Seriously, what are you afraid of?

Afraid of free-motion stitching and thread sketching? There’s no need to be! Let me explain the basics and tell you why there’s nothing to fear. I’m giving a presentation on my thread sketching methods tonight at the Charlotte Quilters’ Guild. It includes a slideshow, followed by a question-and-answer session and a trunk show of lots of my recent work, including pieces I did for my 2010 series of articles for Quilting Arts magazine, my two Quilting Arts DVDs, and my new book, Point, Click, Quilt!

I’d love it if you’d come! 

Charlotte Quilters Guild
Wednesday, May 4 at 7 p.m.
Avondale Presbyterian Church
2821 Park Road, Charlotte 


There are still a few spots left in the two workshops I’m teaching Friday and Saturday (May 6 and 7) on Wholecloth Painting. If you are interested, please e-mail Debbie Langsam at dmlangsa@uncc.edu to get details. 

Cheri’s leaves

Detail shot of work by Cheri Rose Bergeron of Bridgewater Corners, Vermont

I just had to share with you the work of one of the wonderful people who took my “Tyvek Explorations” class through joggles.com last year. This is by Cheri Rose Bergeron of Bridgewater Corners, Vermont. Isn’t it beautiful? I just love the rich, dark reds and oranges. I bet she has leaves just like this in the fall where she lives. And isn’t her machine quilting fabulous?

Here is a shot of the entire piece:

by Cheri Rose Bergeron of Bridgewater Corners, Vermont

 

 

It is always so satisfying to hear from people who have taken one of my classes, and to see what they have done with what they’ve learned!

Book review and give-away: “Fanciful Stitches, Colorful Quilts” by Laura Wasilowski

“Lighthouse” by Laura Wasilowski

 

If you’ve never had the opportunity to meet Laura Wasilowski in person, you’ve missed a lot of fun. At presentations to guilds, she sings, laughs, jokes and puns her way through her lecture, and everyone leaves feeling a lot happier. 

Her new book, Fanciful Stitches, Colorful Quilts , is filled with the same sense of joy and playfulness. It contains 11 whimsical fused art quilt projects, as well as plentiful information on her techniques for creating these cheerful little works of art. 

Step by step, Laura teaches how to:

• choose fusible web, fabrics and batting
• iron the fusible web to fabric
• cut fused fabrics
• transfer patterns using the fusible web’s release paper
• build your quilt top
• prepare the quilt top for stitching
• choose the right tools and materials for hand stitching
• pick the right size embroidery needle.

I was intrigued with Laura’s interesting method of transferring patterns onto the fused fabric. Her technique is something I’d never heard about before, and it is a very nifty trick! Here are some other things I learned:

• Laura creates some of her curved pieces by cutting them on the bias of the fabric, then curving them gently as she fuses them down to the background.  
• She uses a stiff interfacing (like Timtex for fast2fuse), layered with batting, in her quilts. The stitching is done only through the batting, which is fused to the quilt top before you embroider.

The quilts in the book are hand stitched with cotton embroidery thread, using simple stitches. If you’ve never done embroidery before, don’t worry. There are detailed stitch diagrams in the book. Laura also provides good basic information on how to decide what, where and how to stitch. Then she shows how to use accent and detail stitches, outline and linear stitches, and pattern stitches to really bring the composition to life.

Once you know all about fusing, constructing your quilt and stitching, there are 11 darling projects to practice on. Here is “Houseboat,” one of my favorites:

“Houseboat” by Laura Wasilowski

And at the end of the book, you’ll find all the patterns for the shapes you'll need. Laura also shares her methods for a wrapped binding. In this process, you wrap the quilt top around the pre-cut stiff interfacing, and add the backing. Laura’s method makes it possible to have fun wavy edges, a trademark of her style. 

GIVE-AWAY Details: Leave a comment on this post telling me what you like best about Laura’s work for a chance to win. I’ll draw a winner at noon on Wednesday, May 4. THE FINE PRINT: With apologies to my readers in other countries: I’m sorry, but at the request of the publisher, this giveaway is for U.S. residents only. SORRY: Comments are closed. The winner is Elaine in Olympia, Washington. Thanks, everyone!

