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Thursday, October 20, 2011

Back in the saddle


I am trying hard to get back in the habit of sketching in my sketchbook. I joined The Sketchbook Challenge at the start of the year, and was doing great until my mother died in late January. But it is something I really want to do, so I will begin again! Here is a sketch I did today. One of my goals for next year is to do more pieces of fiber art based on my sketches, rather than my photographs. This one might be really fun to do!

I sketched this in pencil, then drew the black lines with a Micron pen, then watercolored it. October is my favorite month! Here is a poem about it that I love:

October’s Bright Blue Weather

    O Suns and skies and clouds of June,
        And flowers of June together,
    Ye cannot rival for one hour
        October's bright blue weather; 

    When loud the bumble-bee makes haste,
        Belated, thriftless vagrant,
    And Golden-Rod is dying fast,
        And lanes with grapes are fragrant; 

    When Gentians roll their fringes tight
        To save them for the morning,
    And chestnuts fall from satin burrs
        Without a sound of warning; 

    When on the ground red apples lie
        In piles like jewels shining,
    And redder still on old stone walls
        Are leaves of woodbine twining; 

    When all the lovely wayside things
        Their white-winged seeds are sowing,
    And in the fields, still green and fair,
        Late aftermaths are growing; 

    When springs run low, and on the brooks,
        In idle golden freighting,
    Bright leaves sink noiseless in the hush
        Of woods, for winter waiting; 

    When comrades seek sweet country haunts,
        By twos and twos together,
    And count like misers, hour by hour,
        October's bright blue weather. 

    O suns and skies and flowers of June,
        Count all your boasts together,
    Love loveth best of all the year
        October's bright blue weather. 

– Helen Hunt Jackson (1830-1885)

Hudson River Valley Art Workshops


I’m really excited to announce that in December 2012, I’ll be teaching five days at the Hudson River Valley Art Workshops, a unique art center in New York’s inspiring Hudson River Valley in the Catskill Mountains. Since 1982, fiber artist Kim LaPolla and her husband Mark (Chef de Cuisine and Chocolatier) have been holding art workshops in the gorgeous 1889 inn, The Greenville Arms. USA Today named their program “one of the ten best learning vacations.”

My workshop will take place Dec. 9-15, 2012. Treat yourself to an early holiday gift and join me! This five-day format will give me the opportunity to work with students on pieces based on their own photos, something there is simply not time for in a one-day class. I’ll cover fusible applique, wholecloth painting, thread sketching and free-motion quilting. Beyond the six hours of class time each day, I am sure we will be spending time in the studio in our pajamas, with lots of laughter and fun.

The lineup of teachers for 2012 is impressive: Pat Pauly, Gloria Loughman, Katie Pasquini Masopust, Sue Nickels, Melinda Bula, Paula Nadelstern, Carol Taylor, Laura Wasilowski, Esterita Austin, Susan Shie, Hollis Chatelain, Jane Sassaman, Kathyanne White, Valerie Goodwin, Charlotte Warr Anderson, Rosalie Dace, Jane Davila, Larkin Van Horn, and Sue Benner. You can see when and what they are teaching here. Information about my workshop is here.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Getting ready for International Quilt Market and Festival in Houston

What does this have to do with Market and Festival, you ask? Read on!
This past week, I have been busy packing up my class supplies and organizing to speak and teach at International Quilt Market and International Quilt Festival in Houston. Today, my life took a little detour because of the cutie in the photo above. (If you are interested in Quilt Market and Quilt Festival more than you are interested in kittens, kindly skip to the bottom of this post now.) 

I was on my way in to have my hair cut at my local salon, and when I got out of my car, I heard a tremendous meowing noise. My first thought was that someone had their cat in their car, so I started looking around. I saw a black-and-white kitten streak across the parking lot, and poke around a dumpster in the parking lot, so I followed. 


The kitten continued to meow incessantly – and extremely loudly! — like a little kitty banshee, and when I was able to lure it close enough, I grabbed it, went into my hair stylist, and asked her if I could come back after I had taken the kitten to my vet. She graciously agreed, I took the kitten to the vet and had her checked out, and she is now living the good life in the front room of our house. (While she was cleared for feline leukemia, she did turn up having hookworm, a common ailment of feral cats, so she has to be quarantined from our other animals for several weeks.)


