Well folks, it’s that time again… time to share my teaching schedule for art quilting, applique and machine quilting classes! I’m thrilled to be able to travel more this year, and have longer teaching opportunities, including a four-day workshop—wheee!– in West Virginia in August!

Also, I feel awkward mentioning this, but will do it anyway: I would like to apply to teach for International Quilt Festival (Houston, Chicago and Long Beach). To do so, I need letters of recommendation from students and shop owners. If you would be willing to write a “to whom it may concern” letter and send to me to use, I would be most appreciative. Just let me know and I’ll send you my snail mail address. Thanks (she typed, blushing and squirming). Here goes:

2008

January 19 (tomorrow!), Intro to Machine Quilting at Quilt Divas in Rockland, Maine

January 26 (next Saturday), Intro to Machine Quilting at Maine-ly Sewing in Nobleboro, Maine

February 28 (a Thursday), Hawaiian Applique by Machine, Sarah Johnson Quilts in Belfast, Maine

April 23-26 (Wednesday to Saturday), the HUGE AQS Show in Paducah, Kentucky!!! I’ll be teaching: two machine quilting classes (one all day, one three-hour), a couple machine applique, intro drawing (and seeing!) for quilters — the ABC class I recently tested and blogged about, plus doing the All Star Review (demo-ing a technique) on Saturday afternoon… I’m hoping I haven’t lost my voice by then!

May 23-25, Salon 2008, Montreal, Quebec, Canada! I had to apply for a passport!!!! I’ll be teaching Machine Applique and Fabric Postcards; click here for class info; I’ll be teaching in English, but speak some very rusty French so may be able to help in French and “quilters sign language!”

August 7-9, Images Quilt Festival, Lowell, Massachusetts. I’ll be teaching Intro Machine Quilting, Decorative Stitch Applique and Hawaiian Applique by Machine. The class schedule is here.

August 17-22, Cedar Lakes Craft Center, Ripley, West Virginia. This will be my first time teaching a four-day workshop, and I’m so excited at the chance to work with students and really get deep into the subject! The workshop is titled: “The quilt top is done, now what?” It will be a compilation of my design and machine quilting classes. We’ll start with the “If you can write your ABC’s, you can draw,” move to designing your quilting designs (for hand or machine quilting) and how to draft and mark those designs, then machine quilting. I’ll be skipping the lecture portion of the day-long machine quilting class since the students here tend to be more experienced quilters and we’ll concentrate on fun nearly-no-mark quilting designs and using decorative threads. The 2007 catalog is here, and soon the 2008 catalog will be available (at the same web address I think).

November 15, Coastal Quilters Fiber Holiday Bazaar, Camden, Maine. I’ll have more info on location, etc., closer to the date, but I’ll be selling some small pieces of my work, patterns, and probably the Lark Books “Quilting with Beads” which features 8 designs by the Frayed Edges!

November 19th (Wednesday, TENTATIVE), BeadDesigners International, near Boston. I’ll be doing a lecture and possibly a workshop (the latter may be in spring 2009) about beading on fabric, my inspiration sources and trunk show.

2009!

March 18-19 (Wednesday and Thursday), 2009: Farmington Valley Quilters Guild, Connecticut! More details as we get closer. There will be a lecture on Wednesday and workshop Thursday. If you live somewhere within a few hours of here and would like me to teach before or after, let me know!

At long, LONG last, I’ve been able to make some headway on completing the last section of the manuscript for my book. Over the last few days of the boys’ vacation, I was able to complete a sampler quilt showing the effects of using different threads and different background quilting. I used the same wreath pattern on all eight “blocks”:

I used a matching 40-wt. trilobal polyester thread (shiny and beautiful like rayon, but stronger and more lightfast), Superior Threads Living Colors # , for the top row. I used a darker 40-wt. polyester thread for the wreaths in the second row, Superior Threads Nature Colors # . For the background I used Mettler 60-wt. “embroidery” cotton in a matching color, and in the bobbin I used Superior Threads The Bottom Line. If you click the photo above, it will open and enlarge.

As you can see from the overall shot, from a distance the matching color-thread quilting nearly disappears. The dark color stands out a lot, though, especially with the “pearl” circle in the center. If I were quilting a real quilt, I personally would choose something in the middle of these two colors. I think the reddish color is too strong, but the matching color doesn’t stand out (so why do all that hard work if no one can see it?!).

Here’s a picture of the quilt “in progress” under the sewing machine. As you can see, I used the easy-on-the-eyes blue marking pen (the thick one). If I had had the fine-point blue pen, I would have used it. The line on the Dritz wash-out pens is so thick (nearly 1/16th of an inch) you have to choose whether to quilt on one side of it, the other side of it, or aim for the middle!