You’ll also want to check out these blogs tomorrow and Wednesday, since they are giving away copies of Laura’s book, too:

Frieda Anderson May 3
Connecting Threads May 4

Quilt Expo en Beaujolais

Ooooooh la la! Très fantastique!

I was very pleased to see my piece, Lepidoptera, featured on the cover of the program for Quilt Expo en Beaujolais, where it was exhibited in Graves sur Anse, France, earlier this month in SAQA’s Art Meets Science exhibition. The exhibition will travel next to the Visions Art Museum in San Diego, California Feb. 3-April 22, 2012, and then to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, June 11 through Sept. 14, 2012.

Win Laura Wasilowski’s new book

Laura Wasilowski has a new book! Fanciful Stitches, Colorful Quilts contains 11 whimsical fused art quilt projects… I got a sneak peek, and I’m going to review the book and give away a copy (courtesy of C&T Publishing) on May 2. Want more chances to win? Just check in on each of the bloggers on the dates listed below:

Annie Smith April 19
Melody Johnson April 23
Jane Moxey April 24
Lyric Kinard April 25
Judy Coates Perez April 26
Linda Teufel April 28
Jane LaFazio April 29 
Susan Brubaker Knapp May 2
Frieda Anderson May 3
Connecting Threads May 4

REMEMBER TO COME BACK ON MAY 2 to read the review and leave a comment on the May 2 post for a chance to win!

THE FINE PRINT: With apologies to my readers in other countries: I’m sorry, but this giveaway is for U.S. residents only.

Such a sweet gift

Each year, the members of Fiber Art Options (a Charlotte area group of fiber artists) pull names out of a hat and make a small gift for that person. Today, I received this lovely piece from my friend Debbie Langsam. It is a photo of me with my mother in 1964, altered in Photoshop and printed on fabric, then quilted. The poem is a favorite of both my mother and me. You can see the original photo and read the poem in my earlier post. 

Debbie is such a kind and generous person, and I am deeply touched by this very personal gift. Thank you so much, Debbie!

P.S. Debbie and her husband Joal run Barking Dog Chocolatiers, and donate all the profits of their delicious chocolates to charity. So if your sweet tooth is calling, consider an order! I can tell you from experience that you won’t be sorry.

The Amazing Easter Egg Hunt

I don't know about you, but I love hunting Easter eggs. Why should kids have all the fun? This year, the hunt is even sweeter, because Aurifil, AccuQuilt and The Quilt Show are giving away more than $1,500 in prizes! Here’s how it works:

1. Like Aurifil’s Facebook page and find the egg with the first part of the code. 
2. Like AccuQuilt’s Facebook page and find the egg with the second part of the code. 
3. Like The Quilt Show’s Facebook page and find the egg with the third part of the code. 
4. Go to accuquilt.com/egghunt, and enter the full code for your chance to win.

Here are the fabulous prizes:

An AccuQuilt GO! Baby Fabric Cutter plus 10 GO! Baby-compatible dies of your choice, and two cutting mats. A $400 value.

An Aurifil Variety Suitcase Pack that includes 216 spools of fabulous Aurifil thread. An $820 value.

A one-year membership to thequiltshow.com, a Series 7 DVD, and a 24" monitor. A $300 value.

Winners will be notified by e-mail on Monday, April 25. You better get hopping!

A lovely link to the past

This is my grandmother Helen McDanel Brubaker’s sewing basket. That’s a photo of her, about 1918, with it. I never got to meet Helen, as she died before I was born. Last week, when I was in Colorado Springs to shoot The Quilt Show, my cousin Carole gave it to me.

Me with Carole (right)

I was so happy to have it, as I have very few of Helen’s things (because of a long and sad story I will not share with you here that involves my step-grandmother). How nice to feel that link, through needle and thread, to her.

