My son’s music, to be precise!   If you click on this (once the tab opens click on the orange arrow to play) you can listen while you read (and yes, it does seem like the blink of an eye since he was born).  Or this, The Piano Song.  But first….

My road to the hot place is clearly better paved yet again!  At least I have a good excuse:  great opportunities–which I am not allowed to blab about yet–seem to have been falling out of the sky at me in mid to late March.  I have FIVE “now or sooner” deadlines–well almost:  April 8, April 26, May 1, May 15 and June 1, plus another for early August, not to mention teaching stuff for Quilt Festival Houston in Fall and travel teaching jobs to Mass/Vt, North Carolina and southern California between now and early July!  That’s a LOT of good luck falling out of the sky, involving a lot of work, writing, preparation, travel and quilting.  Quickly.  So instead of blogging I’ve been working.  A lot. Sorta bad me for not blogging!  The pressure is a bit eased today as I have sent off what needed to be sent for April  8th yesterday evening, and with almost all of April to complete the next two items, I am feeling less  under the gun.  I can’t wait until I can tell you all about it… likely in summer and again in autumn!

Now for the music:

Our son, Joshua (of the quilt, here), is a wonderful musician.  He has had the music in his head since at least 4th grade (age 10), and has been writing his own music for a number of years.  He asked if I would share his songs with you–how cool is that?   He loves heavy metal, and writes what I call “crunchy” (sometimes head-banger) songs, but I have actually come to enjoy them– Gravedigger starts crunchy and gets really cool.   And most surprisingly given this affection for heavy metal, he writes the most beautiful quiet songs!  I hope to some day make  some teaching videos–both free short clips and a longer video to go with that book on bindings and edge-finishes that I never seem to get written–and he has already said I may use his music in my teaching videos!

There is a cool site called SoundCloud where musicians can upload their songs, Joshua (a.k.a. Joshwah) among them.  Here is the link to Joshua’s SoundCloud page.   Joshua also has a good sense of humor.  He has written enough songs to make two CDs (well, he burned two for me! not available for sale at this point):  Shear Madness (with face of sheep) and Pandamonium (with a panda).  Love it when someone makes Mama laugh!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE The Thunder Song—there is definitely a quilt in there.  One of these days if/when I get some down time, I need to plug my iPod into the dock in my studio and blast this out loud, get in the zone, and start creating!

And he’s been doing some really interesting things with audio clips, then composing music to go with them.  Here is V for Vendetta.

Joshua has taken guitar lessons, but is self-taught on the bass, acoustic, keyboard, and drum machine.  Basically, if it has strings, he can figure out how to play it. He performs and records all instruments himself.  Amazing–it took me about 8 years of piano lessons before I could pick out Mary Had a Little Lamb by ear.  The music gene clearly went from Mama directly to Joshua, skipping me!  Hope you enjoy this musical interlude!

Hi all, I’m thrilled to share with you news that I’m included in a new book on art quilts will be out by the end of April:

You can pre-order this beautiful book , autographed, from www.marywkerr.com

Yep, I am among the lucky 51  contemporary quilt artists to be included in its 160 pages!  You can order autographed copies of the book from editor/author/curator Mary W. Kerr on her website here; scroll down just a bit and you’ll see the link to pre-order.

The “blurb” says:  “Accompanied by 270 color images, fifty-one quilters share their love of the craft and encourage others in the field of textile art by offering design and technique tips. Design processes include color play, alternative fiber, threadwork, and embellishments. This book is a great resource for quilt lovers, textile collectors, and design students.”

Mary put out a call for submissions quite some time ago (publication is a lengthy process).  I am thrilled not only to be included, but to know that this book is people who may very well not be known to your or just coming to your attention–it’s a new generation.   I’ve admired the work of many of those included some for years and am so honored to be included in their company.   I can’t WAIT to see my copy!

Just quickly popping in to share a photo ot three before another week evaporates!   After returning from teaching in Florida, I left about 16 hours later to attend the New England (High School) Wrestling Championships with Paul and Eli, and since my return from that have been slamming on multiple deadlines between now and March 15th!   But wanted to share a photo or two, let you know I haven’t disappeared, and will be back with more.  First, the eye candy:

After class Tuesday, my host Betty Jordt took me to Sharky’s on the pier for supper. Shrimp and a sunset—perfect!

And a teaser about the class:

In my quilting design class, where we brainstorm ideas for tops folks bring in. Not sure who took these photos for me, but thank you! I forgot to take photos on Tuesday, so really glad to have this one!

