You’re invited to the Artist’s Reception for my first solo exhibit, C3: Color, Cloth, Collage, at the Camden Public Library’s beautiful Picker Room, on Thursday, September 8th, 2016, from 4-6 pm. There will be light refreshments and I’ll be happy to answer questions about my work. I hope to see some of you there, and yes, for those of you at the other end of the ether I will post pictures (probably on Friday).
I’d love for anyone in the area to join me this Thursday, September 8, from 4-6 pm
The artwork of Sarah Ann Smith. Thrilled with how the exhibit looks as you walk in!
And some verbiage about the exhibit and my work. Click to view slightly larger.
Update: machine is sold! Just under a year ago I took delivery of a wonderful machine: the HQ Sweet 16 sit-down quilting machine. It has both regular and ruler feet, all the regular parts. In outstanding working order, well maintained, clean. I’ve got all the original packing materials for transporting it to you. I’m also including 14 M-class bobbins (empty) and a bunch of appropriate machine needles. I will say the HQ dealer and tech support is OUTSTANDING. I’ve decided to upgrade, and need to sell this one to make way for the next beastie. MSRP is $5,599. For sale for $3995 plus shipping. If you live within a 4 1/2 hour drive of Camden, Maine, I’ll deliver to your driveway free of charge!
Contact Sarah at the Contact Me page or comment on this post.
HQ Sweet Sixteen for Sale (Sept 2016), just under one year old, mint condition. Cat not included. This is the most recent version of the Sweet 16 and has the thread tension information (so it’s not a guessing game). Does not have a stitch regulator, but it can easily be added (consult with your local Handiquilter dealer).
Straight on view of HQ Sweet Sixteen for sale. Leave a comment or use the contact me page at SarahAnnSmith.com if you are seriously interested and have questions. More pictures at end of blogpost.
Here are three quilts I have quilted on this beauty, so you can see the quality of the stitching:
So over on Facebook I’ve posted some photos of my current project, a hugely oversized peony…well, part of a peony. I decided I’d try a quick video posted via youtube so show me actually quilting. Along the way, I added a quick visit to my studio. The studio is sort of “midway messy,” true to life. I have a couple things piled on the floor that are: find time to sort and put away, try to get rid of in some way, and prepping for teaching in Houston piles. When I’ve found time (usually after just barely meeting a deadline), I have a tidy attack. Mid project it is utter chaos. This is in the middle. And apologies for the overly loud and enthusiastic hello at the start. Learning. I’m learning…..ps: if the video doesn’t display at first, hit refresh on your browser. Update: thanks to Donna for some good questions, so I’ve added info at the end of the post about holding your thread tails and my appliqué press sheets.
On the video, I mentioned how I select threads in a value range. The reason the light ones are in the box and the dark ones to the side is that I have used the dark ones. When done, I put them aside so I know what I’ve used. I keep them in the order in which I used them, which helps if I need to go back and do more in a certain shade.
I had clamps by my Janome for working on larger projects, but hadn’t set up hooks from the floor joists (my ceiling) near the Sweet Sixteen until yesterday. WHAT an improvement!!!!!!! I’ve been using dyed-by-me cotton duck on the backs, and let me tell you the quilts have been HEAVY. So that’s why there is a blue-handled clamp visible. I didn’t use the one on the right because of where I had the phone set up to film.
If you like this, let me know and maybe I can do some more videos of me just quilting. And yes, I sound like a dolt when I try to narrate while quilting–I can’t concentrate on the quilting and manage to talk in a normal rhythm at the same time.
Working on the lighter petals on the big peony quilt. It will finish about 45×55 I think…..depends on how much I trim off and/or turn to the back. You can see both of the hanging clamps in this photo, as well as the photo of the peony clipped to the left side of the thread stand on the machine.
Detail of laying in the darkest-on-this-petal pink.
Showing the clamp on the right in use. Some folks have started using those dog-grooming things that you clamp onto the table and attach the dog with a short leash for grooming, but substitute a clamp. That idea became common AFTER I set things up over at the Janome; since I have bare (primed) joists and sub-flooring for a ceiling, I opted for the much less expensive hook in the joist!
UPDATE/Addition: About the move to another bit, be sure to press down on the threads (top and bobbin) when you begin stitching, even if they are still attached. If the pulled out part is longer than the “jump” (which it sometimes is for me because I need tails long enough to bury), you can still get a snarl if you don’t hold the tails firm to the machine for the first stitch or few.
Non stick sheet on the wall: same as on the ironing table, just hold the iron vertically. I tend to make smaller components flat on the ironing board, then move to the wall. Sometimes I don’t use the wall…just depends. If I have draw a full cartoon/sketch, it goes UNDER the non stick sheet that is on the big board, so I just work there. On the rare occasions where I am working improvisationally or something seems amiss, up on the wall it goes.
I ordered my sheets from Valerie Hearder in Canada…the exchange rate is very favorable at the moment. She sells 24 and 36 in wide, by the foot. So I got two that are 72 inches long. They should hold me for a couple decades. Misty fuse now has the Holy Cow, which is 36×48. Had that been available when I got mine I might have done that instead. However, I REALLY like having my Big Board totally covered, and it is about 22×60 inches.
Thanks for writing! The peony is done and I am revelling in having the Peony DONE and HUNG!
Well that’s a nice way to start the day: checking out the Quilting Daily (Quilting Arts/Interweave) email, and there is MY little quilt and a link to their free e-book featuring my article and those of several other quilters!
From this morning’s email: my little quilt shows all sorts of binding challenges: regular corners, sharp corners, inside and outside curves, inside corner (on the top edge).
So here’s a question for all of you: I have wanted for YEARS to write a book called Fine Finishes with my way to do bindings, edge finishes (including facings and all sorts of funky things), and how to display quilts (hanging sleeves, alternative ways to hang and display). Is anyone interested? I may or may not go the traditional submit-to-publisher route, or I might self-publish, even though I am awful about promoting stuff and selling it….. So tell me: should I take the time to write this book? I’ve got most of the samples made since I teach this as a class, would include work by others that I find inspiring in ways to display, and so on…….
And don’t forget to click on the link and get your free e-book!
According to my calendar, today is my 11th Blogoversary. Yes, I have more or, most recently, less been blogging for eleven years! To mark the occasion, I’m sharing a photo from this week’s Photo Challenge (a follow on to the class I did with Ricky Tims last year). Instead of doing my initials, I chose to do Eli’s since he will be leaving for college (SOB) shortly. I’ll thrill you all I’m sure with dorm move-in pics, and will do my darnedest not to start crying until after we leave campus. The photo challenge theme for this week is Found Alphabet. I actually teach a Quilting Design class which uses this “learning to see” exercise (Info is here, scroll down to Quilting Design).
Since our son leaves for college soon and I’m busy, I almost skipped this week; . But I decided to give it a quick go using only the grout lines from our stone fireplace; I also opted to do Eli’s initials: WEKS. The W is a mirror image of the center stone (I’ll post the full fireplace in my Flickr album), cropped, and squeezed in from the sides. The E is flipped horizontally, the S flipped vertically, and the K is a shot taken on the diagonal.
Here is a photo of the fireplace, source of the letters.
All the letters were “found” in our fireplace.
It’s gonna be hard being an empty nester. Our lives have revolved around Eli’s sports for so long, every week a meet. This year, none. I know I will have more than enough to fill the hole, but still. Spent the morning copying his iPod playlists so I can play them when I am feeling homesick for him. Maybe I’ll even spend some of that time blogging…what a concept!
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