Blueberry Jam

The pattern for my Blueberry Jam quilt is included in the Fall 2010 issue of Fons & Porter’s Easy Quilts magazine, which will be on newsstands in early August. 

All the fabrics are Bernartex batiks (and if you want a fabric kit with the same fabrics I used, you can order one now on the Fons & Porter website here). I designed the quilt with big circles and leaves, so it’s easy to appliqué smooth curves and sharp points. Or you can make it using a fusible appliqué technique.

I quilted my quilt with big swirls on the blueberries, curvy veins on the leaves, and an overall leaf pattern in the background. 

These blues and greens are my favorite colors! This quilt was inspired by a trip to a blueberry farm near my parents’ home in Tennessee. Blueberry Jam is 43-1/4" x 52", but wouldn’t it look smashing in a bed sized quilt? 

Quilting research shows growth in number of quilters and money spent

Quilts, Inc. (the company that does Quilt Festivals in Houston, Long Beach, and – next year – Cincinnati, as well as two Quilt Markets annually) and Quilters Newsletter magazine has just released data about the quilting industry from its Quilting In America 2010 research study. The extensive, detailed report will be available sometime in August. 

What did the research find?

• 14 percent of U.S. households (16.38 million households) have at least one quilter. That’s about 21 million total quilters in the U.S.! 
• Each quilting household spent an average of $219 in 2010. That’s 27 percent more than in 2006.
• The estimated total dollar value of the quilting industry is $3.58 billion. 
• The “dedicated quilters” group (those who spend more than $600 per year on quilting-related items) reported spending $2.5 billion on their hobby in 2010. 

For more information, you can download this PDF that recaps the research’s basic findings.

The research was conducted by TNS Global, Inc., and DP Research Solutions.

Wooden Spools

This is one of the two pieces I made for the current (August/September issue) of Quilting Arts magazine.  My article is on adding dimension using thread. I started out with a background of pale pink, then fused the spools down, and thread sketched the spools and the shadows, using a crosshatching technique (stitching in several directions to build up the darkness/value of the shadows):

The thread on the spools was constructed with fused pieces of fabric in the same color, but different values before I stitched real thread on top:

Once I was done, I realized that I needed to establish a horizon line, because it looked like the spools were floating in space, so I painted the upper part of the background a darker pink, using acrylic paint.

If you like this piece and would like to stitch one of your own, you can get my line drawing pattern on the Quilting Arts website. Just join the Quilting Arts community (for free) and go to “Free Stuff” and then the “Online Extras” section. There you will find several of my free patterns for pieces I’ve done for my thread sketching articles. 

And of course, pick up a copy of the August/September issue of Quilting Arts magazine for lots more information on adding dimension to your work with thread sketching. It should be on newsstands soon, and on its way to subscribers’ mailboxes now. Or you can purchase it on the Quilting Arts/Interweave website.

I Didn’t Know… Did you?

I made this piece, I Didn’t Know Roses Had Hips, for the August/September issue of Quilting Arts magazine. My article focuses on creating dimension with thread. Here’s a closeup shot where you can see the colors of thread I used on the rose hips and the brown leaves, as well as the cross-hatching (lines in several directions) I did to shade and make the rose hips look more round:

This is the photo on which this piece is based:

I took this photo on a family trip to Maine two summers ago. The name of the piece comes from my 10-year-old daughter, who asked what “those things” were when I showed her the quilt. I told her they were rose hips, formed as the fruit after the rose flowered, and the title was her response. It was too cute not to use!


This issue of Quilting Arts is available for pre-order on the Interweave website.

August/September Quilting Arts

The newest issue of Quilting Arts magazine is about to hit subscriber’s mailboxes and newsstands. It contains the latest installment in my series of articles on thread sketching, focusing on adding dimension with stitch. 

Isn’t the cover luscious? This is the work of Ana Buzzalino, an artist from Calgary, Canada, and I love, love, love it! Those cool aquas and pale teals are the perfect cooling breeze for hot August. Can’t wait to see the cover up close when I get my issue.

If you don’t subscribe, you can order this issue; it is available for pre-sale on the Interweave website now.