The next part of the experiment was to illustrate how different background quilting blends in with or causes the main motif to pop out. From left to right (in both rows) I used:

• no background quilting
• cross-hatching (a grid) in a size similar to the large end of each feather in the wreath
• cross-hatching in a smaller scale
• stippling; on this one, I varied the size of the stippling. On the top row I used a fairly large stipple; on the bottom row I used a very small stipple to help the wreath stand out.

Between thee and me, I detest stippling most of the time. It has become SO overdone with the advent of machine quilting. There are lots more interesting ways to compress the background, but it does have its place (though infrequently!), and in this instance using a simple background quilting gets the point across better than something more creative.

Here’s a close-up of the no-background quilting blocks in the close up below…on the left. Boring and I think the background ripples some. I don’t personally care for this look, but certainly understand why some folks choose it, especially when hand quilting a big quilt!

On the right you see the cross-hatching in a similar scale as the wreath. By using contrasting lines (curved and straight), you get some differentiation between the motif and the background. Especially when looking at the block quilting in dark thread, it works.

When you reduce the scale of the cross-hatching, you get further contrast of scale as well as line. This really helps accentuate the motifs. In antique quilts, this is how they got those beautiful wreaths and feathers to stand out and be noticeable, even though they were usually using white thread on muslin. This photo will enlarge if you right-click and open it in a new window or tab.

In the stippling examples, boooorrrrriiiinnnngggggg, the larger stipple doesn’t do much AT ALL for me. The scale is too similar to the curves in the wreath. No significant contrast in line or scale. In the second block, the small scale of the stippling really helps “pop” the motif, as well as the small-scale cross-hatching. However, I still think there are lots more creative ways to deal with the background than boring old stippling. You can see the nearly-no-mark sampler I teach in my intro machine quilting classes here or here. That sort of background quilting is a LOT more fun (and visually interesting, at least to me!).

Finally, here’s a picture of the back. I used three fabrics on purpose to illustrate how the back looks when you have

• a solid (ish) fabric that matches the front
• a busy print
• a solid fabric that contrasts with the front

If you right click on this image, you can open it up larger to see more detail (I hope!).

I prefer to use a bobbin thread that matches the needle thread so that small variations in stitch tension and balance aren’t noticeable. Some quilters REALLY don’t like it when the bobbin thread contrasts with the backing. Personally, I really like the line-drawing appearance. As you can see from these photos, the bobbin thread is visible (but not very) on the matching solid, disappears completely on the busy circle print fabric in the center, and makes a nice picture (to me anyway) on the blue:
When I finish my Hawaiian-style jumbo 9-patch quilt, Nourish the Body, Nourish the Soul, I’ll share the background quilting on that and on a couple of my pattern quilts.

Gifts for the Frayed Edges were home-made and recycled this year… the best kind! I had found some gorgeous ribbon at Rock Paper Scissors, a store in Wiscasset. Deborah always loved to stop at Smitten, owned by the same person, and I had never been despite the fact that I drive through Wiscasset at least twice a month on my way to and from Frayed Edges meetings. So one time, on the way home, I finally stopped. And bought YARDS of this gorgeous ribbon, with the idea of making a gift for my fellow Frayeds. As Christmas approached, I thought…do they really need ANOTHER bag with this ribbon on it? Why not let them make something they like/want instead? That led to the decision to dye fabric.

I got home from Mom’s in California on Dec. 11th. Over the next couple of days I dyed about 16 yards of fabric! I did two yards each of five colors (one for each of the other Frayed Edges and one for Marie. Each person received a half yard of “their” color plus a fat quarter yard of the other four colors. While I was at it, I decided to also dye some wonderful PFD (prepared for dyeing) fabrics Marie gave me for Christmas last year: silk organdy, gauze, lawn… plus some cheesecloth and also some silks. Oh MY!

I moved my “table” (two old cabinets plus styrofoam insulation and a 4×4 piece of scratched up shower board) over by the basement windows. A vast improvement to being on the other side of the basement. Still no sink downstairs (I had a plumber give an estimate….$1200 not including sink, counter, faucet…to install….not gonna happen), so am hauling water, but at least it is space and I don’t need to worry about dye or soda ash splattering on the cement walls and floor. The shelving on the left is new and wonderful! All my dyes, auxiliaries and pots and beakers and whatnot in ONE place!

