Saw this here at Maggie Hunt’s blog today, and thought I’d play along too!!!  I also think this means I am hereby opting out of the getting tagged thing on blogs… this’ll have to do it!

Here are the rules: Bold the things you’ve done and post on your blog!

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis (SHUDDER)
10. Sang a solo (in my car, alone, to a collective sigh of relief)
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea.
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15.  Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice–but I’ve BEEN to Venice, and on a vaporetto
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37.  Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance–my son was the one hurt, he’s fine now
47. Had your portrait painted
48.  Gone deep sea fishing (my dad did…does that count?)
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie-do home movies count:>
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58.  Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60.  Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74.  Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78.  Been a passenger on a motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book -in progress!, been published in others
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car – my minivan!!
83. Walked in Jerusalem (as a child…don’t remember it!)
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85.  Kissed a stranger at midnight on New Year’s Eve
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating – ew, ew, ew….I stand corrected, thanks Deborah… I had clearly put the lobster homicide episode of last summer WAY out of my mind!  SOB!
88.Had chickenpox
89.  Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Got a tattoo
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

OK folks…I’m trying to decide.  Do I keep the current/past flags display and counter, or get the “NeoPod” instead.  You can click on it to see the flags/nation/visitor count, see the dots on a map and other stuff, but the NeoPod is dark, and on the flags page keeps moving (which I find a bit distracting).

Tell me which one I should keep… I need to decide by Friday, when I need to renew one or the other for the coming year…your choices are:

Keep the old, LONG display

Go for the NeoPod which moves sometimes…..

Thanks!

Yesterday I had a grand time!  It was my first chance to get to Augusta (Maine) for the quarterly statewide meeting of the Pine Tree Quilt Guild.  Better yet, I was the featured speaker, and debuted my lecture on Journal Quilts and Journals for Quilters.  The lady who invited me to speak said I should plan on 100-150 attendees, so I brought 150 handouts… and we ran out!   So I am going to post the contents of my handout here, at the end of this message.  Feel free to select and copy that section to print out at home!

Also, I realized I have never added my 2007 and 2008 journal quilts to my website, so I have done that today, too.  I have shared these journal quilts on the blog before, but here they are again.  The first quilt is Windows of Hope, picturing a little girl in the rubble of bombed out Tokyo circa 1946:

I’ll add the detail photos to the galleries along with technique information, otherwise this blogpost will be miles too long! (addendum:  I realized I never blogged about my 2008 journal quilts…eeek!  So I’ll do that in the next week or two….)  The next journal is Ancient Earth, which didn’t make it in to the juried 2008 Journal quilt exhibit, but I love it nonetheless.

And finally, Aslan’s Song, also made for (but didn’t get in) to the 2008 Journal quilt exhibit.  Details about the title and techniques are in the gallery section.   Click on the title for the link.

Last but not least, here is the handout from the Journal Quilts lecture:

The Journal Quilts and Journaling for Quilters
with Sarah Ann Smith

Websites:

www.quiltart.com
www.sarahansmith.com
www.quiltingarts.com
www.dickblick.com
www.mariaelkins.com
www.beadjournalproject.com

Books:
•    Creative Quilting: The Journal Quilt Project, Karey Patterson Bresenhan
•    Art Quilt Workbook, Jane Davila and Elin Waterston
•    The Decorated Page, and The Decorated Journal, Gwen Diehn
•    Journal Revolution, Rise up and Create, Woods and Dinino
•    Quilters Playtime, Dianne Hire
•    Thinking Outside the Box, Sandi Cummings
•    Quilting Arts magazine
•    Cloth Paper Scissors magazine

Ideas for journal quilts and journals:

•    Beautiful things
•    What have you collected?
•    Things that make me mad!
•    Places you’d like to go / see / visit
•    Good smells
•    Favorite foods
•    Quilts I’d make if I had the skills and time
•    Song titles/lines/phrases
•    Quotations
•    Make 100 stamps
•    Flowers
•    Groceries
•    If I looked in your closet, what colors would I see?
•    Favorite clothes/shoes you had
•    Who inspires you?
•    Tell me something good that happened to you today!
•    Cut  fabric swatches and write why you like them
•    Pictures from a  magazine ..why do you like them?

•    Focus on….

Line Circles Numbers Letters Leaves Colors…..
Bugs you love/hate (or animals, or birds)
Maps…your home, your town, your mind, an imaginary planet….
Favorite books
Hubcaps, or how to fill a circle….
Artists you admire (Matisse!  Van Gogh!)
Your friends’ best qualities

What you need to journal:      a notebook, a pen or pencil, and an eraser!  Awake helps, too…
Optional:  glue stick, camera, pens, watercolors, waterbrush

Be Inspired!  Journal, quilt, and make art!!!!

