On a clear day, you can see almost forever…or at least from Hope to Liberty, Freedom and points north and west in Maine….  Today we went for a walk onto a neighbor’s hilltop / blueberry barren, and it was glorious.   There were some woods on one side, but I stood and took photos in an almost-complete circle…more than 270 degrees.  When I got home, I discovered my Photoshop Elements would create a panorama for me automatically.  I fiddled a little to fine tune it, so here is a hilltop in Hope, Maine, about noon today:

A panoramic collage...click to view larger

Clearly it was GLORIOUS!   The puppy was hot and panting though it is only about 70 degrees outside.

Here are two shots, larger and not collaged, of the view:

The view to the northwest. The building in the center is the Robbins Lumber mill.

And a bit to the north/east of the previous photo--the house in the center is the one we look out on from our land (trust me, that small gray blob in the middle of the photo is a house), which is about halfway between where this photo is taken and the house on the next hillside over

I spotted some rocks that might be good for doing rubbings (grin), and these little gems will be wild Maine blueberries ready to eat in about two months–the flower is bunchberry, a form of low-growing dogwood (cornus canadensis I think):

Wild blueberries, currently not much larger than the head of the glass-ball-headed pins

Then we meandered home:

Looking east toward Camden...I am pretty sure that is Mount Megunticook with the knobby edge. Love the falling down old stone wall. They actually have these walls on the official town plat-maps.

Paul and, quite a bit farther ahead, Eli with the puglet!

I feel somewhat guilty, that I have neglected the blog.  I’ve been busy with end-of-year for our 8th grader (graduates Thursday), house stuff, quilting/work stuff, and generally not working myself into a ground up pulp.  I promise before too long I’ll take a few days and do nothing but write blogposts, prep the photos etc.!  Hope you are all having a wonderful early summer, Cheers, Sarah

Hi all…. just a quick announcement.  I cleaned my studio shelves!  That means I have three large flat rate boxes of quilt-shop-purchased, good quality cottons to sell.  I’m asking for $25 for the fabric plus $15 for the postage for each of these three boxes; I checked and the price of shipping in a flat rate box outside the US is crazy expensive.  I’m willing to ship outside the US if you are, but honestly think the postage pushes the price too high (it is $40 just for postage to Canada!):

Box 1: Mostly blue with some pink. $25 (fabric) + $15 (Postage) = $40 in the US

Box 2: Mostly green with some yellow. $25 (fabric) + $15 (Postage) = $40 in the US

Box 3: Earthtones including some orange/rust and black $25 (fabric) + $15 (Postage) = $40 in the US

I also have a “MiracleStitcher” made for a low-shank Janome machine such as the 6500.  Does NOT fit on the high-shank models such as the 6600 or 7700.  You use it to make fringe and other decorative stuff… in the original box.  Asking $15 plus postage (probably not more than $4 or 5 within the US).  You can see information here.

If you are interested, please use the contact me link in the menubar above on my website.  I can send you an invoice via PayPal.  You can then pay be credit card or paypal (you do NOT need to have a paypal account, just a credit card).  Let me know which box interests you! 

Here’s a little more information:  So why am I getting rid of fabric?  Well… these are mostly prints.  And my style has developed to where I use pretty much only batiks or hand-dyed cottons (by me) in my work, so I decided I needed to lighten the load on my shelves and send these beauties along to someone who will use them!   (As a matter of fact, I had to snag back a few just for sentimental or “just love this” reasons.)   Some of the fabrics may be missing a corner or a strip because I used part of the fabric, but the boxes are all full–not jammed tight, but full.

Eli met his biggest challenge in the Busline League Track and Field Championships...see below for all the glorious details!

Preface:  I should follow my husband’s example on FaceBook and start with with a “Parental Pride Alert”!  We now have a three-sport champion at home!

Back in September, about halfway through the Cross-Country running season, Eli had just won another meet.  From the back seat of the car on the way home, he said something to this effect:

“You know, I think I want to go out of 8th grade with a bang!

• Be on  the equivalent of honor roll [note from mom:  they changed the grading system and eliminated honor roll…do NOT get me started!]
• Win the Cross-Country championship
• Repeat as Eastern Regional Champion in wrestling and
• Win States in Wrestling [the Pine Tree League covers about 70 percent of the state, minus only the big class A schools down near Portland, Maine]
• and win one individual blue ribbon in Track and Field.”

