and you’ll need to not “blink” with your ears or you might miss me!  I’ll be on at about 3:20 Eastern (US) time.

Creative Mojo radio with Mark Lipinski

But I’m happy to report I’ll have my two minutes (literally…that’s all:  two minutes, but much appreciated)  of fame tomorrow, live on Creative Mojo with the irrepressible Mark Lipinski.  You can tune in here, on Toginet.   Or if you are someplace you can’t log on and tune in (or perhaps like me get so involved in stuff you forget what time it is and miss stuff), you can always catch the Creative Mojo podcast, here.   The website tells us:

CREATIVE MOJO WITH MARK LIPINSKI is a live, two-hour entertainment program broadcast on the Internet. It’s fun, entertaining, informative, inspirational and illuminating.

and

• Just log onto www.toginet.com for a brand-new,
• LIVE, 2-hour
• Creative Mojo with Mark Lipinski!
• 3 pm -5 pm EST    2 pm – 4 pm CST 1 pm – 3 pm MST    12 pm – 2 pm PST
• Call in anytime during the live show with your questions or comments for my guests
• (877) 864-4869

AND I just discovered you can go to iTunes and subscribe to his podcast! WOOT!

As for what I’ve been up to since I last posted, I had a *really* long commute to work last week:  flew from Maine to Florida and back so I could spend two wonderful days teaching for and lecturing at the meeting of the Venice Area Quilt Guild.  Many thanks to my host and program chair Betty Jordt and the folks of the guild AND some folks who know me who actually came to the lecture!   I’ll blog soon!

Since returning on Thursday afternoon, I left within 16 hours to head south to Rhode Island to support two of the members of Eli’s high school wrestling team who made it into the VERY competitive New England Regional Wrestling Championships:  to get IN you have to be a State Champion from Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island or Connecticut.  Talk about stiff competition!   Both boys did well and one even placed!   It was a great trip but I’m REALLY glad to return home on Sunday.  Yesterday was lots of bookkeeping and paperwork stuff, and today was spent researching patents!  I have an idea for a quilting tool, and may be dashing off a provisional patent application in the next week before a new law goes into effect on the 16th of this month (ERK).   So I’m going to be scarce while scrambling to do something that should take me months and consultation with a lawyer (not to mention a patent search that goes back 120 years), but I’m gonna try anyway.  Stay tuned—maybe in a year I’ll have some good news if the provisional application goes through and I can find a manufacturer and funding!  (Can you say Kickstarter campaign?)

But in the meantime, I’m looking forward to a couple minutes on the phone and radio tomorrow with the ever-funny Mark Lipinski!

Hi all!  I’ll be teaching and lecturing this week in Venice, Florida!  My departure was scheduled for today, but due to snow I’m leaving Monday but will be there in time for teaching on Tuesday and Wednesday, and the Wednesday evening lecture.   Here is some info from the Venice Area Quilt Guild website:

February 27, 2013 regular meeting at 7:00 pm at the Venice Community Center, 326 So. Nokomis Avenue, Venice, FL 34285.

Our regular February 27, 2013 meeting will begin after the special meeting with guest speaker quilt artist Sarah Ann Smith.  Sarah’s talk will be “How did she do that?”.  There will be a $5 admission fee for non-members.   The doors open at 6:15 for socializing and guild business.  The meetings will begin at 7:00 pm.

I’m teaching one of my favorite courses to teach:  Quilting Design!  The one-day class will be held on both days.  There are still a few openings, so if you’d like to attend, contact the guild!

If you’d like to read more about the class, go to my classes page and scroll down to “Quilting Design.”  The class supply list is also available as a pdf in that description, just click the link.   And if you’d like to book me to teach the class, I’d love to do so!   The class is best as a 1 1/2 or 2 day class, but can be squeezed into a day with Some exercises you can take to do at home instead of in class (where you get feedback).  Hope to blog pictures later in the week!

Seven out of 14 of last year’s varsity wrestlers graduated.  The average age of this year’s varsity team is 15—very young for a high school team.  We had two seniors, two juniors (one of whom began wrestling in November), nine sophomores (one new to wrestling) and one Freshman (Eli) on the varsity team.  At the beginning of the season, Camden seemed poised to have a “rebuilding” year and not be the usual powerhouse team in the state. Prognosticators said Camden would likely end the season at 12th, not the usual 1 or 2 spot.   Apparently, no one told the boys and girl of the team.

Camden Hills Wrestling Team 2012-13, State Champions, and new friend and adopted teammate Michael Alvarez (State Champion at 152) of Morse in Bath, Maine–read below to find out why he’s so wonderful.

