Mystery block-of-the-month : “Bohemian Bouquet”

In 2008, I'll be launching something new and fun: a mystery block-of-the-month program called “Bohemian Bouquet.” The starting session will be Saturday, Jan. 12 from 10 a.m. to noon at Quilters Loft Company in Mooresville NC. If you think you might be interested in participating, please call the Quilters Loft Company and ask them to put you on the list to get more information. We will have more details and pricing information available soon.

If you don't live near Mooresville and would like to participate, please e-mail me and let me know to put you on the list to receive more information.

Here's a sneak peak at the first block and a look at how the rest of the 48x48" quilt will go together. You won't find out what the rest of the blocks look like until you pick up the kit each month. You could do this as needleturn appliqué or – if you want something really fast and easy — fusible appliqué with satin or blanket stitch around the appliqué pieces. The center block is 20 inches square, so even though it looks intricate in the photo, the shapes are actually large, and the corners rounded.

Winter class schedule

Once I get through a very busy fall, I'll be looking forward to teaching the following classes at Quilters Loft Company in Mooresville. As soon as we have prices and supply lists, I will post them here.

Beginning Machine Quilting
Wednesday, December 12, 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
If you are a beginning quilter who wants to learn how to machine quilt your tops, this is the class for you. You'll learn the basics of how to prepare the quilt sandwich by layering and basting, how to free-motion quilt several motifs, and lots of tips to ensure good results. Pfaff sewing machines for this class will be provided by Quilters Loft Company, so even if you don't have a machine that can do free-motion quilting, you can learn more in class before deciding if it is your cup of tea.

Beginning Threadpainting
Tuesday, January 15, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
This is a freemotion machine embroidery class for those who want to learn how to “paint” with thread. Working on a dragonfly design (see photo below), you'll learn about stabilizers, thread choices, and how to adapt a design from a photo or copyright-free clipart. Pfaff sewing machines will be provided by Quilters Loft Company.


Creative Surface Design Workshop
Saturday, January 26
10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Want to learn more about some of the exciting new materials you can use in (or on) your quilts? Come and play with Lumiere and Dye-na-Flow fabric paints, Shiva paintstiks, Angelina fibers, Tyvek (see photo below) and more. We will provide all the supplies; you'll pay a materials fee as part of the cost of the class. A fun, low stress way to try some new things.

Barnful of Quilts 2007

If you are in the Charlotte, NC area this Saturday, Oct. 13, don't miss the 2007 Barnful of Quilts! Several fiber and quilt artists in the area (including me, several SAQA members, and members of Fiber Art Options) will be displaying and selling their work in this benefit for Waxhaw Presbyterian Church. The event also features vendors, a bake sale and cafe, and other crafts. The show, held at Fox Farms in their spectacular horse barn in historic Waxhaw, NC, runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday only.

For directions and more information, please go to www.foxfamilyfarm.com and click on "2007 Barnful of Quilts."












Exhibitors and Vendors:
Fulvia Luciano, www.fulviastudio.homestead.com (featured artist)
Nancy G. Cook, www.nancygcook.com
Susan Brubaker Knapp, www.bluemoonriver.com
Janet Lasher, www.janetalasher.com
Willa McNeil, www.zoltanszabo.com
Overall Quilter, www.overallquilter.com
The Peace of Yarn, www.thepeaceofyarn.com
Quilters Haven, www.ncquilting.com
Random Arts, www.randomartsnow.com
Jan Smiley, www.jansmiley.com
Stewarts Village Gallery, www.stewartsvillagegallery.com
Susan Cowan Welch, www.cowanwelch.com

Also featuring quilts by
Hope Sims
Barb Castner
Nan Chandler
Robin Hawkins
Karen McWhorter
Elizabeth Miller
Linda Stegall
Joyce Walker
Sarah Woodring

Decorating for Halloween with quilts

It's October, and at my house, that can only mean one thing: It is almost Halloween, and time to decorate! I think I have more decorations for this holiday than for any other. Maybe because it is also my birthday, and lots of people have given me Halloween stuff for presents. Or maybe because I can't seem to stop buying it. Orange-black-white is one of my favorite color combinations.
I love to use the quilts I've made especially for Halloween to decorate the house at this time of year. The kitchen gets hit hardest. That is a wonderful black cat quilt pattern from a ”Fons and Porter's Love of Quilting” magazine a few years back hanging on the wall behind my kitchen table. I made the black nine patch on top of the hutch with scraps from another quilt. And on the door is ”Happy Haunting,” a quilt I designed and made about 5 years ago with a funny grey cat jumping out from behind a pumpkin.

