Hi all!   At long last the new laptop has arrived, the nearly-deceased one is retired, and I’m scrambling to catch up.  So first things first!  Janome has published my freebie table runner pattern on their website and blog as part of the holiday celebrations. As always, thanks to Janome America for having me in their Artist and Teacher program for lo these many happy and productive years.

A table runner I made to feature the Janome 15000’s beautiful embroidery.  And no, my table is NEVER this tidy.  My laptop lives where the lower left corner is and there is always a pile of “to do” stuff!

I used a Lonni Rossi embroidery design built in on the Janome 15000 I am currently using.  I altered the colors of the built-in design to a wintry, holiday palette of red, green and golden tan.  Honestly, I never thought I’d like machine embroidery (the wanting to do my own thing stuff), but this design is so gorgeous and even *I*, a soul who doesn’t like uber-computerized machines, was able to stitch this out nearly perfectly the first try!

To see the project on the Janome site, go here and scroll down to December 14, 2015 or go here.   To download a PDF including full color photos with some neat tips for getting those skinny red strips to be perfect, go here.

The plain old vanilla photo of the table runner.

Here’s what the project looks like in the original color selection on my 15000.  Quite a difference, eh?  And here is the boring, straight-on view of the table runner.

The Janome 15000 open to the Lonni Rossi block in the original colors.

Close up of the original color way on the machine.

I’ve got one more version/colorway, but it is a gift (as yet unfinished) for Christmas, so I’ll just have to share it and add it in here later!

If you don’t have this machine, never fear–you can just insert your favorite embroidery or fabric instead of doing this beautiful design.

This week’s photo assignment was decay.   I kept wondering if non-organic items can be said to decay, but decided for my class submission to stick to this image of a hosta leaf right by our front porch. Please note all photographs are (c) Sarah Ann Smith 2015.  To see a photo a bit larger, click on it!

Cropped square, increased contrast a fair bit, levels to lighten a tad.

And that truck I think is so fabulous, just slowly disintegrating near the old stone wall.   I can tell how much I’ve learned in this class:  I was able to get it sharp, deal with the extreme dark/light, bring out the details in the shaded areas, adjust the color so the photo looks like what the eye perceives and not what the camera thinks it is…. really enjoying and learning from the class with Ricky Tims.

The usual tweaks, plus dodge to lighten the old tractor part in the lower left, which was initially a black hole! I keep wondering if this fits the theme…want an inanimate object decay?

LOTS of edits and fiddles, including major crunching on Curves and Levels, B&W Dreamscape, etc.

And because I simply can’t resist the colors of autumn and those spectacular shades in the blueberry barrens (these are the real, wild, low-growing tiny Maine blueberries–so much better than those big marble-sized things in the grocery stores across America!).  Yes, one of these days there WILL be cloth dyed in the barrens colors….

The usual adjustments to sharpen, levels, shadows, tiny vibrance to get it to look like it really did!

SWOON:

More autumn decay with blueberry barrens, decaying stone wall and birches in autumn in Maine.
The usual edits: smart sharpen, tiny bit of vibrance, crunching levels.

What a concept, Foto Friday on a FRIDAY!    This week’s theme was Autumn.  Since autumn is at its glorious peak around Hope, Maine, that was easy.   And needless to say, since it is my favorite season, I got carried away!  Please note, photos can be clicked to view larger.  All photos are (c) Sarah Ann Smith.

Crunched levels a bit, smart sharpen. I don’t know why, but I really like this shot!  This was my class entry.

A misty, hazy, rainy morning at the boat launch on Megunticook Lake on Route 105 (on the way home from town). Yes, I get to live in this gloriously beautiful place! Smart sharpen and crop, but not much else.

Not a brilliant photo, but this truly says autumn to me: Cross Country team in full swing. It is Homecoming at Camden Hills, it is raining, cold and dreary. Eli is rounding the bend (#135) into my favorite view of the course alongside his friend since first grade, Ben. Ben has FINALLY grown—now nearly as tall as Eli, who outweighs him by 45 pounds! And still as fast and sometimes faster (proud mama!).

Removed a couple distractions on the left of the sign, smart sharpen.
Hope Orchards is a you-pick and small commercial orchard on the way home. It was a ZOO today (the Sunday) with more cars than that crossroads usually sees in a full day! Glorious autumn at its finest in Maine.

At Hope Orchard. Should have bought a pumpkin the day I stopped for photography!

These mushrooms/toadstools in the yard are HUGE—at least 6 inches across when opened. They seem to scream “ do NOT eat me!” Smart sharpen, slight adjust to brighten.

A few slight edits moved this from drab to contender for class image. Minor adjustments to vibrance, crunching levels at both ends.
I call the deer and turkeys our Grounds Crew. They come and eat the windfall apples every day. We must have 23 apple trees, 21 of them very old, on our 11 acres. They old farms always had apple trees for horse and pig feed over the winter. We have two clans of turkeys—17 in total this year. They are so much fun to watch—unless they are up in the two GOOD apple trees with scrumptious Macouns. They are then politely asked to please move on to the other 21 trees! This shot is at the bend in the driveway.

Smart sharpen only.

May I just say how much I love content aware fill???? Fixed several raindrops on the lens! Cropped to eliminate extra sky and parking area. This is at the boat launch on Lake Megunticook, Route 105. A sure sign that autumn is well under way is the removal of all rafts and docks from the water. They are stored on the other side of the road, cloaked in snow, until they migrate back across the road and into the lake. Ice out is usually mid-April, so in the water in May sometime. Not a typical shot of autumn, but it is OUR autumn here in mid-coast Maine.

And one last uber-autumn-y shot:

Slight tweaks to vibrance and levels. I’m having a VERY hard time deciding which photo to use this week. I guess that means I’ve learned a lot so far this year! I’m getting more candidates along with the flubs!