Twelve of them, including the two boys new to wrestling, qualified for STATES!  The team was undefeated in dual meets at 25-0.  They won the Class B title at the all-schools (class A, B) Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference.  They won Eastern Regionals.  At this point, the sports pundits revised their thinking and said Camden would likely finish third, possibly second but not first.  Once again, no one told the kids.  In a nail-biter finish, Camden beat Fryeburg Academy to win the State Championship 131.5 to 128.5 points…by a mere three points!  As coach Patrick Kelly pointed out to the local newspaper, EACH and EVERY kid who wrestled helped win (or not give away) critical points.  It was truly a team effort, capped with two State Champions, two runners up, two at third, one at fourth and an ELATED group of kids, coaches, parents and wrestling alums.

The coaches and this year’s graduation seniors, from L to R: Paul Smith and Perry Goodspeed (assistant coaches), Calan Bragg (132-lb and newly minted State Champion), Tia Silverio (Team Manager), Coleman Powers (154-lb and newly minted State Champion), Coach Patrick Kelly and Asst. Coach True Bragg (cousin to Calan)

It is now 4-5 days since the kids won, and I think we are all still floating on air.  I’ll share a bit about each of the boys who came home with a medal, a bit about Eli, and tell you about Michael.  I don’t think I’ve EVER heard of a team cheering so wildly for another team’s kid to win!

Eli had an amazing year, not only being ON the varsity team as a Freshman, but in making it to States.  He is the same weight as Coleman, but Coleman as a senior got to choose which weight class he wanted to wrestle (and frankly he could beat Eli easily so was a stronger component of the team in terms of contributing to team points).  That meant Eli had to wrestle up a weight class–and let me tell you wrestling against someone 7+  pounds heavier and older is a challenge.  Nonetheless, Eli did really well.  If they had places below 4th, Eli would have come in 5th or 6th at States–as a Freshman!  WOW!

Eli is in back and in control as he takes his opponent down to the mat to attempt to pin him.

Eli has control of his opponent’s arm, which allows him to turn him over and (in a few moments after this picture) pin him for the win.

And  proud papa Paul (and asst. coach) with Eli holding the team’s trophy for the State Championship:

Paul and Eli enjoying the team’s victory.

The team’s success came with  every single point scored or not given up to second place Freyburg Academy, including wins and scores from the boys who didn’t medal.  Those who did medal, brought extra critical points. Sophomore John Underhill had a couple of matches where he absolutely dominated:

John Underhill is very close to pinning this kid in an earlier match in the day. John came in fourth–well done!

John is getting close to another pin

Sophomore Jared Gilbert came through and won 3rd in the consolation finals:

The ref is checking as Jared presses his opponent into the mat

It is so nice to get the “hand up”! And I’ve finally, after years of trying, figured out when to snap so I actually get the shot in the nano-second the hand is UP! Jared WINS. You can see on the scoreboard that he won by a pin, because the clock has stopped with time in the second (of three) periods. Good job!

Sophomore Chriss Weiss (we’re so glad you’re back in Camden!) took another 3rd for Camden in a talent-laden weight class (126 lb).

Typical Chris: on top, in control, and ready to roll-em over.

Chris is just seconds away from the ref calling the pin and taking third! He needs to get the Mountain Valley boy’s left shoulder down, and it’s done.

James Archer (113 lb) and Connor Winchenbach (138 lb) came in second in the Finals against tough opponents.

The ref slams the mat in the “Pinned!” gesture in an early match. From this shot, you can see that the boy on the bottom has his shoulders flat on the mat…done for!

In the finals match, Connor wrestled one of the best wrestlers in the state, senior Daniel DelGallo from Gardiner. DelGallo is now a three-time state champion, but Connor wasn’t going to make his trip to the top of the stand easy! That’s Connor in front, yanking DelGallo off his feet.

Sophomore James Archer wrestled another State Champion, Fryeburg senior Connor Sheehan, in the finals.  Sheehan won his third state title and James came in second.

James Archer in an earlier match controls his opponent.

James gets the pin (with Eli shouting in the background)

Seniors Calan Bragg and Coleman Powers won their first State titles and absolutely decimated the competition.  Luckily, I got some great shots of them.  Glad I finally figured out how to get the shots before the season was over!

Calan Bragg is working his opponent down, but the Ellsworth boy is arching his back (it’s called bridging) to keep his sholders off the mat. The referee on the left is one of our favorites…a really nice guy who is fair and takes time to instruct the kids in the sport as he refs a match.

