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Hi All,

Best laid plans…

I had intended on sending you a daily installment of my travels while on my East Coast tour but alas, computers and networks have not been cooperative as of late.

I’m in Pennsylvania visiting the home of Liz Hawkins – of Lizzy B fame and have had opportunities to see many of the sites in Lancaster County. Oh my gosh! Let me tell you, THIS is the place to find treasures of fabric. I’ve had to send several boxes home this week because my suitcase is just too full to lug all of my findings around.

I taught a one-day Exploring Fabric Choices in Lilitz, PA. I shared with nearly 20 students my thoughts on selecting the right values for making colorful quilts. We all had a fun time.

I also had a chance to meet-up and have lunch with several Quilting Stash Podcast fans. We talked for a long time and ate some wonderful lunch. It is so good to talk to those who came out and share the passion we have for quilting in person!

Tomorrow, I’m heading up to New Jersey to visit my nephew, his wife, and their six children. The oldest is preparing to spend two years serving a church mission in Johannesburg South Africa!! He just got news last week about that. Our whole family is buzzing about it.

I will also be teaching at the Aardvark Quilt Shop in Morris Plains, New Jersey while I’m here. June 19 and 20 (Friday and Saturday), I will be facilitating the Exploring Fabric Choices 2-day workshop. On June 23 and 24, I will be teaching the West of Baltimore 2-day workshop.

To see if places are still available, contact Aardvark Quilt Shop (973) 539-9033.

I hope to see you there!

Annie

While I’ve been away on my East Coast tour, the Quilting Stash Classroom is moving along at full-tilt boogie. Students from all over the world are attending our inaugural class, the Quilter’s Palette, and are currently working on their fifth lesson!

In a response to the students, I asked WebGuy to develop a photo gallery of students and their work on the Quilter’s Palette quilt. You can view it by clicking HERE. I hope their work will provide you the inspiration you need to make something beautiful this summer.

We are in development of our next online quilting class that should be available later this summer. Please stop by Quilting Stash Classroom when you have a chance to check it out.

Running time: 00:10:20 Size: 4.82MB

Coming to you from Baltimore I talk about my experiences at Thimble Pleasures in Carrboro, North Carolina. We even had a Quilting Stash meet-up! It was so much fun.

More photos coming. Stay tuned.

I also tell you about my 8 hour train ride to Baltimore. What a ride!

Both Carrboro and Baltimore are just so beautiful!

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Here’s me stepping off of the elevator at the airport.

The first day in North Carolina — Yes, I did hit the local quilt shop. And here is a picture of my booty — you can do a lot of damamge in 15 minutes ; )

Since I neglected to bring a project, I had to go get one. My hands were itching to work on SOMETHING, so I found three things!  So like me.

A Kathy Schmitz felted wool project, America, with Valdoni overdyed threads – A Bird’s Life hand embroidery from Bonnie Sullivan, and a Crab Apple Hill pillow pattern that I’m going to do in a combo of embroidery and felted wool flowers. Sublime!

Here is a snapshot of the wallpaper in the theater where we saw “UP”. Wouldn’t this be great in a quilt? Hey, I think this is already available as a pattern somewhere.

Here is the carpet detail. Not only is the Mariner’s compass and pieced stars an inspiration, the color scheme could be used as inspiration too:

and here is a picture of the linoleum in the bathroom of Ryan and Karen’s house. I think this would be a great pattern layout for a large print, say a 9″ square, and do double sashing and four-square cornerstones:

And here is the beautiful Stella, watching me prepare the freezer paper for the America stitchery with great interest. She loved playing my pencil and pen and watching me cut the paper. Too funny! She would never give me the time of day when they lived in Sunnyvale. Now that she doesn’t see me very often, she’s my best friend ; )

I’m so happy to be in North Carolina and hanging out with Karen and Ryan!

Happy Quilting!

