Hi All,

Yes, I’m still alive. I’ve got so many projects all coming due at once right now. Podcasts are on their way sooooon!

In the meantime, check out my new lectures and workshops brochure for 2010!

Click the Image to Download

See you next year !

©2009 Annie Smith   All Rights Reserved (I just had to do that, one last time ; )

In preparation for shooting the video for the 2010 Online West of Baltimore Block of the Month, I thought it might be a good idea to prewash my Cherrywood Hand-dyes.

The West of Baltimore was made completely with Cherrywood fabrics on Kona Black solid.

Cherrywood dyed fabric is the most sumptuous fabric I know of — the finish looks like suede and the “hand” of the fabric is great to work with, whether you’re doing pieced work or applique.

I recently made a large quilt with Cherrywoods that I didn’t even think to prewash – now I’m concerned. The instructions that come with the fabric clearly state that they recommend prewashing… so why didn’t I listen? (Probably had some other not-so-important stuff rattling around in my head)

Ok, so I divided the fabrics by color and by lightness/darkness, found the bottle of Synthrapol and a measuring teaspoon and headed for the washer. Luckily, I had a box of Color Catchers – little washer sheets that trap the excess dye in the water so it doesn’t migrate to other fabrics. These were made for laundry loads, but leave it to us creative types to find other uses for these nifty sheets!

Here is a photo of fabrics that just came out of the dryer and have the Color Catcher sheets on top of the piles:

The light green sheet almost looks white with the other colors, but can you find the rust one? It’s so dark that it blends in with the fabrics — that were primarily orange and peach, so the darker Rust is the one that released the dye the most.

That’s what Synthrapol does — it releases excess dye, while Retayne keeps the fabric from releasing more dye. Synthrapol didn’t lighten any of the colors of my beautiful Cherrywoods, by the way.

Here is a photo of the Color Catchers after the prewash loads were done:

Aren’t the colors vivid?!

I’m going to keep these and cut them up to use for little art quilts and doing collage books. They are a fiber (of some kind) and they are STRONG. I think they’ll cut into shapes beautifully. I can iron them, stitch on them — probably stamp on them, and they’ll be good.

Now I wish I had kept all of the Color Catchers that I have used in the past – I’d have a pretty good stash of them now. If I had thought about keeping them when I finished my first batch, I would have thrown in 2 sheets!

Here’s the deal though, our printed and solid fabrics don’t bleed like they used to when I first started quilting. Usually, my Color Catcher sheet comes out of the washer as white as it went in! But I have this one RED blouse that rubs red onto my underclothing no matter how many times it’s washed.

I’m going to pay attention in the future with the Color Catchers… who knows, I think I’ve created a new stash.  …don’t tell my husband!…

©2009  Annie Smith  All Rights Reserved

There are three ways to enjoy the show

1- Download either the video OR the audio podcast version of the show from iTunes (click the button below)

Downloading via iTunes will allow you to save the show to your iTunes application and sync it onto your iPod, iPod Touch, or iPhone for later viewing.

Or

2- play the video here on the blog page by clicking the video below!

Get the Flash Player to see this player.
Running time: 00:18:25

3 – Click the podcast button below and download the file to your computer to listen to directly or sync on your iPod.

Running time: 00:18:25 Size: 17 MB

In this episode:

Product Reviews

Websites to visit

3 Tips for better quilting

Holiday Craft workshop in the Quilting Stash Classroom

Visit Ricky Tims’ Christmas in a Small Town to share your Christmas memories and find out more about the CD. Make sure to look at the video of Ricky at 21 months old, coveting his cousin’s piano — it’s priceless!

Christmas in the BIG Apple — if you’re going to New York for Christmas, make sure to wander to Times Square to see the gigantic quilts on the Astrovision screen – 28′ x 38′ – in all of their quilty splendor. Thanks to The City Quilter whose quilts are displayed. And don’t miss the opportunity to visit that faboo store while you’re there, but not on Mondays, when they’re closed.

The current issue of Quilter’s Home magazine (January 2010) has an article by me, “Ditch the Fear” about the fears that are so common with quilting.

Marie Bostwick — sequel to her short story “A High-kicking Christmas”, can be foudn in Fern Michael’s new book, “Snow Angels”.

Champlain Valley Quilt Guild website

A visit with Noah

and an interview update coming soon!  (Yes, that is a miniature paper-pieced quilt with Noah’s prize ribbons!)

Speaking of small, Priscilla decided that she wanted to make her Fabric Choices blocks (usually 12″) in miniature, paper-pieced — which was a REAL challenge, but she did it:

Quilting Gallery has a cook book for quilters of quick and easy recipes so we can get back to quilting.

There’s a brand new online quilt shop, created by a mom and daughter, Kathy and Jo Thomas — Suppose Quilt Boutique.

Meet the newest member of the Smith family:

Aren’t they beautiful? And doesn’t Karen look great after the delivery?!

Last but not least, because you were a part of it:

Eagle Scout Candidate, Robin, delivering quilts to the Pediatrics department at the community hospital. (These are only a portion – 75 quilts were delivered, they couldn’t hold them all ; )

Thank you SO much for your contributions that made Robin’s project happen!!!

Look for me on Facebook — QuiltingStash, not Annie Smith.

Happy Quilting — and Ho Ho Ho!

©2009  Annie Smith   All Rights Reserved

Hi All,

Just a quick note to let you know that the classes for the first quarter of 2010 are now posted.

