Quilt University August Newsletter Vol 8.2
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August 20, 2010
Last week marked the 50th anniversary of Green Eggs and Ham, a children's book by Dr. Seuss. That tidbit made
the national news, which is pretty amazing for a book that was written with only 50 words. Over the years,
that little book has launched the reading career of millions of children.
I was 12 when it came out and reading was already a vital part of my life. I had already lost myself in Uncle
Wiggly, Judy Bolton, Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, Little House on the Prairie, the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books, the Black
Stallion, Zane Gray and Perry Mason. My reading was eclectic because we had no public library. During
the school year, I had access to the school library, but in the summer I sneaked the paperbacks my father was
reading. Some of those I could read in public and others I needed to read at night with a flashlight. I
am sure they would seem tame now, but A Lady Named Lou was definitely not the reading material my mother would have
chosen for me.
When Green Eggs hit the market, I was falling in love with Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind. I can remember
being so engrossed that I couldn't bear to put it down while at school and I sat with the paperback hidden inside my
textbook, reading during class.
Over the years, books have given me both pleasure and information. They have been a place to hide, a way to
explore the world, a safe way to experience all kinds of relationships and adventures. Books have taught me to
quilt, to cook and to use a computer. The idea of living without books is simply unacceptable.
I shared that love with my children, often reading to them or with them. We went through the Wizard of Oz,
Anne of Green Gables and the Madeleine L'Engle series. If you have missed any of these, go back and read them
now. They are every bit as wonderful for adults.
I spent six terrific years working in a bookstore and I was thrilled when the Goosebumps books came out and inspired
pre-teen kids to fork over their allowance money to read the newest adventures. They weren't great literature
and they weren't very long, but they opened that magic door. Just about 10 years later, the first Harry Potter
hit the shelves. You know what happened. Kids were willing to read hundreds of pages. By the last
book, they were gobbling up 759 pages just as fast as they could.
What will kids be reading 10 years from now? More to the point, HOW will they be reading? E-readers are
proliferating and the quality is improving all the time. Some people think this means the end of the paper
book. I hope not. Nothing is quite the same as the smell and feel of a real book. I think there is
room for both. I have a Kindle and I do enjoy the convenience of having dozens of books in one small space.
That eliminates the nervous palpitations I get when I run out of library books! It's nice to read without
having to balance a heavy book. It is also a joy to adjust the type size so I can whiz down the page without
getting lost in the fine print. I just hope that we will not face the same format wars that have made music
collecting so frustrating and expensive over the last 20 years as the market moved from vinyl to tapes to CDs.
So, hats off to Dr. Seuss, J.K. Rowling and all the wonderful writers who keep introducing the next generation to
the marvels of the written word. Nothing else has ever come close to providing me as much pleasure.
We are really pleased to be able to announce that Fireworks has been added to the schedule this fall. A lot of you have been asking about it.
Patchwork & Piecing
Crazy Quilt Piecing with Cindy Thury Smith
Stack-n-Whack Hexagon Stars with Bethany Reynolds
Starting from Scratch with Carol Miller
Tessellating Stars with Cindy Thury Smith
Appliqué
Stress-free Celtic Tablerunner with Nancy Chong
Too Easy Stained Glass with Daphne Greig
** Upside Down Appliqué with Susan Brittingham
Quilting, Surface Embellishment
** Digital Fabric Printing with Lily Kerns
Elements in Fabric with Linda Schmidt
Fireworks with Helen Marshall
Hand Quilting with Nancy Chong
Whisper Felting with Lily Kerns
** Machine Quilting with Carol Miller
Pictorial Quilts
On Land and Sea with Susan Brittingham
Viewpoints with Susan Brittingham
Waves and Waterfalls with Linda Schmidt
Dyeing and Painting
Fabric Painting with Marjie McWilliams
Freeform Screen Printing with Lyric Kinard
Painted Landscapes with Michele Scott
** Thick and Thin with Marjie McWilliams
Design & Color
Art for Quilters with Marilyn Belford
Color Companions with Carol Miller
Fractal Fragments with Lily Kerns
Inspired to Design with Elizabeth Barton – Closing soon!
Playing with Lines and Shapes with Lily Kerns
Quilter's Palette with Margie McWilliams
Structured Fabrics with Dena Crain
Computer-Aided Quilt Design
EQ6 Advanced Layouts with Fran Gonzalez
EQ6 Appliqué Design with Patti Anderson
EQ6 Sampler with Fran Gonzalez
Embroidery Modules
Beginning Machine Embroidery with Joanne Winn
Beyond Basic Digitizing with Joanne Winn
Paper and Foundation Piecing
** Paper Pieced Paradise with Daphne Greig
Other
Getting Started Online with Julie Neu
Tote That Mat with Ruth Blanchet
** Classes begin this weekend. Registration closes Sunday night.
WHEN REGISTRATION OPENS
Registration for classes opens 5 weeks before each class starts. New registrations open by 9 a.m. New York time every Friday.
2011 CALENDAR
If you do not see a date next to a class in the Catalog, that class has completed all of its sessions for 2010.
We will post the dates for the first half of 2011 before the end of October. Please do not write to ask me when
or if a class will be offered. At this point, I don't have any answers for you.
10th BIRTHDAY FREE CLASS DRAWING
Every Monday some lucky student gets an email telling her that we have refunded her tuition. Everyone who is
registered for each week's classes is eligible to win!
The most recent winners of a free class for our birthday year are: Debbie Martin, VA, Photographing Your Quilts with
Janice Baehr on August 6 and Shirley Gentile, GA, Machine Embellished Surfaces with Susan Brittingham on Aug 13.
Carol Miller
www.quiltuniversity.com
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