Calan flips his opponent over and is bringing him down to the mat.

Calan keeps working, getting him closer. Wrestling is a sport of mental as well as physical toughness. Determination pays off!

Coleman is SO darn fast that I have a hard time getting photos of him–he’s usually a blur! The first photo is from an earlier match in the tournament, the others during his Championship Finals.

Can you say “dramatic move”…. unbelievable! And the wrestler must control the opponent all the way down so that he lands safely (although sometimes hard) on the mat.

Coleman getting ready to crank his opponent over onto his back!

Coleman takes down his Freyburg opponent in the Finals. Coleman pinned him in 53 seconds in the first round.

But even with all that excellence, the win for the team title was NOT in the bag.  We were leading Fryeburg by only a few points.  Fryeburg had two more boys in the finals.  If both won, they would win the State title for their team.  If one came in second, Camden would win by a slender three points. The second boy won.  The first of the two Fryeburg boys was in the 152 pound weight class up against Michael Alvarez of Morse (Bath, Maine).  At the KVAC tournament several weeks ago, Eli pointed him out as they were in the same weight class and told me:  see him, he’s the one that’s gonna win states.  Can I say how ELATED WE ALL ARE that he DID!

The Camden team, parents, and supporters were watching the VERY close match, which changed lead a couple of times, screaming and cheering loudly.  Michael won by a narrow margin on points at the end of the third period, and the Camden crowd went crazy!  I think every kid on the team and half the parents sought him out to congratulate and thank him.  The kids even invited him to join us for a team “victory” photo with the trophy, and he did.  Here he is kneeling down in front to join the team as they all give him a round of applause and Coach Goodspeed shakes his hand.  And it turns out he’s a really nice kid, too!

In blue (kneeling in front on right, shaking hands with G), Michael Alvarez of Morse school in Bath. Congratulations, Michael on your State Championship and the best of luck at New Englands!

So as you might guess by this massive post, we are all SO HAPPY and still floating on air.  The kids were amazing–all of them, including the JV members of the team who helped their teammates during the season.  The coaches did an amazing job bringing out the best in this young squad.  Looking forward to next year–so proud of all of them!

Next, we will return to actual quilting in Hope, Maine!

I’d like to ask you to consider supporting a funding drive to complete a documentary on the Tentmakers of Chareh El-Khiamiah.  The fund drive is being held on Pozible (here) and they will accept any donation.  Even if you can donate only a few dollars, every bit helps.  Let’s get this documentary of textile art funded and made.  Today, Tuesday the 19th February, the total pledged is $13250, and 160 made a pledge – but they still need to reach their target of $20,00 by the end of February.   I hope you will find you can to support this important project with at least a small donation and by passing this on to some of your friends. Please feel free to link to this post and borrow from it to help support this project!
For more information, read on!

An Egyptian Tentmaker’s hanging in the collection of Alison Schwabe

Several years ago Jenny Bowker, a fabulous Australian art quilter and teacher, moved to Egypt while her husband served as the Australian Ambassador to Egypt.  While there, she came to know and love the land, and especially the Tentmakers.  In that culture, beautifully decorated tents were used for special events, but with the rise of machinery and the modern era, the art and craft of tentmaking was fading.  Jenny was so moved by this beautiful textile art, that she began to share it with the rest of the world.  I first read her posts on her blog and on the QuiltArt list.  Later, I attended a lecture at the International Quilt Festival in Houston where I sat with tears in my eyes as she shared the appliqued textiles they make and what she has done to bring pride and respect to their art.  She has since been able to bring a couple of the tentmakers and many men’s work (the tentmakers are men) to Australia, the United States and Europe where their works sold like hotcakes and impressed many.  The quilt above is one of two  in Australian quiltmaker Alison Schwabe’s collection (Alison’s website is here). Here is a detail photo:

Detail of the quilt at the top of this post.

And Alison’s other textile:

Egyptian tentmaker’s applique work, in the collection of Alison Schwabe

Detail photo

After the “Arab Spring” that began with demonstrations and protests in Dec. 2010 and continued through spring of 2011,  Jenny was involved with an exhibit in the UK; one of the tentmakers–having seen what is going on in our international quilt world from previous exhibits–had broken with the traditional imagery of their craft, and made a piece depicting the demonstrations in Cairo.  This was the first personal expression of this sort Jenny had ever seen, and I still get goosebumps remembering when Jenny posted to an internet list that the piece had been purchased by a Museum in England!  How utterly wonderful.

AQS then hosted the tentmakers for an exhibit here in the US and published a book about these pieces.