I had not seen Carole since the death of our grandfather in 1978, when I was 14! We passed a few hours examining each other’s faces for the Brubaker family resemblance, eating lunch and talking about the work Carole has been doing on our shared Brubaker genealogy. 

Here’s something fun she discovered: One of our great-great-great-great-great grandfathers was Robert Philson, born in 1759 in northern Ireland (most likely his ancestors came from Scotland). He came to America with his uncle, and they kept a store in Berlin, Bedford County, Pennsylvania.

In 1794, Philson was arrested for his involvement in the Whiskey Rebellion, an uprising of farmers protesting a tax on whiskey by the fledgling U.S. government. At that time, rye was widely grown, and apparently it was more profitable to make it into whiskey than to transport the grain itself. One of the reasons that the Whiskey Rebellion is considered important in American history is because it helped to define one of the basic principals of our democracy: that a citizen could disagree with his or her government and not have it considered an act of treason.

Philson was eventually acquitted, and served as associate judge of Somerset County for twenty years, and also served as a one-term congressman during the 16th United States Congress. He was commissioned a brigadier general of the Second Brigade, Tenth Division, Pennsylvania militia in 1800, and served as a brigadier general in the War of 1812.

Filming “The Quilt Show”

I have been in Colorado Springs area this week to shoot an episode of "The Quilt Show" with Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims. What a thrill to be on set with two quilters whose work I respect so much! “The Quilt Show” is an online TV show that can be viewed through the Internet by subscription. The shows feature fun interviews with all kinds of quilters and fiber artists, as well as lessons and information, and some great free stuff. 

I figured you might enjoy a behind-the-scenes look at my day. Ricky and Alex shoot some episodes on a set with a live studio audience, and some “on location.” On Tuesday, we were in the beautiful home of the very hospitable and kind Dee Dee and Hugh Eaton. Dee Dee is a quilter, and her husband Hugh is famous for having helped to start The Weather Channel. They live in Palmer Lake, just outside of Monument, Colorado (a short drive from Colorado Springs).

Here is the crew getting set up to shoot the interview portion of the show:

Ricky threw his signature hat down on one of my quilts:

C&T Publishing had kindly provided copies of both of my books, Appliqué Petal Party (2009) and Point, Click, Quilt! (coming out in July):

Actually, this is just a mock-up of my book (the cover glued to the front of another C&T title), since my book has not gone to press yet. Here is the producer, Shelly Heesacker (below) holding the mock-up. Shelly produces segments for Oprah, and she was fabulous to work with, and a lot of fun.

Make-up on, quilts up, Ricky and Alex comfortably installed on the sofa in the Eaton’s family room, me squirming in an armchair, cameras rolling! We sat down to review with the crew how the interview portion of the show would run.

The crew was BUSY!

Ricky was pretty serious most of the time, but was always good for a funny comment when we needed to loosen up.

About half way through the interview segment the director yelled “CUT!” Apparently my neck was bright red. Scarlet, in fact. This is something that happens to me a lot when I am excited or nervous. (When I was little, the boys used to have competitions to see who could make me blush the worst. I would turn purple.) So it was off to the powder room for some heavy makeup and powder by Lilo Bowman, the show’s coordinator (and a quilter!):

Okay, back on the set. Doesn't my neck look fabulous?

After that segment was shot, we moved to another room for the how-to parts of the show. Alex told me a funny story while I pressed the step-outs for the segment on creating bias vines that I shot with her:

Step outs are how you show all the different parts of the process you are demonstrating. (On a cooking show, they will show the ingredients, then some of them mixed together, then the batter in the pan, then the pan going into the oven, then the baked cake, then the iced and finished cake. Same concept here.) Lilo and I ran through the step outs together:

Ricky found a piano and of course Shelly and I had to join in:

We even shot a little bit of me singing with Ricky as a lead-in to my segment with Alex. I have not sung much since high school (I starred in a few of my high school musicals), except in the shower, so I hope I sounded all right!

