At long last!  There has been precious little time for making art quilts over the past few years.  What with family chaos, the hurly burly of every-day-life, writing a book and making all the samples, marketing the book, travel-teaching and whatnot, I’ve can scarcely recall the last large art quilt I made just for the sake of making it. Here’s a detail (you’ll have to keep reading to see the rest!  yes, I’m evil <GRIN>):

Last autumn, Jamie Fingal and Leslie Tucker Jenison of Dinner at Eight Artists invited me to submit a quilt for consideration in a juried invitational show called “Beneath the Surface.”  (Note:  a list of accepted artists is on their blogpost dated March 22…what fine company!) That means you make a quilt to theme and size (36 wide by 48 tall), and it still might not get in.  My first thought was…I have too much on my plate.  Then I realized the due-date (which always gets me in gear) was early enough in the year that I might actually have time to do it!

My first thoughts were underground waterways, roots, rocks, critters that burrow.  Then, thanks to the influence of my friend Kathy who loves the sea, I thought about under the sea.   But then I thought, no, everyone will do that…. I want to do a portrait!  Then I realized, it could fit the theme:  What is under the surface of a teenage American male?

I took about 65 photos one evening of my older son playing guitar, which is such an elemental part of who he is.  I selected two:  one for the overall body position, another for the face (angle of head, mouth closed, eyes looking down).  I ended up using a third picture because the proportions of the first two didn’t give me enough of the room for the measurements of the quilt.   Luckily, I finished on time and got in!!!

I’ll share the construction process (I’m always fascinated by how a quilt comes to life, but decided I’d show the results here, THEN show the process because, well, I’m impatient and want to share!) in future blogposts. So, here it is!

I think this may be one of the best quilts I’ve ever done; best of all, Joshua likes it too.  I was worried about the funky batik I used for the guitar neck, but when he saw it he said “If I could find a guitar like that in real life I’d BUY IT!” How cool is that?

My original statement for the quilt was (big surprise) a bit too long, so I’ll repeat all of it here:

What is beneath the surface of a 16 year-old male?  Some things are obvious:  music, food, girls, friends, food, school, guitar, food, video games, movies, girls, friends, food. Others are not so obvious.  There is the man he is becoming:  kind, compassionate, interesting, funny, breathing music in his soul, argumentative, loyal, passionate, tolerant, stubborn, smart, gregarious, curious, honest, loving and loved.   “Mom?  Can you fix me something to eat?”

Thanks to Moore’s Sewing Center (in southern California and online) and Brother International, who are sponsoring the exhibit at the IQA show in Long Beach, California; we are hoping the exhibit will continue on to the big IQA show in Houston in Fall 2010.  Thanks also from me to Iris Karp of MistyFuse for her generous support.  This entire quilt top was made with fused applique…MistyFuse ROCKS!

So far I know these artists have blogged about their quilts in the exhibit:

• Deborah Boschert
• Terry Grant
• Karen Rips
• Gerrie Congdon

Those of you who can, I hope you can take pics at Long Beach!  Enjoy, and again thanks to Jamie, Leslie and our sponsors!

Sometimes silliness and serendipity happen….   one night I made cornbread biscuits.  As I buttered one, my older son said “It’s a smiley face!”

Then, at that same wrestling meet of the double-chicken-wings, I saw and enjoyed this t-shirt:

That’s all for today…some random smiling and food for thought.  Personally, at the moment I’d like one of those hot cornbread muffins…..

It has been a long time since I posted about our sons… somehow the vastness and sometimes-creepiness of the internet (and the fear of what may be lurking at the dark ends of cyberspace) have led me to be significantly more cautious about what I say and post.  But let’s face it…. kids and hubbies and family are what make life worth living.  They are also what constitutes “life happening” meaning that quilts don’t happen!  I wouldn’t give up either.  And, in these photos, the kids are basically unidentifiable, so here goes!

This season, our younger son’s second in wrestling, is proving to be a good one.  The first year on a wrestling team is often a learning year as the wrestlers figure out holds, what to do, what NOT to do, and learn to try to win (as opposed to wrestling “not to lose”).  This year, E. clearly is in the “going out to win” mode.

