I just LOVE IT when I get to share the amazing work my friends make!   Today I get to introduce you (in case you haven’t already seen / met her) to Susan Brubaker Knapp of Blue Moon River Studios.  If you surf over to her website and blog, you have another chance to win a copy of my video workshop, Art Quilt Design From Photo to Threadwork (which you can also order, here).

My video workshop.

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!

The first quilt of Susan’s that I saw was this one, and it took my breath away. I had recently “met” her online through the QuiltArt list. We share a similar approach and style, and have become friends and finally got to meet in person when teaching at the same venue. I always look forward to finding her at a show and getting caught up in person!

Susan’s background in graphic design is clear in her work.  She has such a strong sense of who she is as a quilter and artist. We share a love of the quilting, though most of Susan’s art quilts are now wholecloth painted, we approach the quilting and use of thread in a similar (though not identical) way.   I See The Moon was in the Dinner@8 exhibit in Houston a couple years ago:

I See the Moon, by Susan Brubaker Knapp

We also share being moms two two teens/young adults (hers are girls, mine are boys) and cats!  We have four (of every color so no matter what you wear the hair shows); not sure how many she has, but there are at least these two:

Susan Brubaker Knapp’s cat Maximum, in “Maximum Cat Nap.” Look at that fabulous fur!

I LOVE that one is named Trouble, hence “Trouble in the Pumpkin Patch!”

Trouble in the Pumpkin Patch by Susan Brubaker Knapp.

Susan is a great teacher, and now hosts–with Lyric Kinard– a retreat each Fall in her home state of North Carolina.  Please do visit her site and have an enjoyable browse.  Then if you can see her quilts in person…wonderful!

Thank you so much, Susan, for being my friend and for being part of this bloghop!  Remember to visit her site and her blog.

Another fun day here at Art and Quilting in Hope, Maine!  Today Jaye Lapachet, whom I finally got to meet in person this past summer, is reviewing my video workshop Art Quilt Design, From Photo to Threadwork, on her blog, here  and participating in the giveaway.  Thank you, Jaye!

To order a DVD, visit my Store page here.

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!

First I’d like to introduce you to Jaye Lapachet, who loves polka dots, scrappy things, Quilt Modern style quilts, and blogging!  You can visit her artquiltmaker.com website, her blog, and also look her up on Pinterest (speaking of which I think I need to spend some re-Pinning time there!).  We met online through a quilty group, and this summer when I was in the San Francisco Bay Area, actually got to MEET in person!   Alas, the night we had dinner was en route to the airport after a VERY busy two week teaching trip, and I was pretty fried!  Guess I’ll just have to head West again so we can meet up when I have something approaching a functioning brain!

With Jaye on a blustery July evening in San Francisco

I knew when Jaye confessed to a love for polka dots that we’d get along well (I’ve loved them ever since I had a white with large blue polka dots dress when I was 2, and there was that “little black dress” of my mother’s with the gold colored silk lining with big white polka dots).  We also share a love for clear colors and scrappy:

Jaye Lapachet’s Flowering Snowball Quilt

It’s a good thing this quilt is on the other side of the US or I might be tempted to engage in a little larceny!

Jaye’s Renewed Jelly Roll Race quilt is fun–she blogged about it here.

I’m working on a diamonds quilt, and I’m kinda wishing I had gone for a simple, solid sashing like this one!

Jaye also has an interesting page on her website where she groups her quilts into series; I really liked “Feelin’ Blue.”    I like seeing the groupings of quilts together, though they made have been made at disparate times.

Feelin Blue by Jaye Lapachet

Clearly Jaye and I also share a love for similar colors!

Fabric of the Year 2011, by Jaye Lapachet

I’ve been “collecting” (we are not going to call it hoarding!) aquas and blues and lime greens for a thousand pyramids quilt.  I really like how she has the soft gray border, and may have to swipe that idea!

Thank you so much, Jaye, for being part of the bloghop!   Please make sure to visit Jaye’s blog for another chance to win a free DVD version of my workshop, Art Quilt Design From Photo to Threadwork.  And as always, thanks to Quilting Arts and Interweave for doing such a spectacular job producing it and donating copies for the bloghops!

