UPDATE: Congratulations to Adele-loving Kathy Schermerhorn! You won the fabrics, and I will email you for your shipping address!

I hope everyone had a great weekend! I sure did…starting Friday night when the Boston police caught Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in Watertown, MA. Alive.  What happened in Boston is just surreal to me, I know this area very, very well, and to think of terror like this happening so close to home, I had that same awful pit in my stomach I had during 9/11 when there were two planes out of Logan. I don’t think I was alone in crying tears of joy and relief that it was over this past Friday night, and hopefully we can get some answers out of this guy for why he and his brother would intentionally cause such incredible hurt and angst on what was to be a celebratory day.

At any rate…it was a gorgeous, sunny weekend in Houston, and on Saturday afternoon I unpacked my supplies from the Cincinnati show and washed my monoprinted fabrics I had created in Open Studios.

They don’t look like much now, but I have some ideas for cutting them up into 4″ squares for hand stitching, much like Linda McLaughlin’s work that you can see here.

As it is Monday and the start of a new week that I know will be so much better than last week, I thought it was time to give some fabric away!
How about this little stack:

Just answer the following question and I will randomly select a winner in the next day or two.

Question: I am always on the hunt for new tunes to listen to while in my studio. What are you listening to now?

Me? I added a new tune to my playlist this weekend that I heard on satellite radio, and it feels pretty appropriate as we triumph over such a senseless act and take back the spirit of Boston and the marathon…

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Love you, Boston!

I’m home from Cincinnati–a really great show! I do have a blog post with lots of pictures, but first things first: I, like many, am just sick and heartbroken over what happened in Boston yesterday, including the death of a precious eight-year-old boy.

I was out to lunch in Houston when the bombs went off, and thankfully, Rhianna Griffin, one of my coworkers texted me to let me know. I immediately called John to find out if all of the Boltons were ok, and it turns out my brother-in-law and nephew were downtown, catching the Red Sox game and the finish of the marathon. They heard the blast but were quickly escorted to Copley Plaza, which was secured and put into a state of lock down.

Patriot’s Day in Boston is incredibly special. As it is a state holiday in Massachusetts, it is a joyful day signifying the beginning of spring as the last of the snow has finally melted and the temps, at long last, rise. From Hopkinton and Heartbreak Hill to downtown…the streets are lined with thousands of people…with families, college students, and well-wishers, cheering the runners on with shouts of encouragement, live bands, water, orange wedges and high-fives. Simply put, it is a feel good day.

Coincidentally, I had planned a blog post later this week celebrating something that happened exactly 20 years ago: the first time I ran it.

April 19, 1993

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In this above shot, I just finished the hardest leg (Heartbreak Hill), and I’m hearing the shouts of college friends as I pass my alma mater, Boston College. One of my roommates (on my right in this picture), Ann Boyle Nagel, spotted me at mile 19, and as the captain of the B.C. women’s crew team and an ROTC recruit (and hence in incredible shape), she ran the last seven miles by my side, encouraging me to keep going.

Five years later, John and I ran the Boston Marathon again, on behalf of Children’s Hospital to raise money. I was also a special needs teacher in Newton Public Schools, and this time when I ran up Heartbreak Hill (which is in Newton) many of my students were lined up on the side of the road, some in wheelchairs. My students had significant physical and mental disabilities, and as I passed them and their “Go Miss Pokey!” signs, I thought about the daily, lifelong struggles they face, and how running a mere 26.2 mile race wasn’t nearly as arduous a challenge. Thinking about that got me to the finish line. It kept me going.

My marathon days are long over, but I am eager to participate in the Boston Marathon again, next time as a spectator, encouraging others along.

I am simply sick about what happened yesterday…and to the numbskulls who did this, know this: you’ll never tamp the spirit of this incredible day. We, as runners and spectators, will keep cheering each other on. And we will keep going,

Well, maybe that header is a tad misleading…but I got you to read this far, right?

I owe the final entry on the QA TV taping that took place last week, and a little known show on PBS called Downton Abbey made it’s way on set, thanks to Cheryl Sleboda…

Me with my friend Cheryl Sleboda who taped a whopping five segments for this next season.

A fellow die-hard Downton Abbey fan, Cheryl demonstrated how she made small portraits of Downton Abbey characters based on her cartooning and sketching techniques. In the picture below (if you squint), you can get a glimpse of the steps she took to make portraits of Sybil, Edith,  Cora, and even the Dowager Countess!

Closest to Cheryl, you can see the “step-outs” to create Lady Mary.

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I also taped a segment on International Quilt Festival’s Pet Project to raise funds for Friends for Life, Houston’s premiere no-kill animal shelter. I am hoping thousands of PBS viewers  take my request to heart, and send in pet postcards for this next fall’s show (or better yet, come in person)!

Above I’m holding a postcard I made featuring my beloved Lou Lou.

I was so happy to get Sue Bliewiess to tape with us finally. A fellow Boston girl, she is very, very talented and makes the most adorable pet postcards. She did a lengthy segment, explaining her techniques for creating them.

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My friend Judy Coates Perez came back this season to tape two segments on dying and fabric painting, and she looked fantastic with her new Farah Fawcett hairdo!

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Linda McLaughlin taped a couple of segments, one on a variation of deconstructed screen printing (which was so cool and I will be trying this weekend), and a segment on “365 Days of 65” where she hand-stitched small quilt squares every single day during the year of her 65th birthday.

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Her newly adopted discipline of daily hand stitching inspired other finished works, including this black and white quilt that I was rather tempted to steal off the set…

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The very colorful Dianne Springer was a newbie to QATV, but she was a total pro on camera as she demonstrated how she takes scraps of fabrics to create a vibrant mailbox that will definitely set one apart from the neighbors!

Fellow thermofax screen passionista, Lynn Krawczyk was back this season, too, to demonstrate how to turn one’s love of surface design techniques into wearable art and home dec. projects.

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Silk dyer Marlene Glickman was back, too, to demonstrate a unique way of creating fabric collage using elusive bits of dyed sheers.

Modern Quilter Debbie Grifka demonstrated five small modern quilt projects that were so clever and that all can be completed in an afternoon. (By the look of my bangs in the shot below, it seems Judy Perez wasn’t the only one channeling Farah Fawcett!)

And lastly, Heather Jones was back this season to demonstrate other modern quilting techniques…some of which she will be demonstrating at Open Studios at International Quilt Festival/ Cincinnati next week! The guy between us is Mike Murphy, our Director. (He loves to ham it up.)

And speaking of behind-the scenes folks…here are another couple of guys that I stare at all day:

Floor director Billy with camera man, Brandon (and Hulk Hogan in the middle).

Have a great weekend, everybody!

My body is having an off day so I decided it was best to stay home and prepare my supplies for Open Studios and my Fabric Postcard workshops for Create On The Spot! next week at Quilt Festival/Cincinnati. (Much, much more on that tomorrow!)

Problem was, this past year I have downsized from a sizable studio into a 10′ x 10′ guest bedroom space, and frankly, I just haven’t created much at all because I can’t ever find anything! So today, I started to expand my studio into other parts of my house in efforts to get organized.

Here’s an instance of that…

Before:

And after:

Fabric trumps food.