With his first event today at the Track and Field Championships for our portion of the Maine Coast, Eli achieved his goal, and then some!  He began the day at the Shotput:

Eli ready to heave the 8-lb shotput 34' 6" feet; despite a couple of good kids from Belfast, he won!

Next up:  Triple Jump!  For several years, we lived near the Vitagliano’s; Eli would play with Chris and admire Matt’s athletic abilities.  When the family moved down to Virginia, the boys kept in touch by Facebook.  Eli copied Matt and set up a throwing zone in our yard, weighing rocks that were from 10-12 pounds to practice!  Matt told Eli that he had looked up Olympic athletes on the internet to study their form, and Eli promptly did the same, to the benefit of his field events.

Even though a lady almost walked in front of me, blocking my shot, I managed to get this great shot of Eli airborne! Makes my ankles and knees hurt just to think about the landing!

Eli landed a personal best of 32′ 7″ and WON!  Second first place ribbon!

Skipping the running for just a moment to complete the field events, Eli came in third in the discus (his last event…he was tired by then and the overcast skies had cleared and the heat soared to near 80):

Throwing the discus for 3rd

and in the Turbo Javelin (a new event last year, the middle school boys use a plastic javelin that has blades on the back like an arrow) got a second place, logging a personal best in competition and breaking his own record at school to hit 133 feet (about 50 feet more than most of the other kids! to qualify for the middle school championship competition you had to throw over 6o feet!).

But saving the best and sweetest for last:  the 1600 metre race, about a mile.  When Eli began track three years ago, then 8th-grader Ben Trapani would lead in so many races, by such a long distance, that he seemed unbeatable.  He held the school record in several events, including the 1600 metre with a time of 5 minutes 19 seconds.  Eli wanted to beat that record and trained hard, going to the high school on Sundays where Coach Morse would run optional extra practices and time intervals so the kids could learn to “feel” if they were running a lap at 1 minute 21 seconds, 1 minute 26, 1 minute 15 and so on….. how they can do that I have NO idea!  Right off the opening shot, a kid from Medomak took the lead:

A large pack for the 1600 metre race. The boy on the left (Med. for Medomak) with red arrow (not the boys in yellow in the foreground) is the one who took and held the lead for 3 1/2 laps. Eli is the arrow on the right.

I took photos of the clock, and Eli’s first lap was EXACTLY what he wanted:  1 minute 20 seconds.  If he could maintain that through 3 laps, he would increase at the start of the fourth, then “book it” for the last half-lap.  By halfway through the third lap, Coach Morse hollered at him to close the gap of over 100 feet (maybe 50 yards?) sooner.

Rounding the end of the track for the last half lap, you could watch Eli kick it into gear–he and the Medomak boy were wwwwwwaaaaaayyyyyy ahead of everyone else.  Eli mustered heart and guts and closed in, to the screams of many of his teammates, and with maybe 15 metres to go pulled even and then passed him!   The photo at the top shows how close the two were.

Eli WON with a time of 5 minutes 16.16 seconds, beating Ben T’s school record by 3 full seconds!!!!!!!  And the boy in 2nd (previously undefeated this season) finished also in 5 min. 16 seconds, but still second.  Both boys were gracious after the race, and Eli correctly noted it was good to be pushed.  Without the Medomak kid, Eli would have won, but he might not have had the push he needed to beat Ben’s record.  After the race, many parents came up to us and said that was “THE” race and finish of the meet! Well done to all!

After the meet, we waited for team results.

The kids gather to hear team results

The girls’ team has incredible depth, and had a commanding lead in team standings.  Both boys and girls teams are, by the way, made up of kids from Camden-Rockport plus the H-A-L (Hope, Appleton and Lincolnville) schools, as those are too small to have their own teams.  The girls won, again, with an undefeated season:

The Girls team wins!

The boys race to the finish was tight–we weren’t sure up until they announced the second place team who would win…literally every single kid who placed 6th or higher contributed an essential point or several to THE WIN…yes, another undefeated season!

The boys collect their plaque for the school

Oprah Winfrey is quoted as saying “Surround yourself with people who will lift you higher.”

