My sweet, sweet Jamie (the youngest of my three children) graduated from college this weekend. With highest honors at that: Summa Cum Laude. As you can well imagine… I’m bursting at the seams.

Jamie is truly a special person, with quite a few accomplishments under her belt at a very young age. You wouldn’t suspect it from such a sweet person, but she’s made of steel. And has been willing (and capable) of thinking and acting outside the box on many an occasion.

At age thirteen, Jamie decided to become a volunteer, working for several years in her free time as a tutor at an after-school center for children with learning disabilities. Always a good student, on top of her school work and volunteer activities, she found time to indulge in another passion: writing. Jamie’s dream was to be published by age 15. Until then she had participated and won many writing contests. And she was precisely 15 when she participated in her first adult writing contest, placing in third place. As a consequence, she was to see that dream realized, with a children’s book published under her name. That very same year she realized she was pretty much done with high school, and decided to leave early, to enroll in a pretty demanding two-year course in creative writing. I can tell you it is pretty challenging for a 16 year-old to develop the kind of discipline needed to work on one’s own, often feeling isolated, without the benefit of a group of peers.

By the time her high school classmates were graduating, Jamie had finished her writing course and was focusing on studying to obtain her high-school diploma on her own. That was a tough year, as we first lost my brother David to leukemia, and then had to walk with my mother as she faced some serious health problems that involved several prolonged hospitalizations. Jamie rose to all these challenges, showing a deep sense of solidarity and commitment as she accepted many responsibilities beyond her years.

Once things in the family started to calm down a bit, Jamie was able to focus again on her studies. In spite (or perhaps because) or her unorthodox schooling until then, she applied and was accepted at the USFQ, one of the most prestigious universities in Ecuador, where she majored in Education. During her junior year she was awarded a full scholarship as part of the university’s foreign exchange program, to go study at Mount Hollyhock College (South Hadley, MA). She was the only student to receive that award that year. Of course.

Even before finishing her college course work, she was offered a full-time position at the oldest and largest Jesuit high school here in Quito. She began teaching 8th grade Social Studies last September… to 200 thirteen year-old boys. While going to school full-time herself, to finish her last semester.

I’m not alone in my appreciation of who Jamie is. She’s just one of those people everybody naturally loves. Particularly her family… we were all so happy and proud to be able to celebrate with her this weekend. So here are some pictures we’d like to share, of her receiving her diploma from the university Chancellor, being greeted and congratulated by her Dean, and -of course- a group picture with the closest members of her very proud family.

Do you love hearts? I do! In quilts, be they appliqué or pieced. Or made out of wood, ceramic, or any other medium. And in any color.

I recently came across two hearts I hadn’t seen before, and am thinking I am really going to have to try these this year.

From Mom’s Crafty Space:

From Dog Daisy Chains:

And from Blue Cricket Design (oh, how I love her ideas!):

Block of the Month projects are really popular. And if you are the kind of quilter who enjoys sewing a block at a time, you might be interested in knowing just what is out there. So I’ve prepared an extensive list of all the free BOMs I’ve been able to find on the Web. I hope you find it useful.

I will keep this list going on the upper right tab of our menu bar, for easy reference. And if you know of a project not listed here, drop me a line! And if you think your friends on the forums you participate in would be interested… spread the word!

It’s that time of year and it’s been raining for days around here. When that happens the temperature goes down and we start to get rather chilly. And no, not the low temperatures that all of you folks endure in areas with snow. The difference here is that since the cold rarely goes to below zero, we do not live with central heating systems.

That’s not a problem most of the time. Just the occasional day –like today– where you wonder whether getting back in bed with a ton of blankets wouldn’t be a better idea than walking around with several layers of socks and sweaters, still feeling cold. Cold enough that the pets insist on snuggling up, making it a little uncomfortable to work at the computer…

After lunch Julian and I decided that this was the day where lighting a fire in the fireplace was most certainly justified.

My “little man” (as I call Julian) decided he would spend the afternoon reading by my side, as I work on the computer. So when I looked over I couldn’t help but crack up at his choice of reading material…

This morning I actually sat down and did some hand quilting. That’s the first sewing I’ve done in over two weeks. Because I’m still drawing, and then drawing some more.

So what am I drawing? I myself am surprised, as I have never been big on baby designs, but that is actually what I’m doing right now. A couple of collections for the EQ Boutique. How’s this for a sneak peek?