Batching and just rinsed fabrics look so wonderful (too see larger, click on the photo):

Then…. I took some raspberry syrup jars and painted them with glass paint. I used Pebeo Vitrea 160 (available here at Dick Blick) . I picked colors and a motif for each person….green for Marie, sea blues for Kathy, purple for Deborah, green for Kate, and deep coral for Hannah. The purple one for Deborah, for example, has the stalk with buds on it which she has used so often in her work, Kath’s has waves for the sea. I used contact paper cut into shapes and stuck on the bottles, then painted, allowed paint to dry. Paint is supposed to cure 24 hours (I cut it a little close on a few! as usual ran late on time) before baking. You put the glass in a cold oven, turn on the temp to 325. When the oven reaches 325 you “bake” for 40 minutes, then allow to cool inside the oven. It worked! Wouldn’t these look great in a window? I think we need to have more raspberry syrup on our waffles so I can make some for us!

Finally, I wrapped everything up…. the bottle got wrapped with a pair of hand-dyed socks, which got wrapped with the 1 1/2 yards of hand-dyed , which got rolled with that ribbon from Rock Paper Scissors!

In the interest of having good materials to work with for my art quilting, I dyed a lot of fabric… I’ll have more to share over the next week or two.

In a new Christmas miracle (ahem), I actually got our annual “Christmas” newsletter written, printed, in the envelopes and INTO THE MAIL before Christmas! Some years, this event has occurred the week after Christmas (last year), in early January (several previous years), even February. One year, I thought since I was so late I’d make it an Easter newsletter. That holiday came and went, and by June I decided I was SO LATE I’d just skip it and try to do better the following year. So you can see that this is no small feat! Of course, I will never, ever be able to match my friend Gayle, whose letter and card always arrive shortly after Thanksgiving! I may try, but she’ll always beat me, and I look forward to seeing how early she gets ’em out every year <ggg>.

I thought I’d share some of the newsletter here…. the photo above is the one at the end of the letter and was taken a couple of evenings ago. I probably should have included one of the umpteen-zillion other shots taken trying to get them to sit still and behave…. how many years until they do? At least a dozen I think… For regular readers, you’ll recall all these events, as I think they’ve all been in the blog!

The Smith Family Chronicles, 2007 edition

We are looking forward to 2008, since 2007 has been a roller-coaster-ride. The year started out well, with Joshua coming in 5th in the state in his weight class in middle school wrestling, Eli earning his green belt in Tae Kwon Do (Korean) karate and yellow belt with stripes in Isshinriyu (Okinawan) karate, Paul starting out as a white belt in the Isshinriyu dojo, and Sarah’s quilting career taking off quite nicely. In March we added a new member of the family: the world’s most adorable pug, Pigwidgeon. Eli has always wanted a pug, and for his birthday he got one! ‘Widgeon is named after the hapless Weasley family owl in the Harry Potter series, and he makes EVERYone grin — the whole neighborhood loves him.

Just a few weeks after summer vacation began, things took a decided downturn. Paul had torn something in his shoulder and was scheduled for rotator cuff surgery on Tuesday, July 17th. An hour after Paul’s pre-op appointment on the 16th, Joshua decided to dash to the library. He tore down the hill to the T-intersection at the bottom; when he tried to slow down, the brakes didn’t work properly. He cranked the handlebars to make the right turn as hard as he could, but gravel at the bottom of the hill made things worse and he veered across the yellow line, directly into the front left quarter-panel of a Jeep going the 35 mph speed limit.

Miraculously, and probably with the help of an entire host of angels, he suffered only a severely broken left leg—all three major bones broken, the tib-fib into a compound fracture—a gash on his head (he was NOT!!!! wearing a helmet!) and scrapes and bruises. A friend of Joshua’s who lives near the accident scene heard the crash and called to tell us Joshua had been hit. Paul and Sarah flew down the hill in suspended terror until they saw Joshua sitting up, clutching his left leg, surrounded by helpers including a nurse practitioner who was passing by who was phenomenal—and we don’t even know her name to tell her how much her competence and calm helped us all.
After what seemed like eternity, an ambulance with a patient in the back stopped and dropped off an EMT. The EMT took one look at Joshua and before even kneeling down to examine him, got on her radio to call Life Flight to helicopter Joshua to a regional emergency center since the degree of injury was too much for a local hospital. The poor young woman who hit Joshua was devastated—Paul and I both went over to let her know he would be OK. Later, her dad told us she said her eyes and Joshua’s locked over the hood of the car—terrifying! Fortunately, Joshua only remembers thinking “oh this isn’t gonna be good” as he saw the car approach, and then sitting up and the pain in his leg—he has no recall of being hit.

To make a long story a bit shorter, Joshua endured four surgeries in seven days, including the seven-hour operation two days after the accident to insert a rod into his thigh and apply an “external fixator” to his shinbones. The “ex-fix” was six screws about 6 inches long drilled into his bones, with rods on the outside to keep the bones in position. The pressure from the swelling tissues was so great the surgeons had to do two fasciotomies, basically long slices from knee to ankle on both sides of his shin; without this, the pressure on the tissue would have caused it to turn gangrenous and die. Paul and Sarah rotated spending the night at the hospital: one of us was with Joshua 24/7 for the 3 weeks he was in hospital. Eli was a major trooper throughout this ordeal, and was always helpful and cooperative despite having to ride to and fro for 3 hours nearly every day.

