“Home Planet”

Since the 2009 Quilting Arts calendar is now out, I can reveal my piece, "Home Planet,” which was selected for the month of April, because Earth Day falls in that month.

12" x 12"
Cotton fabrics, cotton and rayon threads, fabric paint, Angelina fibers, watersoluable wax pastels, Tyvek, cotton batting, machine thread painted and quilted.



You can see the Tyvek (gold mountain ranges) and the Angelina (wispy clouds) in the detail shot above.

Cloth Fiber Workshop

I went with some friends, Cathy and Michele, to see the Asheville Quilt Show this weekend, and after that we wandered down to Cloth Fiber Workshop, which offers workshops and classes, sustainable and organic materials and supplies, home furnishings and wearable accessories. Cloth’s owner, Barbara Zaretsky, was there, and we enjoyed talking to her about her shop, and the classes offered there. Here is Barbara with some of her beautiful work for sale at Cloth:

It is a very nice retail space, with lovely art and art supplies to purchase. (I came home with some Indigo dye, a special button and some gorgeous wool embroidery thread.)

Next to the retail space is a large classroom, with lots of wonderful art exhibited on the walls.

If you are visiting Asheville, make sure you don't miss Cloth!

Cloth Fiber Workshop
51 Thompson Street, Suite D
Asheville NC 28803
828.505.2958

Foothills Quilters Guild

About two weeks ago, I spoke to the Foothills Quilters Guild of Shelby, North Carolina (a wonderful, friendly group, by the way), and I started out by telling this story:

I was going in to do a presentation at a guild meeting, and overheard two women having a conversation that went like this:

"Do you know who the speaker is tonight?"
"No, I didn't look."
"I hope it's not one of those art quilters again!"
"Me, too..."

I explained that I hoped that no one at this meeting felt that way, and assured them that I loved traditional quilts AND art quilts, and that I made a lot of traditional quilt patterns. After the meeting, a woman named Leah Day came up and introduced herself. Leah is an internet marketer as well as a quilter and pattern designer and teacher. I later discovered that she had posted about me on her blog (and you can read her comments about my presentation and her thoughts on art quilt/traditional quilt issues here).

I also met Harriette Grigg, who showed me a photo of her art quilt, "Baskets – Two" and told me that it was going to be displayed at the Asheville Quilt Show. It was gorgeous, and I told her that I thought she would win a ribbon. Sure enough, when I went to the show on Saturday, her quilt had a blue ribbon on it, a first place prize in the "Art Quilt, Established" category. Hoooray for Harriette!

Here's a photo of her winning quilt: