September 25th, 2006
We had a great class last Saturday, a rainy, chilly day here in mid-Coast Maine. We had six students, which is one more than we usually have in the class (small room), but it worked really well. As usual, the first half of the class is lecture…my trying to take what I’ve learned here and there over 18 years and share it with the class so their learning curve will be shorter than mine!
Everyone did really well, and I can tell that there are several awesome machine quilters in the making. We had ladies from north of Nobleboro (where the shop is located) all the way down to Brunswick (maybe 30 minutes north of Portland) and in from Vinalhaven, an island off the coast on the outer edge of Penobscot Bay. Sally kindly let me take this picture of her:

She did the cool thing with her circle, too…. in the classes, I start the students with the walking foot on and have them stitch a grid to make a free-motion sampler on one sandwich. On another sandwich, I have them learn to eyeball sewing on the diagonal across blocks (it’s magic…you actually sew right through the intersection without trying…have no idea how it woroks, but it does for virtually everyone the first time! anyway…), then have them sew a circle trying to get the start and finish to match and, finally, to use the presser foot to make a line parallel to the first circle. Then Sally went to town:

I’ve got some more classes coming up (yeah!) –another intro to machine quilting on Oct. 15 (a Sunday), a Postcards workshop on Oct. 21, both at Maine-ly Sewing in Nobleboro, and the machine quilting at Cote Brothers in Auburn on the 28th.
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September 23rd, 2006
I’ve been noodling around with an idea for a trees-on-the-hill series of teaching / learning applique patterns, so these postcards are essentially sketches for that series. I’ll be keeping all but one of these (there are two almost identical…one will stay, the other will go to FFAC or for sale).
The simplest one is Lone Tree on a Hill:
Then, Trees on a Hill #1 and #2:

Then, add sunset–Trees on a Hill at Sunset:
and finally, Trees at Night:

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September 20th, 2006

Well, I promised you more, so get ready! Today’s theme is “orbs”, or planets, or moons, or whatever. Circular. I don’t know why but I’ve had this “thing” for night and deep space quilts lately. Out of the 16 or so new cards (some not complete, others to be posted about in a day or two or more), I will keep a few as teaching samples, sell a few, and send five or six to Virginia Spiegel’s Fiberart For A Cause, a fundraiser for cancer research. (And a slightly tacky aside: If anyone really is interested in purchasing one of these cards, they are $30 (including not-insured shipping in an envelope in the US)…write to me soon if you’re interested, otherwise some of the orbs will go to FFAC in about ten days).
The first is the exception…it has mountains as well as space / sky, and is another in the moon over the mountains series I posted about earlier.
My favorite of these orbs may be this one, Mars. I usually stay away from reds, but I really like this one:
Oh yeah…I forgot Turtle Moon, hmm….that may be my favorite (the theme here: Simple is Beautiful)—that’s the one I left at the top of the blog as a teaser to get you to read on!
Planet Irridescence is made using Shiva oil paintstiks (nevertheless, made to use on cloth and the oil doesn’t halo). I placed a rubber stamp I carved underneath and layered metallic aqua and silver Shiva for the planet, then used a commercial “animal skin texture” rubbing plate for the rest. “Bound” / edge-finished with sparkly yarn and eyelash yarn twisted together.

Magenta has been one of my favorite Crayola colors since I was in first grade, and here is Magenta Moon–I had fun quilting this one!

Copper Heavens is simple, and unusual colors for me…I was trying to work in atypical colors and materials. I really like the variable-width satin stitch:

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September 20th, 2006
Some days are just picture perfect, and today was one of them. That was good for the 3rd grade at Rockport Elementary School (which serves the students of both Camden andRockport), since today was the annual start-of-school cookout, and parents were invited. Once the kids inhaled their burgers and/or hot dogs (ours seems to be on a growth spurt…he ate one of each!), they ran off to play. Eli went down to the field to play soccer. He’s in the middle in this picture:

And here are third grade boys being boys:

The view from the school is typical Maine, and looks a bit more rural than this area actually is (but that’s good!); here’s the nearby barn,
and a wider angle view with the same barn—I told you it was a glorious day!

Then after a while on the field they all ran up to the school because of the rumor (true) that ice cream was ready for dessert, then ran (do children ever walk?) all over and around the awesome playground equipment, donated by a local company that makes these structures (talk about earning some good karma! that company deserves it!)

And finally, because I’m feeling disorganized, a photo of all four cats, no longer hissing at the new one (on the left) ALL eating together!

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September 17th, 2006
Caitlin wrote:
These are really lovely – well done! I found one problem I had with freezer paper stencils was that sometimes the fabric I was painting wiggled underneath the brush – simple solution: iron freezer paper to the BACK of the fabric as well! (of course, doesn’t work if you’ve already got fusing on the back of the fabric…)
which led me to muse:
Brilliant idea! Since mine were already fused to the stabilizer (like timtex but Floriani brand) they didn’t wobble, plus the areas were really pretty small…maybe 4 cm across at the widest point (you do use metric in Oz don’t you? Or do you have thelegacy of inches from Britain?). Hmmm…thinking on it, if you already had fuse on, I’ll bet you could iron it to parchment paper or yo ur applique press sheet though, since it kinda sticks before it peels off, and that might serve the same function as freezer paper…hmmm….will have to remember and try that!
I was going to send that directly to Caity, but her comment came through as no reply from Blogger, plus I thought it might be an idea someone else could use…so here it is! HTH!
Thanks to all who wrote such nice comments about the cards. I have another bunch going and will post them in a week or two…it’s going to be a BUSY week.
Yesterday had a tiny (2-person!) but wonderful class with Ann and Nina (sorry…forgot my camera so no pics). With a combined 60 years of quilting experience (mind-boggling…they aren’t old, so they clearly started young!) they absolutely took to the guidance for the various bindings and edge treatments—both really know how to sew well, so I could just say “do this” and they’d be off and running. They are the first to ever do ALL the finishes in all my samples….I’m thrilled to know it is possible, and happy that I actually had something new to share with two ladies who have done that much sewing! FUN class, ladies!
I’ll be teaching on Thursday in Auburn (2 hours each way…thank heavens there is a Starbucks in Auburn–GRIN!)–this time it is machine applique. And on Saturday I’ll be back at my “quilty home,” Maine-ly Sewing, doing the intro machine quilting class. That one is very full, but we scheduled another on Sunday, October 15, which still has openings.
Thanks to everyone for the kind comments and for surfing in from literally around the world!
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