Black Magic Cupcakes

My recipe for Black Magic Cupcakes will be featured on Tuesday, October 9 on The Armchair Chef's website, www.thearmchairchef.com! These delectable chocolate cupcakes with a creamy cheesecake-and-chocolate chip center are the perfect thing to bake for your favorite ghoulies and ghosties this Halloween.

Tink, the website owner, is featuring "Recipes and Reminiscences from Needlework and Quilt Professionals" all October in her Halloween Countdown. On the 9th, you'll find a little profile of my business with the recipe.

Halloween is my birthday, and my favorite holiday. Enjoy!

The Flora Bag

I have gotten so many compliments on the purse I made a few months ago that I decided to make a pattern for it. Today I made it up in completely different fabrics and took careful notes as I worked. These fabrics are from the “Blossom” line by Urban Chiks for Moda. My daughter suggested the name "The Flora Bag." The bag below is the one I made first, with hand-dyed fabrics. I hope to have the pattern done in a week or so. The purse measures 16" high by 12" wide by 3.5" deep.

Glasgow Rose

Here’s a photo of my latest quilt, “Glasgow Rose.” It will be at Quilt Market in Houston (in late October, before the International Quilt Festival) in the Moda/United Notions booth, along with “By the Sea.” It uses Terry Clothier Thompson's new fabric line for Moda called “Oak Leaves & Reel,” and features Arts and Crafts era motifs, including the Glasgow Rose appliqué and ginkgo leaf quilting designs.

By the Sea

Here are some photos of a new 25"x45" wall quilt I’m just finishing up for a pattern called “By the Sea.” (Thanks to my friend, DeLane Rosenau, who came up with the name!) It is made with a great new fabric collection by Moda called “The Hamptons” by Minick & Simpson, which will be available in quilt shops in October. The pattern features a large appliquéd crab, lobster and starfish. The pieces are big, so they are not hard to appliqué, and it goes together quickly with an easy-peasy pieced border. A little detail quilting gives the creatures some personality. This is pattern BMR119. The retail price is $10.

Sue Spargo workshop

Quilter Sue Spargo spoke to the Charlotte Quilters Guild this week, and gave a workshop today. She does marvelous folk-art style appliqué with mostly woven wools and some cotton and upholstery cotton fabric. Then she adds lots of fun embellishments with beads, ribbons, ric-rac and wool yarn. Her sister Wendy hand-dyes all the fabric and makes beautiful sterling jewelry based on her designs. Sue is a very kind and generous teacher, and I really enjoyed her workshop, and the chance to see her gorgeous work close up. Thanks, Sue! To see more of her work, go to www.suespargo.com. She sells her patterns, books, kits, wools and jewelry on her website. The photo above shows me with Sue and her “Greenbrier” quilt. The photo below shows the little pillow “pin keeper” I made from one of her kits.

“Harbinger’s Hope” wins honorable mention at PNQE

I just found out that “Harbinger’s Hope” won an honorable mention in the “Innovative” category at Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza XIV!!! I'm really pleased, since this is the first national show I've entered, and I really didn't expect to win anything.

PNQE is a Mancuso show held Sept. 6-9, 2007 in Harrisburg, Pa. Mary Schwarzenberger, a new quilting friend I met online, took a bunch of photos at the show and sent me the one above. Thanks, Mary!

More Tyvek

Here’s a small piece (about 5 inches square) I made today using some of the small pieces of melted Tyvek I created over the weekend. It is amazing how easy it is to sew through with the machine. I sewed cautiously through the parts where it had melted more heavily, but did not have any problems at all. I had fun “drawing” around the bubbles. Just love the metallic sheen that the Lumiere paints give the Tyvek pieces.

Fabric beads

I made these beads today. I took strips of my hand-dyed fabric, coated one side with Aileen's glue, then wrapped them around small segments of plastic drinking straw. Then I wrapped them with 28-guage colored copper wire strung with seed beads. After that, I painted them with a bit of Lumiere for some extra sparkle.

