“Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” Marcel Proust

Here's to a White Thanksgiving

Greetings from Snowy Maine!  Yes, we had a White Halloween, and now a White Thanksgiving.  Luckily, the snow came down on Wednesday, making turkey-day travel easy as the plowing has been done and the plow-guys can stay home and eat today!

For my readers not in the U.S., the fourth Thursday in November is perhaps the most “American” of all our holidays, at least for me, and that includes our National Day, The Fourth of July.  The holiday springs from a feast the new settlers had back in the Colonial era, when rough times and rougher weather made it uncertain that they would make it.  Help from the Native Americans and hard work got them through it, and the colonists had a celebratory after-the-harvest feast inviting the first peoples to share.  That tradition is now perhaps my favorite holiday of the year:  family and friends, without all the crass commercialism that has sprung up around Christmas.

Yesterday I received an e-mail from Morna McEver Golletz of  IAPQ (association of Professional Quilters), in which she had the quote at the top of this post and this one:  “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent.  (Cicero)”

So today I give thanks with abiding gratitude:

First and foremost for my family:  we may be small, and have gotten smaller by one this year with my mom’s passing, but we are fiercely loyal and love each other, no matter what.  Here’s to Paul, Joshua, Eli and our critters (current and departed)!  And to my extended family, beginning with beloved sister-in-law Joyce.  Life is so much better because of you—you are my life.

Here’s to friends far (Marie! Lunnette!) and near (Kathy, Kate, Deborah–who’s a bit far now, and all the Coastal Quilters), you enrich my life and I am so honored to know you and be able to call you friend.  And to friends from long ago in the Foreign Service, and before that school… I’m glad to still be in touch.

Here’s to art and the internet:  without the internet, I would never have embarked on this incredible journey which has filled my soul.  I’ll start with the QuiltArt list which I joined in 2002 (and WHIZZZZ WHOOOOSH…that wind tunnel you hear is the years flying by) and which has been instrumental in my growth–and in connecting me with like-minded souls.  And to the internet and my blog–I have come to know many of you who read this page, and am so grateful you take time from your lives to visit with me.  I’ve loved meeting many of you and hope to meet even more!

So let us give thanks, for each other, for our families, for art, for sharing, for learning, for the internet, and for being able to share!

PLEASE send our quilts home!   This past summer, Anne Copeland of the Fiberarts Connection curated the exhibit  “Then and Now”  that was on display at the Mancuso shows in New Hampshire (World Quilt Competition) and California (Pacific International Quilt Festival, PIQF, Santa Clara).   The Mancuso show folks returned all the quilts to Annie, who in turn packed them up to return to their owners.   All but four have made it home; alas, it appears that two of my quilts and two of Wendy L. Starn’s quilts are currently lost and unaccounted for since about October 11th, over a month.  If you see these quilts for sale anywhere (or anywhere or any way else!) PLEASE let me know!!!!!!!

As far as we can figure, Annie shipped out most of the boxes on October 11th at an Office Depot near her home in Lomita, California; they are a postal acceptance facility.  Those quilts were packed in Flat-Rate Medium USPS (US Postal Service) boxes; all of those for which she has a receipt and tracking numbers were delivered.  Several days later Annie made two trips to the US Post Office in Lomita.  One trip was for the international shipments (to Canada and the Netherlands) and another was for domestic mail.  Annie had tracking numbers for six of seven boxes known to ship that day, and all are marked as delivered according to the USPS Tracking and the seventh box the recipient has said she received her quilts.  Of those who answered my e-mail, everyone had opened their boxes and received only their own quilts (and with the size of the box it would be pretty hard to fit in extras).

That leaves the four quilts–shown above in small images and below full size–missing:  “Fields of Gold” and “Dogwood::Dawn” made by me, and “Shady Lady” and “Economy” by Wendy L. Starn.

Fields of Gold by Sarah Ann Smith. Size: 18 x 20 1/2 inches. 2nd place winner in Houston 2009, featured in Award Winning Quilts 2011 calendar. This is my only Houston-ribbon-winning quilt (so I guess I'll have to try and make another), and would love it to come home...

Shady Lady by Wendy L. Starn of LA. 26 3/4 x 27 3/4 inches. Included in Lark Book's 500 Art Quilts.

Dogwood::Dawn by Sarah Ann Smith. 33 x 27 inches. Previously on sale at Ducktrap Bay Trading Company in Camden, ME.

Economy by Wendy L. Starn of Louisiana. 19 1/4 x 19 1/2 inches.

I have posted my information to the Lost Quilts website, and gone through everything Annie and I can think of to try to figure out what happened to the boxes.  Annie remembers  packing and labeling boxes with Wendy’s and my names and addresses, but due to a lot of pain from knee surgery, her memory isn’t clear about what happened with those two boxes.  She thinks they might have been taken to the Office Depot, but there are no records.  Without tracking numbers, the postal service can’t do a thing.  I even suggested Annie check her bank records for  purchases so we could do the math and it appears no postage was paid for the missing two boxes.  I am still hoping they will turn up eventually.

