Today, I’d like to introduce you to Vicki Welsh (blog) and thank her for participating in my bloghop and giveaway to celebrate the release of my video workshop, Art Quilt Design From Photo to Threadwork (available for pre-order here or as a download and pre-order here).  Please pop over to Vicki’s blog and leave a comment there to be entered in Vicki’s part of the giveaway!

Although I’m mostly about art quilts, from time to time I’ve blogged about the fact that I love ALL Quilts and Quilting—traditional, contemporary, modern, art, you name it!   Like me, Vicki crosses the lines but in a very different way:  she is all about dyeing fabric and surface design, worked into more traditionally piece quilts.

Vicki Welsh’s blog is aptly called “Field Trips in Fiber” and her Etsy shop of hand-dyes is a Visa Accident waiting to happen!  So much fun! Vicki’s quilts are clearly inspired by tradition, but they are definitely a contemporary take on the traditional.  One of her quilts that makes my heart go thumpity thump is Illuminated Blocks…all I can say is it’s a good thing I live far away because I could SO be tempted into a little larceny!

Illuminated Blocks by Vicki Welsh. WOW…just WOW. Her blogpost is here. Right click for a larger look!

This quilt, made from Paula Nadelstern’s printed fabrics, has me wondering:  what if you dyed fabric in mandalas and shibori style, using a coordinated palette of colors.   How would it look to piece an Ohio Star, as in this quilt (look carefully but also go visit her blogpost about it, link in caption), but using one’s own hand-dyed fabrics?

Two of Vicki’s recent tops are Grandmother’s Choice Shibori top (read more about it here):

Vicki Welsh’s Grandmother’s Choice quilt using her shibori and hand-dyed fabrics. Her Etsy shop is here.

And another recent top fascinates me–I’m usually all about the color, but I love the muted tones and kaleidescope effect in this quilt top, her Grandmother’s Choice Symmetry:

Vicki Welsh’s Grandmother’s Choice Symmetry quilt top. Read more about it here.

I love the play of patterns, the secondary designs.   I feel a traditional phase coming on thanks to her inspiration!
Thank you, Vicki, for being a part of my bloghop!   Here’s to meeting you in PERSON one of these days!  In the meantime, we can all go visit her on the web.

The essence of Cross Country: running through the Maine woods, here near the Medomak middle and high school fields. That is, of course, Eli!

Well, if truth be told, the photos that follow are of the third official meet of the season!  I’ve been a bit distracted with the debut of the video and the bloghop, but wanted to keep up with life in general in the midst of all the quiltyness!   This last meet was particularly spectacular, both the day and the results.  Over the   years, the Camden Hills Girls’ Cross Country team has been a powerhouse in the state, among the top teams.   The boys have had some stellar runners, but have never been competitive.  In Coach Becky Flanagan’s seven years, while the girls have even had undefeated regular seasons, the boys’ hadn’t won a meet.  Until YESTERDAY!

Reason to celebrate: both Camden Hills Girls AND Camden Hills Boys WIN at Medomak!

Now that I’ve given away the punch line first, here’s a few photos from the boys’ race and the awards:

Looking towards the starting line as the gun sounds for the boys’ race.  A few of the trees are turning already, and the sun is low in the sky by now, about 4:45 p.m.

As the leaders went past me at the start, in the order nearly where they ended up at the end of the race: Ben T. (senior) in the lead, Caleb (freshman) and Eli (sophomore) all in red. Ben W. isn’t in this picture, but he was able to avoid getting boxed in on the course and finished in the top ten for the first time this season!

Eli didn’t run last week because of his illness earlier in the week, and the cough was still bothering him in this meet. Not the best photo, but it shows the kid’s determination and grit.

And pushing all the way to the chute and the finish line, next to the tent.

Coach Becky taking a picture of first place girls’ team

The boys’ individual medal winners (it was Medomak’s homecoming weekend, hence the medals), with Eli in 7th, Caleb in 4th, and Ben T. with a commanding lead for first. It was another good day for the Trapani family, as his sister Emma, a freshman, won the girls’ race!

A FIRST! The boys team WINS…smiles for sure! And look at that early autumn sun setting through the trees. Maine is so wonderful!

I just wanted to say to each and every one of the kids on the team:  every single one of you inspires me!  Thank you so much for letting me, the total non-athlete, be a part of your season, cheering from the sidelines.  Ben T’s insurmountable leads, Caleb’s lightning speed as he joined the team this year, Eli’s seemingly bottomless reservoir of determination and hard work, Ben W’s steady, strong racing.  But it isn’t just the fastest runners who are graced with the physical ability to run fast that I admire.   Crockett and Josh turned in performances of determination and guts in the past two meets.  Nick D. may be the last of our team to cross the finish line, but his heart is huge:  he DOES cross the finish line, he supports the team, he’s out there DOING IT.

Each and every member of the team, boys and girls, no matter where you place, you are doing something every practice, every meet, that teaches you things you will use for the rest of your life.  Your results depend on YOU and no one else–and what matters most is what you put into it, what you get out of it, not the minutes on the clock as you cross the finish line or who finished before or after you.  What matters most is that you are learning that you can depend on YOU to succeed.  Well done!  Thank you to Becky for years of coaching and work with the team, thanks to all the kids.  You inspire me!

