Quilt Voices is a feed aggregator for quilt artists writing blogs. It is an attempt to bring voices of as many quilt artists as possible to a single platform. Quilt Voices will try to be the special quilt made with the quilt artists' thoughts and voices.
Anne Bebbington Caitlin O'Connor Connie Elle Emmie Seaman Helen Pedersen Karen Stiehl Osborn Lauralyn Lesley Riley Maggie Hannigan Norma Sandy Snowden Thelma Smith
1/6/09
Since the project is a secret, I can't show you much. However, I can show you one of the "go with" fabrics that I used in this project. Here is just a sliver of that fabric. 
Today marks 3 years since I first started blogging. 
You could say there was a distinct hint of pink in this
Then one of the teachers where I work commissioned me to make a couple of placemats for a Christmas present for her mother whose kitchen is green and pink
Once they were finished I received my SFRR2 quilt which also has a definite leaning towards the pink part of the spectrum - even DD2's PJs are pink!
All babies need a quilt. I already have a 'blue' themed cot quilt completed so I thought I'd hedge my bets and make a pink one too so I have something suitable for the baby's arrival. Sorry the colour's not that good on this picture.
I have it on good authority that PINK is THE colour for all the best dressed referees this season - well at least their shorts and socks although I'm not sure I can see this catching on for the Guinness Premiership :o)))
1/1/09
There are a couple of fabric choices I am not happy with so I am going to sleep on it and see what it looks like in the day light.
One of the projects that I am doing in 2009 is a monthly calendar. I have designed a calendar layout that fits on a sheet of 8.5" x 11" cardstock, with space at the top of each month for journaling or collaging. Here is my January version. 
RADIANT 6″ X6″
My 2008 New Year’s Resolution was to simplify my life and to get rid of stuff. I’ve worked on both and accomplished some headway. My goal is not reached, so I shall renew that as my 2009 resolution. In addition, I’ll add that I plan to make many more of these little 6×6 studies.It’s a great way to start the day in my studio. Just playing with them for an hour or two every morning.
I also start the day with a card from these Power Thought Cards by Louise L. Hay.
As you can see, there are 64 cards in the box. Every day I pull out a new card and put yesterday’s back on the bottom of the pile. I thought today’s card was very fitting for starting a new year. Read both pictures; front and back.
I wish you a joyous and creative new year. May you be creative with balance, harmony, and peace in your life.
The blocks are all different fabrics and I'm working out how the secondary star pattern works. Some will be dark and some will be medium and some light. (Thanks to Janice for that suggestion. My original fabric choices for sashing were way too overpowering.) I'm actually further on than this. I'll post another picture again tomorrow. I just have 3 more sashing strips to make and then I can piece the sashings to the blocks. Then I need to work out a new border. I might actually get this done!
Yegads! It's a bit of a mess, is it not? Is it working as a design? I'm in the "what on earth do I think I am doing' stage. I'm telling myself it will look much better from 10 metres away. Maybe the borders will help pull it together.
The start of a new year...I’ve been more than a bit of a lurker this year. My best wishes for all; may every good thing come to you in the new year.
This quote is from wordsmith.org
I subscribe to their service. Today’s quote is a good indication of the quality of the small, quickly read, bits of information.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy? -Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948)
A wonderful new year for all. thelmasmith
My Goals for 2009:
My goals for 2008 are very similar to what my goals for 2007 were. If you read back to my list for 2007 you will see much of it repeated here. My goals for 2007 reflect very much where my quilting continues to be in 2008 and so the goals hold for 2009.
1. To continue to work towards eliminating my UFOs, even if they are just moving to the flimsy stage.
I don't do New Year's Resolutions in the traditional sense of the word, but I do like to set goals for myself. Last year I wanted to focus on reducing my UFOs. I don't seem to be on target for meeting this goal as only 2 of the projects that I finished this year were UFOs at the beginning of the year. Although, I did not make much progress in finishing UFOs this year, I did manage to finish all projects started in 2008 to at least the flimsy stage with one exception--1 project started in 2008 remains in the pieces stage. This may seem like I have fallen short of my goal of reducing my number of UFOs, but in reality since I have not further added to my UFO list in great numbers, I have succeeded in changing my behaviour. Two years ago, it was hard for me to finish anything, now i am finishing projects that I start. This is progress. I will continue to work at finishing those projects on my UFO list. One year, I will be able to get rid of that list because I will have no more UFOs!