Last year, E. got pinned (and therefore lost) when a kid got him in what is called a double-chicken wing.  He achieved a goal this past meet:  he did it to another kid–see photo above!  So far this year, E. has had six matches with opponents (when the other team doesn’t have someone in the same weight class, he gets a technical win, but real ones are better).   He has pinned the opposing kid (which leads to more points for the team than winning by points alone) six out of six times.  In this past meet, he had four matches, won all four by pins, and won three of the four in the first period. E. ROCKS! Here’s how one of his matches went on a recent Saturday:

Shake hands first:

E. makes a move (he’s the one   on the top, with red stripes down the side and the headgear/ear protectors  falling off):

E. grapples, gets the kid in a near-pin, but not quite, so reconsiders and goes for a double-chicken wing (and don’t your shoulders hurt just looking at the poor kid on the bottom?)

…this is the classic…the losing kid is the one in the upside down, how-can-he-really-be-in-that-twisted-position:

To get a pin, BOTH of the opponent’s shoulder blades must be on the mat for one full second.  That means the ref ends up flat on the mat peering in unusual places and positions to make sure there is full contact for the full second.

PINNED!  Ref slams hand on mat, match is over, E WINS!  E ROCKS!  It is good *not* to be the one twisted up like a pretzel!

A.W.O.L, for my non-US readers, is an acronym that comes to us from the military meaning Absent WithOut Leave (i.e. going off without permission).  So, I have been AWOL a bit.  What have I been doing?  Alas, I can’t tell you, well not much anyway.  I was invited to submit a quilt for a juried invitational exhibit.  That means you make a quilt to theme and size, and it may or may not get in.  Anyway, the past 2 1/2 weeks I’ve been quilting like a madwoman!   I’m thinking my entry will get in, but if it doesn’t, I’m OK with that because honestly I think this piece may be one of the best things I’ve ever done (so it is KILLING ME not to share it!).

What I can share, is the thread.  On a quilt that measures 12 square feet, I used 46 threads on the top (in the green bin) and 16 threads on the bottom (in the bag on the right…also one thread was used both top and bottom), for a total of 61 threads.  Here they are all laid out nicely, with the 16 bobbin threads in the top row (including four cones), and 45 of the 46 top threads below; the repeat was the lime green bobbin thread–aren’t they pretty????

and as always, I like the line drawing on the back side of the quilt almost as much as the front.  I will have word in about a month about the exhibit, and can share (either way, whether I get in or not) then…..
In the meantime, I hope to be a bit more regular at blogging.  You can always tell when either I’m slamming on a project OR too much life is happening…blogposts become scarce! Will try to do better,

Cheers, Sarah

So often, we hear gripes about bad encounters with corporations (and wait ’til I tell you about Continental Airlines, it’s a doozy but that’s a different post).  This post is about corporate good behavior!

A while back I bought the Mighty Bright Flex2 light with ac adaptor (plug).  I liked it so much, and so did Paul, that we bought a second one for him.  Since glare from the sofa lamps on the TV screen bugs Paul at night for TV watching, I bought mine to use as a reading light while on the sofa with him.  Well, mine died after less than 3 months, and they have a bulb life of a few thousand years.

So I looked up the company and wrote, saying I didn’t know what they might be able to do, as I had thrown out the receipts.  I did test the light with batteries, and with Paul’s light with my plug, and my light with Paul’s plug, and was able to determine that my AC plug was fine, but the light was not.  Lo and behold, about 2 weeks later, a replacement arrives, no questions asked, no need to return the dead one, nothing…just a company wanting to make good on their guarantee and make their customers happy.  They succeeded!

This is what my light looks like, and here

is the info from the Mighty Bright company.  I bought mine at a Barnes & Noble.

The second story is about Delsey suitcases.  In 1987 or so, while moving with the US State Department to Bolivia, Paul and I bought our first hard-sided suitcases.  Those two molded-plastic suitcases were the first generation of wheeled bags, and they STILL function.  But, wheels and technology have vastly improved, so about 15 months ago I bought a new Delsey on sale.

Two weekends ago, while racing to get set up for a class (we got in to the building a mere 30 minutes before the class was to begin, and I usually need a good hour to set up for that workshop), I accidentally stepped on a buckle and broke it.  I wrote to Delsey USA via their website to describe the part I had broken, and ask how I could purchase a replacement part (it’s the gizzie that you can use to “chain” or tow another suitcase…if you look at the picture, it is the thing in the middle of the top).  A couple days ago I get an envelope in the mail with TWO replacement pieces, the whole thing not just the half of the buckle that I broke because I’m a klutz, with NO charge!  Once again, I am a HAPPY customer.

GOLD STARS to both Mighty Bright and Delsey.  It’s nice when huge companies do right. Thanks folks!