Alison and Jenny have written some detailed information which I will share here so you can follow the links.  Thanks Alison for allowing me to re-post your message!

From: alison schwabe al>
> Subject: The Tentmakers of Egypt – please read at least !
> Date: February 17, 2013 7:32:31 AM MST
>
> Dear Friends –
> You all know me as a textile and fabric artist – a quiltmaker, an art quilter – however you think of me, you know of my intense interest in things in fabric and thread. Because of this, I hope you will read and find interesting some of the material in this recent email from one of my close friends, prominent Australian textile artist and quiltmaker, Jenny Bowker.
> Jenny spent several years in Egypt where her husband Bob was Australia’s ambassador. When we visited in 2007 Jenny took as to several textile places (in addition to the pyramids, valley of the kings and other wonderful places around Cairo) and we found the time we spent in the Tentmakers' street in the old markets quite wonderful – its hard to describe the marvellous times and experiences there but, as just one indication we had to buy a suitcase to get what we bought there back here! If you are a Montevideo friend please remind me sometime you’re here that you’d like to see the magnificent 2m sq pieces of their art we have in bedrooms on the first floor…
> Jenny’s letter is frankly to explain and support the current appeal for funding to complete a quality full length documentary on this textile art with an ancient heritage stretching back over 800 years… but her words are far more authoritative and comprehensive than mine, and so I am copying her letter in full and sending it to you, hoping that by the time you’ve looked into some of the links, you too will feel able to pledge a small donation (or a large one, of course) to ensure this project goes to completion. To me, the importance of the project ranks up there with films I’ve seen on The Bayeux Tapestry, the quiltmaking of the Amish, the Overlord Embroidery and some of the many lacemaking and knitting traditions.
> I invite you to read what Jenny has written below, and if you are pressed for browsing time to follow links, I recomment the short videos and the pinterest images. And, please contact me if you want further details – I’ve been posting things about int on my facebook page and blog, but you may not be a FB friend or might not follow my blog ( but I hope you will sometime go there for more insights to what I do and what things influence me and my art)
> But, now over the Jenny Bowker., who wrote:
> “The Tentmakers are a group of men in Cairo who make spectacular applique. Nowadays most of what they make is intended for the walls of houses or on beds, but in Pharaonic, early Islamic, and Ottoman times it was intended for the inside walls of tents. With canvas behind it which formed the outside wall, the rich appliqué glowed with light on it, and was intended to amaze visitors to a leader’s tent. Did you know that Cairo was originally called Fustat – which means the big tent? In pharaonic times the tents were appliqued leather, now all the work is cotton.
>
> You can read more text about them here:
> http://www.jennybowker.com/tentmakers/
>
> You can see pictures of the work here:
>
> You can see a short video made by Bonnie McCaffrey for Luana Rubin here:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHzWRui7Kjk
>
> And a longer one made by Bonnie as one of her wonderful vidcasts here:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39zkCcQqWp0
>
> And if you go to my Pinterest board on the Tentmakers you will see a lot of current work – and some that is much older and also some of the truly old tents so you can see how they were used.
>
> http://pinterest.com/jennybowker1/tentmakers-of-cairo/
>
> I think almost the best if Kim Beamish’s Facebook page for the film as he is putting up constant new images, and there is a lot lot of historical input as well.
> https://www.facebook.com/CharehElKhiamiah
>
> The art has been slowly dying. Big pieces of cheap, badly registered, printed fabric made in China have poured into Cairo and people buy this rather that the real appliquéd pieces. On top of that disaster – tourism has stopped with unrest for the last two years. Without the work sold in to exhibitions that I have been arranging in other countries they would all be gone by now – instead – stitchers who left are coming back and young ones are learning again. I am thrilled with the progress we have made and very happy with the AQS (American Quilters Society sic )who committed to them for three years. But – it is still hardly documented at all. There is not one piece in the Cairo Museum or even in the Cairo textile museum. The best article I have ever found is in the Uncoverings magazine and there are no books. Older stitchers are dying and no history has been written.
>
> Kim Beamish is an Australian friend who – when I took him to visit the street on his third day in Cairo – picked up the baton I offered and ran with it. He is making a film about the Tentmakers in these difficult times. He has given most of five days a week for the last seven months – or more. He has paid his own way to shows in England, and has had to pay for three more that have not even happened yet in France and two in America. He has become part of the street and the men are used to him and his camera. He has two young children and a wife who works in the Australian Embassy in Cairo. They have to pay a nanny so that he is free to film. He is, like I was, a trailing spouse. He did not choose to live the ‘cocktail parties and bridge’ life, but has chosen to go out on a limb to tell a very moving and necessary story. I know that at the moment he is on the bones of his behind financially and simply cannot afford anything else.
>
> The movie will not be made without funding for the essentials – the long and boring stages when the filming is done and the hard work starts. Editing, top level translation and the rest has to be done by experts and paid for. Please help. Even a little bit from a lot of people will add up to a lot – that is what crowd funding means. The link is now open and working. If he does not get to his total he gets nothing. Kim will spend the month hovering over the site and biting his fingernails.
>
> The work is really special and the film is essential.
>
> http://pozible.com/tentmakers – this is the link to support the Film – The Tentmakers of Chareh el Khiamiah. If Kim Beamish does not get this money the film cannot be made. Even tiny donations will help and big donations will help more. Please.
>
> If you use PayPal it will ask you to preauthorise. It sounds odd but it simply means that when the total is reached the money will then be taken from people’s accounts so it has to be done this way. Kim gets nothing if he does not reach his total and that is the way that Pozible works. He is a bit worried at the moment as only about 29 have helped in three days.
>
> I am hoping a lot of people will have read this far and be willing now to help us. PLEASE send this on to as wide an audience as you can reach. The moment the total is reached the project will be assured. Until then it looks as if it might be dead in the water.
>
> Thank you
>
> Jenny ”
>

