needed to lighten the load on my shelves and send these beauties along to someone who will use them!   (As a matter of fact, I had to snag back a few just for sentimental or “just love this” reasons.)   Some of the fabrics may be missing a corner or a strip because I used part of the fabric, but the boxes are all full–not jammed tight, but full.

Eli met his biggest challenge in the Busline League Track and Field Championships...see below for all the glorious details!

Preface:  I should follow my husband’s example on FaceBook and start with with a “Parental Pride Alert”!  We now have a three-sport champion at home!

Back in September, about halfway through the Cross-Country running season, Eli had just won another meet.  From the back seat of the car on the way home, he said something to this effect:

“You know, I think I want to go out of 8th grade with a bang!

• Be on  the equivalent of honor roll [note from mom:  they changed the grading system and eliminated honor roll…do NOT get me started!]
• Win the Cross-Country championship
• Repeat as Eastern Regional Champion in wrestling and
• Win States in Wrestling [the Pine Tree League covers about 70 percent of the state, minus only the big class A schools down near Portland, Maine]
• and win one individual blue ribbon in Track and Field.”

With his first event today at the Track and Field Championships for our portion of the Maine Coast, Eli achieved his goal, and then some!  He began the day at the Shotput:

Eli ready to heave the 8-lb shotput 34' 6" feet; despite a couple of good kids from Belfast, he won!

Next up:  Triple Jump!  For several years, we lived near the Vitagliano’s; Eli would play with Chris and admire Matt’s athletic abilities.  When the family moved down to Virginia, the boys kept in touch by Facebook.  Eli copied Matt and set up a throwing zone in our yard, weighing rocks that were from 10-12 pounds to practice!  Matt told Eli that he had looked up Olympic athletes on the internet to study their form, and Eli promptly did the same, to the benefit of his field events.

Even though a lady almost walked in front of me, blocking my shot, I managed to get this great shot of Eli airborne! Makes my ankles and knees hurt just to think about the landing!

Eli landed a personal best of 32′ 7″ and WON!  Second first place ribbon!

Skipping the running for just a moment to complete the field events, Eli came in third in the discus (his last event…he was tired by then and the overcast skies had cleared and the heat soared to near 80):

Throwing the discus for 3rd

and in the Turbo Javelin (a new event last year, the middle school boys use a plastic javelin that has blades on the back like an arrow) got a second place, logging a personal best in competition and breaking his own record at school to hit 133 feet (about 50 feet more than most of the other kids! to qualify for the middle school championship competition you had to throw over 6o feet!).

But saving the best and sweetest for last:  the 1600 metre race, about a mile.  When Eli began track three years ago, then 8th-grader Ben Trapani would lead in so many races, by such a long distance, that he seemed unbeatable.  He held the school record in several events, including the 1600 metre with a time of 5 minutes 19 seconds.  Eli wanted to beat that record and trained hard, going to the high school on Sundays where Coach Morse would run optional extra practices and time intervals so the kids could learn to “feel” if they were running a lap at 1 minute 21 seconds, 1 minute 26, 1 minute 15 and so on….. how they can do that I have NO idea!  Right off the opening shot, a kid from Medomak took the lead:

A large pack for the 1600 metre race. The boy on the left (Med. for Medomak) with red arrow (not the boys in yellow in the foreground) is the one who took and held the lead for 3 1/2 laps. Eli is the arrow on the right.

I took photos of the clock, and Eli’s first lap was EXACTLY what he wanted:  1 minute 20 seconds.  If he could maintain that through 3 laps, he would increase at the start of the fourth, then “book it” for the last half-lap.  By halfway through the third lap, Coach Morse hollered at him to close the gap of over 100 feet (maybe 50 yards?) sooner.

Rounding the end of the track for the last half lap, you could watch Eli kick it into gear–he and the Medomak boy were wwwwwwaaaaaayyyyyy ahead of everyone else.  Eli mustered heart and guts and closed in, to the screams of many of his teammates, and with maybe 15 metres to go pulled even and then passed him!   The photo at the top shows how close the two were.

Eli WON with a time of 5 minutes 16.16 seconds, beating Ben T’s school record by 3 full seconds!!!!!!!  And the boy in 2nd (previously undefeated this season) finished also in 5 min. 16 seconds, but still second.  Both boys were gracious after the race, and Eli correctly noted it was good to be pushed.  Without the Medomak kid, Eli would have won, but he might not have had the push he needed to beat Ben’s record.  After the race, many parents came up to us and said that was “THE” race and finish of the meet! Well done to all!

After the meet, we waited for team results.

The kids gather to hear team results

The girls’ team has incredible depth, and had a commanding lead in team standings.  Both boys and girls teams are, by the way, made up of kids from Camden-Rockport plus the H-A-L (Hope, Appleton and Lincolnville) schools, as those are too small to have their own teams.  The girls won, again, with an undefeated season:

The Girls team wins!

The boys race to the finish was tight–we weren’t sure up until they announced the second place team who would win…literally every single kid who placed 6th or higher contributed an essential point or several to THE WIN…yes, another undefeated season!

The boys collect their plaque for the school

Oprah Winfrey is quoted as saying “Surround yourself with people who will lift you higher.”

At first I thought how this applies to how Coach Morse has helped Eli, but then I realized it really applies to ALL the team:  To Coach Jim Morse, Coach Dee Kopesky, and ALL the kids are ALL lifting each other higher.  Mr. Morse (the School’s awesome 6th grade Social Studies teacher, and who seems to me a bit like a pied piper–Jim, we’re so glad for all you’ve given to Eli and that we had one more season with you) recruited a huge team…nearly 90 kids!  What is more amazing, I think we had something like 60 (?) kids qualify for the championships (meet certain times or distances/heights for the various events)–not sure how many, but it was a HUGE squad!  The training and dedication of both coaches and kids together lifted them all higher.  WELL DONE, everyone!  And Eli…. we are so proud of you!  Even more than your sports ability, we admire your brains, determination, dedication, and good sportsmanship.  WOW!

Here’s to a three-sport honor-roll champion–you deserve a rest!  Want waffles for breakfast whenever you wake up tomorrow?

What better pairing than a great exhibit  (of which I am proud to be a part) AND an opportunity to help “Kickstart” a great new chapter in the Why Quilts Matter series.

I’ve blogged before about my quilt, Strength and Calm, which has been juried in to the Rituals exhibit that will debut this summer at International Quilt Festival Long Beach then travel on to the mega-kahuna-mecca of quilts, International Quilt Festival in Houston (where I will also be teaching again! would love to see/meet some of you in my classes!).  Well curators Leslie Tucker Jenison and Jamie Fingal have been running a fun and fascinating glimpse into the lives and personalities of the artists who have made the quilts in this year’s exhibit.  Today is my turn!  So to read more about it, go here.  Thanks to Moore‘s Sewing and Havel (as in those wonderful scissors) for sponsoring the exhibits!

Speaking of sponsoring, I was starting to read some old QuiltArt digests, and discovered that Shelley Zegart has launched a new project, a companion guide to the WONDERFUL DVD series, Why Quilts Matter (click here to read lots more about the series).  I’m thrilled to say I’ve just made a donation to her fundraising campaign on Kickstarter.  You can click on the widget (the doohickie to the left) in the sidebar of my blog or go here to help support this effort and read more about it.