UPDATE:Fabric winner…Congratulations to Amanda Kattner! I will email you for your address and ship these Ty Pennington fabrics to you!
It’s an exciting time of year here at Quilts Inc. headquarters, as the last of the quilts on loan for Fall Festival are being shipped back to their makers, many of us are busy stitching holiday gifts for loved ones, and we are pleased knowing that Friends For Life is putting the money raised for Festival’s Pet Project (more than $20,000) to good use saving animals!
From left to right: Meredith Wierick (Communications Manager), Me, Clarence (my pooch from Friends For Life), and Salise Shuttlesworth (Founder & Director of Friends For Life)
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It’s also (past) time for me to announce the three book winners from my previous book post:
Congratulations to: Patricia S., Tetonmountaingirl, and Hueisei! I will email you all individually to obtain your shipping information.
Monday’s Fabric Giveaway
I have an assortment of fabrics designed by Ty Pennington to give away. (Sorry, Ty doesn’t come with the fabric.)
Answer the following question and I will randomly select a winner tomorrow (Tuesday).
Question: What quilt-y gadgets are on your holiday wish list?
I know I have been off the radar this past week, and well…I have been, simply put, a bit heartbroken. Louie, my Min Pin, and my pal in All Things Mischievous, who graced many pages in Quilting Arts Magazine with ads and articles, appeared in online videos, Quilting Arts TV, e-newsletters, and countless pix posted on Facebook, passed away this past week. And two days later, our cat Dickens, the most amazing creature, who my friend and former colleague Larissa Davis lovingly adopted this past year so Dickens could be spared the Houston humidity, passed as well.
Louie and Dickens used to be best buds, and Dickens, who was three times the size of Louie, used to spoon Louie at night, cradling him protectively. I like to think that Dickens sensed Louie had passed, and Dickens, ever the gentle guardian, thought maybe it was time for him, too, to cross the rainbow bridge, and take care of Louie once again.
Dickens with Larissa.
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They inspired me to make a lot of artwork over the years. A small sampling…
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It’s been hard for me to put this blog post together. I admit I can’t quite find the words, but I think a fitting thing to do is write a brief letter to them, letting them know–not just on behalf of me–but for John, the extended Quilting Arts family, Larissa and her family, and all the friends and fans these two had…how grateful we all were to them.
So here goes…
Dear my beloved Dickens and Louie,
I want to thank you for all of the love, compassion, joy, humor, and affection you gave to so many people, and also:
For being my little editing buddy…
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And being the Task Master during “National Take-Your-Dog-To-Work Day!”
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For reminding me not so subtly to maintain my workout regimen…
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For supervising all photo shoots…
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For forgiving me after I accidentally ran you over in the driveway. (That was the most harrowing day, but you forgave me right away!)
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For attempting to keep the chipmunk population under control…
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For letting me know how much you will miss me.
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For guarding art in progress…
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And for guarding art nearly finished.
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For showing me how yawning is done!
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For being my copilot on long trips…
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And my pilot on the shorter ones.
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For gazing at me like I was the most special person ever.
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For showing affection to those who just entered our world…
And for showing affection to those who had been in your world a long time.
For all of these reasons, you will be dearly missed.
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About three years ago I was painting fabrics outside with the animals nearby. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon with a little Dave Matthews on the iPod docking station, and I grabbed my flip video to capture the moment. Nothing really happens here; it was just an inconsequential but exquisite moment on a happy day.
As I write this blog post on this lovely Cyber Monday afternoon, so far I have gotten a heap of discount offers in my in-box–everything from lip balms and soy candles to ear plugs and temporary mustache tattoos–but I haven’t gotten anything for free. Maybe I can start a new trend…
I have three fantastic books on hand courtesy of Stash Books that I would love to give away to three people. If these books are not on your wish list, they should be! In my little Santa’s sack I have:
Whether you are a budding or experienced free-motion quilter, if you are looking for motifs with a modern twist, you will want this book! Angela taped several segments for QA TV earlier this fall, and she makes complicated motifs fun and easy to accomplish.
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Written by Alissa Haight Carlton, one of the founders of the Modern Quilt movement, this book is packed with 20 contemporary quilt projects that would make those on your gift list happy little campers, indeed.
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Whether you want to whip up a cute clutch to complement a holiday outfit or stitch a tote in an afternoon for a gift, with 19 projects that yield about 75 variations, you wont run out of ideas!
My Giveaway Question:
Are you taking the handmade pledge this holiday season by stitching holiday decorations or quilting some gifts? Write in the comments field what you plan to accomplish this holiday season (and if you have posted a picture to your blog of anything you’ve made, share the link) and I will randomly select three winners–each to win one of these books–on Wednesday.
Yesterday morning the local news was all aflutter about the spaceship Endeavour flying over the city of Houston as it made its way to retirement in California. The 747 jet plane that carried Endeavour took off at sunrise, at exactly 7:02 A.M., heading west and hovering a mere 1500 feet above sea level so Houstonians could pay a final tribute as it flew by.
