Black Friday Sew-in Question #3

I will be posting a series of questions that will enable you to win prizes for the Black Friday Sew-in. Some of the prizes will be awarded in a random drawing, but if I really like an answer, I might award that person a prize as well. My blog, my rules. If you object, don’t enter.

Question 3: Why do you tweet or not tweet? Do you follow along on Tweetchat. Do you have a blog (put a link below so I can take a look) and like to focus there?

Write it all out below. Optional bonus for posting a photo to Twitter or a link on Twitter to your blog where you post a photo.

Fair warning: You will not win or be entered in the drawing if you do not answer the question. If you say “please enter me in the drawing,” your manners do count for good karma. Thank you for saying please, but I will not enter you in the drawing. I want words, content and pictures!

I have the following books to giveaway:
Master’s Art Quilts v.1 (see review)
Master’s Art Quilts v.2 (see review)
Art Quilt Portfolio (see review )
Quilt it with Love: The Project Linus Story
Shape Workshop for Quilters

+ 3 older charm packs

Thanks to Shannon at Lark Crafts and to Ray Hemachandra for sending along the books and being supportive of the Black Friday Sew-in.

Black Friday Sew-in Giveaway Tomorrow!

I am giving away books as part of the Black Friday Sew-in organized by Sandy over at Quilting…for the Rest of Us.

I have received several books (some multiples and duplicates) from Lark Crafts for giveaways during the Black Friday Sew In. I am not keeping these books, so if nobody responds to the giveaway**, I will be sending them along to podcasters as thank yous for producing entertaining shows.

On Friday (e.g. NOT today), I will be posting questions to this blog, yes, in this space, which you will answer in order to be entered into the giveaway.

I will let you know via Twitter when the questions are posted. If you don’t already follow me, please do so at @artquiltmaker to see the giveaway posts.

Thanks to Shannon at Lark Crafts and to Ray Hemachandra for sending along the books and being supportive of the Black Friday Sew-in.

**I don’t like doing giveaways, because they are a lot of work, often a big pain and I get little-nothing out of them except that I spread a little joy. That is worth something, definitely. Pretty please, follow the directions and no complaints. Thanks.

Black Friday Sew In Giveaway Announcement

I am giving away books as part of the Black Friday Sew-in organized by Sandy over at Quilting…for the Rest of Us.

I have received several books (some multiples and duplicates) from Lark Crafts for giveaways during the Black Friday Sew In. I am not keeping these books, so if nobody responds to the giveaway, I will be sending them along to podcasters as thank yous for producing entertaining shows.

On Friday (e.g. NOT today), I will be posting questions to this blog, yes, in this space, which you will answer in order to be entered into the giveaway.

I will let you know via Twitter when the questions are posted. If you don’t already follow me, please do so at @artquiltmaker to see the giveaway posts.

Thanks to Shannon at Lark Crafts and to Ray Hemachandra for sending along the books and being supportive of the Black Friday Sew-in.

Judy Martin Books

A few weeks ago, Judy Martin had one of her famous book sales. These sales involve sending her $25 and getting back 3 random books. It is a risk, but this time I received two books I didn’t have: Patchwork Among Friends (her new one) and Stellar Stars.

If you would like to win the Ultimate Rotary Cutting Reference, leave a meaningful comment (anyone who writes something similar to “Shiny! Please enter me! I would love to win” will not be entered). I know it takes time to write comments. I enjoy reading them so write me a comment that takes a few minutes.

Anyone reading this on Creating the Hive or FB or any other source where this blog is syndicated should come to this post and comment. Deadline is December 15, or there abouts.

Hope you win!

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Update 12/17/2011: Comments are closed! The winner has been selected and notified.

Winner of Masters Art Quilts v.2

Thanks to everyone who participated in the giveaway of Masters Art Quilts, v.2. We didn’t have many entries, so the odds were very good. Angela O, a friend from BAMQG was the winner! Congrats, Angela!

If you didn’t win, I hope you will go out and buy it. It is loaded with eye candy and worth the money.

QN 2011 Book Giveaway Winners

A few weeks ago, Amanda at Lark Crafts offered two lucky winners copies of the Quilt National 2011 books. 10 people entered and I used the random number generator + a spreadsheet to track entries and generate a winner.

And the winners are:

Robin and Upstate Lisa

I have contacted both winners and, hopefully, they will get back to me. YAY! Thanks for playing, everyone and I hope you continue to read and comment.

A big thanks to Amanda for offering the books. Head over to Lark Crafts to check out all the great projects and articles they offer.

Thanks to Sandy over at Quilting for the Rest of Us for making the Random Number Generator easy to find and use.