Then it was back to work. Roll cameras!

Alex and Ricky made shooting these how-to segments really fun and easy. Before each one, we set up all the equipment, step-outs, and the things we would use or talk about:

Ricky patiently gave me a little lesson on how to use a high-end Bernina that has some features I was not familiar with because I don't have them on the Bernina I use at home. And yes, I had to free-motion thread sketch standing up!

Here is Ricky with the producer, director and crew watching me thread sketch to see if the camera was capturing everything from the correct angle:

And then we discussed how to shoot it to make it look clearer:

Yes! It looked okay after a few adjustments!

Here’s how we ended up shooting that part:

This is a shot of me holding one of the projects (Nestling) that I demonstrated, which will be available from The Quilt Show as a free project when my show airs. I don’t know yet when that will be, but it will be part of the next season, which starts later this summer and runs through the end of this year, I think! Stay tuned and I’ll tell you the details once I get them.

And here’s a nice surprise! Katie Pasquini Masopust was shooting that afternoon, so I got to see her again. We first met while she was closing up her term as SAQA president, at the Studio Art Quilt Associates conference a few years ago. You can tell from my big smile that I am also really happy to be finished shooting! What a great day!

A free project from Aurifil’s Designer of the Month, Susan Guzman

Susan Guzman’s “Favorite Things” pillow

The Aurifil Designer of the Month for April is Susan Guzman. On the Aurifil blog you can read an interview with her, and download the free project (above) that she designed to show off vintage fabrics. Susan’s style is ecclectic; she designs quilt patterns that are contemporary, traditional, scrappy, applique, and folk art styles!

Susan Guzman

You can find out more about Susan here: 

Website: http://www.SuzGuzDesigns.com
Blog: http://www.suzguzdesigns.blogspot.com

FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1693027833 

Pat Sloan interviewed Susan on her online radio show March 15; you can download it and listen to on your computer here.
 
Remember, if you make the project, load a photo to the Aurifil Flickr group. That puts you in the running to win an Aurifil thread prize. One winner is selected each month. 

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 me a comment here to tell me what you think of Susan's project. I'll pull a name at random on Sunday, May 1 at noon. The sampler pack includes great colors in different weights. WE HAVE A WINNER: Congratulations to Marcia W. from Florida!

I’m in “The Space Between”

I found out yesterday that my piece, “Hope Is The Thing” (above) has been accepted into the special exhibit “The Space Between” curated by Jamie Fingal and Leslie Tucker Jenison (of Dinner at Eight Artists). I am very honored to have been chosen to be in this group, as it includes many women I know and whose work I admire.  

The exhibit will debut at the International Quilt Festival in Long Beach July 28-31, 2011 and is sponsored by Moore’s Sewing Centers. The plan is to exhibit at International Quilt Festival in Houston also, after securing a sponsor. Here are the artists and works that were chosen:

Natalya Aikens, Steni Mezhda Sosedyami/Walls between Neighbors
Frances Holliday Alford, Pisces
Betty Amador, Symphonic Dances

Astrid Bennett, Anticipation

Loris Bogue, Sedimentary Silk
Deborah Borschert, Fence and Flourish

Paula Chung, Intervals

Joanell Connolly, Life Happens in the Space Between

Cindy Cooksey, Between the Air Conditioner and the House

Barb Forrister, Lost Cavern

Linda Frost, Black & White
Terry Grant, Between Mother and Child

Desiree Habicht, Forest of Blues

Lyric Kinard, Dream 

Susan King, Schooling with the Jellie’s 

Pam Klebaum, Figure and Ground 

Sherry Kleinman, The Family Tree
Susan Brubaker Knapp, Hope is the Thing   

Jane LaFazio, Industrial Aged 

Jayne Larson, Breathing Space
Gwen Mayer, Saber Dancers
Linda T. Minton, The Antechamber
Susie Monday, Reading Between the Lines
Jeannie Moore, The Red Tomato
Rachel Parris, The Sands of Time
Judy Perez, Black and Bloom All Over
Yvonne Porcella, Storybook
Wen Redmond, Trees Singing
Karen Rips, Spinal Study 1
Carolyn Ryan, Pre-Teen-Between
Cynthia St. Charles, Spring Blossoms, aka Yearning for an End to Winter
Julie Schlueter, Knee High to a Grasshopper
Teresa Shippy, Twins
Gayle Simpson, Mind the Gap
Sarah Ann Smith, Clothed in Color
Terry Waldron, Meadow Gold
Laura Cater-Woods, Fault Lines
Kathy York, Blue Towers

