Last year we were visited once again by barn swallows who built a nest just above a door leading from our deck into the house. Not wanting the birds to return to the same spot, we put a screen over the space they had previously nested. They would not be thwarted and returned this year to build their nest in the same spot. This time they tore up our door mat to gather bits of building material and build the nest into the screen. A few weeks back we had violent storms and the nest found its way to the deck floor. Not to be deterred, the birds began to build something on top of our security light. I’m not sure why they never finished.

A couple of weeks ago I posted about a seminar that I was attending with David Neagle, the million dollar income acceleration coach. It was truly worthwhile, and gave me a lot to study. I have more than 10 pages of notes from his “Wealth Acceleration Day.” Here are just a few of the things I learned:

• Success requires that you go beyond what’s comfortable – into what was termed the abyss – and to do that you must know where you are and where you are going. And, the faster you get beyond the discomfort zone, the faster your changes will come about

• Take responsibility for all your experiences and ask yourself, “Why am I choosing to have this experience?” This process gives you power to make changes.

• You need to be clear on your vision and goals.

• Don’t ask “How?” When you do that it breaks any expectations, just be open to it manifesting. The “how” will take care of itself.

• Your belief system is made up of thoughts, feelings and action. When they are all congruent, you will be able to manifest remarkable success.

He also talked quite a bit about our belief about success and what holds us back. Some of this sounds simple, but it’s not easy to accomplish. You can think you’ve got your belief system congruent and then the worry, doubt and fear jump in.

When my husband and I got to Baltimore, the first person I saw was Sheri Flemming, a subscriber and longarm quilter from Hershey, Pa. (Lots of people drove or flew into this seminar, so I feel fortunate it was only a 35 mile drive for us.) I brought my camera, so here’s a shot of my husband, Rand, myself and Sheri. I asked a woman sitting near me to take the shot, and I actually manifested a professional photograph – Lynn Dykstra who owns Focused Images Photography Inc in Reston, Va

If you’re interested in learning more about David’s programs, he offers a free 4-hour teleseminar that you can download and listen to at your leisure. It’s called the Art of Success and you can get it here.

Can you believe it’s almost June? May has been cool and rainy in my area, but it has resulted in beautiful, showy peonies in my yard.

I got back last week from Quilt Market in Portland. I love seeing what’s new, catching up with old friends and making new ones. The color trend I saw was orange, whether that was orange as in the fruit or a softer shade, more like orange sherbet. Of course, orange is one of my favorite colors, so maybe I was more attuned to it. I liked the larger prints in clear colors, and most fabric companies were showing black and white lines. I saw creative packaging ideas and lots of “jelly rolls.”

I’ve included some important information on pending legislation that will affect quilters. Please take time to research the Orphan Works issue and make your opinion known.

I am a big fan of personal and professional development. Next weekend my husband and I are going to an event that promises to be great on both fronts. David Neagle, known as the Million Dollar Acceleration Coach, is stopping in Baltimore as part of his “X-Country Tour.” David talks about shifting your mindset to create the life you love, effortlessly and easily. The event requires a $99 deposit, but when you register in person at the event, you get $99 back (yes, real money back). If any of you go, please look for me. You can reserve your seat here. Like David says, Success does NOT have to be hard!

Protect Your Images on the Web

In the Summer issue of The Professional Quilter, Gloria Hansen shared her experience when she discovered that some of the images from her Web site had been taken without her permission and were being offered for sale on customized merchandise. This was an obvious infringement of her copyright. After she contacted both sites involved, the items/images were removed. But she, like the rest of us, still has to be diligent, as we are all susceptible to our copyright being violated. In addition to formally registering your copyright with the U.S. Copyright office, Gloria also suggests applying a watermark to your images.

To read more of Gloria’s experience and learn about options for embedding watermarks into your Web images, you can purchase Issue 103 or can start a subscription here.

Orphan Works Legislation

Last month, bills were introduced in the U.S. House (HR 5889) and U.S. Senate (S 2913) that seek to change the 1976 U.S. Copyright Act. The intent is to provide a limitation on judicial remedies in copyright infringement cases involving orphan works. Orphan works refer to copyrighted works whose owners cannot be found after a “diligent” effort. Among other things, the bill requires artists to register every work in a private certified database, a database that currently does not exist, which presumably would be used for the “diligent” search. The current legislation, which went into effect in 1978, provides copyright protection to all work, with or without registration. This will have a significant impact on visual artists.
The full Senate and full House Judiciary Committee are expected to vote on their versions of the legislation in June. So, act now to get your opinion known to your members of Congress. I personally have written to my Congressional representatives expressing my opposition to both bills.

