WOW…this morning I checked my site meter, which tells me how many visits I’ve had since I signed up for the meter on February 17, 2006, and where you are from (in very general terms, like city and state, except that even that is not all that accurate…I know someone locally who visits from Belfast, but since they have Adelphia, it tells me they are from Rockland, a town in the other direction!). As of a few moments ago, it was 19,546 visits…WOW!

To celebrate the 20,000th visit, I’ll send one of my patterns as a gift to the individual who surfs in at 20,000 (and if that person doesn’t reply in about a week or so after the announcement, I’ll work my way upwards to 20,001 etc. until someone replies). Whoever wins can have the pattern of their choice from my pattern page on my website.

I TOTALLY love my site meter…I love seeing repeat place names like Paw Paw, Michigan; Friday Harbor, Wash; Spanish Fork, Utah; Pusan-ji, Korea; Melbourne, Australia; and I can guess that my friends Kathy, Hannah, Deborah and Kate, Sally and Jaquie have visited if China, Bowdoinham or Bangor, Maine, Lewisville, TX or Putney, VT, appear. If you click on the ClustrMap in the sidebar area (on the right of your screen) you can see a map of where folks come from…all over!

My farthest away visitors are from New South Wales (is that you, Fay?) or Western Australia (Dijanne?), both at over 11,000 miles from here! My closest are those that register as coming from Rockport, Maine, 5 miles away! (it’s probably closer even…just a couple miles to the Y in Rockport). And I’ve had visitors from all 50 US states and virtually every continent except Antartica…way cool! So let’s see who and where the pattern will go!

And since my computer isn’t cooperating at all tonight (I need a NEW one…gotta get work so I can afford one!) I’ll post another cool quotation from Twyla Tharp. Tomorrow, I’m hoping to share pics of our weekend camping in Acadia National Park. And before the quote…go visit Joan Hawley’s new blog! She is the creativity and hard work behind Lazy Girl Designs, which has some of the best and most popular purse and other patterns in the quilting industry…she has a “sneak peek” of a new bag on her blog…I hope Kona Bay fabrics let’s her play with more of their fabrics. And now to Twyla…..

I’d never quite seen it summarized like this, but Tharp posits that some folks look at the world from a great distance (think of the photography of Ansel Adams or the paintings of Albert Bierstadt — the vast panorama of majestic Earth), at arm’s length like Ben Shahn (one of the famous WPA — Works Progress Administration photographers…try here to see some photos from the Depression / 1930s USA) or close-up (I immediately thought of Textile artist Karen Kamenetzky’s “cell” quilts here) .

I think I shift from great distance to (mostly) arm’s length. Some of the “space” quilts, the Circular Paradox quilts, are about great distances. What examples can you think of in the quilting world? What is your creative DNA? I guess it’s why some of us just “do” abstracts and others of us “do” realistic…..

Joanna (who is also a “noreplyblogger” so I can’t reply off-list) asked:
This is a great quilt. Thanks for sharing all your stages on how you got there. The dragon wing is great! Is this all made from teal black metallic thread?

Joanna–believe it or not, the wing is made of truly tacky black tulle from JoAnn’s fabrics…with a Halloween spiderweb pattern on it! I knew as soon as I saw it that it would be useful. I used it to shade the mountains on my Nativity quilt, too! I used black Misty Fuse to fuse the tulle. I cut a wing pattern out of paper, then did the slash and spread at pivot points thing used in altering paper dressmaking patterns (to allow, for example, for a larger tushie or hips in my case, or a larger bust line in someone else’s case!). I used the larger pattern then to cut the tulle, which I sliced on the “dart” lines and overlapped it, creating the darker ribs in the wing. A narrow sliver of tulle outlines the entire wing, too.

Here’s a picture that may show the detail better on the dragon–most folks can also click on the picture and have it enlarge on their computer screen, which may also help:

And here’s the same fabric used in the nativity quilt (along with some camo mesh fabric, equally tacky but useful):

If you’d like to see more about the Christmas Tableau quilt, visit my June archives by clicking here and then scroll down to the beginning of the month…work your way forward in time to read the various posts on this big undertaking.

I quilted the dragon’s wing with Madeira Fs Jewel in dark blue. This thread is known as “black core” for obvious reasons, and is HEAVENLY. You can get it on-line at Web of Thread which is owned by the wonderful Rooby, who loves to cook and shares delectable recipes in her newsletter (free…follow the links from her home page to sign up). I don’t get to spend nearly as much $$ at Web of Thread as I would like (I would like to spend a LOT), but I’d absolutely croak if this site ever goes away…it’s the single best source for thread on the internet I think!

HTH! (Hope this helps!)

Caroline asked if I would explain how I did the trees, so here you go! Caroline…your e-mail is set to no-reply in blogger, so I couldn’t respond to you personally…sorry!

I first fused a “background” of “treeness” …basically a peaked section of green cloth with fusible web on the back (I use Misty Fuse, which is made by Teri Austin and available here, but Wonder Under or a similar, lightweight product would work). Near the upper edges, I take a pinch and snip off the tip to get a jaggedy hole like you would see in treetops, then fuse down.

Second, I cut “branch shapes” from different but blending green fabrics (in this case I used only batiks, but hand-dyeds and prints that look like treetops work, too) with fusible on the back. I randomly place these to get a good distribution of color and shape.

Next time you’re outside, take a look at the way the branches hang, and at the individual shape of the branches…kinda blobby!

