Today launches giveaway two in my holiday bloghop to celebrate the release of my video workshop, Art Quilt Studio from Photo to Threadwork.  Thanks to Brenda Gael Smith of Copacabana on the Central Coast of New South Wales, which is about 60 miles north of Sydney for reviewing my workshop!

NOTE!  Congratulations to Beatrice, comment 17, who wins the free video workshop download!

To order a DVD, visit my Store page here.

or to order either the DVD or a digital download, visit Quilting Arts’ Interweave Store, here. And, of course, you can enter the various giveaways thanks to the generous quilt artists who are helping me give away copies!

Lorikeet Circus by Brenda Gael Smith. Lorikeets are brightly colored birds from Australia, and I can TOTALLY see them in this piece!

Brenda Gael Smith’s work is filled with glorious color, but unlike me she works  in the abstract.  Having tried (and failed) to work in abstracts, I admire all the more the success of her art; it is surprisingly difficult to achieve good composition, balance, movement, in an abstract, yet she does it time and time again.  She is also a curator of exhibits and a member of the talented and successful Twelve by Twelve group.   Many thanks to Brenda (who by the way is not related–Smith is just a blissfully common name) for finding time in her busy teaching and working schedule to fit in this review!   Her website is here, and her blog review, here,  and her blog in general here.  To find out how to win a digital download which should work anywhere in the world, please visit Brenda’s review, read the instructions on how to enter for today’s giveaway (and you’ll need to read her post carefully!), and enjoy her art!  For the giveaway, remember to leave your comment according to Brenda’s instructions by noon on November 24th (East Coast US time)!

A quick look at the categories in her Gallery section will give you an idea of the range of Brenda’s work:  Art Quilts, Baby Quilts, Celebration Quilts, Traditional Quilts, and her work with the Twelve by Twelve collaboration. In addition to her work as an artist and curator, Brenda teaches, writes, is an attorney, and creates websites!  And–if you browse her blog–you’ll discover that not only is her studio glorious, the view from it is one of the finest in the world–check out this post!

Here’s a sneak peek at her work here, just to whet your appetite.  Brenda dyes her fabrics and includes shibori among her many talents.  I love this “aerial” view of the paths worn by the walking of feet (or is it a view of where roads now replace the traditional routes walked by foot?).  This piece makes me want to go pull out the dye-pots and stitching threads!

Canberra: Meeting Place by Brenda Gael Smith

Brenda’s traditional work is truly traditional, but has also taken on a contemporary twist.  I love this “Modern X” quilt.

The Modern X by Brenda Gael Smith

And for those of my readers in the US, Brenda will be travelling to North America in December, so if you would like to order the magazine with the instructions for improvisational piecing with solids and avoid the cost of international postage, check out this blogpost.  Note that you MUST order by Dec. 5 (sooner would be nice) to take advantage of this offer.

In this quilt, Brenda Gael Smith combines abstract art with the traditional. Lust in the Log Cabin, part of her Desire Lines series.

Thank you so much, Brenda, for your well-written review.  I cannot tell you how much it thrills me when I can teach not just beginners, but share new tips or tricks with experienced quilters and artists.   Wish I could get to Australia and share that view from your studio and play in one of your shibori classes! So remember, visit Brenda’s blog review, here, and for the giveaway, remember to leave your comment according to Brenda’s instructions by noon on November 24th (East Coast US time)!

Here’s the bloghop schedule:

November 12:     Sarah will kick off Round 2 and announce the schedule
November 14:     Marie Johansen   http://www.musingcrowdesigns.com/
November 16:     Brenda Gael Smith   http://serendipitypatchwork.com.au/blog/
November  19:    Jaye Lapachet    http://artquiltmaker.com/blog/
November 23:     Susan Brubaker Knapp   http://wwwbluemoonriver.blogspot.com/
November 27:     Daphne Greig   http://daphnegreig.blogspot.com/
November 30:     Lisa Walton    http://www.fibreinspirations.blogspot.com/
December 3:     Sarah Ann Smith   right here!

Hi all!   Guess what?  The first bloghop and giveaway was so much fun, I’m doing another with the help of some internet friends!   The schedule this time will be a bit flexible due to travel for Lisa, an extended internet outage for Marie, and U.S. Thanksgiving in late November.  On the appointed day, I’ll post a bit about each of these wonderful, creative women, and they’ll do a quick review of my video workshop, Art Quilt Design:  From Photo to Threadwork with Fusible Applique and Machine Quilting.

To order a DVD, visit my Store page here.

You can also order either the DVD or a digital download, visit Quilting Arts’ Interweave Store, here. And, of course, you can enter the various giveaways thanks to the generous quilt artists who are helping me give away copies!

Here’s a tentative schedule:

• November 14:       Marie Johansen 
• November 16:       Brenda Gael Smith
• November  19:      Jaye Lapachet   
• November 23:      Susan Brubaker Knapp
• November 27:      Daphne Greig 
• November later:   Lisa Walton  
• Early December:     me! with the Grand Finale including goodies from MistyFuse and Havel’s Scissors!

Thanks to Quilting Arts/Interweave for donating review copies as well as some DVDs and downloads.   For the three reviews done outside the US (Brenda in Australia, Daphne in Canada and Lisa in Australia), they’ll be offering a free high def download.  The three reviewers in the US will offer a DVD to be mailed (by me).  And for the Grand Finale I’ll do the same as I did last time:  anyone around the world is free to join in, but I might ask for a bit of help on postage if the winner is outside the US.

In between all this fun, I’ll continue to share the fun I had in Houston and blogging about what I’m up to now that this year’s teaching is done!

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

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!

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!