If you have been reading my blog for a while, you may know that our beloved cat Max was hit by a car and killed last summer. (You can read all about the amazing Max here in my husband’s tribute, but I’m warning you now: get your hankie ready.) Since then, we’ve been offered other kittens, but did not feel ready to adopt a new one quite yet. And our house felt very full with two busy children, a dog (Sophie) and another cat (Trouble). Today, fate decided it was time.



So now, while this new kitten – whom I have named “Wicked,” which my children both think is a horrid name — eats her weight in cat chow putting some flesh on her bony body, I will resume preparations for Market and Festival. If you are going to be there, I would love to meet you! Here is where I’ll be appearing:

Friday, Oct. 28:
12:10 p.m. – Schoolhouse session for C&T Publishing to promote my new book
1:55 p.m. – Schoolhouse session for Studioe Fabrics on attracting art quilters

Saturday, Oct. 29:
10-11 a.m., and possibly on and off throughout that day – working in Dolce Amico Pet Portraits booth with my friend Faith Cleary

Sunday, Oct. 30:
11 a.m. to noon – book signing in Moda/United Notions’ booth


Monday, Oct. 31:
All day — “Crazy Beading” class with Nancy Eha (!!!)


Tuesday, Nov. 1:
All day – “Confetti Naturescapes” class with Noriko Endo (!!!)
6-8 p.m. – IQA Winners’ Circle Celebration


Wednesday, Nov. 2
8:30 to noon – IQA Board Meeting 
noon to 2 p.m. – Winners’ Circle Luncheon
2  to 4 p.m. – IQA Board Meeting
5:15 to 6:15 p.m. – IQA  General Meeting
6:30 to 8:30 – Quiltapalooza

Thursday, Nov. 3:
All day – teaching “Wholecloth Painting” class (class is full!)


Friday, Nov. 4:
All day – teaching “Start With a Photo” class (class is full!)


Saturday, Nov. 5:
All day – teaching “Thread Sketching–Dragonfly” (class is full!)
7 to 9:30 p.m. – Gala on the Green

Sunday, Nov. 6:
11:45 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. Open Studios (near Make It University)

I have four pieces at Quilt Market and Quilt Festival:
“Maximum Cat Nap” is in the Art Quilt – Miniature division

“Hope is the Thing” is in The Space Between exhibition
“Freckles” is in the Art – Painted Surfaces division
“Psychedelic Peacock” will be in Studioe Fabrics/Fabric Editions’ booth at Market

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Win a “Modern Blocks” book!

Exuberant (page 62) by Susan Brubaker Knapp

Modern Blocks, a new book of blocks compiled by Susanne Woods of Stash Books (an imprint of C&T Publishing), will be out soon! This book features 99 quilt blocks from well-known designers — including me! That’s my Exuberant block above. Want to win a copy? Check out the blocks below, and read my note at the bottom of the post!


This book is chock full of some darling, sophisticated, cute, and modern blocks! All finish to 12" square. Here are some of my favorites:

April Showers (page 16) by Kirsti Underwood

Birdsong (page 24) by Rachel Roxburgh
Russell the Robot (page 156) by Sonja Callaghan

Missing Your Kiss (page 114) by Penny Michelle Layman

Binary (page 22) by Angela Pingela
Garden Lattice (page 80) by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr

All or Nothing (page 12) by Angela Pingel

Feathered Friends (page 64) by Melissa Crow
Windmill (page 198) by Lynne Goldsworthy
Leave me a comment after this post, telling me which block you like best, and why (and don’t try to butter me up by saying you like mine best!). I’ll pick one name at random at noon EST on November 9, and send you the book. Please note: If your comment doesn't show up right away, don't worry… it will! I now have to “moderate the comments” (read and say if they can post) because I had some very unpleasant pornography links showing up in my comments before I started moderating them!! WE HAVE A WINNER! Tonya won the book! Thanks, everyone!

Friday, October 14, 2011

Marianne Byrne-Goarin is the Aurifil Designer of the Month

Marianne’s free pattern

Allow me to introduce you to Marianne Byrne-Goarin of The Cinnamon Patch; she is Aurifil's Designer of the Month for October.  Marianne designs the most charming projects using Aurifil’s Lana wool thread. (This thread is a wool/acrylic mix in 12 weight. I have used it in wool handwork, and it is fabulous.)

