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Hi listeners!

I’m back from wandering for a couple of months, once again. And back to dispel any rumors about Quilting Stash…

In this first of several podcasts about my trip to the East Coast, I want to share with you 3 wonderful quilters that I met in the Baltimore area.

Gyleen Fitzgerald

Gyleen, in her studio

Close-up detail from Gyleens’s book, “Quilts: Unfinished Stories with New Endings”, the Sawblades quilt with orange Shoe Fly blocks. I LOVE this quilt!

The backing fabric of the Sawblades quilt — pieced with lovely fabrics. “Why use cheap and any old fabric for your quilt backs? Those quilt backs are what touches our skin — so use beautiful and quality fabrics for your quilt backs” — the most valuable information, from Gyleen.

A lovely color study quilt in Gyleen’s guest bathroom. Have you thought about using a wood yard stick as a quilt hanger? Cool, huh…

Visit Gyleen’s website Colourful Stitches where you can also find her books.

Too Quirky Quilters

Kim Fess and Rebecca Heinze — two talented ladies!

Kim’s Bee quilt

Can you tell these gals have fun and ARE fun?!

Visit the Too Quirky Quilters webiste and view their schedule to see when they’re coming to your area.

And here is the link to Jinny Beyer’s website so you can see what’s new with Jinny.

©2009  Annie Smith  All Rights Reserved

Hi All,

Just a quick update to let you know that a new set of podcasts are on their way. I finally finished my marathon tour schedule for June by teaching a two-day workshop in Antioch, California in the San Francisco Bay delta region. What a wonderful time we had this weekend. I even got to bring WebGuy with me to keep me company for this last bit of my roadtrip.

So please hang on just another short while. New podcasts are coming!

In the meantime, the Quilter’s Palette online class has been going very well. We are getting lots and lots of positive feedback. If you haven’t seen what’s been going on, read student comments by clicking HERE.

Students have been submitting pictures of their works in progress to our classroom gallery. Click HERE to see their work!

These students are keeping up with the pace of a new assignment every week for 11 weeks straight. We’re just over half-way through and their projects are looking fabulous.

Next week I’ll be announcing the upcoming projects and dates for Annie’s Classroom that are scheduled to begin later this summer. Space will be limited so come back often if you even THINK you might be interested in signing up for a class. You can tell by the comments students are leaving in theSTUDENT FEEDBACK section that these are not your ordinary online classes. You truly get my attention and feedback during the sessions and you have access to me in ways other online classes can only dream about.

Check it out!

Annie

I’m in New Jersey, my husband is in California today — the second year in a row that I have been  gone on Father’s Day…

I found a book, The Children’s Book of Heroes by William Bennett in the backseat of my nephew’s  car today. I was looking at the illustrations and seeing which heroes are listed in the book — people like George Washington, Jackie Robinson and Mother Teresa. One particularly caught my interest — Dad, and this poem by Edgar Guest.

Happy Father’s Day, BigGuy!!

Only a Dad with a tired face, coming home from the daily race,

Bringing little of gold or fame to show how well he has played the game.

But glad in his heart that his own rejoice, to see him come and to hear his voice.

Only a dad with a brood of four. One of ten million men or more.

Plodding along in the daily strife, bearing the whips and the scorns of life.

With never a whimper of pain or hate, for the sake of the those who at home await.

Only a Dad, neither rich nor proud, merely one of the surging crowd.

Toiling, striving from day to day, facing whatever may come his way.

Silent whenever the harsh condemn, and bearing it all for the love of them.

Only a Dad but he gives his all, to smooth the way for his children small.

Doing with courage and stern and grim, the deeds that his father did for him.

This is the line that for him I pen, only a Dad but the best of men!

And happy father’s day to-be, Ryan!!!

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.

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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

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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!

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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.