Today is the LAST DAY you can see my episode on The Quilt Show for free…and you can also do what may be the most challenging of the puzzles, Pink Oyster Mushrooms. I’d really like to thank Alex Anderson, Ricky Tims, Shelly Heesacker, Lilo Bowman, Adele Merrell, Mary Kay Davis and all the gang at TQS for a phenomenal experience. I hope to do it again some day! If you’d like to see my interview with Alex scroll to the bottom of this post and click play! Here is the link for the last day of free viewing of my episode: http://thequiltshow.com/watch/show-list/video/latest/show-2508-sarah-ann-smith?artist_coupon=25081013
Here’s the link….you can select how may pieces, rotating or not, or automatic! Descended From the Stars as a puzzle is Here. Lilies of the Valley puzzle is here.And the puzzle for Bijagos Warrior is here.
Again, HUGE thanks to everyone at The Quilt Show for the opportunity to be on the show. One last little bit of fun…a Skype interview with Alex! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_4zjksQZ5w
Most of you know me as an art quilter, but did you know I also love Hawaiian Appliqué, especially by machine? Well I’m teaching that very class in Houston on Saturday, and I’d love you to join me. Best of all, you can translate what you learn in the class into traditional, modern and art quilts. A screen shot of the full class description is below. Click HERE to see the class listing and follow the links to sign up!
Just one of nine blocks in my Nourish the Body, Nourish the Soul quilt. You get the entire pattern in class and learn my own techniques–that I’ve not seen anyone else teach–to make a beautiful piece. This is actually a 26″ square pillow sham! This is the full quilt, about 72″ square. The blocks can range from 18-20 inches, and you get a 2-for-1 pair with my fusible technique. It’s so much fun to see the wonderful variations students make.We start with a couple little fun practice blocks (6″ finished), then move to the big ones!Hawaiian Cats anyone?Here’s the class listing from the International Quilt Festival class catalog! Sign up here.
In a rather astonishing development last May, an earlier inquiry about teaching and exhibiting turned into an invitation to have a solo exhibit, The Art of Sarah Ann Smith … so far, at the Mancuso Brothers World QuiltNew England Show tin Springfield, Massachusetts (this is the one that used to be in Manchester, NH). I hope you’ll enjoy this preview peek, if you’re in the vicinity can visit, and on Saturday I hope to post a Facebook Live or other video of the exhibit. I should arrive about noon (it’s a long drive from Maine). Click on this link to get info and directions to the show. If you can’t make the show, my book has a lot of what is there plus lots of other good stuff.
Sarah Ann Smith’s solo exhibit at 2019 World Quilt New England This exhibit begins in 1998, when I made Happy 80th Birthday Mama. At that point I never thought I’d ever be published, exhibit nationally, teach nationally, have a book and all the zillion other wonderful things since I decided to “make a go of it” in art quilting in 2004. That’s why I’m so proud that this quilt was in Karey Bresenhan’s 2003 I Remember Mama exhibit and book: it taught me that I was good enough to indeed try to make it in this industry.
The exhibit has its roots in my 2017 Rising Stars exhibit at the International Quilt Festival in Houston. I had been invited to submit a proposal for a solo exhibit. Karey liked what I suggested and how I would market it to our mutual benefit, and ended up creating the Rising Stars exhibit (which recurs every year now) to showcase two or more quilters. This exhibit is slightly different, as some of those quilts sold, and this one has new work.
Alms, Kyoto 1996 is on the far left, and started with my photo (taken in 1996 on a trip with my mother) and a workshop with Hollis Chatelain to learn how to dye paint. It was my first quilt ever juried in to Festival/Houston, and it took another six YEARS before I had another quilt juried in to the judged show, though I was lucky to have work in special exhibits in Houston. I think Bijagos Warrior, on the back wall, is one of my best quilts ever. Made in 2004, , it was declined by Houston (Sob, still), but he finally got to hang in Houston in 2017 Rising Stars. It was while working on Bijagos Warrior that I realized my sewing machine wasn’t helping me; I researched and came upon Janome machines. I couldn’t afford a soda fountain cola in those days, so I approached them to see if they had a loaner program. To my utter astonishment Janome America took me on. I have since late 2003 been a part of what is now the Janome Artisan program, and I am forever grateful for their support and sponsorship. Yes, I get free loaners, but I’d say all the wonderful things about their awesome machines if I paid full MSRP!
The exhibit runs in chronological order (though within a given “bay” of quilts they may be slightly out of order so we got a nicer looking display) from 1998 to 2019. Gosh….I just realized this is two DECADES of my work and evolution…and that I can now, with a bit of a gulp, call myself an artist.
