For those who haven’t seen it yet, I thought I’d share the Quilting Arts / Interweave preview of my DVD workshop, Art Quilt Design From Photo to Threadwork:

You can order it from me, here, or a dvd or download directly from the Interweave Store, here.

Congratulations to Gail Myrodhosky who was number 42 in the comments on my Grand Finale Giveaway to celebrate the release of my DVD workshop, Art Quilt Design From Photo to Threadwork.

To order, see below.

Here’s what the random number generator told me–I just think these things are so cool!

Random.org is a random number generator (found by Google, thank you Google)

Thank you to all of you for reading, commenting, participating in the giveaway!  Thank you to all the bloggers who participated, and to Quilting Arts/Interweave, Mistyfuse and Havel’s Scissors for donating prizes!   Now…on to blogging about more art, quilt and family life!

And for those of you wh o didn’t win (I’m sorry!  I wish I could have a copy for each of you!), visit my Store page here to order the DVD,  or to order either the DVD or a digital download, visit Quilting Arts’ Interweave Store, here.

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!

Today I get to introduce my friend Diane Perin Hock!  Diane is helping with my bloghop and giveaway, so to enter for a chance to win a copy of my new video workshop.  She’s an artist, sketcher, quilter, mom, lawyer, and just neat person!  This past summer when I taught in California (will blog about that eventually I hope!), hubby and younger son flew out and we drove Eli up the coast then visited Sausalito where I lived as a child.  While there I got together with Diane and Pat Dicker (visit Pat on the web here), and Pat’s hubby took this photo–do you think we were happy to be together?!!!!

L to R: Sarah, Diane Perin Hock and Pat Dicker, on Pat’s deck this past July

To order a DVD, see the links in the paragraph at right.

Art Quilt Design from Photo to Threadwork, please visit her blog Going to Pieces and leave a comment there for a chance to win a DVD (US shipping only) or download.

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!

I first “met” Diane by joining up the Artful Quilters blog ring several years ago.   I followed her work as a member of the Twelve by Twelve international Quilt challenge (Deborah Boschert who was earlier in this bloghop is also part of this group).  Then we reconnected in an online sketching class.  Several us including Diane and me decided it would be fun to keep a group going to encourage us to keep sketching.  Well, I’ve not been so good, but Oh My Goodness Diane certainly has!  Lately she has been sketching the town and area where she lives in northern California, and here is a recent sketch:

Diane’s ink and watercolor sketch of a home near her in northern California

Here are two of her pieces in the Twelve by Twelve challenges:

John Lennon’s Glasses, part of the Orange color Twelve by Twelve Challenge

Fingerprint by Diane Perin Hock, another of the Colors challenges

Diane is, of course, also a talented textile artist.  She has been part of the Dinner@8 artists, curated by Jamie Fingal and Leslie Tucker Jenison (who have–waving hullo with thanks) also been a part of this bloghop.  Diane’s current piece may be my favorite in this year’s “An Exquisite Moment” exhibit:

Diane Perin Hock’s Adirondack Chair. I love everything about this: the gentle summery colors, the feeling of utter tranquility, the masterful way she managed the long narrow shape required for the challenge.

Read Diane’s interview on the Dinner@8 blog, here.

I’m so glad that Diane offered to be a part of this bloghop.  Please do surf over to her blog, here, and leave a comment there (not here!) to win.   Thank you so much, Diane, for being part of the giveaway, and of course thank you again to Quilting Arts and Interweave for inviting me to do the video and offering these copies for the giveaway.

In closing, here’s one last photo…when Pat, Diane and I had lunch in California over summer and had to sketch our tortilla chips, while attempting (not too successfully) to sketch before eating!

Pat’s sketch is on the top, I’m bottom left, and zooming ahead and nearly done is Diane on the right.

Gloria is simply amazing:  award-winning art quilter (and I’m talking TOP awards), author of the best book on things digital and photography there is (and many other books), award-winning website designer, co-founder and partner with Derry Thompson in GloDerWorks, Apple geek (in the best way) and Photoshop master, professional quality photographer (with a serious thing for butterflies), ardent supporter of the Parkinson’s Walk, devoted to her family, generous with her knowledge and expertise, and really nice to boot!   I’m honored she agreed to help out with the bloghop, and thrilled that I get to brag about her (and she’s the creative soul behind this very beautiful website you’re reading!).   Visit Gloria’s blog, here on her website (which is here), to learn more about her part of the giveaway of my Quilting Arts video workshop, Art Quilt Design From Photo to Threadwork.

After corresponding with Gloria by email for years, including while developing my website, I FINALLY got to meet her in person–when she WON the BIG award for Innovative Artistry at International Quilt Festival in Houston for Squared Illusions 6. Here she is–doesn’t look like your typical quilter, eh? What really suprised me is that Gloria is petite! I’d seen pictures and always thought she was really tall!  I was so thrilled I got to be in the audience and cheer when she won this award!

Gloria is half of the talented Gloderworks partnership, along with Derry who lives near London.  They work via conferencing over the internet, attend MacWorld and the major Photoshop conferences, and travel across “the Pond” (a.k.a. the Atlantic) a few times each year.  Despite being a relatively small firm, they won a Webby, which is the international internet equivalent of an Oscar!  Having worked with them (OMG!!!!! I just counted) for nearly ten years, I can say they are outstanding.  My only complaint is when I have a question and write Derry or Gloria over the weekend, I have to tell him to STOP WORKING and take a break!  I mean, I can write at 9 pm Saturday and the answer is in my inbox on Sunday!

Gloria’s best-in-class book, Digital Essentials

I will admit straight up:  this book is not light bedside reading.  Once you’ve looked at other books about learning  things digital and want to know more, go to this book.  This is where the answers are!   If you want to edit your photos to represent your quilts accurately, learn how to resize and edit, well… go here and let Gloria tell you in far better language than I can!  This book lives beside my work station, not on the shelf!

Gloria is well known for her digital art, which she then prints onto cloth and quilts. Mere photos do NOT do justice to these, which in person are breathtaking. Clearly the judges at AQS Paducah thought so, too!  This quilt is part of her Blushing Triangles series.

And one of Gloria’s more recent works.  I can’t wait to get to Houston and see what is new this year!

Gloria’s melding of her passions: art quilts, photography, digital art, just keeps getting better and better.

So please take some time to surf over to Gloria’s blog and website, visit the Gallery of her art, and drink in our beautiful world through Gloria’s eyes.  I am SO glad I get to know Gloria–how lucky we are to have the internet to be able to bring all of us together.   Now go hop over to her blog and leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of my DVD workshop!