Videos!

I got a Flip video recorder for Mother’s Day. Check it out!

Make one of my evening bags

If you missed last year’s issue of Quilting Arts Gifts, which contained my designs for three different evening bags, you can now download the patterns and instructions for free! It’s in a new ebook called “7 Quilted Bag Patterns: Handmade Quilt Bags from Quilting Arts.” My bags are #2, 3 and 4. Just go to the Quilting Arts website by clicking here. If you make up one of my bags, I’d love to see photos and hear about it!

Lepidoptera finished and off to Quilt Market

Lepidoptera
by Susan Brubaker Knapp (2009)
Cotton fabric, wool/polyester batting, fabric paint, cotton thread. 39" x 39"

I finished this piece, “Lepidoptera,” a while ago, but we’ve had so much rain here lately that I couldn’t find a good time to take nice photos. I usually shoot them outside. This aftternoon, after a day of much fog and gloom, the clouds parted and I ran outside to take a few detail shots. Here they are:



Lepidoptera is the order of insects that includes butterflies and moths.
Can you tell that it started with this photo I took in my garden a few years ago?

This is a Painted Lady butterfly. It has wonderful patterns on its wings, but it is not very brightly colored. I used the patterns and completely changed the colors. My quilt is a bit psychedelic in comparison to the butterfly!

Besides being the first wholecloth painted quilt I’ve ever done, it is the first quilt I faced, rather than bound, and the first quilt I made using batting made of wool and polyester (recommended by my friend Nancy G. Cook, who uses it in all her work). I liked it a lot.


“Lepidoptera” is also the first piece I have quilted with Aurifil threads. I had heard many quilters raving about Aurifil, and purchased some thread from them specifically to try on this piece.

I had used Aurifil Cotton Mako 50 thread for needleturn appliqué, but never for quilting or threadpainting. And I must say that I absolutely LOVED using it on this piece. It is very strong, so it didn’t break or shred, unlike other threads I’ve used. Even when my needle was flying.

I also tried piecing with Aurifil Cotton Mako 50 thread, and I love it for that, too. It is so fine that your seams lie nice and flat. I’m eager to try the Cotton Mako 40, which is a little heavier, and good for places you want your quilting to show up more. That’s my next experiment.

I had heard other quilters say that Aurifil thread leaves little to no lint in your machine, and this is definitely true. I made a point of checking every now and then inside my machine, and there’s no comparison between Aurifil and other brands of thread I’ve used (and I’ve pretty much used them all!) I think I’m hooked!

Aurifil noticed I was using their thread, and asked if they could display “Lepidoptera” in the Aurifil threads booth at Quilt Market next week. I was thrilled. If you are going, check it out there!

Mom’s Tulip Bag

My mom, Ellie Brubaker, just finished making up her version of my Tulip Bag pattern, and it is so cute! The colors are so spring-y and fun. She tends to like smaller bags as purses, and is planning to use hers as a tote bag. (It is 14" high x 14" wide x 6" deep.)

Mom meets Quilt Man

My mother and her friend, Carole Spahn (shown above on the left), went to Paducah for the AQS show last week and met a superhero! It was “Quilt Man,” a.k.a. Fowler Black, who is group sales director for the Paducah-McCracken County Convention & Visitors Bureau. Mom says he was riding around town on a Segway, dressed in a quilted cape and mask, promoting Paducah, Quilt City, U.S.A.

What a fun job!


Photo by Carole Spahn

A new online community at QuiltingArts.com

Have you heard the news? Quilting Arts magazine has created a wonderful online community for fiber artists on their website. It’s a place to learn, show off your art, and make friends with other art quilters. It’s very easy to sign up and use. To find out more, go to www.quiltingarts.com and click the JOIN button. There is also a link to the place where you can watch videos that show you how to use the site.