The quilt on the left Earth & Turquoise, almost never travels to shows because of the sticks, stones and feathers, but since I drove to deliver and hang the quilts, it was able to go! I’m thrilled! And the back wall, let’s just call that a Mother and Child Reunion. This was the time when I was first invited to be in the Dinner@8 exhibits. See more about them below. During the middle of this century’s first decade, I was learning my craft, refining my voice, improving my technical and design skills.These quilts range from 2013-2015 or thereabouts. Insalata, the ginormous tomatoes on the back (about the size of a beach ball) is the most recent of this batch, but otherwise these are in order.
The Dinner@8 exhibits were such a phenomenal opportunity and formative experience. For years, I have thought this 10-year run of special exhibits presented one of the best exhibits in Houston, which is saying a lot. To be able to be in them for eight years just amazes me, that I made the cut. But my best work by far was made for these exhibits. The level of excellence rose each year, and like the rising tide that floats all boats, I think ALL of us who were fortunate to be in the exhibits grew immensely in our abilities. Conceived by Jamie Fingal and Leslie Tucker Jenison, they were juried invitationals. That means you were invited to participate–it wasn’t an open call to the public. You then made a quilt to the specific theme and size, entered it, and waited to see if it was accepted. I am so grateful for the chance to be a part of this group of strong women, and feel a bit adrift that the series has come to an end with the 2018 exhibit. BUT, that meant I had to look forward and come up with my own ideas, not be dependent on Jamie and Leslie, and I’m excited to move forward with my own plans.
Amaryllis toured extensively in Australia and New Zealand in Brenda Gael Smith’s Living Colour Textiles exhibit. Eli, Cross Country 2013 is my other son and one of my favorite of his sports. Descended From the Stars on the back wall, is another favorite of my quilts because it covers so much of my life, from my high school to imagery related to my children to calligraphy and more. Peony is on the right. 2017 to 2018: I can’t say that I have achieved mastery–there will always be more to learn and explore. But I think I have finally achieved competence, and certain techniques have become integral to my art: dyeing, painting, fused collage, representational imagery. From left to right: Stand Up, Speak Out; Pink Oyster Mushrooms; Lupine. My work now focuses very much on my work–my days traveling the world as a US Foreign Service Officer (diplomat) are ancient history and I have now spent more time as a quilter and artist than I did as a diplomat! And the view from the present to the beginning of my art quilt journey…so far! There’s more coming!
Thanks so much for sticking with me! I’ll post a few more shots after I get to see the exhibit with the show open on Saturday!
Like potato chips, you can’t stop at just one! Learn to make these FAST, easy and FUN bags on Thursday afternoon at International Quilt Festival! I’ll show you how to adapt the concept into card cases (fast gifts!), tablet cases, sketchbook covers, you name it!
Come play with me on Thursday at International Quilt Festival…Easy Peasy Inside Out Bags, class 491, is in the afternoon, total play, and you’ll become addicted to making them. So far I’ve had every. single. student. nearly finish or finish a bag in the three hours including the quilting and zipper! Once you grasp the concept in the class, you can go home and make an iPad (or Kindle, nook, etc) case, a notebook cover, you name it. Here’s a link to registration and Thursday classes: http:// http://www.quilts.com/quilt-festival-houston-classes-and-events-thursday.html
Here’s the class listing. The Supply list is on my Classes page, here. A whole buncha bags and a card case. Make them out of coated fabric for a make up bag (I use mine for cash when teaching…money literally stinks!) Make them any size, proportions, colors, embellish!
AFTER you get home, you can have fun spreading your wings and seeing how to adapt the pattern as I did with my notebook cover:
Opened up. With ribbon trim, zipper, couched perle cotton. And inside! Love my pen pockets. Love that it zips all the way around and I don’t LOSE my pens!
If you’ve got questions, PLEASE DO WRITE to me…just use the contact button! Full class descriptions for all the classes listed below along with Supply lists are on my Class page. Here’s the list of all the classes I’ll be teaching…hope to see you there:
Trying to figure out something delightful to do in mid August? I’d like to invite you to see my solo exhibit of twenty-three art quilts at the Mancuso show, World Quilt New England, in Springfield, Mass. The exhibit will feature many of the artworks that were in my Houston Quilt Festival exhibit in 2017, where I was one of two artists in the debut of the Rising Stars exhibit, but includes new works as well. I plan on being there Saturday afternoon giving informal gallery tours–I hope to see you!
Rose Hip by Sarah Ann Smith, features Artist dyed fabric, commercial batiks, hand dyed fabric by Lisa Walton, screen printing, textile painting, and intense quilting; 36 x 36 inches.
All of the 2017 and earlier works are featured in my Blurb book of the same name, along with bits about my past, other works, and hints and tips about my creative process.
Back and front cover of my book, which is available here. It is available in both print or pdf editions.
Springfield is in central Massachusetts, which makes it a day trip for a whole lot of the Northeast (albeit a long day). Directions to the venue are here. I hope to see you!
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