As part of my travels and teaching for the Arizona Quilt Guild, I got to present a lecture at their semi-annual meeting.  They hold one meeting in the southern part of the state, and one in the north.  This one was in Flagstaff, in northern Arizona, and MY how beautiful and friendly a town!  I TOTALLY fell in love with the place, mostly because of the people!  We were booked at the Radisson, which had totally cool artwork and “stuff” to decorate.  Here are two neat pieces:

That second one, especially, gives me some cool ideas for an art quilt ...

We were treated to a spectacular Arizona sunset while staying at Monument Valley, and an almost as wonderful sunrise.  These photos were taken from The View Hotel, third floor–and note, reservations are ESSENTIAL…book EARLY.  These photos are taken (duh) looking West, over the parking lot…in the first photo you can barely spot the glimmer of a car up and to the left of the (c) symbol:

And sunrise, looking (duh) to the  East over Monument Valley:

(Notice the photographers set up on the stairs, on the left, by the restaurant…the best spot to get the classic ...

A student's class sample... compare this to the unstitched version in the top-left of the four-squares (below)

We had an absolute GAS in this class!  I was so thrilled at how the students took my basic design and simply took off with it, experimenting and discovering, and the wide range of results….  Because I actually took a TON of photos, I’ve made some “four-patch” photos to squeeze them all in!   This is the sampler that I share with the students (it’s also in my book–click the photo to view larger):

Sarah's Tossed Leaves Sampler

Well ...

Four sisters took my class!

I was SO busy going around the classroom on my first day of teaching, my Intro to Machine Quilting class, that I almost forgot to take pictures.  Fortunately these four sisters wanted a picture with me, so I grabbed my camera and asked the helpful student who took their photo to snap one for me, too.  I LOVE how they all took to the quilting–lots of great designs and work in their class samples.   And can you tell it was hot and humid in Columbus in mid-June…my hair was the frizziest, but I ...

Since there is SO much that has happened in the past two months, I’m going to alternate between the April trip and vacation and other events.   For about two years now, I have wanted to make a vest to wear while teaching applique to show the various types of machine applique and decorative stitching that I teach (two different classes), and how the samples can be used in various projects including clothing, not just quilts.

Here’s me in the just completed vest, frizzy hair, no makeup (and therefore disappearing eyes…I SO envy people with dark eyelashes!) and ...

Hubby does most of our vacation planning;  he loves to research things on the internet and plan things out, make reservations, and have everything scheduled.   When he mentioned Monument Valley, I will confess, I had to say “what’s that?”   He replied that when I saw it, I would recognize the distinctive rock formations.   Well, alas, I did not, but it was a totally cool place to visit.  here’s the quintessential view–this is the “left mitten”…notice the fingers on the left, the thumb sticking up on the right:

To backtrack, Monument Valley is on the border of ...

In June I had the great good fortune to be invited to teach at the National Quilt Association show in Columbus, Ohio.  What FUN!  I had never been to the show, tho last year had a quilt in a special exhibit and won an  Honorable Mention for my Bijagos Warrior quilt.  So this year was an all-new experience for me.  I thoroughly enjoyed the show… it had top level quilts (entry is first-come gets in, not juried! the  only show I think at the national level that isn’t juried), great vendors, but was not so  huge that you felt ...

Woooohooo!  (and OMG…two posts in one day?)  Doing the Snoopy Dance (despite the dank humidity and clammy temps here in usually balmy Maine):  Cookie?  PLEEEZE Cookie!, my portrait of our pug Pigwidgeon, got juried into the World of Beauty contest that is the heart of the IQA Quilt Festival in Houston this fall! (Click on picture for much larger view.)

In addition to this sweet pug mug, I’ll have the portrait of my son Joshua in the Beneath the Surface exhibit (thanks to MistyFuse our sponsor!), and two quilts in the special exhibit showing  quilts from Lark Books ...

On one of my internet groups, a friend from Scotland posted a link to this YouTube video.  It has been around a while, but I hadn’t seen it, and like it so much I too wanted to share.

She wrote:

The Palindrome Video

“This video reads the exact opposite backwards as forwards.

Not only does it read the opposite, the meaning is the exact opposite.

Confused ? I was … but just take 1 mnute 44 seconds to read and listen to this video.

It was submitted in a contest by a 20 year old student – the contest was called ‘U ...

Well…I’m only 2+ months behind on some blogging!  I’ve been busy on the road teaching in Arizona, Massahusetts and Ohio (at the NQA show!), and then Knoxville (AQS), TN, in July!   But I am trying to get caught up and share some of the lovely things I saw while on our family vacation after teaching in Arizona for the statewide quilt guild. Here is what the Grand Canyon looked like when we arrived at the South Rim in late April:

Notice that dark cloud on the horizon, especially to the left…well, it moved fast!  The following ...

Back during winter, I took an online course on Lino-cutting with Australian Dijanne Cevaal (her blog is here).  One Sunday while watching the Winter Olympics, I began carving this 12″ block–it took most of four hours to Oh-So-Carefully cut (and not slip) just the pebbly center, but it was SO worth the ache in my hands.  I just love the way this turned out:

You may be able to get more feel for the quilting from this angled shot:

The quilt was quilted, then wrapped onto artists’ stretcher bars (staple gunned to the back), then finished the back with ...

