On the set at Interweave in Loveland, Colorado, to film a Quilting Arts Workshop! (Who me?!!!!)

Can you believe it?  I’ve been to Loveland, Colorado, taped a Quilting Arts DVD Workshop, come home (exhausted but elated) and I can still barely believe it.  Yes, I have been “on the set” filming this week.   Due out in September as both a download and as an actual DVD (which is wonderful for us who live in the boonies with glacial internet), the working title is “Fused Collage and Thread-Coloring,”  a Quilting Arts Workshop from Interweave Press!

The project I used for the workshop is my Tomatoes, Basil and Garlic quilt (No. 1) [there will be 3 versions before I’m done], but the workshop is to teach you how to use your own photo to make an art quilt:

Tomatoes, Basil and Garlic, No. 1, the start of what I will call my Quilting the Good Life series!

My trip to the airport was an omen–a good one–for how the trip was about to go.  I mean, look at the beginnings of sunrise as I crossed the driveway to the garage!

4:25 a.m., Tuesday: leaving for the airport in Owl’s Head (near Rockland, maine) just before dawn

It got even more dramatic just over the ridge heading to the coast, at the intersection of Route 105 (the Camden Road) and High Street in Hope:

Can you believe that sky? Makes me want to get to the dye pots!

The route in was equally stunning. Here, mist rising off the Megunticook River in Camden.

And ten minutes down the coast in Rockland:

And the sunrise over Rockland Harbor, en route to our little airport at Owl’s Head.

I flew Cape Air (maximum of 9 passengers) to Boston, then JetBlue (for the first but not the last time!) to Denver, where I caught the shuttle to Loveland directly to the Interweave studio where I met Helen Gregory and the filming crew.  There we set up my materials, hung the quilts, and went over my plans for filming the next day.  Congrats to Helen on her promotion to Vice President for Content, Interweave and Martha Pullen,  and upcoming move to Colorado!

My DVD will have five segments, so five trays to lay out my supplies which I prepped at home.

And boy did I prep.  I had about a month (shorter than usual I think) between my contract and filming date, so I pretty much did nothing but make step-outs, more step-outs, refine, video (to get used to talking to a camera and to time myself), cut/edit, cut/edit/shorten more, etc.  For a month.  Non-stop.

Make-up, first thing Wednesday!

Interweave has a make-up artist come do you up for camera, as there are special products that make you look right on camera under all those bright lights.  I shoulda shot a picture of me sitting at the table looking at the room…it was FULL of big tripods, cameras, and cables and cords EVERYWHERE.  Miraculously, I did not trip and break anything or anyone!

Reviewing my notes before getting changed for taping.

THANK YOU JANOME-America and Patty WInkelman of Quilter’s Stash in WIndsor, Colorado, for arranging a Janome 8900–the machine I sew on at home–to use along with a Janome sewing table. I’d never used the table and we were all impressed at how sturdy and stable and heavy it is. Of course the 8900 sewed flawlessly!

Then it was time to get changed and start taping.  Then we mostly forgot to take still pictures!  But here are some….

Me on the left, Helen Greghory in the green top, and I think that is Laura (webinars guru) on the right, hidden mostly by one of the cameras. We were getting ready for the concluding segment I can tell by what is on the table.

At the end, I asked to have apicture of four of us: L to R, Laura E. (webinars and more), Helen Gregory (new VP for Content), me, and Lauren our camerawoman extraordinaire. Camera dude Nick was taking the photo, and camera dude Garrett had already run off to another “gotta be there” job. Those lights were bright, but sure make things visible and looking good.

I never saw this view, but either Helen or Lauren kindly took this photo for me, which shows the jib camera shot of the table with my project and quilts on it:

The jib/overhead camera view. If you look in the center just above the right corner of the screen view, you can see the overhead camera.  Also notice in the backgorund it looks like the quilts are on an angle.  They are–that is to offset the perspective angle that happens with the big camera lenses.  Fascinating!