And here’s some more exciting news: The finalists for the 2010 Quilting Arts Calendar competition, including my two entries, are posted on the site! At the end of the month, Quilting Arts will select 13 of these pieces to include in the calendar. They are all really wonderful. You can see all the finalists, and rate the entries and comment on them, by clicking here. I’d love to see what you think of mine, so please comment! (I’m not supposed to post my entries before the calendar competition, which is why I’m not including the photos with this post. If you want to see them, you’ll need to go to the QA Community site.) I’ll see you there!

Funny cat photos

Max with “Harbinger’s Hope,” in progress.

A new Facebook friend, Pepper Cory, is running a funny series of posts on her blog she calls “Cats at Work.” Pepper is a fabulous quilter who has written books and articles on quilting, designed fabric, and owned a quilt shop. She has lived in North Carolina since 1996. Today, Pepper is featuring my crazy cat, Max. So I thought I’d share with you some of my best shots of him. There are a few shots of my other cats thrown in for good measure. We all need a good laugh these days. Enjoy.


Riding the wild vacuum cleaner.


Feeling wizardly.


Sleeping with the fishes (“Running Deep”).


I just wanted to look out the window!


Trouble, the scaredy-cat.


I used to be able to fit in this box, honest! Maybe I've been eating too many kibbles...


How nice of you to make me this comfy pillow.


Stretched out.


Deep asleep.


Max snuggling with Trouble.


Guarding the door.


Napping in a shady spot.


Hogging the bed.


Now this box fits me a bit better.


A perfectly shaped basket.


Okay, where are the fish?

Art in the cards

Three of my friends are featured in the newly-released Charlotte “Art in Hand” deck of playing cards: Betsy Birkner, Nancy G. Cook and Janet A. Lasher. That’s Nancy’s card featured on the promotional postcard above (it’s the yellow seedpod, fourth from the left). Each artist chose the card she/he wanted, and created a piece of art a certain size that contained the number and suit. Each of the works were photographed and printed on playing cards. Cool.

Even cooler, you can purchase the original artwork starting May 16 at the Creative Art Exhange in Cornelius.

I’m going to buy a deck soon, and I’ll post more photos when I do.

Tyvek class on Joggles this summer

I’m going to be teaching my online Tyvek class again this summer through Joggles. I took an online course last summer, learned a ton and got completely hooked on the concept. No matter where you live, now you can take a course to learn something new or improve your technique, via the internet.

If you’ve never taken an online course, here’s how it works: You sign up and pay the class fee. A few weeks before the class starts, they send you a supply list. On the first day of the class, you get an e-mail that gives you information and passwords for signing up to participate in the class forums. Here, you can write messages to the instructor, share your thoughts, progress and photos of your work with your fellow students.

You don't have to participate in the forums, or you can just lurk and read your fellow students’s comments, so it is perfect for people who are a little introverted, too!

Each week of the class, you receive an e-mail with the lesson in PDF format. When I took an online course, I learned a ton from the teacher and my fellow students, and made some wonderful online friends, too. There is lots of fun and sharing that goes on.

My class, Tyvek Explorations, starts July 28. Four lessons cost $40.

The photos in this post show some of the projects and techniques I’ll be covering in the class.

Happy Earth Day!

“Home Planet” by Susan Brubaker Knapp
2009 Quilting Arts Calendar selection for the month of April

My Earth Day resolutions for the coming year:
Buy more locally-grown produce.
Take reusable bags to the grocery store.
Turn off lights when not needed.
Use less water.
Combine errands to save gas and reduce emissions.
Recycle glass, plastic, metal and paper.

I’m all a-twitter!

Okay, I’m trying out this Twitter thing. Everyone else is doing it. If you twitter, too, you can find me under BlueMoonRiver. Please be patient; it might take me a while to get the hang of this!

Ardea’s Nest

There’s a brief profile of me and a photo of my “Gossamer” on the Ardea’s Nest, the blog of Melissa Haren, today. Melissa has done something pretty interesting. She’s contacting artists whose work she admires, and asking if she can post about them and their work. Today’s post is the first in what looks to be a series of posts with little profiles, photos and links.

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!