After nearly a week, Joshua slept all day. Between the morphine and other heavy-duty IV drip painkillers and blood loss, he had become severely anemic. He ended up needing two transfusions. After a second week, it was time to close up the fasciotomies, requiring a skin graft from Joshua’s left thigh. Another week of rehab and healing followed. Once the skin graft was pronounced “good to go”, Joshua was released to home, three weeks nearly to the hour after the accident.

August was quiet except for Paul’s surgery and being able to go to the Maine Air Show (in September) and see the Blue Angels aerobatic team—awesome! After two days home, Joshua got fed up with the slowness of the walker and gutted his way to walking with crutches and healed with the speed of youth. Paul’s recovery has been remarkable, amazing his physical therapist and doctor! The local quilters were awesome, several coming to us with meals to feed an army, but instead we ate them with appreciation for their love and compassion. And quilters around the world (on Sarah’s e-lists) sent get-well quilt blocks to Joshua, who will have a huge new quilt as a result.

School began, life assumed some normalcy, and Eli played on his first soccer team. He proved to be a quick study once again—his proud Mom and Dad think he can excel at anything he sets his mind to! And we’re proud he was selected for Horizons, the gifted student program, for the fourth grade. Eli also competed in Maine’s biggest martial-arts tournament as an Isshinryu student and took 2nd out of 26 kids in kata (forms), and 4th out of 26 kids in fighting—way to go Eli! Joshua’s leg hardware came off in early November in his sixth and hopefully final surgery (there could be one more in about a year if the rod inside his femur bothers him and needs to come out). He will heal completely!

Sarah’s quilting is going gangbusters! She had two articles published in Quilting Arts magazine this past year, the top quilting magazine for art quilters. As well: two projects were selected to be in a book to be published in May 2008 called Quilting with Beads, the Frayed Edges (Sarah and four friends) had a month-long show in the gallery space at the beautiful Camden library, and (drum roll please) she got a contract from AQS (one of the three largest quilt publishing houses) to write a book! The book is tentatively titled “Unraveling Threadwork,” and is about using thread on the surface of a quilt: appliqué, embellishment and quilting by machine. She had hoped it would be out in Fall 2008, but the hurly burly of the summer may cause the date to slip. Sarah’s teaching is also taking off, with three big-time teaching gigs in 2008 including at the HUGE AQS Quilt Show in Paducah, Kentucky.

In early December, Sarah traveled to California for her mom’s 89th birthday! We are all hoping that Nana will be able to move to Camden (on the waiting list for the retirement community there) in 2008. Joyce, Sarah’s beloved sister in law, came up from L.A. Sarah’s half-brother Tom J. passed away at the age of nearly 75 in late June, and Sarah had been scheduled to go out in July for the celebration of his life. Joshua’s accident changed those plans, so we were all thrilled that the three remaining “Maleady’s” were able to be together.

So that’s it for a crazy year! We are all looking forward to a less-eventful 2008!

With love, cheer and good will,

Paul, Sarah, Joshua and Eli
And the many critters:
Zeus, Tyger, Hannah, Thumper,
Yeti and ‘Widgeon

Eli, in 4th grade, needed a quick gift for his Secret Santa pal. Paul and Eli went looking for a gift—the girl likes horses, so Eli wanted to buy her a bookmark with a horse. No luck. Apparently nothing with a horse at any store including the toy store (hard to believe, but that’s what they said). So they decided to make cookies. As in mom would make cookies. Ahem. Not. As in, I’m wrapping gifts, making my own stuff, working on dyeing six shirts with Joshua for science class, writing and printing the newsletter, doing legal stuff for mom, etc.

So I offered to make a fabric postcard instead and give it with a mini-easel. A quick Google Images search for horses turned up two that gave the silhouette that I wanted, so I traced them off the computer screen. Eli and I decided to make a field with simple trees on the side (this needed to be made FAST). Once that was done, we decided the smaller of the two horses was the correct size. Out comes the Saral transfer paper to transfer the outlines to the pre-fused cloth.  The photo above is the front of the card (Eli wanted eyes and nostrils, so added them with a pen which, alas, bled a little…)

On the back, Eli did as he was instructed, wrote To Francis, From ? (and it shows the quilting):

I’m rather pleased… it took less than an hour for the whole shebang (using mostly pre-fused fabrics…good to have a little fused stash on hand for quilt emergencies just like this), way less than making a huge batch of cookies! Best of all, Eli reported that Francis was really pleased with her Secret Santa’s gift! Good for Eli for picking something he knew she would like!