Then it was time to go home.  Early.

Before I arrived, Colorado hit 80 degrees (F). Wednesday, it SNOWED. When I left the hotel at 3:58 a.m. for the shuttle to the Denver Airport, it looked like this! Then by today it was supposed to be back in the 60s–that’s more insane than our weather!

I’ll spare you the tedium of a crowded plane from Denver to Philadelphia, a smaller more crowded plane from Philly to Boston, the utter hopelessness of Logan Airport (UGH UGH UGH), but flying home on Cape Air is always fun.  As we approach the mid-coast, first I’ll spot the Camden Hills:

There are two landmarks visible from the sky from a distance. I was in the seat behind the co-pilot’s seat (which is usually filled with a passenger). The first are the Camden Hills: Battie, Megunticcok, Maidencliff.

Then

The second landmark is the big white tower at Dragon Cement, visible dead ahead in the middle of this photo. I realized on this trip how massively huge the quarry is for this company.

As you near Dragon Cement, we turn right and head for Owl’s Head (Knox County, RKD) airport.  The lights of home!

LOVE being able to snap out all windows of these small planes.  Landing strip is visible just to the right of the bar up the center of the windshield.

Travel was the usual crowded insanity and waiting, but I was home 16 hours later to son, hubby, cats and dog.  Two of the seven are here:

Doggie love is GOOD!

In the past month, I’ve not only prepped this, but THREE articles (more on them when they are close to being published), have a quilt to make in a week, another article to write, then teaching in North Carolina in June and southern California in July, then a quilt to make by August 5.  Then I can collapse a few weeks before school begins (how will Eli be a SOPHOMORE already?) and fall teaching in Massachusetts and at International Quilt Festival in Houston.   So I HOPE to blog more often, but at this rate can’t promise.  I have so much to catch you all up on, pictures from teaching in Florida, Vermont, and Mass….but must be mom, wife, and author first. Stay tuned!

Prologue Alert:  I’ll be lecturing for the Silver City Quilt Guild in Taunton, Mass., on Monday evening, then lecturing for the Maple Leaf quilters in Rutland, VT, on Tuesday and teaching Hawaiian applique on Wednesday.  Hope to see some of you there!  Now on to the regular blog:

The S-word stuff returned in a snit of “no I won’t go” Friday afternoon.

Goodness gracious!  First a comment about the weather:  no.  No.  NO NO NO.  NO!!!!!!!  You see when I went up the driveway yesterday, midday, we were down to a few patches of snow on the north side of the woods (ergo always in the shade).  By late afternoon, it looked like this:

Opened the dining room window (no screens up yet) to take this photo this morning at about 6:30. Say WHAT? (what I really said is not suitable for printing on a public blog LOL).  Yes, those whitespots are still itty bitty SNOWFLAKES.  Snarl!

The weather forecasters said snow first, then rain.  Right…that means the snow gets melted by the rain.  So what is THIS that I see out the dining room window this morning?   NO!

And yes, in April at least SNOW is a four letter word.  It is lovely in November, December, January, February, we tolerate it in March because that’s what it does in Maine.  On April 13th?  NO!  Now, on to quilting.

As my loyal readers will have noticed, I haven’t said much lately.  Can you say busy?  I have four things going, all kinda big and hugely big (at least for me) going, and they are due just about every two weeks from April 8 to June 1, plus add in teaching in Maine in March, Massachusetts and VT this coming week, North Carolina in mid June, and three guilds in Southern California in early to mid July, and I’m basically flat-out busy from now until July 20th!  This is good, as I have precious little on the schedule for next year and the year after, so if your guilds want a quilt teacher, my motto (said with a giggle) remains Have paycheck, will travel!  (Does anyone besides me remember the tag line from that 1960s TV show Palladin, Have Gun, Will Travel?  Daddy loved it.)

