Wow have I been busy, and I’ve woefully neglected my blog!   I’m sorry!  The good news is that a flurry of activity is nearly over.  In the past 8 weeks I have made a quilt for inclusion in a book due out next year, flown from Maine to Colorado to tape a Quilting Arts DVD workshop (more on that here), written and submitted two articles to two different magazines (more on those when they come out), and written a third but still have step-outs and photography to do on that one.  BUT–I am thrilled to share with you that Listen to the Song in The Night has been juried into the this year’s Dinner@8 exhibit, An Exquisite Moment.

Listen to the Song in the Night by Sarah Ann Smith (c) 2013. 24 x 60 inches. Artist dyed silk and cotton, a few commercial batiks (mountains). Free motion quilted, ink with dip-pen, paint.

You can read more about the exhibit, here. Last year I was really stumped.  This year it was a matter of which quilt to make:  childbirth (done discreetly–the mom’s view looking over the sheet over your knees at your newly hatched child in the doctor’s hands), Eli as a 2 year old under the blueberry bush grinning as he munched blueberries, or any of a number of other moments.  But then I remembered the whalesong.  Best of all, not only did hubby Paul, but so did the boys who were about 5 and 9 (or maybe even 4 and 8).  We lived on San Juan Island in Washington state at the time.  Our house  was about 1/3 mile up from the water and faced the Straits of Juan de Fuca with the Olympic mountains on the other side, 17 miles away.  We could see and hear the orcas from our house.  The writing on the quilt tells the story:

Cloaked in the sounds of the rustling breeze, the song drifted through the open window as I readied for bed.  Not believing my ears, I turned out the lights.  Then I began to listen.  It couldn’t be, could it?  The more I listened, the more I believed.  It was the whale song–but above water!  How could that be?  I ran to the living room and told Paul to come outside and listen.  Then we woke our young sons from a sound sleep to hear the song in the night.

We heard the orcas breathe, ripple the water, tail lob, and the thunderous splash of whales breaching.  There were so many of them, and they were singing!  The next day, still in disbelief, I called the Whale Museum researchers.  It was indeed a superpod, a family reunion of the J, K and L pods.  They told me many scientists study the whales for an entire career and never hear them sing above water.  And we four remember standing on the deck in the summer night listening to the orcas sing.

 I knew that I wanted to dye some silk for the water because of the sheen of the sandwashed satin, and found some silk I had dyed for the San Domenico Tableau quilt (here) for Mary’s dress.  I used the matte side for the sky–it’s at the top in this picture.

First round with the dye bath. The big piece on the bottom is silk. The others are cottons except for the very top piece which is a silk I dyed earlier.

Then

More fabrics dyed for the project. The cotton on the right is what I used for the back.

I used the blue on the top left in the photo immediately above, but had overdyed it to be darker and more solid, for the top and bottom panels where I would write the story.  After all, it is hard to make a picture of something you heard but didn’t really see so I though I’d best add some words!   I took some artistic license and added a full moon and lightened the scene just enough to actually make a picture not a large blotch of dark! First, however, I needed to figure out how I was going to write on the cloth.

I knew I wanted to write on the top and bottom panels of blue cotton that I had dyed, but wasn’t sure what method to use.

On the right, you can see assorted lower case “a’s” written with DeColourant (some colored) and assorted tools to apply.  I thinned the thick liquid, but then it ran.  Not the look I wanted. It’s a great product, but not the right one for this purpose.  The top “Disguised” is done in an archivally safe Sakura Jelly Roll pen, but it looks much brighter in the real than in the photo.  It was OK, but the Liquitex Ink! (acrylic ink) in white with the “crow quill” dip pen was perfect.  The variations in pressure as I wrote gave an almost italic look, so that was my choice.

Next I printed out the text at full size to make sure it would fit and to use as a guide.  I was afraid that I would get the word order wrong or space out and misspell something, so I folded the printouts and set them just above the line I was writing, covering up the  previous line so I didn’t confuse myself!  You’ll see my chalk-lines in the photo; I used SewLine by Moda with ceramic chalk lead which erased like a dream when I was done.

Above you can see how I folded the printed paper so I could follow along, line by line.

Next step was to over-paint some batiks for the mountains.  I had a few that worked as is, but most needed to have the batik design muted.