In the meantime, going public via the internet seems to offer our best hope for recovering these quilts.  If by chance you see them (HORRORS) on Etsy or Ebay, or anywhere else, PLEASE let us know.  As Annie is also having to move (while still in pain from the surgery) to a new home, please contact me.  In turn I’ll share any info with Annie and Wendy.  Annie is, I am certain, more stressed about this than I am!  She has always been SO careful in the past, and I know that her pain was a major factor in this issue.  Please send her healing light for her pain, and “good move” thoughts–and “come home quilt” thoughts for Wendy and me.  I am still hoping that maybe they may be walkabout in the US postal service…perhaps with no postage and have yet to be returned to sender…..

Thanks for your help!

And before I go count down 139 comments out of 224, I’m going to put a note at the start of this post:  One commenter has the book already, and  a couple of my replies are in that total.  If I land on Terry’s comment or my replies, I will go to the next highest number that isn’t either Terry or me! (PS:  I used www.random.org to generate a number between 1 and 224.)

Now I’m off to count….

And now I’m back: Annie Copeland of California (and I actually know her!) has won.

I love this kind of book with lots of photos that are clear and show how to do what it is we are trying to learn. I have trouble learning from just words, so this handsome book fills the bill from my standpoint. Thank you for the opportunity. I love the photos, but love the little dog esp. Having my share of pets, this is one I need to get down.

Annie:  looks like things are looking up for you…HOORAY!  I’ll write to you and Susan by e-mail and you two can work out when and where you want Susan to send you the book.

And since there were SO MANY OF YOU who came and commented, I thought I’d add a free pattern of mine.  So, Stephanie of Stephanieestrin.blogspot.com,  please write to me (I’ll send you a direct e-mail too) and you can pick any one of my patterns that strikes your fancy, and I’ll send it to you!

THANK YOU ALL!

OK…so I was actually (who me?) spontaneous this summer and signed up for a www.Joggles.com class with Jane LaFazio, Sketchbooks and Watercolor on Location.  The idea is/was that you go OUT to sketch and sketch from the real thing, not a photo.  I am SO GLAD I did…I’m having a ball, so much so that (as I’ve mentioned before) I signed up for a second class.  This post is about the first class, and one of the early lessons.

So I dropped the son off to run at the high school (this was late summer), and treated myself to tea and sweet at a nearby spot.

Told the child I wanted /needed about an hour.  After dithering about what treat to get, I finally sat down at this table with LUSCIOUS basil.

I briefly considered including the basil in the sketch. I then realized I'd be there 'til midnight if I tried, and decided (who me?) to go simple. OK, to go not as complicated.

Then I finally began to sketch.

A close-up of the cup and tea bag. Don't you just LOVE the cup sleeve, from the Carrabassett Coffee company?

Here is the sketch, done first in pencil, then inked in with a Pitt pen.  Of course, 20 minutes after I arrived I get a call:  “Mom, it’s too hot to run!”  Me:  “remember I said I needed about an hour?”  Then, “you’ll have to wait for me for another half hour…find a shady spot to sit.”  Sigh.

Inked in....cup is too short and not tapered enough, but still OK.

SO…. I packed up my cup and supplies and the rest of the chocolate cake (slurp), and retrieved the child and headed home.  It actually was pretty warm.  Then I set things up at home.  The shadows/light were different, but close enough….

Adding color at home, on the dining table, lacking the usual clutter around my spot.

And the final sketch:

Not too bad for a beginner....the curve of the cup isn't quite off, and the tea bag looks like it is levitating a bit, but not too bad....

Considering I’m just starting with watercolor, I’m pretty happy.  I have discovered that having REAL watercolor paper makes a world of difference, and having little water in the brush makes it much easier to stay within the shapes and not bleed and make yucky stuff! FUN!

If, at some point in the future, I quit travel teaching, this is why:

Too much stuff....

That is one full-size suitcase, three roll-aboards (one for the laptop and projector, one for clothes, one for stuff to sell), a carry bag, two crates of teaching and class supplies, a case of books and pinnable panels for classroom display.  And many, Many, MANY pounds of STUFF.  Yes, my back hurts.  Yes, I bought a larger car so I would feel safe driving on the interstates to teaching jobs (I’ve driven from mid-coast Maine to as far as Knoxville, TN) since I prefer two days  on the road (each way) to one day in airports.  Yes, I bought a larger car so that I can FIT all this stuff in the car and still be able to see out the back.

So…tomorrow I leave for A Quilters’ Gathering in Nashua, NH.  Hope to see some of you there!