To learn more, here are some links:
Text of HR 5889: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:h.r.05889:
Text of S 2913: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:s.02913:
OrphanWorks.net – contains testimony on both sides of the issue before Congress. Particularly interesting is that from the National Textile Association.
Orphan Works Opposition Headquarters: http://www.owoh.org http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/05/prweb911944.htm
Illustrators’ Partnership – http://www.illustratorspartnership.org/01_topics/article.php?searchterm=00261
Here’s a link for you to make your opinion known to your Congressional representatives – http://capwiz.com/illustratorspartnership/home/
Remember you need to act promptly, and encourage fellow quilt artists to take a stand.

Upcoming Show Entry Deadlines

Here are some opportunities with entry deadlines within the next 45 days:

Quilts Inc. seeks entries for its annual Quilts: A World of Beauty juried and judged competition. $101,250 in prize money will be awarded. Deadline: June 12. Details: Quilts Inc., 7660 Woodway, Ste. 550, Houston, TX 77063; www.quilts.com.

American Quilt Study Group invites submissions of 4,500 to 9,000 word papers representing original, unpublished research pertaining to the history of quilts, quiltmaking, quiltmakers, associated textiles and related topics for presentation at its 29th seminar to be held in 2009 in San Jose, Calif., and for publication in Uncoverings 2009. Deadline: July 1. Details: AQSG, PO Box 4737, Lincoln, NE 68504; 402-472-5361; www.americanquiltstudygroup.org.

More than $10,000 in cash and prizes will be awarded at the Pennsylvania National Quilt Exposition to be held September 4-7 in Harrisburg, Pa. Deadline: July 1. Details: Mancuso Show Management, PO Box 667, New Hope, PA 18939; www.quiltfest.com.

Shifting Perspective
Lorraine Torrance
C&T Publishing; $27.95

For traditional block quilters interested in breaking away from tradition, Lorraine Torrence shares her concept sparked by the use of the Fresnel lens. Also known as the Multi-View lens, the lens multiplies your original block into many smaller blocks and each is shifted slightly, i.e., the perspective shifts. By using either a traditional block design or one you create, you will end up with an original quilt design. The book includes a Multi-View lens so you can get started right away.

Here’s a link to order the book through Amazon.

This week Karen Eckmeier came to Maryland to teach, spending time with three guilds. Karen makes fabulous collage quilts and is working on her next book. The time she spent with my guild included an overnight stay at my house, so we had plenty of time to chat. We also visited the local shop, Capital Quilts, where they had on display quilts made from Skinny Quilts and Table Runners, edited by Eleanor Levie, including one of Karen’s designs. It was a fun surprise. Here’s a shot of us taken at dinner at the Olney Grille (They make a cream of crab soup that’s to die for) with members of my guild, Nimble Fingers.

For 22 years The Professional Quilter has recognized outstanding quilt teachers with our Teacher of the Year award. This year’s recipient is Susan Shie, a self-described outsider artist from Wooster, Ohio. Susan suspends the rules, while encouraging her students to find the joy of self-awareness and self-expression. Much of Susan’s work is personal diary work with themes focusing around the kitchen and family, St. Quilta the Comforter (a character based on her mother), astrology, tarot, peace and the environment, with a whole lot of emphasis on peace and compassion-centered politics. Here is a portion of our interview with Susan about her teaching:

How do you encourage creativity in your students?
I mainly work as an example of being creative, in front of them. I don’t pre-plan my narrative themes any more than they can pre-plan for the class projects. I work as an example of being creative by doing each process as a demo. I also bring lots of examples of my work or if the class is in my home and studio, I show them plenty of examples. The students get to know each other by name and I learn their names as fast as I can so that we can become a very close group in the time we have. We have a lot of show-and-tell, of their work and mine, so we all excite each other with our ideas and solutions to the group-invented theme. I also go around the room and have each student tell me about her work (as long as she’s willing to talk about it), and I give her one-on-one feedback. Most important, I ask them to come get me if they get stuck. When their creativity gets blocked, it’s important to get it flowing again as soon as we can.

How do you encourage students’ further growth in quilting, beyond the formal class?
As I mentioned, I explain that their best bet is to take what they learn from me and add it to the mix of where they already were with their artmaking. Copying a teacher’s style is, of course, acceptable and fine, if all you want to do is to make stuff. But if you want to get a career going in our field, or in any art field, you need to be unique. So copying a teacher’s style is like shooting yourself in the foot, unless you want to be called a clone. No one wants that! So you work the new style and ideas into the big ball of dough, of artness, that you already were cooking up in your studio. Yours is a totally different mixture of influences from any other given student’s mix. So you go along till you realize that you don’t need classes anymore, that what you need is time to work in your studio. So you conceptually graduate from that school of searching, and you become a mature artist. Voila!