Batik fabric for the mountains. The cloth was over-painted with dark (not sure if I used black, blue or a combination).  In the lower part of the photo you can see how I have already cut some of the mountains. I wanted the foothills and coast to be even darker than higher up, where the moonlight hit the tops of the Olympics.

Next I auditioned various fabrics, two blacks for the whales, a gray (which needed darkening) for the thin strips separating the top and bottom panels from the center.  I free-motion stitched on the black sateen I selected for the whales with just a stabilizer underneath, then cut a slit in the silk (BIG gulp and holding of breath), then tucked the whale into the opening and hand-appliqued them down.

Test-driving fabrics for this and that.

And finally, the quilting. It went fairly quickly, as it was all blues from palest (which appears white but is actually a pale silvery blue) to nearly black on most of the quilt, with just some gray and deep charcoal for the mountains.

Detail shot showing quilting, moon, and white ink dots for the moon glow.

The exhibit will debut at the International Quilt Festival in Long Beach this coming July.  I’m thrilled to be a part of the Dinner@8 exhibit once again, and would like to thank our various sponsors over the years, especially Moore’s Sewing Centers, Havel’s Scissors and Mistyfuse (which I use a lot)!

My son’s music, to be precise!   If you click on this (once the tab opens click on the orange arrow to play) you can listen while you read (and yes, it does seem like the blink of an eye since he was born).  Or this, The Piano Song.  But first….

My road to the hot place is clearly better paved yet again!  At least I have a good excuse:  great opportunities–which I am not allowed to blab about yet–seem to have been falling out of the sky at me in mid to late March.  I have FIVE “now or sooner” deadlines–well almost:  April 8, April 26, May 1, May 15 and June 1, plus another for early August, not to mention teaching stuff for Quilt Festival Houston in Fall and travel teaching jobs to Mass/Vt, North Carolina and southern California between now and early July!  That’s a LOT of good luck falling out of the sky, involving a lot of work, writing, preparation, travel and quilting.  Quickly.  So instead of blogging I’ve been working.  A lot. Sorta bad me for not blogging!  The pressure is a bit eased today as I have sent off what needed to be sent for April  8th yesterday evening, and with almost all of April to complete the next two items, I am feeling less  under the gun.  I can’t wait until I can tell you all about it… likely in summer and again in autumn!

Now for the music:

Our son, Joshua (of the quilt, here), is a wonderful musician.  He has had the music in his head since at least 4th grade (age 10), and has been writing his own music for a number of years.  He asked if I would share his songs with you–how cool is that?   He loves heavy metal, and writes what I call “crunchy” (sometimes head-banger) songs, but I have actually come to enjoy them– Gravedigger starts crunchy and gets really cool.   And most surprisingly given this affection for heavy metal, he writes the most beautiful quiet songs!  I hope to some day make  some teaching videos–both free short clips and a longer video to go with that book on bindings and edge-finishes that I never seem to get written–and he has already said I may use his music in my teaching videos!

There is a cool site called SoundCloud where musicians can upload their songs, Joshua (a.k.a. Joshwah) among them.  Here is the link to Joshua’s SoundCloud page.   Joshua also has a good sense of humor.  He has written enough songs to make two CDs (well, he burned two for me! not available for sale at this point):  Shear Madness (with face of sheep) and Pandamonium (with a panda).  Love it when someone makes Mama laugh!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE The Thunder Song—there is definitely a quilt in there.  One of these days if/when I get some down time, I need to plug my iPod into the dock in my studio and blast this out loud, get in the zone, and start creating!

And he’s been doing some really interesting things with audio clips, then composing music to go with them.  Here is V for Vendetta.

Joshua has taken guitar lessons, but is self-taught on the bass, acoustic, keyboard, and drum machine.  Basically, if it has strings, he can figure out how to play it. He performs and records all instruments himself.  Amazing–it took me about 8 years of piano lessons before I could pick out Mary Had a Little Lamb by ear.  The music gene clearly went from Mama directly to Joshua, skipping me!  Hope you enjoy this musical interlude!