And what FUN…. Rebecca H. from Camden is a snow-bird, and she and her friends traveled to Venice from their Florida winter homes to come to my lecture!  SO FUN to have familiar faces in the audience!  THANK YOU for coming!

With Rebecca and her friends just before my lecture to 200+ (!!!!) people.  I’m on the far left with Rebecca next to me.  Great quilters choose good colors LOL…totally unplanned!

Let me knock off a few urgent items (like magazine submissions!) and I’ll be back!

and you’ll need to not “blink” with your ears or you might miss me!  I’ll be on at about 3:20 Eastern (US) time.

Creative Mojo radio with Mark Lipinski

But I’m happy to report I’ll have my two minutes (literally…that’s all:  two minutes, but much appreciated)  of fame tomorrow, live on Creative Mojo with the irrepressible Mark Lipinski.  You can tune in here, on Toginet.   Or if you are someplace you can’t log on and tune in (or perhaps like me get so involved in stuff you forget what time it is and miss stuff), you can always catch the Creative Mojo podcast, here.   The website tells us:

CREATIVE MOJO WITH MARK LIPINSKI is a live, two-hour entertainment program broadcast on the Internet. It’s fun, entertaining, informative, inspirational and illuminating.

and

• Just log onto www.toginet.com for a brand-new,
• LIVE, 2-hour
• Creative Mojo with Mark Lipinski!
• 3 pm -5 pm EST    2 pm – 4 pm CST 1 pm – 3 pm MST    12 pm – 2 pm PST
• Call in anytime during the live show with your questions or comments for my guests
• (877) 864-4869

AND I just discovered you can go to iTunes and subscribe to his podcast! WOOT!

As for what I’ve been up to since I last posted, I had a *really* long commute to work last week:  flew from Maine to Florida and back so I could spend two wonderful days teaching for and lecturing at the meeting of the Venice Area Quilt Guild.  Many thanks to my host and program chair Betty Jordt and the folks of the guild AND some folks who know me who actually came to the lecture!   I’ll blog soon!

Since returning on Thursday afternoon, I left within 16 hours to head south to Rhode Island to support two of the members of Eli’s high school wrestling team who made it into the VERY competitive New England Regional Wrestling Championships:  to get IN you have to be a State Champion from Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island or Connecticut.  Talk about stiff competition!   Both boys did well and one even placed!   It was a great trip but I’m REALLY glad to return home on Sunday.  Yesterday was lots of bookkeeping and paperwork stuff, and today was spent researching patents!  I have an idea for a quilting tool, and may be dashing off a provisional patent application in the next week before a new law goes into effect on the 16th of this month (ERK).   So I’m going to be scarce while scrambling to do something that should take me months and consultation with a lawyer (not to mention a patent search that goes back 120 years), but I’m gonna try anyway.  Stay tuned—maybe in a year I’ll have some good news if the provisional application goes through and I can find a manufacturer and funding!  (Can you say Kickstarter campaign?)

But in the meantime, I’m looking forward to a couple minutes on the phone and radio tomorrow with the ever-funny Mark Lipinski!

Hi all!  I’ll be teaching and lecturing this week in Venice, Florida!  My departure was scheduled for today, but due to snow I’m leaving Monday but will be there in time for teaching on Tuesday and Wednesday, and the Wednesday evening lecture.   Here is some info from the Venice Area Quilt Guild website:

February 27, 2013 regular meeting at 7:00 pm at the Venice Community Center, 326 So. Nokomis Avenue, Venice, FL 34285.

Our regular February 27, 2013 meeting will begin after the special meeting with guest speaker quilt artist Sarah Ann Smith.  Sarah’s talk will be “How did she do that?”.  There will be a $5 admission fee for non-members.   The doors open at 6:15 for socializing and guild business.  The meetings will begin at 7:00 pm.

I’m teaching one of my favorite courses to teach:  Quilting Design!  The one-day class will be held on both days.  There are still a few openings, so if you’d like to attend, contact the guild!

If you’d like to read more about the class, go to my classes page and scroll down to “Quilting Design.”  The class supply list is also available as a pdf in that description, just click the link.   And if you’d like to book me to teach the class, I’d love to do so!   The class is best as a 1 1/2 or 2 day class, but can be squeezed into a day with Some exercises you can take to do at home instead of in class (where you get feedback).  Hope to blog pictures later in the week!