Adventures with Tyvek

Today I went outside in the sweltering heat with my iron and played with Tyvek. I started with a used USPS priority mailer made of Tyvek. I cut small pieces, painted them on one side with Lumiere and let them dry (see the second photo). Then I placed them between layers of my Teflon pressing sheet and ironed them (at medium to high heat), pressing very lightly. I did this OUTSIDE (the fumes are noxious) with a steady breeze for ventilation.

The result is a very lightweight, somewhat flexible, durable piece. They shrink by about 1/3 to 1/2. The bubbles form away from the heat source, so you can choose to have concave bubbles or convex ones on the painted side, depending on which side is down when you iron. If you press hard, you get a flatter, thinner finished piece; mine reminded me of gold leaf. The size of the bubbles seems to depend on how hot the iron is, how long you iron, and how hard you press down. If you iron longer, you get interesting holes.

This afternoon, I sewed a few pieces down to a fabric background, and embellished them with beads and hand-dyed perle cotton to make a little pin (last photo). My friend Grace Howes brought this beautiful fabric and perle cotton back from England for me!

Experiments

One of my goals for this year is to try using some new materials and techniques that I can use in my art quilts. For this small experimental piece, I used a rubber stamp of a woman’s face and Fabrico Craft Ink to make the squares. I liked the way some imprints were very strong, and other seemed to be fading away. I sewed them down and frayed them around the edges. They looked too white against the background, so I blotted them with some diluted fabric paint and immediately ironed it dry. This created some interesting splotching, which you can see best on the middle face. Then I took some of the threads that came off my hand-dyed fabrics after washing and drying them, and couched them down with a free-motion quilting stitch.

A new purse

This a purse I finished today. I used some of my own hand-dyed fabrics and some purchased from others. It is about 15" high, big enough to lug around all my stuff (I usually carry a fairly large purse) and it has lots of interior pockets and a loop to hold my cell phone case inside the purse and within easy reach by the third ring. That is a sea-polished oyster shell on the flap (it covers the spot where I sewed on velcro to hold the flap shut). I used one of those wonderful acrylic bases, “Bag-E-Bottoms” by Lazy Girl Designs, in the bottom to make it stand up.

Asheville Quilt Show

My friend Grace Howes and I just returned from the Asheville Quilt Show, and I am completely exhausted! It took us four hours to get from Mooresville to Asheville, normally a two-hour trip. Apparently a tractor trailer heading east on I-40, the primary road through the mountains, crashed and spilled its entire lot of lemons and limes all over the interstate. So the interstate was completely closed for most of the day. We had to go on smaller back country roads, over some gravel roads, and up and down big mountains with harrowing hairpin curves, to get to the show. Good thing Grace and I like to talk. We had a lot of time to catch up.

When we finally got there, we had only 50 minutes to see the whole thing. We talked to lots of people who had the same travel experience, some who actually got to see and smell the lemons, and dreamed of lemonade to quench their thirst after sitting in the 90 degree heat without air conditioning (to avoid car overheating). We ran through the show, willy-nilly, trying to take as many photos as possible so we could look at the quilts more later. It was crazy.

The show was very nice, with a lot of quilts from outside the area, from all over the country, even. Several I had seen before at Houston at the International Quilt Festival, and in magazines. The show was held at the North Carolina Arboretum, which is very lovely. It is on my list for a return visit for sure.

“Harbinger’s Hope” took a third place ribbon in the “Other Techniques" category, which included many of the art quilts! I was very pleased to have won this ribbon, especially after seeing the caliber of work of the competition. Definitely a show I will go back to see next year, but with more time to examine and admire, I hope.

The return trip (by a different route, because the interstate was still closed) took three hours. Arrrrgh!

“The Bluest Eye” featured in Quilting Arts magazine

My quilt, “The Bluest Eye,” is featured in the August/September 2007 issue of Quilting Arts magazine! It was named as one of five “Judges’ choice” entries in the 2008 Quilting Arts Calendar Competition. The magazine will be available at larger newsstands and at Barnes & Noble bookstores nationwide on August 7.


To make this quilt, I started by creating the image (below) in PhotoShop, merging photos of my blue-eyed daughter's eye with that of her African-American classmate.