A couple of days ago we went for a walk along one of the many trails around the lake. Cloudy, over cast, and extremely windy, but once in the woods, it wasn’t bad.
We stopped to have lunch by this wonderful old tree.
Had to take a picture of the shoreline
And while snapping the shore line, an eagle flew out of the trees.
Now I’m back to cleaning up the studio after everything was dumped here during the holiday, but it’s such a nice day, out side, Mandy and I have to go for a walk. Maybe, the good fairy will clean things up!
Lots to do, huh? I'm not going to make the sashing pieces all the same colour, it would overwhelm the blocks. Another reason for needing a big design wall. It is much easier to choose colour and value when I am looking at it in a vertical plane. Back to the sewing . . .
My son held up this top for me so I could take the picture. He wanted to know if the quilt was for Joey as he could see cats in the quilt. No, this one is not for Joey! 
This print is called Sophistikitties. The only problem with using this as the outer border is that my local quilt shop does not carry this print. I could use a plain black but I am reluctant to do that as plain black fabric picks up and shows every thread and every piece of lint. I intend that this quilt will be used as a lap quilt so I would like something that doesn't show everything that comes in contact with it quite so much. I find that the black and white prints camouflage the lint a little better than solid black. I have also considered using a bright green as an inner border rather than red. 
So far, I have managed to tick off the first day! Yippee, all the hand applique is done. But I have done some work towards getting the sashings done. I'm just not sure I have done enough to cross off the second day :-)
I have joined the on-line Black and White Quilting Project http://bwquiltchallenge.blogspot.com/ . I have always wanted to work with black and white so I have used the opportunity presented by the challenge to work on one of my black and white ideas--the Bento Box. 
And because the snow is so pretty, I spent a few minutes today snapping some shots outside.
This snow accumulated on my son's car from 11 pm the previous night.
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This is the quilt that I gave my Mom this year for Christmas. As promised, this is a better picture of the quilt--now in its new home, in the spare room of my parents' house. Ignore the topper on the table in the corner. That topper is on its way out and will be replaced with an all white one. 
Sniffing out the goods. Yep, it's peanut brittle. Doesn't have my name on it, but that doesn't really matter. Possession of the goods is what really matters, right?
Dang, this is a tough tin to open. Tried my teeth, tried my paws. Nothing doing. And then, after all my hard work, they took the tin away and put it up on the counter. No fair!
(Just kidding)
This is the Christmas quilt that I finished for my mother for this Christmas. The flimsy was finished in September 2006 (http://silverthimblequilting.blogspot.com/2006/09/stackn-whack-christmas-completed-to.html) and this top sat in the "to be quilted pile" since then. As Linda pointed out, "It isn't doing anyone much good sitting in a bin somewhere", so out it came and I finished it in time for this Christmas. My mom has promised to provide a better picture of the quilt once it is in place on her bed.
The following three pictures are of some of the Christmas vignettes from around our house.
This is my nativity set--all white porcelain. I was thinking I didn't have room to properly display it. After rearranging some things in the kitchen, I found a great place to display it on the corner of the kitchen counter.
This is this year's tree. As you can see, we weren't shorted in the present department. There were plenty of things under that tree for all of us!
This is my son and his girlfriend.
This is Joey checking out the presents before all the unwrapping activity started. I think he smelled the catnip mouse that was under the tree for him.
These are the stockings--overflowing with stuffers before they were opened.
This is my daughter and husband playing Santa as they distribute the presents to everyone.
This is my Dad.
This picture was taken a little further into the unwrapping frenzy. Paper, paper everywhere.
We saved the presentation of the quilt for my mom for last so we could all watch her open it.
The last seven pictures were taken around our yard and show the recent snow accumulations. This is the first white Christmas coast to coast in Canada since 1971! 
Thank you for your friendship and support and patronage! It has been a great year, and I'm looking forward to an even better year in 2009. I hope your holidays are filled with love and friendship and creativity (and puppy kisses!). Happy Holidays --- see you in 2009!
Then it just remains for me to wish all of you, whether you celebrate Christmas or not, a happy, peaceful and love-filled time.