What makes you a good teacher?
I treat my students like they’re just like me (because they are). We’ve all got the hunger to create, and to the degree in which you’ve been working toward your career, that’s how much evolved you are. I believe we can all be brilliant artists — but we must feel inspired. So my job is to inspire, by example, so that every one of us can be constantly tapping into our intuitive nature, our souls. I teach in order to free souls to the joy of their self-awareness and expression. I help my students find their way back to their innocent, primal selves, and I give them some tools for being able to find that space on their own, when they’re back home.

What has quilting contributed to the quality of your life and to women and men in general?
The act of quilting, when practiced without worry or judgment, is one of those wonderful processes that cause us to center our energy in our bodies. We relax, we enjoy, we are happy. Therefore we let go of stress, and therefore we heal. Few activities in our lives allow us to be happy. When we find the time to sit down and do these purely creative things, we give our bodies and our souls great gifts toward being whole and healthy, and quilting is legal.

Congratulations to Susan and the other teachers who were nominated for this award, including Pamela Allen, Laura Blanchard, Susan Cleveland, Rosalie Dace, Ellen Anne Eddy, Beth Ferrier, Cathy Franks, Linda Hahn, Carol Lewis, Merry May, Pam Mostek, Sue Nickels, Linda Poole, Jane Sassaman, Anne Smith, Cyndi Souder and Deb Tucker.

To read more of this interview in the Spring issue of The Professional Quilter, you can purchase Issue 103 or can start a subscription here.

This week I was asked to participate in a phone survey. Since I conducted surveys part-time in high school, I’m usually willing to help out. This particular survey was a marketing survey for the US Treasury, aka The Internal Revenue Service. Turns out you can pay your estimated quarterly business (and personal) taxes online, and the feds were surveying small business owners to see if they were aware of this. I was aware you could e-file your return, but not that you could actually make online payments. After the survey, I called the someone in the marketing department at the US Treasury and got more details on the process. The e-payment system has lots of pluses. Here’s a link if you are interested in enrolling: www.eftps.gov.

This year I went to International Quilt Festival in Chicago. I gave my lecture, Open House Studio Tour: A Peak Inside Quilters Studios. It’s a fun look at working quilter’s studios full of tips. I had 70 people at the lecture

Then the following morning I taught my Quilting Passion to Profit class to a group of 32. It was great fun and we had the treat of guest speaker Debbie Caffrey, who talked for five minutes about how her career started and how it has grown.

I enjoyed the show, especially seeing it without the constraints of having a booth. And, an extra plus for me was the visit with my sister, her husband and her three kids that live in Chicagoland and a visit from my sister in California. Now, if I could get them to become quilters!

QHC is one of my favorite quilt shows, partly because I think of it as my home show. This was the 21st year, and I’ve lived within driving distance of the show for most of those years. I think I’ve been to all the shows but one or two. This year I taught a class, Quilting Passion to Profit, to a group of 22 would-be and current quilt business owners and had a booth. I enjoyed catching up with lots of long-time friends. And, an extra plus of the show is seeing part of the Quilt National exhibit.

Here’s a shot of Sue Reno, who is from Columbia, Pa., and me. I’m a big fan of both Sue and her work. She generously loans me a quilt each year for the booth. This one is Prickly Sow Thistle.

And Rita Barber, who owns the show, stopped by the booth on Sunday afternoon. During the awards ceremony, she noted that anyone who had been to every show since the beginning had seen more than 8000 quilts. Wow!

And, I also had a quilt in the Teacher’s Exhibit. It’s a quilt I made for my grandmother when she turned 90. Each signature block went to a family member: my mother, my aunt, myself, my four sisters, my two cousins. That year, I told her my grandmother that she was my role model for someone at 90. Without missing a beat, she said, “Wait until I’m 100.” This past August she celebrated her 100th birthday. Sadly she died in early November. Here’s the quilt and a photo from her 100th birthday celebration.

One of the things I love about all the quilt shows I go to is seeing friends. One of the things I don’t like is the visit is always too short.

A couple of years ago, I arranged for Paula Nadlestern to teach several class at my local guild, Nimble Fingers Quilters, in Potomac, Md. This was perfect, as then I would get a good visit with Paula. Of course, the visit took two years to happen! We had a grand time catching up and even managed to fit in a trip to Jinny Beyer’s Studio. It’s a charming shop if you are ever in the DC area. Jinny had just returned from teaching overseas, but popped in to say hello to us.