I’ve been working  a lot on various volunteer stuff–my high school alumni council, SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates, a couple committees plus just took on a coordinator job), and making clothes and testing the Janome Skyline S7, a brilliant new machine on the lower price end.  I have to stay I am astounded at how many features it has!  I hope to actually BLOG about some of the things I’ve been making…what a concept.  Stay tuned…I know I keep promising, but between thyroid issues (being tired), Eli being a senior and doing college stuff (and us doing the financial stuff), the volunteer stuff, making things, I’m pretty much tapped out!    One of these days I’ll return to more frequent blogging (too funny, typed blobbing….maybe that is more accurate.)  Anyway, off to enjoy the crisp autumn air!

As usual, re-entry to home life after Houston is a whirlwind, as you might gather by the absence of posts here!  Joshua’s birthday is always just a few days after my return, so usually the suitcases aren’t emptied and put away before I’m shopping for birthday dinner and so on.  Life was complicated by the snowstorm which cancelled my flight from Boston, causing me to drive home in the snow in the dark in a rental car.   At least they cancelled flights early, so I got home not much later than I would have had I waited in  Boston for my connecting flight.  In the next few posts I’ll share International Quilt Market and Festival, but first, a little bit of home.  Since US Thanksgiving is in two days, and since there is nothing I am more thankful for than my family and home, let’s start here.

Getting up the driveway the night before I took this picture was entertaining. Our plow guy had to use his backhoe there was so much snow, and IT got stuck due to soft / not frozen earth and deep, wet snow. I left my car at the bottom of the drive and walked the last quarter mile uphill to the house. But it sure is glorious when the sun comes out!

Aren’t those colors fantastic?

Guess we should have taken the settee and rockers in a bit earlier.  They are now stashed in the garage!

The snowy front porch.

Then, pumpkin pie.  The shopping list for Joshua’s birthday always begins with fixings for his birthday pie, which is what he has wanted since he was about 10.  We’ve kept the “year” / age candles as the boys grew, and keep re-using them.  Joshua is now starting his third decade—how can he be 21????????

Thanks to Eli for getting the shot–mama delivers the pie. Yes, Joshua shared LOL, but we did send them home with the nearly half-a-pie leftovers, which I expect were gone by breakfast the following morning.  Notice he’s wearing the sweater Eli and I bought him in England?

Then I was sneak-attack with the camera.  None of them were thrilled, but what the heck.  I’m Mama, and I want pictures!

Ashley, Joshua being our goofball, and Paul on the sofa.

Eli, muttering because he knows I’m taking a picture, but I love this one!

And the next day, three fourths of the feline contingent:

L to R: Tyger, Hannah Chan and Zeus.

I’ll have a new post tomorrow starting with International Quilt Market.

Well… the garden sure doesn’t LOOK like it has had work done.  As a matter of fact, it looks like we’ve done nothing.  But there are 86 tulip bulbs and 300 daffodil bulbs in the ground!

Planting daffodil bulbs on our “meadow” (i.e. a place we don’t mow). I told Eli, Paul, Joshua and Ashley they looked like a road crew: standing around looking at a hole, holding tools, one maybe working….

On Saturday I started in on planting the tulip bulbs near the house.  All the bulbs in fact are fragrant.  I picked Angelique, Tacoma and another variety that is a pale yellow peony style (12 of each) and in landscape (ie smaller, less expensive) 50 (!!!) Orange Princess, this incredible orange with pink and green stripes.  I figure I can get some help deterring the deer from walking Widgeon nearby.  Ahem.

That comment galvanized them (Laughing here!)–they were a huge help. With my arthritis in my wrists and hands it would have taken me forever rather than 90 minutes to plant 260 bulbs! THANK YOU family dears!

Then Joshua and Ashley came over and we had a belated b-day celebration for me (we had to wait for the bulbs to arrive) and planted daffodil bulbs.  Joshua, Paul and Eli dug about 17 holes; Ashley and I planted.   Then, Joshua fixed an awesome mac and cheese with about six kinds of cheese, oven-roasted grape tomatoes, fresh basil, bacon….can you say heavenly?  Finally, I had fixed sticky toffee pudding, which is this delectable English cake-like dessert with sauce, served with vanilla ice cream.  SLURP.  A lovely family day.

Now every spring when I look out on our hill and see the bulbs, I will remember this day.  Of course, the bulbs are on about 1/9 of the meadow, so I’m thinking we may need to make this an annual event for several years.  I’ve always dreamed of having an entire field of daffs–how happy can a garden get, to be filled with daffodils?

Eli brought Widgeon out, so I decided to get down on the ground and take a photo from pug’s-eye-level of him and the view. Except he immediately galumphed over to me….

and this is the shot I ended up with!

A happy, wild-eyed pug ready to smooch his mama (that would be me)

Then today I planted the last of the daffodil bulbs, 25 for near the deck/entry, and transplanted a peony.  We tried to kill a baptisia plant near the peony  so that we could SEE the peony and deal with the VW-Beetle-sized baptisia shrub and failed spectacularly, so I’ve decided if you can’t conquer it, move the peony!

Widgeon looking regal and dignified. Well, he thinks so. Then we all crack up because he is so funny! Can you say LOVE THE PUG!

Now to enjoy the winter blizzards and blinding beauty of snow, then endure mud season, and finally wait for spring to spring and see how the bulbs look and smell.  Joshua and Ashley will be receiving a fragrant bouquet (provided they bloom!).  And I can tell you if those Orange Princess tulips are as glorious as they looked in the photo, there WILL be dyeing of fabric and a quilt of ginormous tulips!  I promise I’ll share garden photos in spring!