Soy wax batik class with Janet Lasher

I took a wonderful soy wax batik class today from Janet Lasher. Soy wax is considered more environmentally friendly than beeswax, and it is much easier to remove from the fabric once the batik and dyeing process is finished.

Here, Janet talks to Grace Howes (left) about stamping on her silk charmeuse:



Here is one of Grace’s pieces in progress in Janet’s wet studio:


Here is one of mine, from the front (the side to which I applied the wax):

and from the back:


DeLane Rosenau made a bunch of silk scarves in similar colors and motifs to use in a belly-dancing costume:


Linda Stegall started with a piece of fabric that had already been batiked (and that is her yellow and green piece hanging on the line behind her):

She drew big circles on the fabric, then brushed on blue dye in some areas:

It was gorgeous!

Here are some of mine:



Here’s another set of front and back photos:



You can see how different the two sides look. I’ll be curious to see if there is still this much difference after the wax is washed out. I’ll post more photos in a few days so you can see how they turned out.

What a fun day!

I’m a finalist!

I was thrilled to find out that both of my entries for the 2010 Quilting Arts Calendar made the list of finalists! You can read the details on editor Pokey Bolton’s blog. I can’t show you the quilts yet, because everything is secret until the calendar comes out.

I was pleased to see that a woman I met when I made a presentation to the Shelby NC guild last year, Leah Day, is also on the list. The pieces that get into the calendar will be announced on Friday, May 22. My piece “Home Planet” made the 2009 calendar, and is featured this month. Hey, I guess that makes me a calendar girl! :-)

Welcome to my studio!

This weekend, I’m participating in a virtual studio tour hosted by a group of blogging quilt designers. In this post, I’m giving you a peek inside my studio. To see more studios, simply click “Next” in the “Blog Tour” icon in my sidebar on the right-hand side of my blog. The tour officially starts Friday, April 10.

So... Let’s get started! Here is the door into my studio. Antique quilts (including some made by my grandmother and great-grandmother, and some purchased on eBay) are displayed on a ladder outside my door. My studio is located in what used to be the guest bedroom in my house. We live in a 1916 Queen Anne/Craftsman cottage, with a very long central hall that is painted green.



My studio is painted bright cherry red, with white trim on the original wainscotting. That’s a buffet-height dining table I purchased for $99 on sale at Pier One in the center. It’s the perfect height for working and cutting, and for accommodating a lot of storage containers underneath. I got the wire units (a total of 12 squares, six on each side) for about $30 at Target. Great for storing fabric and plastic containers for batting, fusibles, fibers and other necessary stuff.



I’m very big on light, and don’t like curtains much, but I made cute little valences to dress things up a bit. The green checkered bulletin board is made from sheathing (a lightweight building material available at Home Depot) with fabric wrapped around and staple-gunned to the back. It holds lots of projects in progress, and show ribbons.



Here’s where I sew. I love my Horn sewing machine cabinet! I almost always have it fully extended for maximum work area. The old dresser to the right of my sewing cabinet holds more projects in various stages of completion, and the top of the dresser displays threads and other fun stuff I’ve made or collected.



I wasn’t all that thrilled about the utilitarian-looking black computer chair I bought at Staples to use at my sewing machine. But it was cheap, functional and comfortable. I made it a flirty skirt and cover, and now it looks right at home.



I have a huge design wall (made from the same sheathing material as my bulletin board, but covered with white flannel) on the wall above my sewing machine. I use it to keep works in progress right in front of me, to encourage me to finish them up.



Every bit of space is used. These beads (stored in old spice containers) glow in the light on my windowsill.



I have a closet full of my batiks and hand-dyeds, but I like to sort my commercial print fabrics by color. They are stored on a bookshelf, with lots of other stuff to inspire. The apple pastel is by a former co-worker, Kathy Crowe. The blue paper doll to the right of it is by my friend Grace Howes. I purchased the yellow piece on the bottom shelf by Michelle Verbeek through FiberArt for a Cause.



