“The Gift,” in progress

“The Gift” ready for thread

This is a new piece I am calling “The Gift.” It is based on this photo of a red maple leaf that I took this fall on one of my morning walks:

This is a wholecloth painted quilt; it started out as white fabric, and I am using my favorite acrylic paint, ProChemical & Dye’s Transparent Textile Paint, to paint it. Here are some photos of the painting in progress:

Next comes the thread!

Quilting Arts TV Series 1300 is almost here!

“Quilting Arts TV” Series 1300 will be airing soon on PBS stations! 

The Quilting Arts TV website has previews of all the shows, a wonderful slideshow of images and projects, as well as links to sponsors, free Ebooks, and a link to the store to purchase the DVD or download the video. Downloads of the series are available today, Dec. 23. The DVD is available for preorder, and will ship Jan. 24. 

I appear in episodes #1301, 1304, 1311 and 1313. 

View a preview of episode #1301 here:

 View a preview of episode #1304 here:

See Lyric on TheQuiltShow.com!

 

My good friend Lyric Kinard was recently featured on TheQuiltShow.com with Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims. 

Through Dec. 8, you can watch Lyric’s episode for free! You can also enjoy all sorts of other things on TheQuiltShow.com during that time. And if you decide to join, there’s a code that gets you $5 off a year membership. Simply go to Lyric’s blog here for more information:

http://lyrickinard.com/2013/12/the-quilt-show-its-your-turn/

Lyric joined me last month to teach at my Once in a Blue Moon Fiber Art Retreat. We are hoping to schedule a retreat together in 2014. If you are interested, simply go to my website, and click where it says “Click here to sign up for my e-mail newsletter.” I send one out about every two months, and it will give you information as we know it. (I’ll post news on my blog, too.)

Win Sarah Ann Smith’s great new DVD!

 

My friend and fellow fiber artist Sarah Ann Smith has a fabulous new Quilting Arts Workshop available on DVD or download. It’s called Art Quilt Design from Photo to Threadwork, with Fabric Collage & Machine Quilting.

When I watched Sarah’s Workshop, I was struck by how different Sarah’s techniques and preferred materials are from mine, even though our work is fairly similar. So even if you have viewed and enjoyed my thread sketching Workshop (Master Machine Stitching: Thread Sketching Beyond the Basics), you can learn a lot from Sarah’s. I know there are things I’ll be trying out, based on her suggestions, and I’ve already ordered an iron with a Titanium nonstick soleplate!

In Sarah’s typical practical, detailed fashion, she shares her process for fabric collage and “thread coloring” (using thread to add color, details and texture — what I call “thread sketching”). She starts with a photo that has good contrast and lighting. In the workshop, she demonstrates how she determine values in the photo, creates a pattern on a piece of plastic, enlarges the pattern to the size she needs, selects fabrics and enhances them with paint or Derwent Inktense pencils. Then she shows how she collages fabrics she’s fused with MistyFuse, and shares her thought process on selecting threads. After that, she goes into great detail as she demonstrates how she free-motion quilts.

Along the way, she offers tons of wonderful tips, problem-solving solutions, and her thoughts on “good fusing hygiene” and why she loves those tiny rotary cutters (she calls them “the sexy little Italian sportscars” of the rotary cutter world). Fun! 

You can order the DVD from Sarah’s website, or get the digital download from Quilting Arts. I highly recommend Sarah’s book, Thread Work Unraveled (also available in the store on her website). It offers a wealth of information on thread, needles and threadwork; I have a copy in my personal library that gets lots of use.

GIVE-AWAY!

I’m giving away a DVD download of Sarah’s Workshop. Leave a comment after this post and tell me a little bit about why you’d like to win. Please leave me a way to contact you! I’ll pull one name at random at noon, Tuesday, Nov. 26. The winner will be announced at the end of this post on that day.  

Note: If your comment does not show up right away, please don’t freak out. Please post only one comment. I now have to moderate/approve all comments, because I was getting a ton of Japanese porn spammers leaving comments on my blog! 

WE HAVE A WINNER! Christel (Chriss-Cross) from Noord Brabant, Netherlands, has won the download!

After my post, there are still a few more chances to win Sarah’s Workshop. Check out the last few stops on the Blog Hop here:

Nov. 27: Daphne Greig: http://daphnegreig.blogspot.com/
Nov. 30: Lisa Walton: http://www.fibreinspirations.blogspot.com/
Dec. 3: Sarah Ann Smith: http://www.sarahannsmith.com/weblog/

Once in a Blue Moon Fiber Art Retreat 2013

We had such fun this week at my Once in a Blue Moon Fiber Art Retreat in Blowing Rock, NC! Lyric Montgomery Kinard and I taught two-and-a-half days of classes – wholecloth painting, beading, embroidery, thread sketching, surface design, and elements of art. This is the second retreat I’ve held, and I’m hoping to make it an annual event. Lyric and I are already trying to find a date for next year’s event. Here are a few photos:

We had a great bunch of women attending this year. They came from North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Florida, and even Arizona!

