I RETURN TO ITALY AND YOU ARE INVITED!

EAT PRAY PAINT!
I have been seeing ads for the new film based on Eat Pray Love ( have you read it? it is great!) And I am reminded of my wonderful trip to Orvieto,Italy in 2009-organized by Adventures in Italy. Its funny -the story of how this came about-I was reading the book at Art Fest and I thought-how wonderful- I would LOVE to visit Italy and the VERY NEXT DAY Kristin Steiner was in my class and asked me to teach in her awesome program run by her and her wonderful husband, Bill. An answer to my prayers! I am blessed twice -as they asked me to return in 2011-and you must go with me this time! I will be teaching Plein Air Flower painting and calligraphy-Plein air means outdoors and the flowers in Orvieto are breathtaking-and everywhere you look. I will be teaching my simple easy painting style and super simple lettering to go with. You will be amazed at how easy it is to get beautiful results-this class is so popular Im writing a book about it too. This place is really indescribable as to how it makes you forget your cares and it is a total retreat from the crazy life-and you deserve to do this for yourself-just like Elizabeth Gilbert did( oh I almost wrote Julia Roberts!) The website has all the info on this week long escape and samples of the class work. I cant recommend Kristin and Bill more highly for their knowledge and care as tour guides-this truly is a once in a lifetime chance!

I WENT TO THE QUILT SHOW!

I had a wonderful time at the Long Beach Quilt Show. I've loaded my pics onto my Flickr page-link on the right now! I saw a lot of friends and gave a couple mini classes ( the fabulous painted clutch) that were awesome! Ive posted the results -so much fun in one little hour at the Make It University by the Quilting Arts booth. I also did an Open Studios there and met wonderful people! I met Judy Coates Perez and her amazingly talented daughter Nina ( the apple doesnt fall...) also JAmie Fingal who I LOVE her stuff and her compadre Leslie Tucker Jenison who curated this great exhibit-Beneath the Surface. I saw Alisa Burke and also Linda Blinn who I hadnt seen in ages! Pokey B was so kind to let me teach my crazy class and put up with my dinginess-nothing new there! Pam Garrison and Amy Hannah dropped by too! And Ms. Traci Bautista was my houseguest -too much fun! Check out her class's stuff! The show floor was full of goodies but I did not buy much!
The pictures above-from the top-
-a pair of future artists at my open studios that were beyond cute!
-one of the million quilts in exhibits
-Leslie t Jenisons work
-and two of the students in the clutch class-sweet!

This THURSDAY and SATURDAY! INT"L QUILT SHOW IN LONG BEACH

I will be doing a really fun make and take-this cute Painted clutch-all supplies included! I love Alisa Burke's style -she is much more free than me-check out her site! ( she will be teaching at MIU too!) I am having hand surgery tomorrow -so Im getting all the stuff ready today! I'll be teaching at the Make It University booth on the show floor sponsored by Quilting Arts Magazine -Thursday night at 6 and also Sat. at 2:45-also I will be painting at open studios there on Friday afternoon. If you are near and havent gone to the quilt show-you really should-there are so many awesome quilts-and not what you think of quilts at all-yes traditional-but many art quilts that will bowl you over-got to www.quilts.com to get more info-theres also all day classes you can sign up for right on site-And YAY my friend Tracy Bautista is coming to stay while she teaches there-its always a gas-Check her site too-amazing! www.treicdesigns.com ( and some of her classes are open if youve missed taking from her )

PENS FOR KIDS!

OH-only about 1500 pens here from the Society for Calligraphy! ( and a special thank you to Lily Hoy for the big ol box at the bottom! So generous and pens are still coming in! Go now to www.pensforkids.com and also visit them on Facebook to see pictures of these amazing kids in the African countryside proudly waving their pens-talk about instant gratification! and Yes i am still taking pens-Linda the wonderful organizer of this worthy cause lives 2 minutes from me! Email me at lengelbrecht@earthlink.net and I will give you the address!
Thank you to all the great letterers that donated!

MY SUMMER VACATION!

Yes here it is-on my Flickr site now-almost 9 pages of pics from my visit to my hometowns of Waverly and Dysart Iowa. I really enjoyed it-Kristin my daughter joined me and we laughed so much!-we did the requisite cemeteries visits and found super cool towns like Cedar Falls-and found Dysart to have become a destination for busses of quilters and sight seers! We stayed with my cousin Elaine and her lovely family, Sarah Marie and Tim in Minneapolis and then headed down to Dysart, and Waverly -we met up with my renter Lee, and met his family-Visited my land-picture above-go soybeans! ate at so many great places! Pork Chop dinner in the park after the parade anyone? The Fireworks were world class-really! Oh and met Robin,the owner of a super neato quilt shop in Dysart!!-named after her girls, Isabelle Originals and Ivy threads. We went to church on Sunday with my Aunt Lorraine and her girls came to town to visit- Connie, who brought her kids, Shelby and Nick and Arnola flew in from Chicago! The weather was mostly wonderful-and it was so good to go back and touch base with where I summered when I was young. Many pictures-a nostalgic look-I miss my grandparents and i so wish they were here so I could see slideshows and catch fireflies and eat homemade rhubarb pie.