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Turtle Moon Studios:

This was our front door mural from 1992 to 2008.	Susan Shie: Outsider Diary Art Quilt Painter	Enter James Acord's Leather

Visit James Acord's Leather

The rest of this site, Turtle Moon Studios, is Susan Shie's site for her drawings, outsider art quilts and paintings.

Contact us

| Classes | | Gallery | | Green Quilts | |Links |
| Resume | | Stuff to Buy | |Turtle Trax Diary |
| Visit James Acord's Leather

Find Susan Shie, James Acord, Turtle Moon Studios, and Turtle Art Camp by spotting this big garage door mural at our house. This is the mural I painted on our garage door in Fall, 2008, to replace the aging mural on the front door. It's my Personal Landscape with Jimmy and me, Gretchen, Mike, and Eva, President Obama, and the Statue of Liberty, and all of our and GEM's cats, and a little St Quilta the Comforter (my mother, Marie Shie) down in the bottom left corner, sending out Peace vibes. Its message is "Power to the People: Heal the Earth with Unity and Kindness." You can see more images and read my statement about this huge painting here.

Making my piece that was in Quilt National '21.  I got to make a wonderful video interview with artist and quilt art interviewer par excellence, Lisa Walton last Fall, 2021:
Lisa Walton's Quilt Stories interview with me, filmed in Oct, 2020, about making my "Annie and John: 7 of Paring Knives in the Kitchen Tarot" art qu

Fine Art America print-on-demand artwork on prints and functional art, that you might just need to order there, of my art images!!!!

I have a Fine Art America shop, so you can buy all kinds of things, with my artwork printed on them.  Even wild stuff like phone cases and beach towels!  Prints on paper, mugs, tote bags, pillows, you name it!  Go to my Fine Art America shop's main page.  See what I've got there. And when I finallly get some free time, I promise to add a lot of newer drawings to it!  

Quilt National Friends and Family Workshop with Susan Shie:

by Ohio Arts Council Riffe Gallery
I taught this in-person class on Feb 12, 2022, at the Ohio Arts Council's Riffe Gallery in Columbus, Ohio, during their Quilt National '21 Exhibition.  I would love to teach a freehand drawing class for your group, either in person or Zoom, for any length of time, from a half day to a weeklong class.  Please contact me about it.

My next Lucky Drawing class will be LD 172 from April 14 to May 13, 2024, with its soft opening, in the afternoon of Sunday, January 21.

Lucky Drawing 172, April 14 through May 13, 2024, is my next freehand, intuitive drawing class for women, in a private Facebook group classroom.  The link I just gave is here on my site and is full of info about the class, so read all about here, where I even have a full class supply list, way down that long page. 
Then to register for this class, go to my Facebook event sign-up page for the new class.  Sign up there by clicking on the"going" button on that event page.  I'm only teaching 4 classes a year now.  Lucky Drawing 172 will have its soft opening on Sunday afternoon, April 14, sometime between 3 and 4 PM eastern time.   If you can't get the link to work, call, text, or email me, and I'll put you on my own list for the class.  Sorry for this extra work!

The next class after 172 will be Lucky Drawing 173, running from July 14 - August 12, 2024.  The tuition for my classes is $175 by check or $180. by PayPal (with those using foreign currency on PayPal paying $185.)

At my FB class sign-up event page, you'll click on the "going" button, to sign up there now for this next class. When I receive your class fee, I'll let you know I've gotten it.  To start the new class on its opening afternoon, I'll send a FB notification to invite students into the class, to get set up then, unless you need to wait and come the next morning or even later. You'll click on that FB notification, and it will take you to the FB private group called "Lucky Drawing 172." When you get there, bookmark that page for easy access during the class. There is a list of the dates of all of my 2024 Lucky Drawing classes on the class info page here in my website.

Notes: I don't tell you how to draw - no step-by-step or rules about drawing.  It's about learning to relax and appreciate your own natural style of drawing!  I tell you how to let go and stop judging your work, and to just watch it come out of you!  I give drawing themes that you can use, bend, or change - or sit out, and we all draw in mixed media in large, hardbound sketchbooks.  We post our drawings to the class, and everyone is encouraged to give lots of only positive feedback - without suggestions of how to improve your work.  We ALL need that good feedback, and we all need to keep going on our own creative paths, not someone else's!
You don't have to show up at the online class at any specific time, including the first day's soft open. Show up that night or the next day or even the next day. There is never a specific time when you have to be there.  But I hope you want to come to the class as soon as you can and as often as you like!!  Being there at the very start on Sunday afternoon (or evening) is a lot of fun, seeing who else is in the new class!

Please read the in-depth detailed info page here on my website (which also includes the supply list about 2/3 way down the very long page). Register by clicking "going" on my Facebook sign-up event page for this class and contact me by phone or text, if you want to talk with me about the class!  I hope you can join us!  I'm sure you'll love drawing in your own natural way, after all the years when you didn't draw!  Please join us!