Wow….stupid people aren’t just on Wall Street; they apparently also inhabit the upper echelons of JoAnns Fabrics.  As a result of their decision to ban the March issue of Quilters Home Magazine because of an article evaluating controversial art quilts, I’d like to issue a call to boycott JoAnns until they reconsider their ill-advised decision and re-stock the issue.  Basically, JoAnns has decided that we are too stooopid to make our own decisions about what we want to read.  NOT.  Neither am I too stupid to decide where to spend my money.  I will spend it elsewhere!  I do not need to be told by someone else what I *should* or shouldn’t read.

Fundamentally, limiting public discourse –censorship– is against what we stand for as a nation.  There is a reason why Freedom of Speech is the FIRST amendment to the US Constitution, and the decision makers at JoAnns would do well to re-visit their high school civics texts along with a couple hundred years of history.

What follows is Mark Lipinski’s post which he shared on his yahoo group, Pickle Road (and printed here with his blessing).  To join the group, click here to be directed to the group home page.

Hello Pickles,

Here’s the scoop. I’m very sad to report that Jo-Ann Fabric and
Crafts has made the decision to ban the March issue of Mark
Lipinski’s Quilter’s Home magazine due to an article on “Shocking
Quilts and Controversial Patchwork: How Far is too Far?” Which
explores the ongoing debate as to whether art quilts have a place in
quilt shows, and if so, who makes the choice as to what is
appropriate or not. Of course, you must see the irony in this.

The quilts involved are:

The L Word by Diane Johns
God of OUr Silent Tears I by Gwendolyn Magee
Southern Heritage/Southern Shame by Gwendolyn Magee
I Remain by Randall Cook
Uncertainty by Galye McKay
Jesus Get Your Gun by Shawn Quinlan
Helping Hand by Mary Beth Bellah

In the article are photos of 7 art quilts that have either caused
controversy, raised an eyebrow, or have been banned in art exhibits
and/or quilt shows at one time or another (most, if not all, of these
quilts have been hung in public shows without incident at some
point) — and they range from political, social, religious, and
sexual (heterosexual and homosexual)issues. Nothing could be rated
more than PG-13, if that. That said, to be sure that all appropriate
precautions were taken; I had the magazine that are sold on the
newsstand wrapped in a clear plastic bag so to protect anyone who
might find it objectionable (which, of course, is the point of the
article).

However, the issue has been still been banned, which I find
personally upsetting because I think it’s a good article, but also
upsetting as part of the press being censored, art being censored,
and as a quilter who is one who doesn’t believe that a quilt is only
for use on a bed, that women/quilters can make their own decisions
about what they’d like to read/see, and more, that it pains me that
the industry at large is still so seemingly out of touch with who the
2009 woman/man/quilter is, as we continue to fight the stereotype
that we are all not little old boring subservient church ladies .

I’m really upset over it. This is a valid topic for a quilting
magazine and to me; it feels like someone painting the clothes over
Michelangelo’s paintings (which had been done).

Oh well, that’s the news. Please, support the magazine this month.
If you normally buy QH at Jo-Ann please know that you can find this
issue at Sam’s Club, instead. Also, don’t forget to buy it from
eQuilter.com and other online shops and TOTALLY you local quilt
shops! You can also find it at Barnes & Noble and Borders, etc.

Thanks! I’m sorry about all of this,and am really crushed and
confused, but please pass the information around so other quilters
know where they can find this issue.

xoxom (mark’s signature line)

End of quoted message.

To write to JoAnns and express your opinion on this matter, write to

Darrell Webb,
Chairman and CEO of Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores
Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores
5555 Darrow Rd.
Hudson, OH 44236
Main number: 330-656-2600

Lisa Greb
Director of Public Relations
Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores
5555 Darrow Rd.
Hudson, OH 44236
330-463-3442
lisa.greb@jo-annstores.com

CK Media publishes Quilters Home Magazine and a number of other well known magazines.  To express your support for them and their policies encouraging open discussion, buy their magazines

McCall’s Quilting
McCall’s Quick Quilts
Quiltmaker
Quilter’s Newsletter
Sew News
and write to them at:

CK Media CEO, Will Marks, at wmarks@ckmedia.com

Thanks!

I subscribe to A Word A Day, published by Anu Garg and delivered to your mailbox five days a week.  Each day you get a new word, often esoteric, with definition, the best etymoligies and derivations I’ve ever seen (he takes it back through ancient Greek to Indo-European roots quite often, or Sanskrit or whatever…cool!).  Anyway, he gives the definition, usage in a contemporary text (today’s quotation was from an Aussie newspaper),  and a Thought for today.  I often like the “thought” best of all…here is today’s:

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY (Jan. 20, 2009):
And this our life, exempt from public haunt, / Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, / Sermons in stones, and good in everything. -William Shakespeare, playwright and poet (1564-1616)

You can find Anu’s website at www.wordsmith.org and AWAD here.  It’s free. And interesting!