Great news!   I’ve got a new article in Quilting Arts, in the August-September issue.  I’m dashing out the door momentarily to Maine Quilts (I helped with set-up on Weds., you may have seen a picture if you’re on FaceBook), and today I get to help with Appraisals for a couple hours.  Looking forward to learning!  BUT in the meantime, WOOOHOOOO, my article on “What a Difference the Background Makes” is in this issue:

The August-September Issue of Quilting Arts has my new article on choosing backgrounds.

Here’s the first two pages of the article (I blurred the text since QA has the copyright).  Issues should be on stands now or soon; if you live somewhere that you can’t get a paper copy, the issue is available by digital download from Quilting Arts/Interweave, here.

My new article on backgrounds. Thanks to my friend Pat D. for suggesting I propose this to QA! You rock, Pat!

I did up a second version of the quiltlet on the right, but gotta run so will share that in the next day or two.  If you’d like to see how I applied this process to a recent larger quilt, Mr. Wiggles Does the Circle Dance, check out this blogpost from earlier this summer.

I’m thrilled to report that I will be teaching in Houston at International Quilt Festival, Fall 2013!  I’ve sent off my contract, and will be teaching or presenting Tuesday through Saturday.  On Sunday, I get to play and shop!   Here’s my schedule:

Tuesday, October 29:  Tame Fussy, Fiddly Threads, an all day class on how to use successfully those beautiful sparkly, holographic and variegated threads on your stencilled tossed leaves.  See blogposts from previous classes here/1, here/2, here/3 and here/4.

Wednesday, October 30:  Birch Pond Seasons, an all-day class in fused collage.  You can see the pattern here and a blogpost from a local class here.

Thursday, October 31:  I’ll be one of 7 teachers presenting at the Machine Quilting Forum.  My subject will be Find Quilting Design Inspiration Everywhere.  The forum is like speed-dating for quilters:  each of the teachers gives an overview of their work (in 10 slides or less), then groups move from station to station listening to the teachers’ presentations.  It was a lot of fun, and I wish that in addition to hearing the teachers’ overview at the beginning that I had been able to sit in with the students.  It’s a great way to decide if you’d like to save up for a big class with a teacher or have them come to your guild.

Friday, November 1:  Decorative Stitch Sampler, all day class that teaches you to use all those fun stitches and threads.  We had a blast in this class in 2012!

Saturday, November 2:  Quilts, Inc., has a whole new fun thing on Saturday!  The Christmas Delights Forum.  I’ll be presenting the Stenciled Snowflake Ornament.  Each teacher will have a project suitable for quick gift giving and holiday celebrations.  I’m currently working on the samples, but hope to share with you before too long.  I discovered when teaching surface design technqiues a while back that it is fun to make a paper snowflake or mini Hawaiian-style design out of freezer paper, then stencil the image on cloth.  Then you can quilt it and turn it into a holiday ornament or decoration.

Looking forward to my students, friends, and quilts, quilts, quilts!   See you there!

Gosh, I must say I am thrilled at all the work that fell  out of the sky onto me this past spring, but it is nice to be able to take a breather, blog a bit, sit on the sofa with a bit, sit on the porch and enjoy the summer breeze (ok, so at the moment the breeze is imaginary but I can hope one wafts in soon ans disperses the hot and muggy weather that is doing us all in as I type this…hopefully by the time this posts to the blog the “hot, hazy and humid” forecasts will be done and we’ll be back to glorious Maine summers).

This is a bit of a catch-all post to catch you up on life, so in somewhat random order….

In April I lectured in Massachusetts, then taught in Rutland, Vermont. As you might guess, the class was Hawaiian Applique by machine which I will be teaching TWICE in Southern California this month!  Didn’t this student do a beautiful job with her satin stitching on the turtles block?

Here’s the classroom, on the lower level of a hospital center! Thanks to all the ladies who came–what fun!

And here’s a taro leaf block, another of the “small” options in this class. Lovely!

As luck would have it, my route (yippeee!) took me from Massachusetts right past my friend Jacquie’s house on the way to Rutland, where I didn’t have to be until the evening lecture.  So of course I got to make a small detour and visit, and of course she fed me (Jacquie is a MUCH better and more inspired cook than I am).  When I arrived (late, I’m Sorry jq!) she was on Skype with her daughter Melanie, who lives in Germany, so I got to visit with Melanie too!   We had so much fun yakking and sharing that we forgot to pull out Melanie’s elderflower cordial that she made, so I’ll just have to manage another trip to Vermont.

