Artist: Sheryl A. DiSabella
Media: Hand Appliqué & Machine Appliqué
Based on a digital photo and the artwork of Karen Clouston

Our square is based on the one of Samson's antics....when I turned my back he licked the anniversary cake I had just finished for my sister and brother-in-laws anniversary dinner. Good thing we all adore Samson...I just cut that part of the cake off...frosted the "new" side and served it... Our whole family chuckled.

This was my first foray into a quilt block of this sort...I wasn't sure I could do it. And since I can't draw I had to come up with a way to create a template for my block. I encouraged Samson to countersurf and took a digital photo. I then changed the photo to line art in Adobe's Photoshop and set the image size to the size of my block. I took a piece of clip art of a multi tiered cake and layer that with the photo. I was having a very hard time creating Samson's face, so I asked Karen Clouston if I could use her artwork as the image for Samson's face. She said yes...and I added that in. Then I changed the colors to match those of the fabrics I purchased so my digital template looked very much like the completed square. It didn't turn out too badly. ..and I created something I thought I couldn't do.

The only funny thing (other than Samson assisting me at every chance) is that we are still searching for the "good" pair of scissors...they were misplaced during this creation!

Artist's Bio:

Sheryl A. DiSabella lives in Hazleton, PA. She shares her home with her husband Vince (a pipefitter), her daughter Alyson (a high school junior & dancer), George their Peach-faced Lovebird and Samson…the Airedale who she describes as the one who is connected to her at the heart!

Sheryl is employed part-time by the United Way of Greater Hazleton as the Marketing Coordinator and owns a marketing and design business, Shelby Jack Studios. In addition, she serves as the Marketing Director for the Jeanne S. Burger, Performing Arts Center, Conyngham, PA. Sheryl earned a bachelor of arts degree in Communications Studies from Penn State University and has spent nearly 20 years working in marketing, and fundraising. Currently, she teaches computer classes for non-traditional students at Luzerne County Community College in her hometown of Hazleton. She is known to tell her classes, “my goal is to have everyone in the world love the computer as much as I do.”

For Sheryl, the computer opened the world of graphics. “Before I was introduced to the computer, I could see the design in my head, but couldn't get it out to another medium…the computer made it possible to bring my designs to life,” she said.

As for hobbies, Sheryl has far too many to mention. As a self-described “packrat” she loves photography, the computer, crafts, and anything dog-related! Her goal is to start working with Samson doing pet therapy…he has such a gentle nature and it has been a goal of hers for a number of years.

The 2001 Airedale Antics Quilt is Sheryl’s second attempt at a quilt square. She participated in the 1999 Quilt project for her first attempt at quilting.

Webmaster's Note: Sheryl was responsible for contacting pet magazines, quilt publications and media organizations to promote the quilts.