Last night we heard a sound in the driveway that wasn’t wind.  Alex!   We wondered how he would manage with his plow.  Well, he didn’t.  He called in his big guns:

Alex to the rescue—with the frontloader. So nice to have a neighbor-plow guy-town road commissioner with BIG stuff in addition to the big plow on his big pickup truck! Love this photo because it shows how hard the wind is still blowing, lifting snow out of the bucket. And notice that vast mound between the edge of the porch and the driveway….

I just stood in the kitchen looking out the window and laughed!    The “plow” pile grew so huge the big bucket on the frontloader (or is that a backhoe?  or two-in-one?) couldn’t reach over the top!

He’s actually driving UP the plow pile to try to dump over to the back side.

And bless that man.  Remember that DEEP drift (about 3 1/2 feet deep) between the front door and the driveway in the first photo?):  Lookit what that nice man did….

Alex came in with the wide bucket empty, set it down gently about 4 feet from the edge of the deck, and then dragged all that snow back out to the center, then scooped it up to dump on the ginormous pile. That meant LOTS less shoveling for us! When the snow melts its gonna be a serious mudfest getting over to the garage!

Made us a wide clearing so we wouldn’t have to shovel as much.  DEFINITELY buying a snow blower before next winter!

This was the view out our bathroom window this morning.  Notice how high the drift is by the entry windows on the left.

And looking back at the house. The photo above was taken from the window on the far left. I was standing just uphill of the ginormous snow pile for this photo.

It was a glorious crisp morning! I love the strong shadows and the blueness of the snow and the wind-carved ridges in the snow.

Love those wind carvings so much I kept taking pictures. As I tell my students, there is quilt inspiration everywhere!

Eli spotted this cool overhang: yes, that is a “corner” of snow hanging on the uphill side from the wind!

Eli scraped the snow away under his feet to stand on the ground next to the drift from what blew over the roof. He’s almost 5’10” tall. Love how the wind whips a channel next to the house. We saw little tiny critter tracks in the snow near there.

Eli, Me with Widgeon, and Paul. We got the gas grill back up on the porch, then set the camera on timer. For once I was going to get into the picture, too, as we aren’t likely to see anything like this again for eons. I mean…snow as tall as the eaves?  It may be routine in the mid-west, but not in Maine!

Eli hoists the King of the Mountain, as said king’s leggies are too short to get him up to the top of the hill!  Eli also needs to go back up there and retrieve the shovel he left up top!

And the storm clouds have cleared and we have that GLORIOUS view back. Yes, the towns of Freedom and Liberty are off in the distance as we stand in Hope! I LOVE MAINE!

And yes, I really DO have art and quilting to share…stay tuned!  First post is tomorrow.

And a PS:  our neighbor is wonderful, but plowing is part of his business!  He gets paid for plowing, but he does it well and responsibly and promptly every snowfall.  It can snow overnight, and when we get up at 6 am the driveway is already plowed most often!  Lots of folks here in Maine have 2 and 3 jobs, including seasonal ones.  The landscaping folks work the earth when it is visible, and plow in winter, for example.  And MANY people buy a plow for their truck and then earn extra money plowing in their neighborhood.   It’s the way life is here in Maine, and I expect in most of the northern tier of the US where snow is prevalent.