2011 Quilting Arts Calendar has arrived

It’s here! The 2011 Quilting Arts Calendar is available now at the online Interweave store. I don’t have my copy yet, but I’m betting that my piece, Candy Corn, is featured in the month of October!  :-)

Framing fiber art

 A nice way to finish a small piece is to frame it. This makes the piece less likely to get soiled by dirt or dust, and makes it more appealing to people uncomfortable with how to hang fiber art. It also makes small pieces more finished and formal looking. I did this with House Rules 2 (above) last fall, but forgot to blog about it. House Rules 2 is 16.5" square. Today, Debbie wrote to ask me how I hung my smaller art quilts, so I figured this was a good time. 

Textile pieces should never be framed directly under glass, because any moisture that collects inside the frame can be pressed into the fabric, causing water marks or mildew. Either choose a shadow box, or add spacers between the glass and the mat. You can take your fiber art to a good quality framing shop and they can do this for you. Or you can do it my way, with a $20 frame from Ikea and a little elbow grease. If you choose this method, make sure you sign the back of your work so that it will still bear your name even if it is taken from the frame later.

Look for acid free mats (see Willa’s notes in the comment section after this post). I found a $20 shadowbox frame at Ikea (above). Measure your quilt, and then open the frame and measure your mat. Subtract the size of your quilt from the size of the mat. (Example: Your quilt is 17" square, and the mat is 20 inches square, so 20-17=3. Divide this number by 2 (Example 3÷2=1½.) Add 1/8" to this measurement (Example 1½ + 1/8 = 1-5/8".)

On the back of the mat, draw a pencil line that is this far in from the outer edge, around all the sides (above). My piece was square, so I drew in the same distance on all sides. 

Place the mat on an old, clean towel. Use a heavy needle or nail to punch holes along this line every ½" or so (above). You don't want the holes to be too big, but they need to be big enough that you can pass through them with the needle and thread you’ll be using in the next step.

Thread a smaller needle with heavy thread, such as hand quilting thread. Place the quilt on the top of the mat and align it with the holes. Take a stitch on the back of the quilt so that your knot is on the back, and bring the needle out at the corner. Go down through the corner hole (above) and come up through the next hole (below).

 Take a small stitch through the back of the quilt (below). Try to get all the layers except the front (because you don’t want your stitches to show on the front). 

 Go back down through the same hole (see below), and then on to the next one.

Continue in this manner, pulling the thread taut every few stitches, until you have gone all the way around. If your thread runs out, make a large knot on the back of the mat. Secure your stitches with tape on the back (below). Acid-free artist’s tape offers the best protection for your piece (see Willa’s comment below this post).

Remember to sign your name and date on the mat with a Micron Pigma pen (below). Most artists sign in the lower right corner.

 Clean the glass, insert the mat with the quilt stitched to it, and finish framing according to the frame’s directions. Voila! Now you can hang your fiber art the same way you’d hang any other piece of art in your home. 

NOTE: These directions are now available in a PDF format you can download, print out and save. To download, go to the “Free Stuff” icon in my blog sidebar, or simply click here.

Art Meets Science

 Lepidoptera and Coleus are on their way to Birminham, England this week. They are part of the Studio Art Quilt Associates’ (SAQA) exhibition called “Art Meets Science” that will have its opening at the Festival of Quilts in August. All of the quilts that are available for sale will soon be listed on the SAQA website (the section is still being built as I write this, so check back in a few days to see all the quilts online).

I love the design of the exhibition catalog! It is a piece by Ita Ziv called Fire Fingers. SAQA always does a beautiful job on their publications.

The venues for this exhibition that have been announced to date are:

• Festival of Quilts, Birmingham, England, August 19 - 22, 2010
• Pfizer, Inc., New York, New York, Sept. 16, 2010 - March 16, 2011   
• Visions Gallery, San Diego, California, January 1 - April 1, 2012   
• Global Health Odyssey Museum of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, June 1 - Sept. 1, 2012    

The juror for this exhibition was David W. Fraser, MD. He is research associate at The Textile Museum, and a consulting scholar in the Asian Section of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. The curator was Jill Jensen, a professional fiber artist from Virginia  who works with cloth, paint, printmaking and stitch. She has worked extensively as an artist-in-residence throughout Virginia, and holds degrees in Chemistry and Metallurgy. Surely both of them are a perfect combination of art and science! You can read Fraser’s and Jensen’s statements about the exhibition here. 