©2009   Annie Smith   All Rights Reserved

Running time: 00:49:21 Size: 22.7MB

I have been a fan of Laura and Diana ever since I first saw the book “Quilts! Quilts!! Quilts!!!” in the quilt shop where I took the class on how to make the sampler quilt of techniques. Diana has been one of most profound driving forces in the Quilt industry – especially with the creation of Empty Spools Seminars.

I know that you’ll really enjoy this interview with these two fantastically creative and talented ladies.

Don’t forget to stop by their website, Diana and Laura to see what’s new with them, their books, patterns and how-to video.

One thing I forgot to mention in the podcast, there is a DVD available for one lucky listener. Make a comment here if you have been quilting for less than one year -or- if there is someone who you would love to mentor and teach beginning quiltmaking, and the lucky winner will have Diana and Laura’s help via their DVD. I will choose the winner on June 15th!

Running time: 01:08:00 Size: 31.22MB

Mildred is WebGuy’s Mom — and the best Mother-in-Law a girl could ever have. It’s really because of her that I got interested in Quilting.

Here’s a picture of the pastel Heartwarming Jacket that I made for her:

and a picture of the fabric label that I made for the jacket, using fabric and a Micron pen, so the label wouldn’t be scratchy on her neck:

And here is the video of Mom in her jacket:

Get the Flash Player to see this content.

Sorry the video quality is not very good, but it’s worth showing the form of the jacket and how it fit on Mom.

When I interviewed Gail Abeloe at The Back Porch, I had an opportunity to photograph her shop and staff:

Gail Abeloe

Jean with her colorful snake – who would have thought to make it out of Kaffe Fasset and Westminster Fabrics? A HIP snake!

The original Heartwarmng Jacket and pattern

The back room, class room, and Gallery – where there is always a Special Exhibit of quilts.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium quilt, and photo which was used for designing each quilter’s panel.

A part of the Kaffe Fasset collection/Westminster fabrics…

The shoppers are looking at the extensive selection of books. Here’s a hint: everything under the Umbrella is 50% off!

And I couldn’t resist this one last photo, although not quilting related…

Here is the Boy Wonder and, his date to Prom, Alisha. I made Alisha’s dress, which was her own design. She was a perfect model and easy to fit. Don’t they look cute? I just had to share ; )

©2009  Annie Smith   All Rights Reserved

Many people watching Lesson 1 of my Quilter’s Palette class have noticed me gluing my fabric swatches into a hand-decorated journal. “What are these books?” you may ask. Click the button below for more information.

Running time: 00:58:43 Size: 27.0MB

I took a recent trip with the Zion Choir that my son performs with over Mother’s Day weekend to chaperone, where I worked on “the coat” while the kids played.

While there, I visited the local quilt shop and realized that the Clear Lake Bed & Breakfast where the Choir was hosted, would be the perfect location for a Quilt Retreat. Here are some pictures that I took of the B&B and the weekend:

Robin and me, with Clear Lake in the background, on Mother’s Day.

Zion Choir, mighty talented 17 & 18 year olds. They do the songs on this podcast. The intro song is “Sing Praise to Him” and the out-going song is “Down to the River” from “O’ Brother Where Art Thou”. The choir is lead by Christie Williams and her son, Blake.

Kids in the fantastic kitchen at the B&B. Three ovens!

Singing to their Moms “I Often Go Walking” through their cell phones on Mother’s Day.

Beautiful views.

Sit a spell, take your shoes off…

My room for the weekend, with a hot tub on the balcony. Don’t you think this is a great place for a quilting retreat?

Boat ride around the lake.

The Boy Wonder gets air on a ski kite.

Evening concert on the porch. It’s a wonder I got any sewing done — but I did!

Liz and Beth at Market

Thanks to Jamie Mack, of “Quilter’s Corner” quilt shop in Finleyville, PA for sending me this picture of the girls.

Visit the Lizzie B Cre8ive blog to see the recap and pictures of Market and to leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of their new book, Whimsyland.

And don’t forget to take a turn around the Lizzie B store while you’re at it, they’re having a sale especially for Quilting Stash listeners, 30% off patterns and kits through June 5th! The code you’ll need to use when ordering is MARKET09.