On Friday night, Lyric and I packed up our stuff and headed home… we were able to fit our stuff on one cart (it took two to get our stuff in!)

Blowing Rock is a gorgeous spot in the Blue Ridge Mountains. It is filled with wonderful shops and restaurants. A forest fire near Table Rock in Pisgah National Forest brought in some smoke on Friday. You could smell it in the air, and from a high spot at lunch, it made the mountains look like they were cloaked in heavy fog:

If you are interested in hearing about future events, please let me know, and I can add you to my mailing list.

A spectacular fall

Well, I’m back from International Quilt Festival in Houston, and I have a ton of photos to share with you, but not much time to write and post. So for now, I am sharing some photos of the wonderful fall color we are having here near Charlotte. I took most of these photos in my yard (that’s my house, above), and a few in my neighborhood. I am in love with the beautiful light, and the spectacular color! Wish I had time to start making some of these images into art quilts. I’ll try to post all of my Houston photos later this week, so stay tuned.

Why I don’t just paint

I’ve been asked a lot lately why I don’t just paint. It usually happens when I show people my wholecloth painted quilts before I threadsketch or quilt them. Believe me, I’ve thought the same thing myself. “Gee, it would be a lot faster if I just did this on canvas, and called it a day!”

I do think they are great in their unstitched form. Here’s an example of a small piece (about 7" square), called Suffolk Sheep #1, which I painted last month but have not yet stitched:

And here is a similar small piece, Suffolk Sheep #2, that I have just finished quilting:

For me, the stitching is where the real magic happens! Here is another version, Suffolk Sheep #4, which is much larger, about 20" square:

So that’s why I’m a fiber artist, and not a painter!

Book giveaway: 1,2,3 Quilt

 

I have a book to give away this week! 1, 2, 3 Quilt: Shape Up Your Skills with 24 Stylish Projects (Chronicle Books, $24.95) is the latest book by Ellen Luckett Baker (author of 1, 2, 3 Sew, fabric designer for the Japanese company Kokka, and blogger behind TheLongThread.com).

The book is organized by quilting shapes – squares, triangles, hexagons, circles, flowers, stars and diamonds – and includes 24 projects that help you build your own quilt design skills as you sew. I think it would be ideal for beginner quilters ,or for intermediate quilters who want to polish their skills. 

It definitely has a modern quilt feel, as the fabrics and color schemes are very contemporary and clean. There are lots of diagrams to make each project simple to follow. 

The spiral-bound format makes it easy to use, since it lies nice and flat, and 12 of the patterns are included in a pocket in the book.  

GIVE-AWAY!  I’m giving away my copy of this book. Leave a comment after this post and tell me why you want it. I’ll pull one name at random at noon, Wednesday, Oct. 23.

Note: If your comment does not show up right away, please don’t freak out. Please post only one comment. I now have to moderate/approve all comments, because I was getting a ton of Japanese porn spammers leaving comments on my blog! I’m a busy person, so it might now show up for a while, but I’ll approve it as soon as I can. I promise. 

We have a winner! Jill Schlageter has won the book. 

I have an article in Machine Quilting Unlimited

The current issue of Machine Quilting Unlimited (the November/December 2013 issue) contains an article I wrote about the two biggest quilt festivals in Australia and New Zealand.

 

I was lucky to teach at both in 2013: the Australasian Quilt Convention in Melbourne, Australia, in April; and Taupo Symposium in Taupo, New Zealand, in August. 

The 2014 Australasian Quilt Convention will be held April 10-14 in Melbourne. You can get more information and sign up for classes on their website now. 

The next big symposium in New Zealand is Quilt Symposium Manawatu, Jan. 16-21, 2015 in Palmerston North. Information is on their website; more will be added as the event draws closer. 

If you have ever dreamed of traveling down under, why not take in some fabulous classes and a quilt show while you are there? I highly recommend these two events!

Come see me in Houston at International Quilt Festival

If you are coming to International Quilt Festival in Houston, please come and see me at one of my Open Studios sessions. I’ll be there from noon to 2 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 31 (my birthday!) and from 2 to 4 p.m Saturday, Nov. 2.

Some of today’s top quilters and fiber artists will be working and explaining their techniques at Open Studios, sponsored by Craftsy. Four artists will be working simultaneously under the categories of “Quilt,” “Stitch,” “Embellish,” and “Paint.” This specially constructed area is located on “Main Street,” near the food court.

The schedule is subject to change, but I guarantee you’ll find something fascinating going on!

