One of the lovely things about kids’ fall sports is being outside in a Maine Autumn.  As I type, I am watching an ever-so-pale pink on the  clouds underlit by the late sunrise (it is 6:56 a.m.) drifting across the distant hills, which range from deep pine to russet, gold, mahogany, bright green (the willows along the drive), deep umber on the trunks of trees that have lot their leaves already, and the burnt crimson of the blueberry barrens on the next hill over.   Going to Eli’s cross country meets is just as glorious, and we’ve had not-rainy weather the entire season!

Part of the trail at Camden Hills Regional High School; Eli is in red. 

Eli had a bumpy start to his season, coming down with a flu just a couple weeks in to school.  That affected his breathing and therefore his running, but he finally had a race with which he was happy last weekend at Homecoming.

The starting gun has just fired, and Ben Trapani. Caleb Love-Webb and Eli are in the lead for Camden (the three in red at the left).

Senior Ben Trapani is poised to come in near the top in the state this year.  I remember when Eli was in 6th grade and Ben in 8th and we would watch him at track meets, a full lap ahead of the field.  Not much has changed in four years, except that he is bigger, stronger, and even more of a fine young man; well, I would say that his confidence in himself and his running has grown, and it is good to see because it is confidence well-placed.   Will sure miss him after he graduates, but his younger sister Emma, a Freshman, is already at the head of the pack in the girls’ races!   Caleb is a Freshman, and is now the second-fastest on the team, something Eli predicted before the season began.

Caleb (left) and Eli (just behind him) coming round the bend side by side after about 1.5 km of the 5k race.

I see in Caleb the same focus and drive that I see in Eli, so it’s going to be a good few years for the boys.  And Eli, though not a typical runner’s build, is determined and fast as ever.

Eli coming around the back side of the second field at the high school. There is a spot where you can get the into-the-woods view then move about 30 feet to see the kids come around the loop to this spot.

Eli has an incredible drive to compete and win, and it comes out at the end of every race.   He can run down kids like you wouldn’t believe if they are anywhere near close.  Here  he’s putting it into overdrive:

How can that kid be so strong? He clearly gets his physical prowess from his dad!

And checking his time after crossing the finish line:

Better! Next up, the very hilly, challenging course for KVAC (Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference) race at Cony High School in Augusta, followed by Eastern Regionals in Belfast and states at Cumberland the following weekends.

What a concept… I actually am making a small art quilt!   I’ve been slamming busy as usual, and this time it is in the “oh I should make just one more new sample for Quilt Festival/teaching” mode!   On Saturday morning, I’m talking about thread-coloring, so decided to make a new piece, a lily.  Here it is in progress:

Pink lily, in progress

I’ve managed to quilt the pink, so this afternoon I’ll start in on the foliage.  I’ve used six or seven different pinks/reds.  As you can gather by the reference photo, it is  about 14 x 20 ish, but will be seriously cropped.  The current proportions/composition need fine-tuning, but decided I’d quilt first and chop second (probably at least an inch on all sides, more on the sides).

It is also glorious color time in Maine.  This was the wooded acres behind our house at sunrise this morning:

This morning at 6:35 a.m., lit by the rising sun

And I’ve got a new chair that doesn’t make my creaky bones ache;  clearly, the cats approve!  I’ve started putting the back cushion down and covering it to avoid them destroying the back cushion by cat-squishing it!

The cats like the new chair…all FOUR of them on the turned-down back cushion!

And a glorious sunset the other evening…. one of the most glorious in quite a while.

Sunset Friday at the high school in Rockport, Maine…GLORIOUS!

Off to enjoy autumn!

I’m thrilled to share that I will have all THREE of my photo entries on display at the Eye of the Quilter Exhibit in Houston this year!  Since I don’t want to spoil the surprise, I won’t share THOSE three photos until Quilt Festival opens, but I will share a couple of my entries from past years.  I just love seeing the photos, and this time I totally think that my Queen Anne’s Lace photo from this year needs to become a quilt!   Last year, I only got one photo in, but it’s a keeper:

I navigate the world by ice cream stores. When I taught at Vermont Quilt Festival, of COURSE I made the pilgrimage to the original Ben and Jerry’s (twice!). The theme this year was “Favorite Things.” Ahem!

