Well it has been a very busy couple of weeks, both at Festival and re-entry coming home.  I sold out of ALL the books and DVDs I had for sale in Houston, so spent my first day home unpacking, my second day home filling orders and getting them shipped out, and then dealing with all the accumulated “stuff” in my email inbox, laundry, groceries and the usual nonsense!   Finally I’m at a point where I could process photos for the blog, so will have LOTS to share with you!  I think I’ll start with some eye candy (photos of quilts!) then go more or less in chronological order.  And interspersed with the Festival posts I’ll start the second/final Bloghop and Giveaway for my Art Quilt Design:  From Photo to Threadwork DVD on the 12th!

On Preview Night, Wednesday, I did a quick run-through on the floor to find my quilts and see what I could, as I knew I would be busy until Sunday, by which time I would be TIRED. Here I am doing a Vanna White with my Tomatoes, Basil and Garlic, which was in the Juried Show.

Then I went to find my quilt, Listen to the Song in the Night, in the Dinner@8 exhibit “An Exquisite Moment.”  I had been worried because it is a fairly dark quilt and would be displayed on black (you can see in the photo above how the dark background on my quilt disappears into the drape!).  I was relieved that it looked good!

This photo was taken on Friday (I can tell because I’m wearing the Sarah-teaches-applique-vest, and that class was Friday!), but I was pleased to see the quilt looking good!

I’ll confess, I TOTALLY love taking pictures of people taking pictures of my quilts!  What a rush that someone likes my work enough to want to take a picture!

Love it when someone likes my quilts enough to snap a photo! (I’m thinking that might be Ann R. from Brunswick, Maine, whom I met a couple days later?  Ann, is that you?)

While doing the kamikaze run through the quilts on Preview, I snapped some pictures of quilts that really sang to me, not wanting to risk missing these when I finally had my day off (Sunday) to see the show.

Betty Busby’s Desert Fox is one I returned to several times. I’ll share more pictures in a future post.

And here’s the signage from the show about the quilt above.

Then,

Jocelyne Leath’s Seasonal Flow was amazing…fabulous quilting, color, line.

The signage for the quilt above

Detail of Seasonal Flow by Jocelyne Leath. Gorgeous!

A few of the Silent Auction quilts, including my little green one.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I apparently (!!!) forgot to take a photo of my little quilt before it left the house. Thankfully someone bid on it, but don’t know whom to thank yet!

Down at the far end (hall A), was an exhibit inspired by maps, and of course I LOVE maps!   This quilt was just “the bee’s knees.”  LOVE IT!

It’s the Journey by Patricia Chanty, in the Maps exhibit.

And the signage:

The sign for the Maps quilt, above.

And talk about a stop-you-in-your-tracks quilt, Moonglow Anemone 2 by Carla Stehr:

Moonglow Anemone 2 by Carla Stehr

Signage for Moonglow Anemone 2 by Carla Stehr

Detail, Moonglow Anemone 2 by Carla Stehr

I’ll be back soon with more pics!   Glad to be HOME, had a glorious time at Festival, and look forward to next year.

Pink Lilies by Sarah Ann Smith (c) 2013

It’s done!   I’ll be sharing this quilt on Thursday afternoon at International Quilt Festival (Houston) at the Open Studios from 4-6 and then talking about it more at the Saturday Sampler from 10-Noon.   I hope you’ll be there!   Here’s a detail photo:

Detail of Pink Lilies by Sarah Ann Smith

Thanks for the comments to my in-progress post.   Good point, Jan, that having folks fuse their own works way better logistically than me doing a printed photo version–that would have to be for a single class I think, or perhaps as part of a multi-day workshop.   But honestly, I like the idea of folks doing their own thing a lot better–no cookie-cutter-quilting in my classes!

Be Humble for you are made of Earth, be Noble for you are made of stars.

Sorry about the photo quality! My donation to this year’s IQA silent auction

Sheesh…. you’d think I’d take a PHOTO of one of my quilts before donating it and sending it off!   Yes, Labyrinth is going to be a part of the International Quilt Festival silent auction this year!   Alas, I did NOT take a good photo of it!  At least I will be going to teach at Festival and will swing by and take a better photograph then!