Book Review: Quilt National 2011 + Giveaway

Quilt National 2011: The Best of Contemporary Quilts by Lark Books

I received this book to review from Lark Crafts. Thanks to Amanda at Lark Crafts for sending the book and for offering to host a giveaway! See below for details on winning.

I started reading right away fully expecting the regular depressing art quilt images that are so prevalent in modern art quiltmaking. While I did find a few of those, I also found exuberant color, wonderful stitching and great fabrics.

I have always appreciated the Quilt National books because: 1) the book is mostly about the photos; 2) the photos are large, high quality and it is often possible to see the detail; 3) looking through earlier editions allows the reader to see the evolution of art quiltmaking; and 4) it is really nice to have a catalog of art devoted to quilts. This edition is no exception. The quilts are the show in this book.

The foreword and introduction are great to read as they give the reader insight into the thoughts of the organizers. They also reiterate how the judges are selected, which I appreciate. This year there is emphasis on encouraging new and emerging artists to participate.

The information about the judges is interesting. This edition reminds readers that the judges change, so the selection process is different very year. This means that “the individual artist cannot target their work in any particular direction (pg.7).” What that says to me is that I have a chance to get in some day. 😉

The judges also have a chance to make a statement and show one of their works. In some of the statements, jurors talk about specific quilts, others reference historical quilts, women’s culture, and creativity

Then the book gets on to the quilts. 92 pages are taken up with photos of quilts (some span 2 pages). This is a book that forced me to look at the pictures. Words about the quilts are spare and the photos are large. The quilts span a variety of imagery including nature, portraits, geometric and abstract. I also recognize some names, but many are new to me. I wonder if I am not as in touch with art quiltmaking as I used to be?

Stitching is prominent and I was glad to be able to see the stitching whether it was hand or machine and created with a thick thread like Perl Cotton or excellent photos of the quilting stitches.

I was surprised and thrilled to see a quilt from Judith Plotner from Gloversville, NY. I don’t know Judith, but I know what a great place Gloversville is because of my friend, Kathy, so I looked at the quilt longer than others. Judith’s quilt, Soul of an Iris I has great stitching and writing on it.

One of my favorites is Judy Kirpich’s Circles #4 (detail as cover image). The circles depicted give the quilt life. Ellen Oppenheimer, from my own guild, has another quilt (her 3rd or 4th??) in this edition. Berlin’s Anke Kerstan has a quilt that is similar to my FOTY quilts in the way she washes color across the piece. She also uses more of a block technique than some of the other pieces. Lisa Call’s quilting on her piece, Structures, #113, is the showpiece of her work. She is doing a lot of tiny pieces, which you can buy on her site, so I was pleased to see that she is still producing some larger pieces as well.

Since I attended the Maker Faire, I have had Steampunk on my mind. Barbara Lange’s piece Interlocked reminds me of Steampunk, because of the gears, even though it isn’t as dark as Steampunk tends to be.

In addition to Circles #4, my favorite quilts were: Leslie Joan Riley’s Broken Fence (looks like confetti to me), Patty Hawkins’ Lingering Image, Japan, Jan Myers-Newbury’s Firebox and Kathleen Loomis’ Fault Lines 4. The colors and stitching held my attention and made me want to look at them again.

This book is worth purchasing. The images are high quality and there is a lots of imagery to inspire any quiltmaker.

View all my reviews, including non-quilt reviews

Update 7/30/2011: Giveaway is closed

In order to win one of two copies of this book, you must go to the Lark Crafts blog/site , then come back here and write a comment below (this post only) about what you found that was cool there. I will do the drawing on July 29. You must have left your comment by midnight on July 28. the books will be sent to you straight from Lark Crafts, so you need to make sure that I can get a hold of you based on your comment.

CPP Vacation Ending

I was at Mark Lipinski‘s house last week and he really breathed new life into me for the CPP. Get ready. The CPP will return within the next 2 weeks. Did you do your responses so you are in the drawing?

Rules: Anyone who posts a response to any of the prompts between now and the post for prompt #111 will be entered for a prize. Yes, I know it is end of school and vacation time. If you do a response to any prompt (there are 110), you will get into the drawing. Anyone who gets a friend to do a response will get two entries. You have some drawing friends, right? Poets? Mixed media artist friends? Thread painters? Photographers? Sign them up. BTW, all rules are subject to change at my discretion.

As a reminder: these will not be quilt related prizes, but creativity related prizes.

Were you planning to wait until the last minute? Please do it now. My life will be better if you don’t. Post the link in the appropriate comments section.