This is one of the applique blocks that I have been working on over the last few months. The challenge for me was to design something original and I was hoping to have this quilt finished in time to enter for Symposium but this is not going to happen! Entries are due in by 14 January and my quilt top is still in pieces, some of which haven't even been pieced yet, let alone getting it basted and quilted in the next 3 weeks! (drat - I won't be winning Best of Show for a while, will I?) There are 25 of these, all in different fabric, and I still have 5 to finish off. Then they are surrounded by a pieced sashing which I am having difficulty getting the colour values right for and I have done only about 10% of what I need to have done. Oh, well there is always next time.
Haiku
Tonight we had our Candlelight Carol Service at church. Here are the children from my Sunday School class all ready to go sing "Away in a Manger". From left to right Shepherd ~ Amy, Joseph ~ Denzel, Sheep ~ Temi, Mary ~ Abike, Angel ~ Gideon. They all sang very well.The art quilt group that I belong to, Uncommon Threads, has decided to make a funeral quilt and you ask, “What is that?” As I understand it, when one dies, this is a small quilt that is used at funerals to be draped over a casket, or table for urn of ashes, or what ever. Two members have a book on antique funeral quilts and apparently this was not uncommon in the 1800’s.
This one will be kept within the group and is to be used when one of us dies. At this time no one is anticipating death, but - just in case. There are 16 of us and each of us is to make two small, unfinished quilts measuring 24″ x 16″. One quilt in warm colors and the other in cool colors. Then eight warm panels will be sewn together with eight cool panels on the back for each side of the casket, with a strip down the middle. Understand? I should draw a picture.
Anyway, I’ve done my best for warm and cool. However, to me, my warm looks like birth and the cool looks like death. Wonder what that’s all about? Obviously, I work better with warm colors. They make me happy. Or maybe, because my studio is in the basement and it’s cold right now, the warm colors help warm me up!
When I die, please, place the warm side over me. I like it better.
Zeke's favorite toys are not the ones from the pet shop, but the ones that have been made for him from simple household items. This is his newest toy --- and his current favorite. It is an oven mitt that has fabric strips added to the edge of it. Each fabric strip has a knot tied in the end of it. Zeke's favorite game is for someone to put the oven mitt on, and he will pounce and chew on it.
Every year I create holiday cards to mail out to friends, and I usually paint a few extras. It seems like I always receive a holiday card from someone that I wasn't expecting, and this way I have one ready to go to mail back to them. Well, this year I looked at those extra cards for a whole 3 days, and then I decided to jazz them up with more paint and turn them into everyday cards. So much for patience......
I have been participating in the Journal Quilt Challenge with the Contemporary Quilt Group this year. Previously they did the A4 journals like the ones on the Quilt Art List. This year the challenge was 12" x 12".
Art Quilts at Play, by Jane Davila and Elin Waterston (C&T Publishing), will hit the shelves in January 2009. Several artists were asked to contribute work for various sections of the book, and I am thrilled to announce that I was one of those artists. I participated in 3 different projects in the book, and I am anxious to see the finished results. If you would like to pre-order an autographed copy of the book, you can contact either of the authors. There will be a book signing and exhibition of selected works from the book at Country Quilter in Somers NY on Saturday, February 21, 2009.
My Holiday/Appreciation Sale is still going on. I am offering a selection of textile postcards for $15 each if you purchase one, or $10 each if you purchase two or more. My hope is that anyone that has been wanting to own a piece of my work will be able to afford at least a small piece at these prices. Most of the postcards have already sold, but both of the postcards pictured here are still available. The sale will end at midnight on Christmas Eve. Happy Holidays!
Another bag I made from the bag challenge was this one from 3D bow tie blocks. A bit out of my comfort zone...I am not really a patchwork person. I decided to use colours one of my sisters likes. We have a large family, so each year for Christmas, you gift a different person. It was my year to gift her and her husband.
Here is the last card, just finished this morning. I have enjoyed the experimentation that this small format offers, and I really love the look of the graphic black & white backgrounds. Next project --- use that background technique to create a new series of collages in a larger format than the cards.
It has been snowing all day, and everything is blanketed in white now. The weather man assured all of us that the snow would stop no later than noon. Guess what --- it's almost 5pm, and it's still snowing.