Hullo out there!  Just popped numbers 1-36 into the random number generator at random.org.

The winner is 27!

27 is the Grand Prize winner, and my list of comments tells me that it is Nancy! Nancy, please get in touch and we’ll work out shipping!

Thank you to Quilting Arts/Interweave, Mistyfuse and Havel’s for donating prizes, thank you to my intrepid bloggers and reviewers for making this SO much fun, and thank you to all of you who read my blog and those who participated!

And (sorry, but I must do this…) if you didn’t win, you can still order from me or download/order from Quilting Arts / Interweave.

To order a DVD, visit my Store page or  order either the DVD or a digital download at Quilting Arts’ Interweave Store.

Now..ONWARD to the Holidays!

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.

One of the lovely things about kids’ fall sports is being outside in a Maine Autumn.  As I type, I am watching an ever-so-pale pink on the  clouds underlit by the late sunrise (it is 6:56 a.m.) drifting across the distant hills, which range from deep pine to russet, gold, mahogany, bright green (the willows along the drive), deep umber on the trunks of trees that have lot their leaves already, and the burnt crimson of the blueberry barrens on the next hill over.   Going to Eli’s cross country meets is just as glorious, and we’ve had not-rainy weather the entire season!

Part of the trail at Camden Hills Regional High School; Eli is in red. 

Eli had a bumpy start to his season, coming down with a flu just a couple weeks in to school.  That affected his breathing and therefore his running, but he finally had a race with which he was happy last weekend at Homecoming.

The starting gun has just fired, and Ben Trapani. Caleb Love-Webb and Eli are in the lead for Camden (the three in red at the left).

Senior Ben Trapani is poised to come in near the top in the state this year.  I remember when Eli was in 6th grade and Ben in 8th and we would watch him at track meets, a full lap ahead of the field.  Not much has changed in four years, except that he is bigger, stronger, and even more of a fine young man; well, I would say that his confidence in himself and his running has grown, and it is good to see because it is confidence well-placed.   Will sure miss him after he graduates, but his younger sister Emma, a Freshman, is already at the head of the pack in the girls’ races!   Caleb is a Freshman, and is now the second-fastest on the team, something Eli predicted before the season began.

Caleb (left) and Eli (just behind him) coming round the bend side by side after about 1.5 km of the 5k race.

I see in Caleb the same focus and drive that I see in Eli, so it’s going to be a good few years for the boys.  And Eli, though not a typical runner’s build, is determined and fast as ever.

Eli coming around the back side of the second field at the high school. There is a spot where you can get the into-the-woods view then move about 30 feet to see the kids come around the loop to this spot.

Eli has an incredible drive to compete and win, and it comes out at the end of every race.   He can run down kids like you wouldn’t believe if they are anywhere near close.  Here  he’s putting it into overdrive:

How can that kid be so strong? He clearly gets his physical prowess from his dad!

And checking his time after crossing the finish line:

Better! Next up, the very hilly, challenging course for KVAC (Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference) race at Cony High School in Augusta, followed by Eastern Regionals in Belfast and states at Cumberland the following weekends.

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!

Let me introduce you to Jamie Fingal, whose colorful, whimsical quilts brings smiles! Visit Jamie’s Twisted Sister blog to read her post and enter for the giveaway for a copy of my new DVD  from her blog, but I also encourage you to surf in to Jamie Fingal Designs, her website, and take some time to really enjoy her work!   Jamie loves bright colors, metal zippers and grommets, funky shoes, the Girl Scouts and, especially, RED!

I was tickled silly when, a few days ago, I surfed in to her blog and learned that Jamie’s first fabric line is about to come out.  At long last, I can get me a little Jamie!  You better believe I’ll be lobbying my local shop to put in an order!

Jamie at Quilt Market getting a first look at her fabric line! How cool is that?

The Selvage for Jamie’s new fabric line. Don’t the colors and images just make you happy?!!!

Jamie supports many great quilt efforts including the Quilt Alliance.   She made this quilt for auction, and OH do I WISH I had that ever-elusive winning lottery ticket, because I would have outbid EVERYone for this typewriter quilt, which is one of my favorites of hers!

How I wish I could have been the winning bidder for this quilt!

Jamie also does lots with the Girls Scouts; this quilt is quintessential Jamie-style:

Jamie made this quilt for the It’s Good to be Green exhibit.

Jamie and her friend Leslie Tucker Jenison are the forces behind Dinner @ 8, which has sponsored exhibits that have debuted at International Quilt Festival in Long Beach and can also be found at IQF Houston and other venues.   I was so thrilled when they first invited me to submit a piece for one of their juried invitational exhibits.   Leslie will be participating later in this blog, so you’ll have to wait to hear more about her!

So please DO surf over to Jamie’s website and her blog, and enter the Video giveaway on her blog (and be quick, because you only have a day or two to leave a comment!).  Thank you, Jamie, for being a part of this bloghop!