Patsy Thompson is a quilter, author and DVD maven (with seemingly unlimited energy sources!) who loves quilted feathers…the more of them, the more intricate and hyperquilted, the better!  She recently shared her book Feather Adventures! with me:

The book is aptly subtitled:  The Machine Quilter’s Guide to Creating Stunning and Innovative Free Motion Feather Designs, and tantalizingly adds “Volume One”  (that’s hidden in the glare of the camera flash…sorry ’bout that).     The information in this book is good for machine quilters using both home and longarm (on a track) quilters…it’s all about design and ...

Have I said recently how much I love living in Camden, Maine?    It is a lovely, friendly town, and the locals know the back way from here to there (and where to find parking during peak tourist season).   That means we know about the back doors of some of the shops, like Rockport Blueprint, and the footbridge over the river.  There is a new ice cream stand in very bright colors near the bridge–I love walking on the bridge and over by RiverHouse hotel because the owner loves his gardens:

One of the picnic tables comes with a water ...

A brief detour from the Arizona trip…..

I’ve been a  part of Postmark’d Art’s last two swaps.  This time, I used one of the exercises from my Lino-Cutting class (blogged about in January and February).   I rooted through about (no kidding) 20 years of old photos to find this one of a farm in southern England, which I snapped in about 1984.   It was funny, I thought I used to be a good photographer, taking good and artsy shots.  Hmmm.  Not so much.  Some were good, but most were….ummm…boring!   It appears I have trained my ...

At long, LONG last, I am able to share the fun time I had teaching for the Arizona Quilt Guild in mid-April.   As a matter of fact, the day I took these photos was the day my old laptop gave its last blink and died!   I have to tell you it was SO MUCH FUN!

To back up a couple days, I flew in to Phoenix, and taught in the greater Phoenix area the first day, my Fine Finishes class.  Alas, I was SO busy, that I utterly forgot to take photos.  My host was also the program Chair, Tari ...

This year my local quilt chapter, the Coastal Quilters (part of the state guild, the Pine Tree Quilt Guild) decided to change our annual challenge (now in its third year) from 10×10 inches to 12 inches wide by 9 inches tall.  The reason?  So that after the challenge participants can, if they wish, donate their quilt to Ami Simm’s Alzheimer fundraiser.  The donations are auctioned and the proceeds go to benefit Alzheimer’s research.

In past years we were challenged to interpret a photo (Here–scroll about halfway down to see the ropes and buoys quilts and here ...

You know summer is here (at least in spirit, and some years in the weather….other years not….) when Memorial Day weekend arrives.  Hubby’s birthday is late May, and we start the season with a Sea Dogs game.  The Portland Sea Dogs are the minor league team associated with the Boston Red Sox (Go Red Sox Nation!).  Now I’m not really much of a baseball fan, but I do love going to the Sea Dogs games.  This is baseball the way it OUGHT to be…. where you can actually see the players’ faces without binoculars (or taking out ...

As you might gather by my absence (provided anyone noticed it… I know jq did…but anyone else out there as insanely busy as I am?), I have been busy.   Sufficiently busy that the blog has been sadly neglected!  Among other things, this is what I have been doing:

Yes, that is 1172 new photocopies, added to about 300-400 leftover photocopies, all handouts for my classes in June and July, plus my “teacher’s binders.”  Many pieces of paper, many pounds, many dollars–and about 14 inches across from handle to handle!   I’ll be teaching at the National Quilt ...

OK, so in the last post I showed you the outbound journey from Owl’s Head (a Head, by the way, is a peninsula) airport. It’s always fun to see the Camden Hills rise up in the distance…you know you’re almost home:

First, you can spot the runway as you approach.  This is what it looks like when you come home in not-winter (otherwise it would be pitch dark), as viewed down the short “aisle” and through the cockpit window:

Next you see all the buildings that make up the airport including the private aviation side.  I ...

This is, in fact, the view from the last seat of the Cape Air flight from Owl’s Head Airport (officially it is the Knox County Airport in Rockland, Maine, but everyone call’s it Owl’s Head after the nearby little peninsula and light house) to Boston.

In the past, I’ve had some fairly hilarious conversations about traveling out of and in to Maine.  Two years ago, I had the great good fortune to teach at the Lowell Quilt Show, in Massachusetts, and ate dinner several nights in a row with a great bunch of teachers (lots of ...

Jamie Fingal and Leslie Tucker Jenison came up with the idea for the Beneath the Surface exhibit, got the sponsors, juried the show, and are now doing a totally cool thing on their blog!  My quilt is the portrait of my son, Joshua (recently blogged about at length, so only a small picture here):

Jamie and Leslie have sent each of the artists a list of questions, and it looks like we’ll hit 100 percent participation with the answers.  Day by day they are adding the responses of the various artists to these questions:

1.  How do you describe ...

How time flies when you are swamped?  I can’t believe it has been more than a week since I posted!  Anyway, I’m here, well, but trying to get caught up and blog about a very busy past month-plus!   One of this first things I want to tell you about is a new sewing machine, and YIPPEEEE SKIPPPY it looks like I’ll be getting one!  It is the Horizon 7700 from Janome.  If you click here you can learn more about it directly from Janome.

If you are familiar with the Janome 6600 (which is what I’ve ...