This quilt was for our local Coastal Quilters challenge, 13 x 13 inches, with the theme of Exit.  I figured an entrance and exit are the same, so I made this labyrinth and did bobbin work using Razzle Dazzle on the edges of the “stone.”  The green is one of my hand-dyes, and the background is quilted with two quotes.  The one surrounding the maze is apparently a Syrian proverb, Be Humble for you are made of Earth, be Noble for you are made of stars.  I love that!

The second quote is from one of the China Bayles mystery novels:

I’d already done a bit of both [rest and thinking], enough to realize that the only thing wrong with my life was an overabundance of *good* things.  All I needed to do was search out the center–the thing I wanted most to be, wanted most to have and do–and use it as a compass.

Susan Wittig Albert, character China Bayles, in Rueful Death

I’m thrilled to share that I will have all THREE of my photo entries on display at the Eye of the Quilter Exhibit in Houston this year!  Since I don’t want to spoil the surprise, I won’t share THOSE three photos until Quilt Festival opens, but I will share a couple of my entries from past years.  I just love seeing the photos, and this time I totally think that my Queen Anne’s Lace photo from this year needs to become a quilt!   Last year, I only got one photo in, but it’s a keeper:

I navigate the world by ice cream stores. When I taught at Vermont Quilt Festival, of COURSE I made the pilgrimage to the original Ben and Jerry’s (twice!). The theme this year was “Favorite Things.” Ahem!

To go back to the beginning…..

Circles Collage was one of my first entries accepted to Eye of the Quilter. Look at all that design potential!

In 2011, I had three accepted with the theme of Friendship:

Pigwidgeon on top of Yeti. ‘Widgeon was just a puppy, and he loved his big dumb dog!

And 2011 was the year Mama finally joined her Mama.  The bottom right photo is the last I took of her.

Say Hi to Gramma is a collage honoring my mom, who died that year. The photo in the bottom center is our last Mother’s Day together.

My Frayed Edges friends are another source of joy in life:

The Frayed Edges, Summer 2011

I’m thrilled to report that I will be teaching in Houston at International Quilt Festival, Fall 2013!  I’ve sent off my contract, and will be teaching or presenting Tuesday through Saturday.  On Sunday, I get to play and shop!   Here’s my schedule:

Tuesday, October 29:  Tame Fussy, Fiddly Threads, an all day class on how to use successfully those beautiful sparkly, holographic and variegated threads on your stencilled tossed leaves.  See blogposts from previous classes here/1, here/2, here/3 and here/4.

Wednesday, October 30:  Birch Pond Seasons, an all-day class in fused collage.  You can see the pattern here and a blogpost from a local class here.

Thursday, October 31:  I’ll be one of 7 teachers presenting at the Machine Quilting Forum.  My subject will be Find Quilting Design Inspiration Everywhere.  The forum is like speed-dating for quilters:  each of the teachers gives an overview of their work (in 10 slides or less), then groups move from station to station listening to the teachers’ presentations.  It was a lot of fun, and I wish that in addition to hearing the teachers’ overview at the beginning that I had been able to sit in with the students.  It’s a great way to decide if you’d like to save up for a big class with a teacher or have them come to your guild.

Friday, November 1:  Decorative Stitch Sampler, all day class that teaches you to use all those fun stitches and threads.  We had a blast in this class in 2012!

Saturday, November 2:  Quilts, Inc., has a whole new fun thing on Saturday!  The Christmas Delights Forum.  I’ll be presenting the Stenciled Snowflake Ornament.  Each teacher will have a project suitable for quick gift giving and holiday celebrations.  I’m currently working on the samples, but hope to share with you before too long.  I discovered when teaching surface design technqiues a while back that it is fun to make a paper snowflake or mini Hawaiian-style design out of freezer paper, then stencil the image on cloth.  Then you can quilt it and turn it into a holiday ornament or decoration.

Looking forward to my students, friends, and quilts, quilts, quilts!   See you there!