So this is what my studio–which is usually kinda tidy because I can’t function in a mess–currently looks like:

Please add the large suitcase with quilts and the small suitcase with clothes to this heap for teaching in Mass/VT next week.

The sewing machine table…with about four things going on on top of it, none of which is sewing (at the moment).  Usually the only thing on these tables is the thread in use and my Machingers gloves!

The work table and ironing board. It looks relatively clear on this side because I’m working over at the iron, but the big suitcase was on the floor over there (filled with stuff for next week).  Again, usually clear with the drop-leaf down unless a work is in process.  Clutter bugs me!

Chaos.  Busy.  And drat it all, I’m not permitted to tell you about it, at least not yet!   But it’s all good stuff, it’s got me working and creating and teaching and all that, but gosh I wish I could share the details.

The third sports season has begun. The airborne kid in red shorts is Eli doing the triple jump. And as always, someone stands up right in front of me….

And (drum roll), Track and Field Season has begun for Eli.   The first meet was Thursday at Belfast, and as usual, it was COLD.  The breeze comes in off the harbor.  The upper 40 degree temps wouldn’t have been bad except for that wind. If I had had a sleeping bag, I would have been sitting in it on the stands!   Eli had one race (great last leg, so-so first 3 1/2 laps) but was so cold he couldn’t get going.  Did fairly well at javelin despite minimal practice times–the fields have been too sloppy for the discus, shotput and javelin because they’d splash when they land.  Sigh.   Did well on his triple jump (again without much practice due to field conditions).  But he’s psyched, and that’s good!  Now I’m off to a full day of quilt guild meetings.  Hope to share pics from teaching in Florida and up in Skowhegan, Maine, soon…..

And a PS…WOW.  Just looked at my blog sitemeter, and it tells me I’ve had 250,127 visitors from 190 countries over the years!   That’s more like total visits not individual visitors, but wow!  Thank you all for reading!

Just quickly popping in to share a photo ot three before another week evaporates!   After returning from teaching in Florida, I left about 16 hours later to attend the New England (High School) Wrestling Championships with Paul and Eli, and since my return from that have been slamming on multiple deadlines between now and March 15th!   But wanted to share a photo or two, let you know I haven’t disappeared, and will be back with more.  First, the eye candy:

After class Tuesday, my host Betty Jordt took me to Sharky’s on the pier for supper. Shrimp and a sunset—perfect!

And a teaser about the class:

In my quilting design class, where we brainstorm ideas for tops folks bring in. Not sure who took these photos for me, but thank you! I forgot to take photos on Tuesday, so really glad to have this one!

And what FUN…. Rebecca H. from Camden is a snow-bird, and she and her friends traveled to Venice from their Florida winter homes to come to my lecture!  SO FUN to have familiar faces in the audience!  THANK YOU for coming!

With Rebecca and her friends just before my lecture to 200+ (!!!!) people.  I’m on the far left with Rebecca next to me.  Great quilters choose good colors LOL…totally unplanned!

Let me knock off a few urgent items (like magazine submissions!) and I’ll be back!

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!

Monday’s Fine Finishes class, all about edge finishes and bindings, included a large contingent from Brazil!

Fine Finishes is one of my favorite classes to teach.  It included PERFECT mitered bindings, facings, piping and couched yarn edges, plus other techniques depending on the student’s speed.  So far, every single student has been able to get a perfect miter and corner–in part because I show them WHY they get rounded or dog-ear corners instead.  Then, I’ll have them do a couple INcorrectly on purpose so they can write notes right on the sample to remind them later what to do.  WOOT!  I really am going to write a book, I promise!  Someone find me an extra month or two, OK?   Anyway, my teaching week began late on Sunday when I arrived in Houston, went over to the awesome IQF Teacher’s room, and sorted and organized the things I had shipped ahead to be ready for each day.  On Monday–the last day of Quilt Market (for the trade only), I had a nearly-full class which was awesome.  On the left I had about seven ladies from Brazil, and one was kind enough to translate for the others whose English wasn’t as strong as hers:  thank you Leticia!  Great results all around!

