We had another wonderful day, with Deborah joining in from a hectic house in Texas thanks to the wonders of long distance cell phone minutes. We met at Hannah’s house, which is nearly sold–they have less than 3 weeks left in the house before the move. Nevertheless, you can tell we felt quite at home….lookit the living room!

Kathy brought this WIP (work in progress), which of course we all LOVED!

We talked about our show this coming August at the library in Camden (and all said we want Kath to include her quilt, since the theme of the show, or at least part of it, will be “home”). And, to our communal elation and pleasure, we received a request to submit proposals for projects for a book (more info if and when it all happens) as a result of the editor seeing our work in the Winter 2006 issue of Quilting Arts (see my blog post about it here), so we talked about what we might submit as projects.

As always, food played a central role! After my cheddar, bacon and chives scones in the morning, Bart, Hannah’s very-keepable hubby (some of us are wondering if he will roll-model for other “spice”) fixed us delectable grilled sandwiches for lunch:

Kathy brought a salad of nuts and broccoli and raisins with a sweet dressing, declaring she was bored with lettuce. Kate, remembering Deborah raving about the “On the Go Bistro” chocolate lava cakes from the local grocery chain, brought a box of them. We agree: PERFECT! Just enough sweet, not too much, and a reasonable portion size: enough to feel indulged without feeling like a porker. No photo here, either…we snarfed them up too fast!

Hannah shared pictures of her new daughter from China, whom they will get to meet and bring home in late March, and showed this pillow she bought at a craft show over the weekend . ADORABLE!

Kate worked on a wonky log cabin using hand-painted fabrics from a member of Art Quilts Maine who has passed away; it was a nice way to remember her and revel in the spring-time colors (and of course I forgot to take pics of Kate stitching away with her machine perched on a tiny stool!), but if you look on the floor of the living room in the top photo, you’ll see it.

And I shared a fistful of sweater patterns and started knitting a hat….Kathy liked one pattern so much she’s already ordered her own copy! I’ll blog about those later in the week. My next post will be about my fusing scraps that I promised! The photos are taken and the post is almost completely written.

Keep your fingers crossed…we’re supposed to get a blizzard, FINALLY, here in Maine. Of course, it may snow, then turn to sleet and freezing rain, then back to snow, which means road conditions will be hideous. Perfect to stay home, watch movies, quilt, and make chocolate chip cookies and eat too much batter! Stay tuned, and think snow-not-rain!

The Gutenberg project isn’t quilting, but if you like all kinds of needlework, click on this link and prepare to get lost in cyberspace for a delectable hour or two! Deirdre (here’s her blog link) sent me the link to this bit of heaven on the internet…thanks!

I’m off to a Frayed Edges Mini-Group today, so will blog some more later in the week, with pictures. And I have been taking pictures about how I sort my small fusible scraps, and my “chunk” and “jigsaw” methods of making small fusible bits that are useful for all sorts of projects, from postcards and journal quilts to larger pieces like The Wall and The Tree (see my earlier post dated January 25 (if it has scrolled off the bottom of the blog, click on the link to the right for January Archives).

My friend Jacquie in VT sent me these…she loves words as much as I do. I DARE you to try to read through this list without laughing out loud.

NEW WORDS FOR 2007 :

Essential vocabulary additions for the workplace (and elsewhere)!!!

1. BLAMESTORMING
Sitting around in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was responsible.

2.SEAGULL MANAGER: A manager, who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything, and then leaves.

3.ASSMOSIS: The process by which some people seem to absorb success and advancement by kissing up to the boss rather than working hard .

4.SALMON DAY: The experience of spending an entire day swimming upstream only to get screwed and die in the end.

5. CUBE FARM : An office filled with cubicles.

6.PRAIRIE DOGGING : When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube farm, and people’s heads pop up over the walls to see what’s going on.

7. MOUSE POTATO : The on-line, wired generation’s answer to the couch potato.

8.SITCOMs: Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage. What Yuppies get into when they have children and one of them stops working to stay home with the kids.

9.STRESS PUPPY: A person who seems to thrive on being stressed out and whiny.

10.SWIPEOUT: An ATM or credit card that has been rendered useless because magnetic strip is worn away from extensive use.

11.XEROX SUBSIDY: Euphemism for swiping free photocopies from one’s workplace.

12.IRRITAINMENT: Entertainment and media spectacles that are Annoying but you find yourself unable to stop watching them.

13. PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE: The fine art of whacking the crap out of an electronic device to get it to work again.

14. ADMINISPHERE : The rarefied organizational layers beginning just above the rank and file. Decisions that fall from the adminisphere are often profoundly inappropriate or irrelevant to the problems they were designed to solve.

15. 404: Someone who’s clueless. From the World Wide Web error Message “404 Not Found,” meaning that the requested site could not be located.

16. GENERICA : Features of the American landscape that are exactly the same no matter where one is, such as fast food joints, strip malls, and subdivisions.

17.OHNOSECOND: That minuscule fraction of time in which you realize that you’ve just made a BIG mistake. (Like after hitting send on an email by mistake).

18.WOOFS: Well-Off Older Folks.

19. CROP DUSTING: Surreptitiously passing gas while passing through a Cube Farm.

Cheers from Sarah (the occasional 404 and Mouse Potato) the SITCOM in a land of WOOFs

The NEW CLASS SCHEDULE is ready! In the coming months I’ll be teaching machine quilting, and designing the perfect quilting pattern (for hand and machine quilters). If you would like me to teach a class to a group, drop me a line and I’d love to set something up–just reply to this posting and I’ll get in touch.

I am expanding a newsletter for loyal visitors to this site and my blog. I’ve included newsy bits and class listings in the past, but hope to add a handy tip or a book review in future “issues.” If you’d like to be added to my list (I promise I won’t share e-mail addresses!), please click on this link to send me your info.

To register for a class, contact the store where it is held directly. Maine-ly Sewing in Nobleboro (along Route 1) is at 207-563-8445. Cote Brothers in Auburn (just off the interstate) is at 782-5922:

2007:
February 17 (Saturday)–Quilting Design at Cote Brothers, Auburn
February 28 (Wednesday)–With a Dash of Color: a trunk show and lecture for the Island Quilters of Southwest Harbor (Mt. Desert Island) and Ellsworth quilters
March 4 (Sunday)–Machine Quilting, Maine-ly Sewing, Nobleboro
October–lecture and workshop, Amoskeag Quilters, Candia, NH

I’ll be contacting both stores plus one other about scheduling for April through May this coming week, and will post here as soon as I have dates set.

In August 2007, our mini-group The Frayed Edges will be having a show at the Camden (Maine) Public Library. It has a gorgeous building and setting overlooking Camden Harbor, and we are thrilled. We have settled on three things:

–we will have a theme that will cover part of the exhibit: Home
–we’ll do a challenge (more on that in a sec)
–and the rest will be in keeping with our no-stress motto, using whatever we have that we’d like to exhibit for the rest of the show

For the challenge, we decided we’d each do a small piece based on a photo each of us provided. That means there will be 25 small pieces, which we’ll hang in a grid. Going across each row you’ll see one artist’s work, with each column being the same image, interpreted five ways. Because of the chair rail and needing to keep the top row low enough to see, we ended up with some pretty small sizes: 7 inches tall! The two vertical pieces will be 7 inches tall by 5 inches wide, and the horizontals will be 7 inches tall by 10 inches wide.

Kathy, of Studio in the Woods blog, took this photo—what glorious color! I had NO idea what to do, so decided to challenge myself to do something abstract. Hmmm. Here’s how I started… the photo is on the left, and my “start” is a fused applique of the umbrella against the glorious sky (please tip head sideways)

Then I cut it up.

Then I fused it. Then I quilted it.

Hmmm…… maybe I should stick to representational?

I really like the representational (but simplified) version of what I did with the photo from Deborah. Her husband Jeff took this photo at a hotel when on a trip, to Guatemala I think. I LOVE the contrast of the vibrant (vibrating?) orange-red w/ith the greens and stone and pool blue. Obviously, it isn’t quilted yet, and that will add detail (like the legs on the loungers by the pool!), but so far I love this one…as much as the original photo.

Of course, I tried representational with this glorious photo Hannah shared, with permission form a friend (and if this looks familiar, it’s because I blogged about it a while back). Here’s the photo:

And here’s my not-so-great rendition.

I think I’m going to start over…just don’t like this one much as is. Instead of going even more macro, maybe I’ll pull back and add some background and environment?

There are two more photos that I haven’t begun translating into cloth…Kate’s of St. Michael’s cathedral in Kiev and mine of some amphorae (ancient Mediterranean jugs) at the Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida, which are at the top of this blogpost.

I promise I’ll return with what I do with those two, and in August, I’ll post pics of the challenge AND of the show!