Saturday, October 5th, 2013
To cap a wonderful bloghop, I would first and foremost like to thank the amazing artists and bloggers who made this possible: Jamie Fingal, Deborah Boschert, Vicki Welsh, Leslie Tucker Jenison, Terry Grant, Gloria Hansen and Diane Perin Hock. To all of you who left comments, THANK YOU! And to Quilting Arts/Interweave, Mistyfuse and Havel’s Scissors, thank you for your generous donations that make this grand prize possible! Here is one more chance to win, and read to the bottom for a bit more news! Please note, this giveaway is for those residing in the United States only due to postage costs. However, if you live outside the US and win and are willing to share postage costs, you can enter also. Leave comments before 8 a.m. Eastern Time, October 10th. I’ll do the drawing that morning and post/contact the winner.DRUM ROLL please: the Winner is number 42, Gail Myrhodosky! I’ve emailed you, Gail, to get your snail mail address. This giveaway is now over, but I’ll do one more in mid November–come back on November 10th—well, come back before then please, but for more on the Holiday giveaway, visit here on November 10th.
There is now a video clip available on YouTube which you can watch here or over on YouTube, here.
The grand prize is grand indeed:
Huge thanks to Quilting Arts/Interweave, Mistyfuse and Havel’s for their generous donations to this bloghop!
- A copy of the DVD!
- A selection of products from MistyFuse! I show you how I use these products in the Video workshop.
- A huge donation from Havel’s Scissors including a generous giftbag that includes long scissors, short scissors, snips, seam ripper, AND the non-stick scissors too!
- And a copy of Quilting Arts Gifts magazine from this year, with a project by me!
Here’s a photo of the stencilled ornaments project I did; I will also be demonstrating this project at the Christmas Delights Sampler (Class 765, and it still has openings…sign up at Festival!) from 2 to 5 Saturday afternoon at International Quilt Festival!
My project in the Quilting Arts Gifts 2013-14 issue is Stenciled Ornaments.
If you’d like to win this GRAND PRIZE, please leave me a comment and tell me something you learned these past two weeks from one of the blogs you visited on the bloghop! And if you can’t wait, or don’t win, do remember you can order my DVD from me here or the download (or DVD) from Interweave, here. Leave comments before 8 a.m. Eastern Time, October 10th. I’ll do the drawing that morning and post/contact the winner.
NOTE: this giveaway is for those residing in the United States due to postage costs. However, if you live outside the US and win and are willing to share postage costs, you can enter also.
And….. just when you thought the bloghop was over, NOPE! I’m doing a SECOND bloghop in early-to-mid-November to kick off the holiday season. So on November 10th, make sure you come back (well, come back and read my blogposts before then, but you know what I mean) to join the second and final round of fun!
Posted in Art, art quilting, Be Happy!, Blogging, Drawing, DVD, Interweave-Quilting Arts, Janome, Machine applique, Machine Quilting, Published!, Quilt Design, Quilting Arts / Interweave, Teaching / Classes, Techniques | 63 Comments »
Saturday, September 7th, 2013
WOW…to say that I am happy is close to an epic understatement! I know I’ve got plenty left to learn (like white feathers), but if you’d told me a week ago that I could produce this, I would never have believed you. As a friend also enrolled in the Drawing Birds with Colored Pencil class said, I attribute this utterly to the quality of the instruction! Who knew that if you just take it step by step, following Val’s instructions, that every single one of us that has shared a photo has been able to do this, and this well? WOW! Once again, here’s the link to Val Webb’s website.
This week’s lesson was first about eyes, highlights, and the “caustic”, the place where the light the creates the highlight in the eye comes out on the other side of the eye…a sort of “shadow” highlight. Then we moved on to drawing this ferruginous hawk from a photo. Holy Schmoly, I did it!
Completed colored pencil drawing of Ferruginous Hawk. Instruction was for the head, hasn’t yet covered white feathers, but I wanted to try anyway! (and sorry about the shadow from my hand–new camera and haven’t yet figured out how to activate fill-flash!)
Here is where I began:
Starting out with the eye and beak, doing an underpainting/sketch. That’s Val’s instructional sketch on my laptop.
In progress:
With the outline done and initial layer of colors applied.
And the final with the photo for comparison:
I’m happy!
Each week for 8 weeks, Val posts a lesson on her website. You download handouts, watch videos on the website. Access is for four months–for her Lettering class she made a DVD with the online videos which you could buy if you wanted. The cost of the 8-week class is only $50–a major bargain! Even buying the CD for an additional $24 kept the class in the eminently reasonable price range. I hope that over time she’ll be able to make additional DVDs available, as watching her draw in real time is SO helpful! Anyway, gotta run! Chores need doing!
Posted in Art, Classes I've taken, Drawing | 2 Comments »
Sunday, December 9th, 2012
Sheesh…. crazy busy here! I had surgery on my left foot on Friday, the same as what I had in August on my right foot, for arthritis removal. Things are going quite well and pain-free, but I have been insanely busy getting stuff done in anticipation of bobbing around on one foot for a week! Last Saturday was the start of Eli’s high school wrestling career, with a pre-season meet that included Class A, B and C schools (Camden Hills is Class B). Eli had three matches: his first was against a senior and the defending Class C State Champion (!!!!). Astonishingly, Eli managed to get a couple of escape points and NOT get pinned, which under the circumstances was amazing (since boys’ strength increases exponentially each year…kinda like dog years!). Then he won his next two matches convincingly.