The Holiday Craft Workshop is also now available online. Please come and check it out by clicking HERE.

Check back in tomorrow for a new Podcast/Vidcast episode (#179!!)

Happy Quilting!

Annie

In all of her new baby glory — Miss Cambria Rose…

born yesterday — just in time before I have to leave to go home. A beautiful bundle of joy.

And yes, I have made her a baby quilt — while I was visiting with my son and dear daughter-in-law. I’m taking it home with me to quilt it.

More photos soon! ; )     (that smile can’t be BIG enough!!)

p.s it’s came-bria, not camm-bria.

You have asked for it, and now here it is!
I am so happy to announce QuiltingStash TV is finally HERE!

There are three ways to enjoy the show

1- Download either the video OR the audio podcast version of the show from iTunes (click the button below)

Downloading via iTunes will allow you to save the show to your iTunes application and sync it onto your iPod, iPod Touch, or iPhone for later viewing.

Or

2- play the video here on the blog page by clicking the video below!

Get the Flash Player to see this player.
Running time: 00:17:22

3 – Click the podcast button below and download the file to your computer to listen to directly or sync on your iPod.

Running time: 00:17:22 Size: 16 MB

Quilting is such a visual craft and while podcasting allows us to listen about quilting while we’re on the run, videos will help me show you some of the things I could only talk about before.

If you’re wondering, I am still going to blog on this website and do audio-based podcasts when it’s appropriate. I also do want to introduce video-based podcasts (called vidcasts) to my “stash” of tools.

To view the video, you can either download it from the iTunes podcast location or simply click the vidcast link above! Pretty easy, huh?

In this episode, I tell you about projects I’m working on, and share with you a few things I saw at the Pacific International Quilt Festival in Santa Clara, California.

Here is a list of items I mention. Please browse and visit links to these sites:

Robin’s Eagle Scout Service Project

Gina Halliday’s Threaded Pear Online Store

Tracy Souza’s Plumcute Designs™

Bareroots embroidery patterns

Clover™ needle threader

Thread cases – where to find them on the cheap!

Wildwood fabric line by Erin McMorris from Free Spirit fabric

News about Mark Lipinski

Don’t forget to check out my online quilt classes HERE.

We are having so much fun in my online classrooms. Students from all over the world are making quilts and sharing them with each other and YOU. Be sure to visit the classroom main site and look around for the picture galleries that are filling up with our student projects.

Be sure to send me an email so we can add you to our mailing list for special offers on my boutique, special giveaways, and discounts on classes at Quilting Stash Classroom!

Click HERE to drop me a line – be sure to include:
your real name
your real phone number
your real home address

We don’t sell or give-away any of your personal information to anyone. We use it only for the purpose of sending you cool stuff and letting you know about special events and products available through Quilting Stash.

Be sure ant let me know what you think about the vidcast format. Please leave a comment and tell me your two cents! I’d love to hear from you.

Happy Quilting,

Annie Smith

Hi, this is Robin – Annie’s son. I have a special request for all Quilting Stash listeners and readers.

I am a Boy Scout – from Post 706 in Morgan Hill and I am working on the last project before I achieve my Eagle Scout rank.

Because my Mom is such a huge quilter and fan of quilting, I thought I would make my project a quilting project! I plan to make 100 comfort quilts for a local hospital to give to extended-care pediatric patients. These kids often have to undergo painful treatments or surgeries and they might appreciate the extra comfort of a quilt they can take with wherever they go. They will also be able to take the quilts home with them when they leave the hospital.

When they leave the hospital, these 36″ x 44″ tied quilts will continue to give them comfort and help them realize that they survived their medical ordeal. It will be an optimistic object in their lives.

There are three ways you can help: donate materials, donate a completed quilt, or donate money for materials.

If you want to make a comfort quilt for my project, please make it from two solid, 1 yard pieces of 100% cotton fabric and sandwich a piece of medium loft, polyester batting in-between. Tie the quilt every 6 inches with embroidery floss, trim the edges and stitch around the quilt with a zig-zag stitch to finish it. Very basic. When you have completed your quilt(s), please send them care of SimpleArts, 14938 Camden Ave. Ste. 29 San Jose, CA 95124.

If you want to just send me any spare materials, here’s what I need:

• 100% cotton fabric – 1 yard minimum
• polyester batting – 1 yard minimum (medium loft)
• thread – for sewing the quilt edges (white is good)
• embroidery floss – for tying the quilts (any color)

Please send the materials as soon (use the same address as above) as possible as I have about 100 volunteers gathering in two weeks to put these quilts together in a youth service project.

If you want to just donate money so I can purchase the materials I need, please CLICK HERE, and donate via the SimpleArts donation button. Make sure to put a note in the donation form that the money is for my Eagle Service Project.

Thanks,

Robin

Recently I completed the very first class for Quilting Stash Classroom. It was the Quilter’s Palette sampler quilt.

We had over 60 participants from 7 different countries – most of them from the US. Feedback on this class was remarkable! I am so proud of it’s success; we have 19 finished quilt tops already and many more nearly done!! Isn’t that great?!

These quilters should be congratulated for a job well done! Please go to the Student Gallery link and view their completed quilt tops. Be sure to scroll down to the Sesson 1 gallery. Their completed quilt tops begin around page 11.

Once you’ve seen the pictures, be sure to come back here and make a comment about which finished quilt top strikes your fancy and why! Students would LOVE to see your comments.