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Living a bit north of downtown, I didn’t think I would be able to catch it in the early morning skies, but then I heard a loud rumbling, and rushed out my front door in my nightgown…only to discover the noise was from a lawn mower.
But then when I went back upstairs, my house began to tremble, coupled with a deafening noise from the skies. I opened my bedroom window, and after noticing a looming shadow traverse across my pool, I looked up, and there was the most awe-inspiring site: The shuttle Endeavour flying piggyback on that 747 right over my house. To see it so close and see it in person…well, there are no words.
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Photo Credit: (NASA/ Sheri Locke)
Years ago, my good friend Cait Florschutz, who was reading a lot of Carl Sagan at the time, encouraged me to read his book Pale Blue Dot. There is a passage in it that is one of the most powerful bits of writing I have ever read.
He writes:
“From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it’s different. Consider again that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every ‘superstar,’ every ‘supreme leader,’ every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam…
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena….Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. The Earth is the only world known, so far, to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment, the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”
To read the full passage click here, or better yet read the book, but this bit of writing inspired me in 1998 to make my very first quilt block. It was a crazy quilted piece featuring a number of hand-embroidered constellations: Cassiopeia and Gemini, Orion and Ursa Major, and in the center of the block, depicted in a tiny cluster of French knots with thread in robin’s egg blue, was Earth.
I would share a photo of this very first block I ever stitched, but I’d only embarrass myself because the stitching is so bad.
But needless to say, I was inspired by Mr. Sagan’s words to quilt this, and the other morning while watching Endeavour sail across my bedroom window, I thought about how I will always remember that very brief moment in my life–where I was, where I have been, and where I have yet to go. It is a moment that I wouldn’t be surprised inspires a quilt someday soon.
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I hope everyone has a lovely, inspired, and stitch-filled weekend,
It’s a soggy, dreary Monday here in Houston, but we don’t mind the grey skies and puddle-ridden roads…the rain is finally cooling things off. I hope everyone had a nice weekend; I had a quiet one–my favorite kind–spending hours stitching. I began working on about 20 fabric postcards for our Pet Project, our upcoming fundraiser for stray animals in dire need here in the city of Houston. I like to make fabric postcards in batches, and this first batch features Louie, my 13-year-old Min Pin whose image I screened on fabric, then fused to some pieced backgrounds.
I have a lot of embellishing as well as hand and machine stitching yet to do on these, but I had fun working with such graphic prints for the backgrounds.
Speaking of which, I have a stash of Malka Dubrawsky fabrics that she designed for Moda that I would love to give away to someone who might use them to create fabric postcards for our Pet Project. Are you interested?
If so, answer the following question and I’ll randomly choose a winner tomorrow (Tuesday) afternoon.
Question: Fall is coming, and with it cooler temps and more reasons to stay indoors and quilt. What are your bigger quilt projects on the front burner right now?
Today was Day One of our next season’s taping of Quilting Arts (airing late January of next year), and it was an industrious day. Eight segments down, 31 to go!
Here I am with Penny McMorris (one of my favorite people) of Electric Quilt Company and a new acquaintance, AnneMarie Cheney, who started her local Modern Quilt Guild chapter in Columbus, OH.
AnneMarie brought her baby! Our first baby on the set! Oh, he was so adorable…I think we need an entire baby episode next season. Calling all babies with quilting mamas…
Heather Jones from the Cincinnati Modern Quilt Guild came to tape, too. Wait until you see her quilt!
Ellen Anne Eddy taped three segments today. If you only know her through her art and her books, you should meet her in person. She is absolutely hilarious. In this shot she is showing me how she stores her keys (and other things) on her person.
Not only is she extremely talented, but she is cute, too…
And when not on set, she could be found entertaining Sophie Rubin in the green room. (Sophie and her mother Luana from eQuilter.com came to tape today!) Here, Ellen and Sophie are free-motion quilting a little horse drawing.
Sophie with her free-motion stitched drawing. Sophie is growing up so quickly…
More from the taping tomorrow. I am in need of some food and a little sleep.
I am happy to report that Sweetie has been adopted! Here I have spent all this time trying to get her hooked up with so many agencies and exhausted my social media efforts, when all I really needed to do was simply walk the dog through my neighborhood.
The other night I realized I had no food in the house and wanted to walk to get take-out for dinner, so I took Sweetie with me. A woman entering a restaurant saw Sweetie and just fell in love with her. Her name is Kimber and she called me yesterday morning and told me that she very much wanted to adopt Sweetie. We had a long conversation, and last night, armed with a tote of treats, a bag of dog food, six months of heart worm preventative, Sweetie’s medical records and tags, and a Ziploc baggie with a Kong filled with frozen peanut butter, Sweetie and I walked to the same location to meet her new mom. I handed her leash over to Kimber, knelt down and gave Sweetie a hug goodbye. I admit I got really choked up, and on the walk back home alone I felt very wistful yet so happy Sweetie will have a happy life ahead of her.