Here, some students come up to look at my samples up close and take photos to remind themselves when they get home. I’ve found that the samples tend to get buried under papers and whatnot if students take them to their machines, so am now asking students to come up and examine as long as they wish but leave the samples up so others can do the same! Plus, they’re more interesting to look at than a blank convention center wall!

Janome-America has been SO GOOD to me for over 8 years now, including me in the artist and teacher program.  Because I’m familiar with Janome machines, I always ask to teach in a Janome classroom.  For Monday’s class we got the 3160, a smaller Janome that is a great travel-to-class/retreat machine as well as a good machine for at home. It’s not heavy like my beloved 6600/7700s but has almost as many features.  The students did great on them!  Thanks to Janome for sponsoring various machine classrooms at IQF!

Students working!

Happy! Learning to make a couched-yarn edge which is great for small pieces, fabric postcards and other small items. Would even work great on a light-use vest!  Note the white fabric in the practice sandwiches:  students can write notes to themselves right on the sample so the notes don’t get lost!  The samples are sized to fit inside a plastic page protector and can then be put into a binder for future reference.

One student who worked quickly wanted to learn prairie points, so we whipped out Susan K. Cleveland’s Prairie Pointer tool (see it here). Prairie Points can be inserted into a facing, as here, or if you want the to point towards the quilt, insert into a traditional binding.  Check out the rest of Susan’s stuff…. her books are GREAT!

Another view of the class, with my samples on the large 4×8 sheets of foam core at the front. I selected small quilts with a wide range of edge finishes to share so students can see how to apply what they are learning in class to their own quilts.

One goal for my week in Houston was to go to the original Ninfa’s, on Navigation street, more than once. I started with Mexican food at Guadalajara on Sunday evening (walking distance from the convention center), then went to Ninfa’s on Monday….for the first time!

OH MY….. my stomach gets happy just LOOKING at this photo. The plate in the bottom center is mine: El Henry: a taco, tamale and enchilada with frijoles and rice. The absolutely astonishing fact is that I did not put on weight that week! And I ate myself silly-happy!

Susan Brubaker Knapp and I met online and became friends…. we both have two kids about the same age, work as teachers and authors, and love machine quilting!   When we realized we were going to be in Houston together, dinner was a must!  Susan knows Kelly Jackson of I Have A Notion (here), so we gathered up a group and went to Ninfa’s.  Believe it or not, we were NOT tipsy in this photo, just totally relaxed and happy and having fun!  I was on the phone calling the hotel shuttle (Thank you to Embassy Suites…and now that I have secured my reservation for next year, I can tell you how SUPERLATIVE the service was at the hotel!).

Left to right: Kelly Jackson from I Have a Notion website (great name, great site!), Susan Brubaker Knapp and me, sitting on the patio (yes, there were heaters).

I roomed this year with the wonderful Mary Ellen Kranz, who is a part-time resident here in Maine and a dear friend of one of the local quilt guild (Coastal Quilters) members.  I am SO glad she talked me into using her reservation at Embassy Suites instead of mine.  The hotel was fabulous.  The suite was fabulous. Mary Ellen was fabulous! On the way out of the hotel the last evening, I said I hoped to be able to snag a reservation there for next year.  They took our email addresses and, glory be!, sent us a heads-up email saying when reservations would “go live” since hotels usually sell out within a couple hours of taking reservations.  So I was ready and have my reservation.  NICE…and typical of the great service they offered.  Can you tell I was really pleased?  WELL worth the small extra cost per person to stay there.

Looking at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston (about 1/3 mile long!), site of International Quilt Festival, and the lights of Houston, from our 19th floor suite at Embassy Suites.

I’ll be back with more!