I’d like to ask you to consider supporting a funding drive to complete a documentary on the Tentmakers of Chareh El-Khiamiah.  The fund drive is being held on Pozible (here) and they will accept any donation.  Even if you can donate only a few dollars, every bit helps.  Let’s get this documentary of textile art funded and made.  Today, Tuesday the 19th February, the total pledged is $13250, and 160 made a pledge – but they still need to reach their target of $20,00 by the end of February.   I hope you will find you can to support this important project with at least a small donation and by passing this on to some of your friends. Please feel free to link to this post and borrow from it to help support this project!
For more information, read on!

An Egyptian Tentmaker’s hanging in the collection of Alison Schwabe

Several years ago Jenny Bowker, a fabulous Australian art quilter and teacher, moved to Egypt while her husband served as the Australian Ambassador to Egypt.  While there, she came to know and love the land, and especially the Tentmakers.  In that culture, beautifully decorated tents were used for special events, but with the rise of machinery and the modern era, the art and craft of tentmaking was fading.  Jenny was so moved by this beautiful textile art, that she began to share it with the rest of the world.  I first read her posts on her blog and on the QuiltArt list.  Later, I attended a lecture at the International Quilt Festival in Houston where I sat with tears in my eyes as she shared the appliqued textiles they make and what she has done to bring pride and respect to their art.  She has since been able to bring a couple of the tentmakers and many men’s work (the tentmakers are men) to Australia, the United States and Europe where their works sold like hotcakes and impressed many.  The quilt above is one of two  in Australian quiltmaker Alison Schwabe’s collection (Alison’s website is here). Here is a detail photo:

Detail of the quilt at the top of this post.

And Alison’s other textile:

Egyptian tentmaker’s applique work, in the collection of Alison Schwabe

Detail photo

After the “Arab Spring” that began with demonstrations and protests in Dec. 2010 and continued through spring of 2011,  Jenny was involved with an exhibit in the UK; one of the tentmakers–having seen what is going on in our international quilt world from previous exhibits–had broken with the traditional imagery of their craft, and made a piece depicting the demonstrations in Cairo.  This was the first personal expression of this sort Jenny had ever seen, and I still get goosebumps remembering when Jenny posted to an internet list that the piece had been purchased by a Museum in England!  How utterly wonderful.

AQS then hosted the tentmakers for an exhibit here in the US and published a book about these pieces.

Alison and Jenny have written some detailed information which I will share here so you can follow the links.  Thanks Alison for allowing me to re-post your message!