I LOVE this picture…which I managed to take with arm extended. It only took about three tries to get a decent one, too!

In April, Eli’s track and field season began. Here’s an early season meet (the deciduous trees are still bare), with him throwing the javelin. Look at that glorious sky and that beautiful boy-child (OK, soon to be young man) of mine! So proud of him–this is his third varsity sport this year, as a Freshman! And he qualified for States, making it three for three. Well done, kiddo!

Earlier, in the spring snowmelt and rain, our driveway (3/10 of a mile long…there is this big rectangle with lots all around it, and one long skinny driveway to the lot in the middle which is us) washed out, really badly on the bottom.  So we sucked it up and paid serious money to put in a proper ditch that would deal with all the water.  Cost about as much as (OUCH!) a nice used car! Here are the markings from when DigSafe came to show where NOT to dig:

Getting ready for ditching on the uphill side of the long driveway. The red shows where there are utility pipes (electric and phone/internet) underground.

Then, here are a couple more shots of me prepping for filming the Quilting Arts DVD on May 1 (my full blogpost on that is here):

Setting things up as they would be seen on camera, in the “stuff you’ll need” part of the DVD at the beginning.

And working on the preliminary quilting for the piece I would quilt on the set. I needed to have the tomatoes in various stages of being quilted to demo the difference from unquilted to partialluy done, to done, plus one to work on while filming.

So that’s a bit more of why I’ve been so quiet these past months–LOTS of work and family life.  Life is good!

You coulda knocked me over with a feather!   I very rarely hear back from students despite my invitation (Plea!) to send pics of projects!  Well Nancy McConnell DID!  THANK YOU, Nancy, and yep, I’m shouting!

Two years ago in March 2011 I had the pleasure of teaching for Cape Cod (Massachusetts)’s Bayberry Quilters, and Nancy was in my Balinese Garden class.  I always encourage students to do their own thing and adapt the pattern at will, and she did, and I’m so glad!   The pattern, here, is for a pillow or tablerunner.  Nancy let hers GROW into this beauty:

I just love the way the flowers dance across the surface!

Here’s what Nancy wrote:

Well, more than two years later, I completed the quilt on May 7th.  I had fun making the flowers and got carried away making
so many, but I had to use them, so “Garden Party” is a bit manic, but I am happy with it.  I used lots of rayon thread that I had in my stash
and was pleased with the results.  I will show the quilt in our annual Quilt Show on August 1, 2 and 3rd.  Hope you can attend.  Here’s the link to it:
http://bayberryquiltersofcapecod.com/

Alas, I won’t be able to go down (will be taking son to running camp in Vermont about then), but if you are in the vicinity, do go!

Here’s a detail photo:

Detal of Nancy McConnell’s Garden Party Quilt.

Thank you so much Nancy for being in the class and especially for sharing your quilt with me and letting me share it, in turn, with all of you!

Some time ago, I shared with you “Listen to the Song in the Night,” which has been juried in to this year’s exhibit, An Exquisite Moment, curated by the Dinner @ 8 Artists, Jamie Fingal and Leslie Tucker Jenison.  The exhibit will debut at the International Quilt Festival in Long Beach, California, at the end of this month, then travel to Quilt Festival in Houston in October/November of this year.  I am so thrilled to once again be part of such a wonderful group of artists.  Jamie and Leslie have been blogging and interviewing those of us in this year’s exhibit, here.  Today, July 8th, it is my turn!   So please go visit the blog and enjoy!

Listen to the Song in the Night by Sarah Ann Smith (c) 2013. 24 x 60 inches. Artist dyed silk and cotton, a few commercial batiks (mountains). Free motion quilted, ink with dip-pen, paint.

Thanks to artist Loris Bogue, we have also had catalogs of the exhibit that one can purchase via Blurb (or is it Snapfish?).  When this year’s is available, I’ll share the information with you.  I so enjoy reading the answers by the other artists.  So I invite you to surf over to Jamie and Leslie’s blog and spend some wonderful lunches and afternoons–after all, it is too hot to work hard, so let’s sit and enjoy the art!–with the talented folks in this exhibit.

And if you’d like to know more about how I made this quilt and the story behind it, please visit my earlier blogpost, here.