Turtle Art Camps:

Students lived with us and made art in an intimate level with me, Susan Shie. Through my Turtle Art Camps, I helped people find their instinctive and joyful aritist's voice in classes in my home and studios from 1994 to 2019.  25 years of camps!!!  In earlier years of the camps, we did a lot of  drawing, painting, and sewing on cloth. Then, in the last 3 years or so of the camps, we only worked with regular drawing tools and watercolor, in a new format for these camps, in which we worked in large, hardbound sketchbooks all week, making TAC the in-person form of my online Lucky Drawing classes! I  no longer teach classes about working on cloth, anywhere. I teach freehand drawing and painting now, mostly online.  Each Turtle Art Camp had up to 4, and a few times, even 5 adult students, who lived and worked in Jimmy and my home and studios in Wooster, Ohio.

The above photo is of the front view of our house, back in the 1990s, when my parents lived with us., when the crabapple trees were blooming in the Moon Garden. (The Moon Garden has a cement turtle in it, too, since this is Turtle Moon Studios.)  That's my father at his blue car, getting ready to open the door for my mother.  <3

My Turtle Art Camps may be overwith:

Note:  All 2020 to 2024 Turtle Art Camp weeks were canceled, due to the Coronavirus pandemic.  I'm sorry!  The longer we go without them, the more I appreciate the ease for teaching online.  But for now I'm leaving the TAC page up, so you can see what it was like.  And I may get a second wind and decide to bring it back, eventually.  So go to information about Turtle Art Camp to see what it was like.  You will find lots of pictures there and full explanation of what we did in this class program/art biosphere experience! Thank you!  I hope you

Susan Shie:  all classes:

My current classes, NOT effected by Covid-19, are my Lucky Drawing online classes. These are 30-day sessions, with 12 day breaks in between them. Many students take them repeatedly, like how we stay with a yoga or piano teacher. I began teaching freehand drawing online in January, 2015, over 9 years ago now.  I have now switched to teaching only 4 Lucky Drawing classes per year, instead of 8 classes!

Turtle Art Camps.  All canceled in 2020 through 2024, due to the Coronavirus pandemic.  Right now, I feel like ending my Turtle Art Camps, which I taught with Jimmy's help for 25 years!  I could change my mind, but right now, I doubt it.

I'd love come give my slide lecture and drawing demo and/or Lucky Drawing class at your guild, school, art workshop, college, museum, etc, via Zoom or in person. I gave a Zoom presentation for SAQA on Oct 22, 2021, and another Zoom class for The Quilt Alliance on Sept 14, 2022, and I really enjoyed doing those programs, and I'd love to teach for your group!

My Classes and Lectures, recent and upcoming:

"Quilters Take a Moment," a Zoom program for the Quilt Alliance, that was about how I work and document my processes.  This presentation included a slide show, a demo of how I draw, and a group exercise, in which all of us drew together, trying my "Library Time" method of bring ideas and images up from our inner thinking.  My part of this symposium was on Sept 14, 2022, from 1 - 3 PM.

In person lecture and class at the Quilt National '21 exhibition at the Riffe Gallery, Columbus, OH. February 12, 2022.

Zoom presentation for SAQA, Long slide lecture and drawing demo.  Studio Art Quilt Associates. October 22, 2021.

Hiatus from in-person teaching began with Covid-19 pandemic.

Austin Area Quilt Guild. Class March 29-31, 2019. Lecture April 1, 2019.

Fiberarts Guild of Pittsburgh. Lecture June 15, Class June 16, 2018.

Online Lucky Drawing Classes in a private FB group classroom, year round, as 30-day sessions, with 12-day breaks in between sessions.  Started online teaching in January, 2015 and have taught these month-long classes continuously since then.

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If you want me to come teach for your group, visit my Class Descriptions page to see all the classes I offer. Then, just contact me. I need to update this page to include Zoom presentations of my art quilts and drawings, and classes in freehand drawing.

Above is a picture of Libby laying on my lap, as I sew the hand worked border edge on the "David Wax Museum" quilt I was finishing in 2012.  You're seeing the back of it here.  See lots of pix of this piece and read its story.  This is one of my favorite art quilts, about the David Wax Museum band and lots of current events at that time, when I was painting and writing on it.

My "Use the Skillet: Knight of Pyrex Cups in the Kitchen Tarot," my newest art quilt,  59.5"h x 61"w, made from July 21 to November 30, 2023.

Above is a detail of the second and last art quilt I've made in 2023: "Use the Skillet: Knight of Pyrex Cups in the Kitchen Tarot." 59.5 "h x 61"w. Made from 7-21 to 11-30-2023. 

Another quilt about Feisty Women!  This one's about three outstanding women leaders in the Environmental Movement:  Rachel Carson, Annie Leonard, and Greta Thunberg. It tells you a lot about them, and also brings in lots of stories about current events, during the time I was making this art quilt.

When you go to the page for this piece, you'll find many large detail images after my artist's statement about making it. I post many details, so you can read what I write on my quilts more easily. 

NOW I have to cook up what will be the Tarot Card for my next quilt.  I only have 3 more to make, out of the 78 cards in a tarot deck.  But considering that I've been working on the Kitchen Tarot project for 25 years, since I began it in 1998, and there are just a few left to make, I'm pretty excited!  I hope you will also go to my Gallery index and see many large art quilts I've made, posted mostly by year.  Thanks!