At first I thought how this applies to how Coach Morse has helped Eli, but then I realized it really applies to ALL the team:  To Coach Jim Morse, Coach Dee Kopesky, and ALL the kids are ALL lifting each other higher.  Mr. Morse (the School’s awesome 6th grade Social Studies teacher, and who seems to me a bit like a pied piper–Jim, we’re so glad for all you’ve given to Eli and that we had one more season with you) recruited a huge team…nearly 90 kids!  What is more amazing, I think we had something like 60 (?) kids qualify for the championships (meet certain times or distances/heights for the various events)–not sure how many, but it was a HUGE squad!  The training and dedication of both coaches and kids together lifted them all higher.  WELL DONE, everyone!  And Eli…. we are so proud of you!  Even more than your sports ability, we admire your brains, determination, dedication, and good sportsmanship.  WOW!

Here’s to a three-sport honor-roll champion–you deserve a rest!  Want waffles for breakfast whenever you wake up tomorrow?

What better pairing than a great exhibit  (of which I am proud to be a part) AND an opportunity to help “Kickstart” a great new chapter in the Why Quilts Matter series.

I’ve blogged before about my quilt, Strength and Calm, which has been juried in to the Rituals exhibit that will debut this summer at International Quilt Festival Long Beach then travel on to the mega-kahuna-mecca of quilts, International Quilt Festival in Houston (where I will also be teaching again! would love to see/meet some of you in my classes!).  Well curators Leslie Tucker Jenison and Jamie Fingal have been running a fun and fascinating glimpse into the lives and personalities of the artists who have made the quilts in this year’s exhibit.  Today is my turn!  So to read more about it, go here.  Thanks to Moore‘s Sewing and Havel (as in those wonderful scissors) for sponsoring the exhibits!

Speaking of sponsoring, I was starting to read some old QuiltArt digests, and discovered that Shelley Zegart has launched a new project, a companion guide to the WONDERFUL DVD series, Why Quilts Matter (click here to read lots more about the series).  I’m thrilled to say I’ve just made a donation to her fundraising campaign on Kickstarter.  You can click on the widget (the doohickie to the left) in the sidebar of my blog or go here to help support this effort and read more about it.

Last month my dear friend Jacquie Scuitto, a.k.a. The Quilt Muse, published a book of her verses in an e-Book format via SmashWords!

If you’ve been fortunate to be on any online groups with Jacquie, you’ll have enjoyed her periodic commentaries (via verse) on various and sundry things dealing with our quilting life.   Here’s a link if you’d like to order your own modestly-priced e-Book!  It’s fun, wonderful, and I’m so happy to be able to share with you!

I’m feeling a bit sheepish at taking so long to writing this review… I was away teaching then learning in April when it came out, and it seems May has just evaporated into a blur of kid-activities, springtime chores and whatnot (as you might gather from the lack of blogposts)!  With that said…. I thoroughly enjoyed reading all of these verses, and found favorite poems.  Jacquie has hit the nail on the head in describing this as light verse… it is just that, with insightful commentaries on so many of our favorite things.

I’m tickled to see that her poem on thread, The Wonder of Thread, which she let me include in my book on just that topic, is included in this volume.  Other favorites included The Workshop:

Quilts here, quilts there,
Quilting quilters everywhere.
Fabrics on tables, scraps on the floor.
Choosing and cutting,who could ask more?

Which continues with input from the teacher of the workshop, of course!

Many of us will nod our heads in understanding when reading SOS

Where can I store more fabric?
my shelves are crammed….

And yet another commiseration (Sarah typed, grinning away….) in Meaningful Scraps:

When I burrow into my boxes of scraps
It’s an archeological trip:
There’s a bit of my quilting history
In each and every strip.

Here’s a taste of just one more —-and there are lots of these lovely verses…. I’m only including portions so you can get a feel…. if you’d like to read them all you’ll need to head on over to Smashwords and download your own copy!  You can select a PDF (which I did, to read on my laptop), or versions for iPad, Kindle, Nook, etc….. I think every reader program is covered!   This last delectable is  The Recipe:

A fat quarter of this,
A half-yard of that,
A rotary cutter.
A queen sized batt.
Mix well with one quilter
And add in the spice

…..

Well, when you mix well with the one quilter who just happens to be Jacquie, and add in the spice of her gentle sense of humor and winning way with words, you’re in for a lovely treat.  A great gift for yourself or the favorite quilter on your gift list!  Order it here.  And for another review, hop on over to Ellen Anne Eddy’s blog, here.  Yes, I’m biased—I’m so happy that Jacquie is my friend; she’s a good friend and a fun writer and I hope you’ll enjoy her whimsy and wisdom as much as I do.