I love and collect old and new stuff with nostalgic, old-fashioned graphics.



My style is a mix of contemporary and folksy. I collect buttons in Ball and Atlas glass canning jars.





An old wire sieve displays wool yarn and a funny heart-shaped face made of paper mache.



Finger puppets from my children’s early years (I couldn’t bear to give them away!) now sit atop paintbrushes.



Bowls, baskets and biscuit jars hold perle cotton, felt balls, and the threads pulled off yardage as it comes out of the dryer. (Yes, I have used it in some of my work!)



I wish I had the time to make more of the wonderful things created by my favorite designers! The pillow is a Sue Spargo design, the doll design is by Gail Wilson, and the heart pincushion is by Vickie Clontz.



A storage unit on my cutting table holds brushes, pens, pencils, rulers, notebooks, etc.



An angel doll I made from a pattern by Vickie Clontz perches atop an old school desk bench. I made the rag rug behind her.



I hope you’ve enjoyed this tour of my studio. Don’t forget to check out the other quilt designers’ studios on the tour!

Jan’s “Flora Bag”

I got an e-mail last week from Jan Savu, a woman who used to be in my local quilt guild, Lake Norman Quilters, but moved to Arkansas a few months ago. She wrote to say that she had made a bag using my “Flora Bag” pattern:

“I finished it up at our quilting guild retreat here in Arkansas and what a hit it was, one of the girls called you right from the retreat to order more patterns. I remember you carrying it to a guild meeting and loved the bag but I don't remember it being so tall, my solution was to just fold down the finished top about 2 inches, kind of made a finished look to the inside, you might be able to see it in the picture. I added some hanging beads to the flap and love it, of course I've already had lots of compliments. Enjoy your blog; keeps me up on all the happenings there. Thanks for a great pattern and easy to follow instructions.”

It was so sweet of Jan to send the photo and nice note. I love seeing how people take my designs and make them their own. Isn’t her bag gorgeous?

Do we find luck … or make it?

I found this four-leaf clover this morning while out for my daily walk with my dog, Sophie.

Four-leaf clovers always make me happy. “Look at me!” they shout. “I’m different!” Botanists might describe them as mutants, but to me, they are a happy accident. Not so different from lots of the people I know, who don’t exactly fit the mold.

Last year, I found 14 four-leaf clovers without trying very hard. Granted, I spent a lot of time walking the dog and hanging around soccer fields while my daughter played or practiced. But I’ve always had a knack for being able to spot things like this. I once found my grandmother’s earring in our 1/2 acre front yard. It is one of my special gifts.

I’ve never been one for believing in luck. The whole concept rubs me the wrong way. Why should one person with “luck” have an easy life, others have to work for what they need, and still others work really hard and still not get what they need? I try to value hard work, perseverance and creativity. I’m making my own luck!

NOTE: I found ANOTHER four-leaf clover the next day! I’m on a roll!

Win this book: “Easy Appliqué Blocks” by Kay Mackenzie

Appliquér Kay Mackenzie has a great new book just out! It features 50 darling applique designs to mix and match, each in 5 different sizes. All the blocks are on a CD that comes with the book (PC and Mac compatible), so it is easy to find the size you need and print it out from your computer.

When I saw the cat-and-fish block on the cover of Kay’s book, I knew it was the first one I’d do. My black cat, Trouble, LOVES our goldfish (a little too much, methinks), and spends time every evening watching the fish, drinking from the fishbowl, and occassionally dipping her paw in to terrorize the goldfish.

Here’s Trouble spending time with her favorite finned friend last night:



Yum! That fishy water is delicious!


And here is my block. I added the bowl (which is actually a large glass canister), but kept Kay’s graceful cat tail, which, alas, Trouble does not have. We adopted her at six months from a shelter, and were told that she had been attacked by dogs as a kitten, and they broke her tail. It has several kinks in it. I’m going to add details (the rim of the bowl, the waterline, and the glass pebbles at the bottom) when I quilt this block.