Here’s the bloghop schedule; visit each site, enjoy the work, enter the giveaway (some of which are on these sites, some are something else–you’ll have to go and read how!):

November 12:     Sarah kicked off Round 2 and announced 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!

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!

Today is the first giveaway in my second and final bloghop-giveaway to celebrate the release of my Quilting Arts video workshop, Art Quilt Design From Photo to Threadwork, with Fabric Collage and Machine Quilting. My first guest blogger-reviewer is my friend Marie Z. Johansen of Musing Crow Designs. (And yes, I’m going to make you read this post to find out how/where!)

To order a DVD, visit my Store page !

IN case you just can’t wait, you can order the DVD from me 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.  We’ll have two or three posts a week from now until the first of December.   Just surf in here regularly to see who is reviewing and how (and where) to leave a comment for a chance to win this workshop.

One of Marie’s colorful traditional (!) quilts–I remember when she made this!

11-13 afternoon:  Quick alert:   Marie lives on an island, and the underwater cable that has all the island’s internet on it has gone down AGAIN and they are tossed back into the dark ages (like the 1980s before cell phones and internet), so her post is delayed.  I’ll update here when her post goes live, probably this weekend.  The giveaway dates will expand accordingly!

11-15:  Update!  Marie’s post has gone live thanks to a brief return of her internet!   It’s here.

In case you haven’t already found Marie on the internet, I’d love to introduce you to a true Best Friend Forever:  Marie Z. Johansen.   Ya know how sometimes, maybe just a few times in your life, you meet someone and hit it off, and you know that no matter where life takes you, what happens to either of you, you will always be in touch, always be friends.  If you end up, as we have, living on opposite sides of the nation, when you get together it’s as if not a day has passed.  I’m privileged to call Marie my friend.  She’s also an amazing artist, crafter and person!

Marie’s digital imagery; the photo is of Mount Baker, and if I recognize that tree on the right, taken at the Anacortes Ferry Landing, probably while waiting for the ride home to the island.

We met when I lived on San Juan Island, probably somewhere around 1999.   Marie is someone who loves all sorts of art, from art quilts, traditional quilts, textiles of all sorts (she once worked at rug conservation), was a pilot, works in mixed media, loves animals and fountain pens, is a FABULOUS photographer, reads voraciously, blogs and journals, well…can you tell why we get along so well?  (We travel together well, too!  Here’s to Houston next year, Mrs. J!) And oh!  She is allergic to some sorts of wool (the itchy kind!), but I didn’t know that when I made her some felted wool slippers on year; guess what–they worked!  That gift (I plead guilty) led to her obsession with knitting, and she has so far surpassed me there!

Marie love tradition with a twist, as in this colorful Baltimore Album style bouquet.  Right click to see larger.

Marie blogs about books and writes reviews at Under the Willow Tree.  She sells her jewelry on Etsy (those summer glow earrings are incredible! wish I could wear those colors!) and her felted bags at Musing Crow Designs.  For the felted bags, be sure to SCROLL DOWN, but cover your keyboard to protect it from the drool….

Marie Z Johansen’s felted bags, one of a kind, available to custom order here.

As I’ve browsed Marie’s blogs and sales pages, I am reminded what a wonderfully interesting person she is–it comes across loud and clear in her blog.  I think what I love about her blog is you NEVER know what’s going to turn up!  She reviews books and products (from pens to quilt tools to whatever!), muses about life, and is generally just someone you want to know!   So please surf over to Marie’s blog to read about her review of my video workshop and find out how to enter the giveaway for a DVD copy of my workshop.

PS:  San Juan Island, Wash., where Marie lives, has had an incredible flash back to the 1980s, with long distance telephone, cell phones and internet out intermittently (and all day for a number of days) of the past 10 days due to a problem with an underwater cable to the island.  If you can’t reach her blog on the first try or the post isn’t there, please be patient and pop back in later.  She’s got the post ready, but may have connectivity issues that are out of her control.  Murphy’s Law, eh?

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!