From: alison schwabe al>
> Subject: The Tentmakers of Egypt – please read at least !
> Date: February 17, 2013 7:32:31 AM MST
>
> Dear Friends –
> You all know me as a textile and fabric artist – a quiltmaker, an art quilter – however you think of me, you know of my intense interest in things in fabric and thread. Because of this, I hope you will read and find interesting some of the material in this recent email from one of my close friends, prominent Australian textile artist and quiltmaker, Jenny Bowker.
> Jenny spent several years in Egypt where her husband Bob was Australia’s ambassador. When we visited in 2007 Jenny took as to several textile places (in addition to the pyramids, valley of the kings and other wonderful places around Cairo) and we found the time we spent in the Tentmakers' street in the old markets quite wonderful – its hard to describe the marvellous times and experiences there but, as just one indication we had to buy a suitcase to get what we bought there back here! If you are a Montevideo friend please remind me sometime you’re here that you’d like to see the magnificent 2m sq pieces of their art we have in bedrooms on the first floor…
> Jenny’s letter is frankly to explain and support the current appeal for funding to complete a quality full length documentary on this textile art with an ancient heritage stretching back over 800 years… but her words are far more authoritative and comprehensive than mine, and so I am copying her letter in full and sending it to you, hoping that by the time you’ve looked into some of the links, you too will feel able to pledge a small donation (or a large one, of course) to ensure this project goes to completion. To me, the importance of the project ranks up there with films I’ve seen on The Bayeux Tapestry, the quiltmaking of the Amish, the Overlord Embroidery and some of the many lacemaking and knitting traditions.
> I invite you to read what Jenny has written below, and if you are pressed for browsing time to follow links, I recomment the short videos and the pinterest images. And, please contact me if you want further details – I’ve been posting things about int on my facebook page and blog, but you may not be a FB friend or might not follow my blog ( but I hope you will sometime go there for more insights to what I do and what things influence me and my art)
> But, now over the Jenny Bowker., who wrote:
> “The Tentmakers are a group of men in Cairo who make spectacular applique. Nowadays most of what they make is intended for the walls of houses or on beds, but in Pharaonic, early Islamic, and Ottoman times it was intended for the inside walls of tents. With canvas behind it which formed the outside wall, the rich appliqué glowed with light on it, and was intended to amaze visitors to a leader’s tent. Did you know that Cairo was originally called Fustat – which means the big tent? In pharaonic times the tents were appliqued leather, now all the work is cotton.
>
> You can read more text about them here:
> http://www.jennybowker.com/tentmakers/
>
> You can see pictures of the work here:
>
> You can see a short video made by Bonnie McCaffrey for Luana Rubin here:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHzWRui7Kjk
>
> And a longer one made by Bonnie as one of her wonderful vidcasts here:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39zkCcQqWp0
>
> And if you go to my Pinterest board on the Tentmakers you will see a lot of current work – and some that is much older and also some of the truly old tents so you can see how they were used.
>
> http://pinterest.com/jennybowker1/tentmakers-of-cairo/
>
> I think almost the best if Kim Beamish’s Facebook page for the film as he is putting up constant new images, and there is a lot lot of historical input as well.
> https://www.facebook.com/CharehElKhiamiah
>
> The art has been slowly dying. Big pieces of cheap, badly registered, printed fabric made in China have poured into Cairo and people buy this rather that the real appliquéd pieces. On top of that disaster – tourism has stopped with unrest for the last two years. Without the work sold in to exhibitions that I have been arranging in other countries they would all be gone by now – instead – stitchers who left are coming back and young ones are learning again. I am thrilled with the progress we have made and very happy with the AQS (American Quilters Society sic )who committed to them for three years. But – it is still hardly documented at all. There is not one piece in the Cairo Museum or even in the Cairo textile museum. The best article I have ever found is in the Uncoverings magazine and there are no books. Older stitchers are dying and no history has been written.
>
> Kim Beamish is an Australian friend who – when I took him to visit the street on his third day in Cairo – picked up the baton I offered and ran with it. He is making a film about the Tentmakers in these difficult times. He has given most of five days a week for the last seven months – or more. He has paid his own way to shows in England, and has had to pay for three more that have not even happened yet in France and two in America. He has become part of the street and the men are used to him and his camera. He has two young children and a wife who works in the Australian Embassy in Cairo. They have to pay a nanny so that he is free to film. He is, like I was, a trailing spouse. He did not choose to live the ‘cocktail parties and bridge’ life, but has chosen to go out on a limb to tell a very moving and necessary story. I know that at the moment he is on the bones of his behind financially and simply cannot afford anything else.
>
> The movie will not be made without funding for the essentials – the long and boring stages when the filming is done and the hard work starts. Editing, top level translation and the rest has to be done by experts and paid for. Please help. Even a little bit from a lot of people will add up to a lot – that is what crowd funding means. The link is now open and working. If he does not get to his total he gets nothing. Kim will spend the month hovering over the site and biting his fingernails.
>
> The work is really special and the film is essential.
>
> http://pozible.com/tentmakers – this is the link to support the Film – The Tentmakers of Chareh el Khiamiah. If Kim Beamish does not get this money the film cannot be made. Even tiny donations will help and big donations will help more. Please.
>
> If you use PayPal it will ask you to preauthorise. It sounds odd but it simply means that when the total is reached the money will then be taken from people’s accounts so it has to be done this way. Kim gets nothing if he does not reach his total and that is the way that Pozible works. He is a bit worried at the moment as only about 29 have helped in three days.
>
> I am hoping a lot of people will have read this far and be willing now to help us. PLEASE send this on to as wide an audience as you can reach. The moment the total is reached the project will be assured. Until then it looks as if it might be dead in the water.
>
> Thank you
>
> Jenny ”
>

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!

Well, my quilt is!  I’m so thrilled…thank you to Luana Rubin of eQuilter for including my quilt, Conversations 1, among those featured in her vidcast of the art quilts at International Quilt Festival Houston, 2012!   Here’s the video or look for it in Luana’s videos on YouTube.

I’ve clearly been distracted by re-entry at home… I have tons of photos of teaching and the show in Houston to share, but have been busy with family birthdays, appointments, readying for Thanksgiving, and so on.  I hope to get you all some blogposts soon.  In the meantime, hope you enjoy this video!