Today is the second giveaway of my video workshop, Art Quilt Design from Photo to Threadwork, and is hosted by my friend Deborah Boschert.  Her website is here, and her blog and the giveaway post are here.  Be sure to surf over and comment to enter the giveaway!

Haze and Hope by Deborah Boschert

When I moved to Maine in 2004, the first thing I did was find the quilters, especially the art quilters.  Maine has a great statewide guild with many regional/local chapters and a few statewide groups, including  Art Quilts Maine.  At the very first meeting I attended, I met Deborah, whose husband was then in the Navy and assigned to Brunswick.  I didn’t realize for quite some time that Deborah was also relatively new to Maine.  We began emailing back and forth, and within a couple of months decided to start our own mini-group, The Frayed Edges, with our dear friends Kate Cutko and Kathy Daniels.   If you click on the categories, you can see the many wonderful times we have shared over the years.

Fast forward many years:  our kids are growing rapidly, we’ve both been published in journals and books, made DVDs, exhibited at national and international venues!  I think if you had told us as we chatted in the parking lot after that meeting what we would have done in less than a decade, we would never have believed it!

Deborah is a member of the amazing group known as the “Twelves.”  You can see tons of their inspiring work, here, and find the book, Twelve by 12:  The International Art Quilt Challenge, here.

Twelve by Twelve: the International Art Quilt Challenge

The first year the challenges were by theme, then by color.  As someone who lives for color, I was surprised that one of my favorites of Deborah’s is this monochromatic beauty, In Light Of

In Light Of

Deborah has filmed the DVD workshop Contemporary Fabric Collage, been on TV segments for Quilting Arts TV, as well as done some great web seminars for them.   You can find all the QA/Interweave offerings with Deborah here, at the Interweave Store.

Thank you Deborah for being part of the bloghop and giveaway, but most especially for the gift of being my friend.

Let me introduce you to Jamie Fingal, whose colorful, whimsical quilts brings smiles! Visit Jamie’s Twisted Sister blog to read her post and enter for the giveaway for a copy of my new DVD  from her blog, but I also encourage you to surf in to Jamie Fingal Designs, her website, and take some time to really enjoy her work!   Jamie loves bright colors, metal zippers and grommets, funky shoes, the Girl Scouts and, especially, RED!

I was tickled silly when, a few days ago, I surfed in to her blog and learned that Jamie’s first fabric line is about to come out.  At long last, I can get me a little Jamie!  You better believe I’ll be lobbying my local shop to put in an order!

Jamie at Quilt Market getting a first look at her fabric line! How cool is that?

The Selvage for Jamie’s new fabric line. Don’t the colors and images just make you happy?!!!

Jamie supports many great quilt efforts including the Quilt Alliance.   She made this quilt for auction, and OH do I WISH I had that ever-elusive winning lottery ticket, because I would have outbid EVERYone for this typewriter quilt, which is one of my favorites of hers!

How I wish I could have been the winning bidder for this quilt!

Jamie also does lots with the Girls Scouts; this quilt is quintessential Jamie-style:

Jamie made this quilt for the It’s Good to be Green exhibit.

Jamie and her friend Leslie Tucker Jenison are the forces behind Dinner @ 8, which has sponsored exhibits that have debuted at International Quilt Festival in Long Beach and can also be found at IQF Houston and other venues.   I was so thrilled when they first invited me to submit a piece for one of their juried invitational exhibits.   Leslie will be participating later in this blog, so you’ll have to wait to hear more about her!

So please DO surf over to Jamie’s website and her blog, and enter the Video giveaway on her blog (and be quick, because you only have a day or two to leave a comment!).  Thank you, Jamie, for being a part of this bloghop!

Great news!   A number of wonderful artists and quilters have kindly agreed to review my new Art Quilt Design, From Photo to Threadwork DVD (or download) in a bloghop and giveaway!  The Quilting and art community has given me so much, that I wanted to do something in return and to celebrate my first DVD (and I’m still agog at how wonderfully well it turned out!).

Now available!!!!

Starting on Thursday, September 19th through Saturday, October 5th, you’ll have EIGHT chances to win a free copy of the DVD or a download, thanks to the generosity of Quilting Arts/Interweave!  Then, in November, I’ll be hosting another round, a second bloghop and giveaway!   And, for the final day of each bloghop, there will be additional prizes from Mistyfuse (thank you to Iris K and Mistyfuse!) and Havel’s Scissors (thank you Havel’s!)!  Here is the schedule for the first bloghop:

September 19:    Jamie Fingal     Twisted Sister Blog
September 21:    Deborah Boschert    Deborah’s Journal
September 24:    Vicki Welsh  Field Trips in Fiber
September 26:    Leslie Jenison  Leslie’s Blog
September 28:    Terry Grant   And Sew It Goes
October 1:          Gloria Hansen   Gloria’s Blog
October 3:          Diane Perin Hock   Going to Pieces
October 5:          Sarah Ann Smith  Right HERE!
I’ll post a reminder each day there is a blogpost and giveaway.   You get to surf over and visit their blog (and I hope explore their wonderful art and blogging) and, if you want to enter, leave a comment.   Each blogger will pick one person to win the prize, will notify me, and I’ll arrange for you to get a DVD or download.  Let the fun begin!