 Lepidoptera

Coleus

Happy Independence Day!

’Tis liberty alone that gives
the flower of fleeting life
its lustre and perfume;
And we are weeds without it. 

– William Cowper

I’m In Stitches

The staff of Quilting Arts magazine has just launched their latest creation, In Stitches, a one-of-a-kind special issue that “celebrates hand and machine stitching.” It is available only as a digital download. That means you can download it onto your computer, and use it on or offline. You can download the magazine and the software you’ll need to view and use it, on PC or on Macintosh for $14.97.

In Stitches is designed to include more in-depth articles, and to present them in a completely different way, through videos, slideshows, and patterns for projects you can easily print out and use. It includes interviews, articles, photos, videos, stitching tutorials, tips, techniques, and more.

My fabric vase pattern is included (that’s it with the sunflowers in the image above).

A bluebird block

This is a block I designed to teach a needleturn appliqué workshop for my hometown guild, Lake Norman Quilters, on August 14. It is a big block (20" square); big enough that I could put borders on it and call it a wall hanging. But I’m thinking about doing other blocks with birds and words and putting them together in a bigger quilt. 

If so, what birds – and words — should I use?

Valley Fiber Life

Marcia Young, founder and editor of Valley Fiber Life, has added some of my work to her website’s gallery! Valley Fiber Life is an online magazine and community for fiber artists and fiber arts enthusiasts. It includes a gallery of many different kinds of fiber artists, articles and interviews, a list of resources, and more. 

Some of the art quilters featured on the website who are also contributors to the site include Ruth B. McDowell and Virginia Spiegel. The articles offer a great introduction to some artists I didn’t know about before. 

If you want to stay in touch with Valley Fiber Life, make sure to join the international Fiber Arts group on Facebook. You can also sign up on the website to receive its e-mail newsletter.

Overall Quilter and Corinne Schroeder have a “Floral Fling”

This is Aimee Griffin, c0-owner of Overall Quilter, holding the sample for one of the patterns in their fabulous new Floral Fling line designed by Corinne Schroeder. These beautiful designs feature lovely flowers done in bright batik fabrics.

“Corinne walked into the shop one day with three wall hangings she had made as gifts for her family,” Aimee says. “I asked her what pattern she had made them from so I could order them, and she said she had just made them, so the idea of making the patterns came about.” Since then, Corinne has been busy making the samples, and Aimee has been writing the instructions.

So far, the collaboration has produced 12 patterns, and four new ones (including magnolia, cosmos, and poinsettia) are off to the printer this week. Corinne has signed the first 50 copies, and you can get an autographed copy if you request it, while supplies last. 

All the designs have full-sized pattern sheets for the fusible appliqué designs. Some patterns have dimensional flowers. Each pattern is $12; kits are available for $24 to $49, depending on the pattern.

Corinne is now hard at work on a new line called “Birdy Fling,” working with Aimee’s daughter Jessica. 

The new line comes at an exciting time for Overall Quilter. They have decided to close their brick-and-mortar storefront in Indian Trail (south of Charlotte, North Carolina) and start selling online. In about a week, the shop will close its doors and Aimee and her husband Marc will concentrate on adding more goods to the online store. I think they are off to an auspicious start!

My piece in C&T’s new Postcard Collection

I opened up the summer/fall 2010 C&T Publishing catalog today, and look what I found! This is my Purple Phalaenopsis on the cover of “The Art of Quilts Postcard Collection – Nature.” I had given my permission to use this piece in the collection, but I didn’t know they had selected it to adorn the outside of the box! What a thrill. 

This orchid piece is from the series I completed in late 2009 and early 2010; it was part of Fiber Art Options exhibition “Orchids: Sensuality Stitched.”

In this catalog, C&T officially launches its Stash Books, a new line of books to “celebrate handmade fabric arts and encourage the craft sewer to create beautiful authenticity in a time of mass production,” according to Publisher Amy Marson. I have already put several of these on my must have list – including the one on making lunch bags and wraps, and one with darling “feltie” characters to stitch.

Another postcard collection features animals. That’s David Taylor’s  Sir Francis on its box. The Animal series will be available in September, and the Nature series in December. 