Sweetie’s last morning at my house, napping with Clarence.
Thank you for sharing your rescue stories and your ideas for quilters to reach out and support strays. I have printed out all of the responses and have some ideas that I will share with my team. One thing I thought about doing in the meantime is stitching some doggie bandanas that fostered dogs could wear on walks to let passers-by know they are adoptable. Something like this drawing I whipped up this morning…
When I get back from the Quilting Arts TV taping next week, I want to issue an online drive on my blog to make some so we can all drop off at our local shelters. Are you game?
Speaking of QATV, I leave this weekend for Cleveland, and beginning to pack up my segment prep:
Some very talented guests are coming next week, and I will post pictures and behind-the scenes stories when I get to Cleveland. In the meantime, I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend! And congratulations to Becky Bowles–you won the doggie fabric! Please email me at pokeyb@quilts.com with your shipping address and I will get the fabrics to you when I return home.
I hope everyone had a great weekend! Mine was busy: I adopted another furry creature (more on that tomorrow), did some QA TV prep for our upcoming taping, and stitched a market tote for a friend who recently underwent surgery. Essentially I was closeted in my studio with my animals and a stack of DVDs, and that is how I like it.
To kick off the work week, I thought to giveaway a recent book I got from Stash Books, an imprint of C&T. It’s called Sunday Morning Quilts coauthored by Amanda Jean Nyberg and Cheryl Arkison. In it you will find 16 quilt projects to use up all those colorful scraps in your stash that you can’t bear to throw away. These projects are pretty easy and straightforward, so they are great for the budding quilter and the art quilter alike who may want to stitch up something pretty quickly.
To be in the running for this book, all you need to do is answer the following question, and I will randomly select a winner tomorrow.
Question: If you could watch a quilter in action in his/her studio, what process, technique, project would you want to watch them do? In other words, if you could watch quilt demonstrations, what kind of demos would you like? (And yes, I am asking for a reason!)
And congratulations to Wanda Myers! You are the winner from this past Friday’s fabric giveaway. Please email me at pokeyb@quilts.com with your shipping address, putting “Fabric Winner” in the subject line, and I will get these fabrics to you shortly.
I have spent some time this week looking at all of the Pinterest boards people posted in the comments section of this blog post, and I am mightily impressed by the sheer number of pins! I admit, I’m not a prolific pinner…and that’s simply because I know I would while away my nights pinning on Planet Pinterest rather than stitching in my studio.
Even if I only pin sporadically now, there is something to be said for surfing other people’s Pinterest boards because you never know what great ideas they may inspire. Take for instance this “radial” board by Hilary Frye. I love how she is using her board to explore and celebrate a simple geometric shape.
Hilary Frye’s “Radial” board. Great images and I especially like her request at the top of the board: “Please keep any photographer or artist credits associated with photos when repinning. Thank you for this courtesy. Also, please make note in the comments if credits are unidentified and you know the proper associated identity with the image.”
And it got me thinking…IQF/Houston will soon be upon us, and wouldn’t it be fun to expand the trading opportunities on the show floor beyond just ATCs?
So here is my Free Fabric Friday question: If you could create your dream trade or swap at a quilt show, what would it include?
Would it be mug rugs, or perhaps fabric postcards with recipes on the back? Or maybe ATCs in the modern quilt aesthetic, or something else entirely? Please share your ideas and thoughts in the comments area, and on Monday morning I will randomly select a winner who could win this set of fat quarters by Lotta Jansdotter for Windham Fabrics:
UPDATE! Congratulations to Judith Reynolds! Please email me your shipping address to pokeyb@quilts.com, and I will ship the fabrics to you!
And everyone, thanks for responding and letting me know what you are quilting these days!
Aaaaah, it’s Friday! Weekend forecast calls for several dog walks, a manicure, a Houston Modern Quilt Guild meeting, a Sunday bike ride, quilting, and sunny skies with temps in the mid-90s.
Since it is Friday, it’s time to give away some free fabric, and in honor of my little tabby…
I thought to give away some orange fabric!
Free Fabric Friday Question
My question to you on this lovely Friday afternoon has to do with wanting to know what kind of quilting you are doing nowadays. I, of course, love art quilting and surface design work, but right now I find myself making lots of small projects, and wanting to make finished quilted throws that I can colorfully stack in my console table behind my family room sofa. So I guess I am making lots of scrap quilts, and want to make some modern quilt-type quilts, too.
What about you? What kinds of quilting activities are you doing right now or want to explore? Leave a comment and I will randomly choose a winner tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon and post the winner in this blog.
Welcome. I’m Pokey Bolton, founder of Quilting Arts and Cloth Paper Scissors magazines, and Founding Host of Quilting Arts TV on PBS. With my experience in publishing, media, events, and craft adventures (by land and sea), I fairly recently founded Crafting a Life, LLC...
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