Book review and give-away: Inspired By Tradition

I have a wonderful book to give away today to one lucky applique lover! Inspired by Tradition: 50 Appliqué Blocks in 5 Sizes (Martingale/That Patchwork Place, $22.99) is Kay Mackenzie’s latest book.

Kay Mackenzie

In 2009, I reviewed Kay’s last book, Easy Appliqué Blocks, which includes 50 other block designs. After Kay wrote that book, she envisioned a way for quilters to have “a library of designs right at your fingertips whenever you need one block or many!" Her new book continues and expands the library she began in the first book in a wonderful way. 

This time, the blocks are all traditional in style, but are somewhat simplified for the modern quilter. There are vines, berries, birds, baskets and wreaths. Each design is shown in a color photo of the block, and all the designs are included on the CD (more about this later).


But this book has more to offer than just lovely block designs. There are also great instructions for Kay’s two favorite appliqué methods, one one by hand and one by machine.

Coming Up Roses (26" x 26")

The hand method involves back-basting, something I’ve heard about but not tried (yet), so I am looking forward to testing it out. There are instructions for hand stitching all kinds of shapes, including points, notches, curves and circles.

Kay’s machine applique method involves raw-edge machine appliqué using paper-backed fusible web. For both methods, Kay provides excellent instructions that are extremely detailed, with many clear diagrams. 


At the back of the book, Kay included “A Little Gallery of Ideas,” which is a great way to see how you can stitch and combine several blocks to make a small quilt, table runner, wall hanging or banner. Some of these projects are shown here.

Appliquér At Heart (22" x 46")

One of the neatest things about this book is that all 50 of the applique block designs  are included on the CD that comes with the book. It works on Mac, PC or Linux platforms, and it includes all the designs in five different sizes, from 6" to 12". So as long as you have access to a computer and printer, you won’t have to go running to a photocopy shop to make an enlargement. And all the designs are also reversed on the CD, so if you are doing fusible applique or Kay’s back-basting method for hand appliqué, you don’t have to do that step, either!

Cherry Jubilee (three 8" square mini quilts)

I especially enjoyed Kay’s “Appliqué Questions and Answers” section; it includes very valuable information and insights to common appliqué issues. Even though I consider myself to be somewhat of an expert on appliqué – my first book, Appliqué Petal Party (C&T Publishing 2009) was an appliqué pattern– I learned a lot from this book. It just goes to show that no matter what your experience level, you always have new things to learn.

Inspired by Tradition shipped out in early March. So if you want a copy now, ask for it at your favorite quilt shop. It is also available at Amazon and through the publisher, Martingale/That Patchwork Place. And of course, you can order it from Kay’s website and get an autographed copy!

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:

Kay has generously donated a copy of her book for me to give away here! For a chance to win, leave a comment after this post and tell me what you like best about appliqué, and what kind of method you use. OR if you don’t appliqué, tell me why you want this book. I’ll draw one name at random at 9 p.m. EST April 1. Honest. This is NOT an April Fool’s Day joke.

Giveaway is closed... The winner is Robin in Richmond, VA.

If you want to read other reviews of Kay’s book, you can check out other bloggers participating in Kay’s “Book-a-Round” here:

Maria Peagler

Darcy Ashton

Erin Russek

SewCalGal

Holly Mabutas

Kathy Mack

Kim Jamieson-Hirst

Sarah Vanderburgh

Maria Michaels Designs