North Carolina Quilt Symposium 2011

I hope you are all marking your calendars now for North Carolina Quilt Symposium 2011. It will be sponsored by Raleigh’s Capital Quilters Guild, and held at Peace College on June 2-5, 2011. It’s three days of classes, lectures, and fun, with everything from traditional piecing and appliqué, to beading, surface design and art quilting. I’m very excited that they’ve asked me to teach!

Here’s a list of the teachers they have lined up so far (a few more may be added):

Esterita Austin, art quilts: http://esteritaaustin.com/

Joyce Becker, landscapes: http://home.comcast.net/~jbecker300/

Karen Kay Buckley, appliqué: http://www.karenkaybuckley.com/index.php

Susan Cleveland, piecing: http://www.piecesbewithyou.com/

Sally Collins, piecing: http://www.sallycollins.org/gallery.html

Pepper Cory, piecing: http://www.peppercory.com/classes.html

Nancy Eha, beading: http://www.beadcreative.com/

Rayna Gillman, surface design: http://www.studio78.net/

Susan Brubaker Knapp: art quilts/appliqué: http://www.bluemoonriver.com

Mary Ellen Kranz, digital photography/computer aided design: http://www.quiltingimages.com/About_Us.html

Jan Krentz, piecing: http://www.jankrentz.com/index.php

Suzanne Marshall, appliqué: http://www.suzannequilts.com

Margaret Miller, piecing: http://www.millerquilts.com/home.html

Jan Myers-Newbury, surface design/dyeing: http://www.nancycrow.com/HTML/barnnewbury.html

Leslie Riley, fabric collage/mixed media: http://www.lesleyriley.com/

Sharon Schamber, machine quilting: http://www.sharonschamber.com/

Eileen Sullivan, piecing: http://www.thedesignersworkshop.com

Patsy Thompson, machine quilting: http://www.patsythompsondesigns.com/

Mary Lou Weidman, appliqué/piecing: http://www.marylouquiltdesigns.com/

And no, you don’t have to live in North Carolina to come to Symposium. If you live far away, you can fly in. Raleigh-Durham Airport is just a hop, skip, jump (or taxi ride) away from Peace College. Registration packets will be available in print and online in early January 2011. To receive a printed registration packet then, send  your mailing address and a check for $4 (payable to CQG Symposium  2011) to:

NCQS11

200 Transylvania Avenue
Raleigh, NC 27609

I hope to see you there!

Learn about Lyme

This is Nani Lauriano Luculescu, a.k.a. The Victorious Vixen (don’t you love that!). She’s a crafter I met online who is on a crusade to educate people about Lyme Disease, and to help fund a cure. Her dad has Lyme Disease, so this is personal. 

It’s personal for me, too, because my 12-year-old niece, Grace, has Lyme Disease. She was diagnosed last fall. She had a rash, but it wasn’t the typical Lyme bulls-eye rash, and her nurse practitioner brushed off my brother and sister-in-law’s request for a test and poo-pooed their legitimate questions. She said we didn’t have Lyme in North Carolina. She was wrong.

A few months later Grace was in the hospital for more than four days with infected knees. The doctors there thought she had a staph infection, because her white blood cell count was off the charts. They did emergency surgery to drain the fluid. But after four days, the cultures grew still grew nothing, and my brother and sister-in-law demanded a Lyme test. Grace’s doctor still said it was unnecessary. The test came back positive for stage 3 Lyme, with 8 positive bands. Grace’s case caused Wake County, N.C., to declare epidemic levels for Lyme. This should make Raleigh area doctors more aware of the situation, and more likely to test for Lyme if there is any suspicion of it at all.

If the nurse had tested her, or put her on antibiotics when they first went in about the rash and requested a Lyme test, it might have made a big difference. It took months for her to recover from the symptoms and the knee infection, but Grace is doing well right now. But Lyme is a serious disease that can affect people for a lifetime. And most people know so little about how to protect themselves.

That’s why a group called Lymenaide has produced these public service announcements:

Volunteers like Nani have been sending Lymenaide press kits to TV stations across North America, so I hope you’ll be seeing this PSA soon on your local stations.