Here are some of the things I like best about Kay’s book:

1. The blocks are very simple, so they are perfect for beginners. In fact, I told my beginning applique class about this book when I taught Friday at my local quilt shop. The pieces are big, and the shapes are easy, so it’s the perfect way to learn (and learn to love) appliqué.

2. Kay shares her techniques in a reassuring, friendly writing style.

3. There are both hand- and machine-appliqué methods described in detail. Want to do maching appliqué? Choose from a raw-edge machine appliqué or a method using paper-backed fusible web. Want to do hand applique? Try either the freezer-paper-on-top technique or back basting. (I’ve never done either of these hand methods … yet!)

4. Lots of cute, cute, CUTE blocks – baskets, birds, flowers, hearts, cats, dogs, teapots, chickens – that can be used on lots of things, like wall quilts, aprons, dresser runners, sweatshirts, and totes.

5. These are versatile designs to have on hand if you belong to a guild that does block raffles or swaps with a theme. You’re sure to find a design you can use and whip up in a jiffy.

6. Kay offers tons of tips on the importance of addressing vision issues (“Gentle quilter, it’s time to go the drugstore and get some of those groovy granny glasses”), lighting, fabric selection and preparation, tools and notions, and ways to add fine details with embroidery, beading or buttons.

7. Her hand applique instructions are concise and have detailed diagrams on stitching pointy points and smooth curves.

8. The CD makes it easy to print out the blocks you need, and to scale them to the size you want. And the book also includes line drawings you can enlarge on a photocopier, if you don’t have a computer.

But I think my favorite part is the “Little Gallery of Ideas” at the end. Here, Kay showcases darling little quilts made by mixing and matching blocks from the book.

You can win a copy of this book!
Leave me a post today (Saturday, March 28) before 7 p.m. EST, telling me what method you use to appliqué (or if you haven’t tried it yet), and your name will go into the drawing. Check back later Saturday evening, and I’ll post the winner at the bottom of this post.

If you really want to win a book and don’t win my copy, you can go to each blogger’s post on their day and put your name in the hat for their book. Kay’s blog, All About Appliqué, has a list of the bloggers participating.

To purchase the book, ask for it at your favorite quilt shop. It is also available from Martingale & Company and from Amazon. If you want an autographed copy, go directly to the source and order your copy signed by Kay at Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs.

We have a winner!
Kathie H. won the book! Kay Mackenzie will be contacting you to get your address.

Thanks so much to everyone who posted; it was great to hear about your applique techniques!

Quilters by the Sea Guild in Wilmington

Spring was just arriving in beautiful Wilmington, NC, when I visited there on Monday and Tuesday to speak and do a workshop for the friendly Quilters by the Sea Guild.


I arrived in historic Wilmington a few hours before my presentation, so I strolled through a residential part of the older part of the city, which boasts spectacular turn-of-the-century (and older) houses.


Love those Christmas snowflake lights and the charming red door.


A beautiful door and transom. Check out the little metal Daschund to the left of the door ... perhaps a boot scraper?


Here’s part of the talented group that took my “Surface Design Madness” workshop on Tuesday. What a nice bunch.


We stamped and stenciled on fabric with Lumiere fabric paint.


We made beads from Tyvek and wrapped them in wire and beads.


We melted Tyvek to make embellishments.


This student really went to town with her Lumiere! Isn’t this gorgeous?


One student made this by stamping Lumiere with a regular kitchen sponge. Great texture!


More fun with Lumiere.


This is Lumiere sponged through sequin waste.


We also stamped and embossed Angelina.

It is always so interesting to me that each student finds something different that “floats her boat.” I try to offer many different techniques and materials in this class. We cover a lot of ground in six hours.

Many thanks to Mary Ann, and all the Quilters by the Sea!