Finally, I quilt using at least 2 or 3 colors of thread (more if the trees are in the foreground or large). I’m learning not to over-quilt! I had thought I’d make fringed boughs on all the fuse bits and in between, but when I had finished with one color of thread, on only part of the fused boughs, I liked the way it looked. I still needed to stitch down those fused bits and quilt the inbetween spaces, so I used a simpler outline pattern. I like the way it turned out. The photos, by the way, should be clickable to open up larger so you can see more detail…just move your mouse cursor over the picture and click (or right click if you have that option, to open in a new tab or new window depending on your browser software).

The dragon quilt is to illustrate a story I wrote for my son Joshua who was, at the time I wrote it, almost 4. We were about to move from Washington, DC, to a new home in Friday Harbor, Washington. Since then, we have moved away from Friday Harbor, to Camden, Maine. The story is set on San Juan Island, Wash., and in the area where we built our house, Hannah Heights. It has some of his favorite things like music, and trains, and waffles, and the Puff the Magic Dragon song.

Begin the full text of :
Joshua Meets Puff, A Tale of Hannah Lee
By Sarah Ann Smith, October 1997

Once upon a time, not far into the future, a boy named Joshua sailed to a magical island called San Juan. Joshua had arrived in a lovely town where every day was Friday, so it was called Friday Harbor.

On the trip across the island, Joshua could see beautiful snow-capped peaks and passed a farmer tilling his fields. Nearby, he saw a well and next to it a picnic basket and mandolin (which is sort of like a guitar and plays wonderful music). But most wondrous of all was the little bearded man in the red hat who stopped to talk to Joshua. Joshua didn’t know it then, but the little gnome (for that is what the man was) had magical powers.

The little bearded man told Joshua he was about to embark on a journey and offered him the jug, to fill with water at the well, the picnic basket, and the mandolin to learn how to play. Joshua thanked the little gnome for being so kind, and went along his way.

Joshua had been walking for a long time, so he decided to stop by a babbling brook for a snack and a nap. He didn’t know that while he was asleep the little woodland creatures crept out to look after him and make sure he was safe! The young lad hadn’t realized how tired he was! When he awoke, the stars were out and shining brightly.

Joshua was a little afraid to be out at night in a place he didn’t know, so he began walking. Before long, he came to a clearing with a barn, stable and house. As he neared the house, a young woman came out holding a lantern. Joshua was surprised that she seemed to have heard him. He said “Hello,” and she replied “I am Sylvine; I heard your mandolin calling to me. Please stay here where there is shelter, and I will see you on your way in the morning.”

Joshua gladly answered “thank you, I would love to stay here, for I am very sleepy.” They went into the house, where the nice spotted doggy, who was named Spot, wagged his tail and barked a happy hello to Joshua and the girl.

Sylvine hung the lantern on the wall and offered Joshua supper of fresh bread with butter and jelly, tea and cream and fruit. Soon it was time for bed, and they went to sleep. The dog slept on the rug, and the cat in front of the fireplace.

Soon, it was morning and they had waffles for breakfast. Then, it was time for Joshua to journey on. Sylvine gave Joshua a knapsack to carry his things, and he thanked her for the gift and her hospitality.

As the sun rose in the sky, Joshua moved westward. Before long, Joshua arrived at the water’s edge, in a land called Hannah Lee.

As Joshua sat by the sea, a friendly whale named Hannah came by and said hello to him, and told him that he would receive a special visit from a magical friend, Puff. Now Joshua had no idea who or what a Puff was, but since the whale was so nice and friendly, Joshua decided to sit down and have a morning snack. He ate his bread and some fruit and had a few drinks of water from the jug.

Then he noticed the most curious thing: the jug filled back up all by itself, magically! What a wonderful gift from the gnome! Then Joshua took out his mandolin and began to learn how to play it. As he strummed, a dragon swam towards the shore.

Neither Joshua nor the dragon (which looked like a sea serpent when it was swimming) knew whether to be more scared or curious. In the end, they both decided to be curious and check each other out.

As the baby dragon got out of the water, his fins turned green! Not many people know that dragons, like chameleons, can change colors. When they are happy, they turn pink and purple. When they are a bit scared, they turn green, and when they are sad turn blue or gray. And when they are just swimming along, they can be any combination of colors—just like Puff looked (blue and red) when Joshua first saw him.

Well, the baby dragon swam right up to the edge of the beach toward this funny thing he saw, even though he didn’t know it was a boy. It had blond furry stuff on its head, walked on only two legs, and had no wings! It was Joshua.

The boy said, “Hi. My name is Joshua.”

And the baby dragon, now happy and pink, said “Hi! I’m Puff and I’m a dragon. Will you be my friend?” And with that, Puff walked onto the grass and sat down next to Joshua. Joshua asked Puff if he would like some fruit and water, and Puff said, “Yes, thank you, I’m hungry.”

Then Puff noticed the mandolin, and asked Joshua to play him a song, and he did. It was a song about a train called “She’ll be comin’ round the mountain.” When Joshua was done, Puff asked if he could play the mandolin.

And Puff taught Joshua a sea chanty, then said he would make up a new song about his friend, Joshua. It went like this:

Puff the Magic Dragon

(insert the rest of the lyrics here…since they are copyrighted, I won’t! just substitute “Joshua Smith” for “Johnny Paper”.)

Joshua and Puff became the best of friends, and played by the shore and went on sailing trips together. Joshua sailed in his ship and Puff swam along side, and they had great adventures. But those are new stories, and this is THE END.