To draw attention to this campaign, Nani is giving away one of her fabulous handmade wallets. This is the last in her Red, Black & White Optical Delusion wallet series:

 

Isn’t it fabulous? On Nani’s blog, you can see other PSAs, learn more about Lyme Disease, and leave a comment for a chance to win. You need to do it by 11:59 p.m. on Friday, June 18. Just follow the instructions in Nani’s post. 

Please … do it for Grace. 

Hibiscus stitched

Hibiscus is stitched! This is the last of three samples completed for my Wholecloth Painting workshop. Whew! I painted and stitched all three of these small quilts (about 8" x 12" each) in the past five days.

Another one quilted

I am on a roll … Here is “Painted Sunflower” quilted and done! One more to go and I’ll have all three little samples for my Wholecloth Painting class finished.

Croton stitched

Here is the Croton piece quilted. I decided against thread sketching, since there is already so much detail in this piece from the paint. I like the lines added by the thread. I only used three colors: black (on the top leaf), dark green (on the bottom leaf) and orange (on the vein of the bottom leaf).

Painted Croton

I just finished painting the third piece I made this week for my Wholecloth Painting workshop. All of the samples are shown above. (None have been stitched yet!)

This latest piece features leaves of what I think is a tropical houseplant called Croton. Weird name. It has thick, leathery leaves with the most fantastic color patterns. I believe I took the photo on which this piece is based in the walkway that connects the Houston Hilton to the convention center. They always have large, lush potted plant arrangements. 

Here is the photo:

I’ve been rather obsessed with leaves in the past few years. I think it is the patterns, lines and colors on the leaves, and the way that they become almost abstract when shot up close. I’d really like to do a series of larger pieces all based on my closeup photos of leaves. Soon!

Another painted sample

This is the second piece I’ve painted this week as a sample for my Wholecloth Painting class. It is based on this photo:

I used the same photo as inspiration for this piece, which I made to demonstrate techniques in my Quilting Arts DVD, “Master Machine Quilting: Free-Motion Stitching and Thread Sketching.” It is made of fused fabric and thread sketched, then quilted:

I have one more sample for my workshop I need to paint, and then I can start stitching!

Treasure at the antique store

I have a great antiques store right around the corner from me in historic downtown Mooresville, and today, I had a few minutes to spare and popped in. And look at what I found! These were marked as “antique wallpaper stamps” but I think they were used for printing or batiking fabric. They look African to me, or maybe Asian. 

They each weigh about 3/4 lb., and are about 6" x 3" and made of wood that is stained almost black (it comes off on your fingers when you rub it). They have an interesting smell that I think might be wax. I paid $18 for each. 

Anyone out there know where they came from, and if I am right or not? And did I get a bargain, or ripped off?

I am eager to test these out, but it will have to wait a bit. 

NOTE: After I posted this, I e-mailed the photos to my friend Janet Lasher; I just knew that she’d have more information. She said I got a bargain! Here is more information from her:

“They are MOST likely Indian – from India…  given that the have black stain (I have some similar ones) they were likely used to do block (relief) printing with print ink (very thin watery ink) on to wall paper or textiles.  This is usually done OVER other colored/patterned work.

These would not have been used for Batik – since wood is a horrible conductor of heat – they would not hold the wax hot enough for printing – however, you could use them for some other resist application.

The ink is likely to come off when you get them wet… (but has also likely penetrated the wood – don’t expect the ink to STOP oozing out of the wood….  Maybe ever!  So beware if you are planning some tightly designed printing with light colors on to white as you may get some halo-ing effects that will not be controllable (although the “stain” as you say looks WAY minimal compared to other stamps I have seen).

These usually come in pairs – although the pairs are rarely found together in the “west”.

As I say, I have some – they are fun to use – but they are heavy – and sometimes hard to handle – because of the shape of the handle – you may drop them on the print table – or the piece as you are printing.  So you can print with textile paint/thickened dye etc – be careful that the details don’t get gunked up when you are printing unless you can live with that much “hand printing” distress/inaccurate outcomes.

The stamps look great… even if you only mount them on your studio wall the are great objects that have a clear historical and cultural reference to the work that we try to accomplish with fiber.”

I tried wetting the stamps, and sure enough, the black comes off. Thanks, Janet!

Another friend sent me a link to this video, which shows a very skilled man demonstrating block printing in the Anohki Museum in Amber, India using blocks very similar to those I purchased. Check out how he creates mitered corners!