Illuminated script lettering from Val Webb’s Watercolor Lettering class.
I’ve also been taking the most WONDERFUL online “Watercolor Lettering” class with Val Webb. The class is hosted privately, not via an online store or school. She creates a private group on Facebook where we can share, you download instructions from a password-protected blog (that is open for about 4 months which you have to work on the 10-week class), and there are video tutorials (some 30 minutes long!) there. I have learned SO MUCH! The example above is one I completed today, and it is probably the best thing I’ve ever done in watercolors. Val’s critiques are offered privately or, if you ask, on the group. Since I learn so much from reading the critiques, I have gladly offered mine up for sharing on the group, as have others. Val is generous yet points out in the nicest way what you can work on…helping you see where there are inconsistencies that might be done differently the next time. Just wonderful!
Me at home last night, showing a friend what the knee scooter looks like.
On Friday, after slamming all week to get stuff done in my studio, mow about 8 acres (literally) of meadow before winter and get the riding mower tucked away for winter, and do chores more easily done from two feet, I had my second surgery. Basically, the doc puts you under with something similar to the anasthesia they use for a colonoscopy (you have blissful amnesia after the fact), then takes a drill to remove the arthritic growth from one’s big toe. The only hard part for me, last time, was that I had to use a walker (crutches would ahve been as bad); because of the arthritis in my thumbs, putting weight on my hands to get to places (like the bathroom) was SO painful–far worse than the foot! So the ER recovery nurse suggested we rent a “knee scooter.” A what? She pulled it up on a laptop, showed me, we called the Medical supply place in Portland (on our way home) to reserve one, and I am SO HAPPY! I can get around the house easily!
Eli’s first match yesterday, in the official season-opener meet, was against the MDI (Mount Desert Island) kid who placed third in Eastern Regionals last year. As you can see, the boy (in green) is seriously ripped–that’s Eli in red grabbing his leg.
So easily, in fact, that since this surgery is on my left foot, I was told I could drive whenever I felt up to it. Well, yesterday was Eli’s first “official” high school wrestling meet and I had been SO bummed I wouldn’t be able to go due to the walker. Not any more! I felt up to it, and I MADE IT to the meet! It helps that the meet was in a town only 30 minutes drive, too. So I got myself and scooter into my car and went! And Eli had a fabulous start (of course he did, he rocks!). As a matter of fact, the team had a fabulous start. They lost 7 out of 13 Varsity team members to graduation last year, including 3 state champions. Yet, the team WON the 6-team Class B meet! Ellsworth obliterated four of the other teams, and Camden Hills obliterated Ellsworth. Can we all say “WAY COOL!”
Well…here’s just before the end of the third period, where Eli is getting the MDI boy on his back, again. Eli won, 10-3! That’s against the boy who was 3rd at Eastern Regionals last year. Papa Smith was VERY pleased!
And another move, where Eli is cranking on the boy in green, trying to get his shoulders to the mat and pin him, thereby ending the match immediately. He almost managed a couple of times, but this was definitely his toughest match of the day. The boy in green, by the way, is swiveling his hips to face down to prevent Eli from getting the pin, and the referee is down on the mat so he can peer underneath when it is close to see if it is a pin or not-quite.
Eli’s second match was against another seriously-strong young man from Ellsworth, here. Although this photo is blurry, I love how it shows the motion and intensity of the matches. That’s Eli on the left driving in to his opponent.
Honestly, I’m not sure why the wrestlers (boys and girls) love this so much. Personally, I would not love having someone’s knee in my back and my face held into the mat! Eli is (duh) in good control position here.
And a win “by fall” (which means Eli pinned his opponent, the kind of win that gets the team the most points). Eli also won his third match, which was against the JV member of the Belfast team. The varsity 152-pounder wasn’t there, but is apparently exceedingly good, was 3rd at States last year.
So, Eli’s official start to his high school wrestling (supplemented by two win-by-forfeits, where the opposing team didn’t have a kid to compete in his weight class) is a 5-0 record. WELL DONE! The rest of the team did extremely well… so proud of all of them including the coaches, kids, JV, and manager. This year the coaches are: PK, the high school science teacher, former coach and former Camden Hills wrestler and State Champion is coach, True Bragg is Asst Coach (had been Middle School coach, and he too went to Camden and was State Champion), Coach Goodspeed (been around since 1982 as head coach, part of the room and asst coach) and Paul as Asst Coach also. Thanks to the men, ranging in age from mid 20s to 70 ish, for helping. WOOT!
So that’s what I’ve been doing. Since I am allowed to put NO WEIGHT on my left foot all week, I hope to get caught up on some computer work: accounting for my teaching trips this year, learning InDesign (or at least starting), learning my new iPhone (I LOVE IT!), caught up on watercolor lessons, make some small Christmas gifties, write the Christmas newsletter, order the Christmas cards, do some fun reading, watch a couple DVDs I ordered like a year ago… hmmm…sounds like I need several weeks! I promise to try to be better about blogging! Meanwhile, enjoy the holiday season. Happy Hannukah to those who celebrate–personally, I believe in joining in all celebrations of light and goodness and joy!
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