Private student art lessons in my home.

When we're not having to quarantine, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, I teach in person, teaching adult students at other places I travel to, and at my weeklong Turtle Art Camps at my home and studio, I also give private and small group art lessons in my home, for drawing and painting with students of all ages. The focus is on drawing from life,  and your imagination. Read all about my private drawing lessons in my home studio. I also began teaching drawing classes online, beginning in January, 2015. Sign up for my next Lucky Drawing class!

Above: This is an ink and watercolor drawing I made while working with a local art student in my home, during a recent lesson. We each worked in our sketchbooks, drawing the still life of my Fiesta Ware for two hours.

This detail below is from my 2003 piece "Peace Cupboard," probably my very favorite small piece that I've ever made, and it's the most intensely hand stitched and beaded piece I've ever done. It's in my Small Works Gallery, and I will eventually add more of my best small works from over my career, including both older and new artworks there.

Watch my 2010 solo exhibition video from the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, England. This video was made by Andrew Galli:

Susan Shie price formulas for my work.

Visit my Turtle Moon Studios page on Facebook, visit my personal page on Facebook.

The Quilt Alliance is reorganizing recorded interviews it did earlier, with over 1,200 QSOS interviews archived in the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. By the end of 2020, you will be able to listen to this historic collection online thanks to donors like Martha Sielman, who sponsored Susan Shie’s 2008 interview, one of 32 audio recordings and transcripts already posted to the new QSOS website. Karen Musgrave interviews Susan Shie, discussing her 2008 piece: "The Potluck / World: Card #21 in The Kitchen Tarot." Listen to this interview with Susan Shie, made on 5-18-2009, on the new QSOS website. There are still 855 interviews which need sponsors at only $25/interview. Each interview will have photos of the quilt being discussed, as well as both audio and written forms of the conversation.Susan Shie's earlier interview with QSOS's Karen Musgrave can be accessed, but still needs a sponsor to covert it to the new QSOS Quilt Alliance website. For now, you can view the Shie interview about her 2006 piece, "Wilma (Peace Voodoo)," with the interview made on 10-1-2006, here. Amy Milne, who coordinates the reworking of the interviews, wrote to me: Your 2006 interview is, like most of the interviews in the collection, in progress. The 2008 interview is on the new QSOS website--which includes playable and searchable audio and summary indexes for each of the 32 interviews now moved to this site. The rest of the interviews (1,160+) are on the Quilt Alliance site. Some of the interviews on the QA site are featured in a gallery (like yours, which allows for a direct link), but most are displayed via the original archive. Not ideal). Thank you for sharing your interviews--the more people who know about this incredibly valuable collection the better. And we still have 855 interviews to find sponsors for. All the best. You can also view my art quilt "The Potluck / World: Card #21 in the Kitchen Tarot," 2008, here. And my 2005 quilt "Wilma/ Peace Voodoo" here. Both pages in my site's galleries have long artist's statements with their photos and information.

Watch the slideshow for my episode #1013 of The Quilt Show, which premiered on June 24, 2012. You must be a paid member of The Quilt Show to see the actual hour-long episode of their interview with me, but you can see the video trailer for free. You can view my "Soft Paintings" project on The Quilt Show's Projects page, if you're a paid member. You can click a button to become a member, from that page.

Susan Shie Teacher of the Year 2008 award from Professional Quilter Magazine.

Susan Shie Artist's Statement 2023.

Lisa Walton's Quilt Stories interview with me on You Tube, filmed in Oct, 2020, about making my "Annie and John: 7 of Paring Knives in the Kitchen Tarot" art quilt.

Video of Susan Shie's solo exhibition interview at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, England. Video made by Andrew Galli. August, 2010.

My Turtle Trax Diary: Was my first diary writing online, starting in 1997. then I moved over to writing in my blog, but for many years now, you can find my new writings on my facebook pages: Susan Shie and Susan Shie Turtle Moon Studios.

Here's a detail from my "Pressure Cooker / Tower" piece, which was in Quilt National '07 and on the cover of the Quilt National book. Read about it and lots of news since February, 07 to July, 07 in my Turtle Trax Diary for July 31, 2007.

Diary entries, back to August 27, 1997, are found in the Turtle Trax Diary Index.

Archive of the GREEN QUILTS Project, which ended in 2004. Read the online newsletter on the GREEN QUILTS page, which leads to diary style update pages. The GREEN QUILTS Project officially ended in May, 2004. You can read all about this in the last update page. A deep thank you to everyone who contributed to the project over its 15 years, especially to Robin Schwalb and Michele Merges Martens, my GREEN QUILTS co-organizers.

Turtle Moon Studios:

Outsider Art Quilts and Paintings
Susan Shie

Contact me

| Classes | | Gallery | | Green Quilts | |Links |
| Resume | | Stuff to Buy | |Turtle Trax Diary |
| Visit Jimmy's Leather Studio

Web site created by Susan Shie and Jan Cabral ©1997. All subsequent web site work ©Susan Shie 1997 - 2024.

This page last updated by Susan Shie,  February 21, 2024.