Congratulations to these two Cre8ive Cookies for winning the coveted Most Cre8tive Booth award at International Quilt Market for the second time in a row! It just goes to show how truly Cre8ive they are!!

Here are the links for new products that Liz and Beth talked about in the podcast”

Grabaroos  the GLOVES!
Roc-Lon multi-purpose cloth (for EASY floorcloth painting!)

Things we also discovered we loved but are not so new… Theresa’s Hand-dyed Buttons I’m a huge fan of Theresa’s buttons, too. I use them on my quilts and my hand-made journals.

and   YUMMY new colors of wool from Weeks Dye Works

I hope to see you in the Quilting Stash Classroom!

©2009  Annie Smith   All Rights Reserved

Class 1 of Quilting Stash Classroom is underway and you’re all invited to have a seat in the session.

Who wouldn’t love to make a beautiful sampler quilt like this…

…AND learn quilting techniques that will stay with you the rest of your life?

I will be accepting student registrations until May 29 for the first run of this eleven lesson class. You can even test-drive the first lesson for free, without registration. For our inaugural run of the class, I’m keeping the registration cost down to $65 for this ten week class. That’s over $120 savings compared to the in-store version of this same class.

Please come and check-out what I have to offer with this amazing learning experience.
CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE

Oh, I can’t tell you how happy I am that the coat that I was designing for Lecien fabrics is finally done and mailed off for their booth at Spring Market!

You remember the Baltimore coat that I did for the special exhibit at Pacific International Quilt Festival last October. I can’t wear it anywhere, so I wanted to design a coat that could be an “every day” coat.

Here are the pictures of the coat, as it progressed. I hope you enjoy seeing how it evolved.

Here are the coat pieces on my design wall at Empty Spool Seminar in March. I had a length of fabric quilted by Shelley Nealon of Quilted Bliss, then I cut out the pieces.

I love adding birds and other sweetness to my designs. I usually do this bird as a bluebird. This time I wanted Robins. I wonder why… ; )

A first pass at a front design. I didn’t like the “bulls-eye” effect of the flower, so I scrapped those and choose something better that you’ll see below.

Then, I went to my retreat at Camp Ocean Pines and worked on these:

Look familiar? This the design that is now my website banner. I love this design and wanted to use it for the coat. It’s a like a great big tattoo on the upper back. Not that I would have one, mind you.

A little rosie. I love these little things. I use them a lot.

Here is the coat back piece. I constructed it by appliqueing the center piece first, then added the right panel, then the left on this princess seam coat.

The little yellow dots have become my trademark, it seems. They add just that little bit of accent that is like a beauty mark. And they are so difficult to stitch when the coat gets nearer to completion.

The coat front piece. See what I mean about those little roses? I also like heart shaped leaves.

Now look at the flowers on the right. No more bulls-eyes. These look much more natural. I like shading.

Here they are all together before the coat is assembled. This is what I saw when I woke up yesterday morning. I knew that all of the design elements were complete. I can’t tell you how happy it made me to know that I could just finish the coat already!

So here it is, all put together.

and here is the back:

and a close-up:

and another:

The above flower was inspired by some flowers that I found in Renae Haddadin’s garden when I visited her last June. I LOVE the lady bug! And the flower!

I sewed the buttons on the coat while WebGuy drove me to UPS to overnight the finished coat. Talk about deadlines! I’m so glad that I’m all done now, so I can concentrate on the upcoming Quilter’s Palette online class.

Oh! Here’s one more picture — the quilt that I did for the Lecien booth also, using their new “Floral Collection in Pastel” fabric — gorgeous hand-painted fabric.

It’s going to be a new pattern, Floral Elegance, which will be in the SimpleArts boutique soon.

Happy Quilting!!

My good quilt-pal uploaded pictures of my coat in the Lecien booth on FaceBook so I could see it there. What a pay-off to see it there! It makes it all worth the 120+ hours that it took to make the coat, start to finish.

Thanks, Beth!!

©2009 Annie Smith  All Rights Reserved