Happy New Year!  I'm starting a new adventure this year, since QuiltUniversity.com is no more; I'm now doing my online teaching at www.AcademyofQuilting.com, and have been busy editing classes and making some new short videos to put in the classes.  So, far, this is the schedule:

Elements in Fabric - 10 Jan and 16 May 
Winter Wonderland - 24 Jan 
Waves and Waterfalls - 21 Feb and 30 May 
Filament Fantasy - 7 Mar and 4 July 
People in Places -11 Apr 
Mermaid Lagoon Jacket - 2 May 

Below this blog is a picture of one of the projects in the Waves and Waterfalls class (the orange tree with dark background), and here is the project for the Winter Wonderland class.  Start your new year right by learning something fun and new!

Well, it turns out my brother, John, is the person I have for our family gift exchange.  He said he wanted a wallhanging made of an old picture of him on a rock, any size, for his present.  Sheesh!  these presents are supposed to be a maximum of $20!  What does he think I am, a photographer?  Maybe a photographer would charge $20,  a quilter would charge at least $200, right? Anyway, he is my brother, so I did check out the photo (see left).  The figure is fairly clear, and I think the background is woodsy, but since the whole thing is in sepia tones, I have no idea what season it is.  By the way, he looks pretty good there, eh?  Too bad he's put on some weight since then.  

So, the next step is to paint John's face, hands, and arms.  If they look like a recognizable human being, then I'll finish the quilt.  If not, not.  So, you still don't know if you're getting a sweatshirt or a quilt, eh, John?

How exciting!  Some of the now defunct QuiltUniversity.com classes have been taken over by www.AcademyOfQuilting.com, so my classes are going to appear there, starting January 1.  I have been fairly busy editing the classes, and learning how to take a video on my movie camera, get it off the movie camera into my computer, then load it onto UTube (for some reason, my Mac won't accept the video off my video camera, even though it CLEARLY states on the camera box that it will), then opening it in MacTube on my Mac, converting the files to MP4, then e-mailing them to myself so I can drop them in the AcademyofQuilting.com dropbox, because no sane e-mail program will put up with the size of the files.  My head hurts.

The photo at the left is a project included in one of the classes. It's also the sample for my Creating With Cool Stuff class that is a very exciting way to get started with Art Quilts because it is actually an art quilt sampler.  In making it, you get familiar with using MistyFuse, metallic paint powders, Lutradur, fabric paints, Puff Paint, Tyvek, melted painted cellophane and distorted sheer fabrics to create the chaos that is rushing water.  Oh, I forgot Glitter Glue and sheer ribbon borders and iridescent cracked ice.  All in one day, and everybody goes home with the project all pinned (or fused) down, and you don't even have to bring a machine to class!