Time sure flies when you’re busy being busy, doesn’t it? And when you’re having fun at it, too! And I just don’t know how this last week went by in such a flash…

If you stopped by our website this week, you might have noticed some changes. You will recall that Jared and I had pretty much dedicated the last couple of months of 2011 to upgrading the website. And from the beginning of the year we have slowly started to publish the changes. Admittedly, from the front end the changes look minor. If I hadn’t been involved, I never would have suspected the amount of work that goes into maintaining and updating a website as large as ours. What we wanted to accomplish was a better way for visitors to be able to appreciate and enjoy the wide variety of patterns. And from the trends this week it looks like we are accomplishing that. Regardless of what pattern page you are on now, you will see recommendations for similar patterns that you might not have seen before. I mean, I’ve drawn them all, and even I have forgotten some of them! So we really hope the time you spend on our website will be more enjoyable.

Taking care of all these technical details actually involves very repetitive work and long hours sitting at the computer clicking through page after page checking on little details I won’t even bore you with. And I don’t know about you, but there are three things I absolutely NEED in my life as a matter of routine to keep from going bananas: books, drawing, and sewing. And there has been very little of that this week. Since I don’t really enjoy sewing much at night (eyes too tired), last night I took some time off instead to do a little drawing. And I came up with a little something for Valentine’s Day I hope to put up at the website next week. Just a sweet little thing…

And this weekend I am giving myself a “treat.” I am going to spend a little time with my lovely Jamie. Go out for lunch. Have some girl time. And then I’m going to draw, draw, draw. So how’s your weekend shaping up?

 17 Countries. 343 Days. 6237 Photographs. And captured in four and a half minutes. Now that’s cool.

Just watch…

Mark your calendars! Fiberarts for a Cause will be having a new fundraiser on February 15-16 to help raise funds for the American Cancer Society.

Foto/Fiber 2012
90 Photos AND 90 Fiber BONUSES

Gold Donor Day – February 15, 2012
Make a minimum donation of $100, choose a photo by
Virginia A. Spiegel, Karen Stiehl Osborn, or Cynthia Wenslow
and choose a Fiber BONUS by a specific artist
from the following list of fiber artists.

Regular Foto/Fiber – February 16, 2012
Make a minimum donation of $50 and choose a photo by
Virginia A. Spiegel, Karen Stiehl Osborn, or Cynthia Wenslow.
Your Fiber BONUS will be chosen at random for you
from the following list of generous fiber artists.

Artists donating Fiber BONUS include: Natalya Aikens, Frances Holliday Alford, Pamela Allen, Liz Berg, Sue Bleiweiss, Nancy G. Cook, Jane Davila, Vivika DeNegre, Diane Rusin Doran, Jane Dunnewold, Jamie Fingal, Leonie Hartley Hoover, Leslie Tucker Jenison, Lyric Kinard, Susan Brubaker Knapp, Lynn Krawzcyk, Jane LaFazio, Susan Lenz, Jeanelle McCall, Linda Teddlie Minton, Karen Musgrave, Gail Myrhorodsky, Karen Stiehl Osborn, BJ Parady, Cate Coulacos Prato, Yvonne Porcella, Wen Redmond, Sue Reno, Lesley Riley, Cynthia St. Charles, Susan Schrott, Suzanne Silk, Lura Schwarz Smith (with Kerby C. Smith), Sarah Ann Smith, and Terri Stegmiller

Drawings for Fiber Art throughout the event.
All patrons of Foto/Fiber 2012 will also have multiple chances throughout Foto/Fiber to win fiber art donated by:

Leonie Hartley Hoover
Lyric Kinard
Lynn Krawczyk
Yvonne Porcella
Susan Schrott
Mary Ann Van Soest

More information on how Foto/Fiber 2012 works:

http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/FotoFiberHowItWorks.html

Our goal – Raise $7,000 for the American Cancer Society

Fiberart For A Cause has already donated over $215,000 to the American Cancer Society through the generosity of fiber artists and their patrons.
Contact
Virginia(at)VirginiaSpiegel.com
for more information.

We have a saying in Spanish: Lo ofrecido es deuda. Roughly translated, it means a promise is a debt. So I am paying off one of my debts here.

This is the video tutorial on how to make the fabric folded flowers I showed from this wall hanging. I hope you enjoy it and find it useful!

If the first week of the year is any indication of what the rest of 2012 is going to look like… then I’m in for a pretty busy year!

I’m involved in several designing/publishing projects this year, and this weekend I had to quickly put together and embellish a couple of quilt labels for an upcoming publication. It was entirely up to me what I chose to do, and I’m afraid that due to the time constraints I took the easy way out. The one with the Easter eggs I simply printed out on pre-treated fabric and highlighted a few areas with fabric paints. On the second one (flower border) I did take a little more time and actually traced the design, then colored it with Prismacolor pencils (and treated with color extender to prevent fading). I then embroidered it with a back-stitch to give it a country feel. Now off in the mail they go!

Once again, I apologize for the quality of the photo… I can never seem to get the shot straight on. I know it’s something I should learn to do better. And I’m sure using the tripod would help, but I’m always in such a hurry… And I’m sure the publishing house will do a much better job with a professional photographer.