Here is the lineup:


THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31
10 a.m.-Noon
PAINT: Pokey Bolton–Everything but the Kitchen Sink: Printing with Found Objects
EMBELLISH: Julie Creus–Fabric Flower Brooch
STITCH: Frieda Anderson–Machine Quilting the "Home Sweet Home" Quilt
QUILT: Judy Coates Perez–Machine Quilting for Art Quilts

Noon-2 p.m.
PAINT: Maria Shell–Four Nifty Ways to Cut Fabric
EMBELLISH: Sue Purdy–Spray Painting with Stencils and Embellishing with
Crystals
STITCH: Marlene Glickman–Creative Fabric Collage
QUILT: Susan Brubaker Knapp–Thread Sketching
2-4 p.m.
PAINT: Jamie Fingal–Stencils, Fabric, Paint-Go!
EMBELLISH: Cheryl Sleboda–Cartooning for Quilters
STITCH: Timna Tarr–Paper Piecing
QUILT: Leslie Jenison–Free-motion Quilting

4-6 p.m.
PAINT: Ana Buzzalino–Coloring Fabrics with Inktense Pencils
EMBELLISH: Catherine Redford–African Folklore Embroidery
STITCH: Anita Grossman Solomon–Make it Simple® Cutting & Piecing Tips
QUILT: Sarah Ann Smith–Free-motion Quilting 

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1
10 a.m.-Noon
PAINT: Enid Weichselbaum–Simple Silk Screening
EMBELLISH: Barb Forrister–Creating 3-D Floral Patterns
STITCH: Debby Brown–Blended Thread Free-motion Embroidery
QUILT: Catherine Redford–Wrapped in Scraps 

Noon-2 p.m.
PAINT: Victoria Findlay Wolfe–Painting with Scraps: Making Your Own Fabric
EMBELLISH: Sue Purdy–Spray Painting with Stencils and Embellishing with Crystals
STITCH: Andi Perejda–Hand Quilting
QUILT: Maria Shell–Artful Machine Quilting

2-4 p.m.
PAINT: Leslie Jenison–Monoprinting with Stencils
EMBELLISH: Marlene Glickman–Hand-dyed Silk Greeting Cards
STITCH: Timna Tarr–Appliqued Circles
QUILT: Jamie Fingal–Free-motion Quilting

4-6 p.m.
PAINT: Judi Hurwitt–Monoprinting with Gelli Plates
EMBELLISH: Laura Wasilowski–Hand Stitching Fused Art Quilts
STITCH: Liz Kettle–Free-form Embroidery
QUILT: Ebony Love–Die-cut Foundation Piecing


SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2

10 a.m.-Noon
PAINT: Judi Hurwitt–Creating Your Own Stamps
EMBELLISH: Becky Navarro–Using Found Objects and Everyday Tools for Embellishment 
STITCH: Ebony Love–Stitched & Painted Quilts
QUILT: Judith Trager–Machine Quilting

Noon-2 p.m.
PAINT: Susie Monday–Water-soluble Crayons for Screen Printing
EMBELLISH: Ruth Chandler–Modern Hand Stitching
STITCH: Maria Shell–Piecing with Prints
QUILT: Diane Doran–Layered Imagery & Stitch

2-4 p.m.
PAINT: Susan Brubaker Knapp–Whole Cloth Painting
EMBELLISH: Maria Shell–Artful Applique
STITCH: Kristin Rodriguez–Photo Transfer to Stitched Art
QUILT: Wendy Butler Berns–Embellished Postcard Quilts

4-6 p.m.
PAINT: Cyndi Souder–Block Printing with Wooden Blocks
EMBELLISH: Cheryl Sleboda–Light Up Your Quilts!
STITCH: Debby Brown–Blended Thread Free-motion Embroidery
QUILT: Liz Kettle–Using Specialty Threads in Quilting

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 3 
10 a.m.-Noon
PAINT: Pokey Bolton–Layered Imagery
EMBELLISH: Linda Hardy–Mixed Media Collage
STITCH: Catherine Redform–YoYo Ma! 
QUILT: Cheryl Sleboda–Experiments in Dimensional Sewing for Quilts

Noon-2 p.m.
PAINT: Cyndi Souder–Block Printing with Wooden Blocks
EMBELLISH: Judi Hurwitt–Make Your Own Beads
STITCH: Janelle Girod–Silk Fiber Explorations
QUILT: Diane Doran–Layered Imagery & Stitch

Quilt Scene magazine 2013/2014

I have a project in the new issue of International Quilt Festival: Quilt Scene magazine! It is a stenciled and stitched passport cover – very easy to make. It’s a mini version of my sketchbook cover.

Here they are up close:

 

I made this one (below) for my husband this summer, when we were headed to Great Britain. I made others for my daughters and myself. It made it so much easier to sort out whose passport was whose!

Quilt Scene will be available at International Quilt Festival in a few weeks, and on newsstands soon.