I met Marianne several years ago at International Quilt Market, when I was oooohing and aaaaahing over her beautiful designs. In person, she is as lovely – inside and out – as her projects. Marianne is Irish, but has spent most of her adult life living in France. She is married and has three sons.


Pat Sloan has interviewed Marianne on the Aurifil blog. (You can download the pattern for her free project there, too!) 


Remember if you make any project from the design team, load a photo to our Aurifil Flickr group; this puts you in the running to win an Aurifil thread prize!

GIVEAWAY!
Each month this year, I’m going to be giving away a pack of Aurifil minispools (like the one shown above) when the new project is announced. Just leave a comment after this post telling me if you have tried working with wool in quilts or stitchery projects.
I'll pull a name at random on Saturday, November 13 at noon EST. The sampler pack includes great colors in different weights. I’ll throw in a spool of Aurifil’s wool Lana thread, too!

“Psychedelic Peacock” is done!

It is done! I don’t know when I’ve been happier to say that about a piece. This one was a bear. Partly because I ran out of my favorite fusible adhesive – Lite Steam-A-Seam 2 – and had to use a heavier one, and partly because I underestimated how much threadwork I’d need to do to achieve the proper look for the feathers, and partly because of the size. It is 48" square, and has my favorite stabilizer — Pellon 910 interfacing — under the whole surface. I have stitched king-sized bed quilts on my home sewing machine that have been easier to wrangle under the needle than this one was!

I estimate that I spent at least 100 hours working on this piece!

I made it to showcase collections of fabric by StudioeFabrics, a wholesale division of Fabric Editions, a company in Greenville, SC, for whom I have done design work. It will hang in their booth – with other art quilts by some fabulous fiber artists I know! — at International Quilt Market in Houston, Oct. 28-31. Fabric Editions has been in business since 1996, specializing in packaged fabrics known as “pre-cuts” and “kits” which are sold into the mass specialty markets. They offer fabric collections, pre-cuts, patterns and kits to independent fabric retailers only.

Here are some detail photos:


This piece is based on a photo I took this summer of a peacock of a zoo in Colorado. (See earlier posts for more information on how I started this project.) I changed the colors of the tail feathers to showcase the fabric line. After tracing my photo, and blowing up the line drawing, I created pattern pieces for each element using paper-backed fusible adhesive. 

After fusing down the fabrics, I backed the quilt top with Pellon 910, and then thread-sketched the lines in the feathers using 50-weight Aurifil Cotton Mako thread. Once I added the batting and backing, I quilted the piece, going back over some of the lines in the feathers with quilting thread (mostly 40-weight Aurifil Cotton Mako) to make them stand out more.


I wish I had kept track of how much thread I used in this piece! I do know that I emptied more than 10 small spools of 50-weight thread I used in the bobbins alone.



Tuesday, October 11, 2011

I’m featured on The Sketchbook Challenge


I’m featured on The Sketchbook Challenge website today! Sue The sketchbook challenge launched on Jan. 1, 2011. Each month, the creators post a monthly theme, and then show you images from their sketchbooks and talk about the intention and inspiration behind them. They also share tips, techniques and tutorials. 

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Barnful of Quilts 2011



It was a beautiful, clear, cool day yesterday for Barnful of Quilts 2011, a benefit for Samaritan’s Purse at the Fox Family Farm in Waxhaw, NC. I ran around and took photos of everything, so I’ll let the photos tell most of the story. 


The Prim Merchant – Alisa Deshields – www.theprimmerchant.weebly.com

Twisted Fibers – Ginny Long – s-g-long@msn.com
Amani Children’s Foundation – 704.542.0425





Carolina Llamas – www.carolinallamas.com




I was there exhibiting with Fiber Art Options. We were the featured artists, in the center ring:







 Inspired Spirits – Joan Stephens – www.inspiredspirits.com



Handwovens by Sally – Sally Hagerty – 803.628.6238




Things She Carried – Cathe Hawley – www.thingsshecarried.etsy.com





Bev Nagy – ART McGuyver – www.bevnagy.com

 




 Jan Smiley – www.jansmiley.com


Willa McNeill – willa.mcneill@gmail.com





Curlytail Creations – Kim McNeill – mkmcneill@hotmail.com



Carolina Sampler Guild meets the first Wednesday of the Month at Wing Haven Garden, Ridgewood Avenue, Charlotte. Contact Sharon Huffstetler at sehuff@aol.com.



Overall Quilter – www.overallquilter.com


And lots more!