To go back to the beginning…..

Circles Collage was one of my first entries accepted to Eye of the Quilter. Look at all that design potential!

In 2011, I had three accepted with the theme of Friendship:

Pigwidgeon on top of Yeti. ‘Widgeon was just a puppy, and he loved his big dumb dog!

And 2011 was the year Mama finally joined her Mama.  The bottom right photo is the last I took of her.

Say Hi to Gramma is a collage honoring my mom, who died that year. The photo in the bottom center is our last Mother’s Day together.

My Frayed Edges friends are another source of joy in life:

The Frayed Edges, Summer 2011

Congratulations to Gail Myrodhosky who was number 42 in the comments on my Grand Finale Giveaway to celebrate the release of my DVD workshop, Art Quilt Design From Photo to Threadwork.

To order, see below.

Here’s what the random number generator told me–I just think these things are so cool!

Random.org is a random number generator (found by Google, thank you Google)

Thank you to all of you for reading, commenting, participating in the giveaway!  Thank you to all the bloggers who participated, and to Quilting Arts/Interweave, Mistyfuse and Havel’s Scissors for donating prizes!   Now…on to blogging about more art, quilt and family life!

And for those of you wh o didn’t win (I’m sorry!  I wish I could have a copy for each of you!), visit my Store page here to order the DVD,  or to order either the DVD or a digital download, visit Quilting Arts’ Interweave Store, here.

To cap a wonderful bloghop, I would first and foremost like to thank the amazing artists and bloggers who made this possible:  Jamie Fingal, Deborah Boschert, Vicki Welsh, Leslie Tucker Jenison, Terry Grant, Gloria Hansen and Diane Perin Hock.  To all of you who left comments, THANK YOU!  And to Quilting Arts/Interweave, Mistyfuse and Havel’s Scissors, thank you for your generous donations that make this grand prize possible!  Here is one more chance to win, and read to the bottom for a bit more news!  Please note, this giveaway is for those residing in the United States only due to postage costs.  However, if you live outside the US and win and are willing to share postage costs, you can enter also. Leave comments before 8 a.m. Eastern Time, October 10th.  I’ll do the drawing that morning and post/contact the winner.DRUM ROLL please:  the Winner is number 42, Gail Myrhodosky!  I’ve emailed you, Gail, to get your snail mail address.  This giveaway is now over, but I’ll do one more in mid November–come back on November 10th—well, come back before then please, but for more on the Holiday giveaway, visit here on November 10th.

There is now a video clip available on YouTube which you can watch here or over on YouTube, here.

The grand prize is grand indeed:

Huge thanks to Quilting Arts/Interweave, Mistyfuse and Havel’s for their generous donations to this bloghop!

• A copy of the DVD!
• A selection of products from MistyFuse! I show you how I use these products in the Video workshop.
• A huge donation from Havel’s Scissors including a generous giftbag that includes long scissors, short scissors, snips, seam ripper, AND the non-stick scissors too!
• And a copy of Quilting Arts Gifts magazine from this year, with a project by me!

Here’s a photo of the stencilled ornaments project I did; I will also be demonstrating this project at the Christmas Delights Sampler (Class 765, and it still has openings…sign up at Festival!) from 2 to 5 Saturday afternoon at International Quilt Festival!

My project in the Quilting Arts Gifts 2013-14 issue is Stenciled Ornaments.

If you’d like to win this GRAND PRIZE, please leave me a comment and tell me something you learned these past two weeks from one of the blogs you visited on the bloghop!    And if you can’t wait, or don’t win, do remember you can order my DVD from me here or the download (or DVD) from Interweave, here.  Leave comments before 8 a.m. Eastern Time, October 10th.  I’ll do the drawing that morning and post/contact the winner.

NOTE:  this giveaway is for those residing in the United States due to postage costs.  However, if you live outside the US and win and are willing to share postage costs, you can enter also.

And….. just when you thought the bloghop was over, NOPE!  I’m doing a SECOND bloghop in early-to-mid-November to kick off the holiday season.  So on November 10th, make sure you come back (well, come back and read my blogposts before then, but you know what I mean) to join the second and final round of fun!