Two down, three to go!

I just finished quilting and facing Purple Phalaenopsis last night, and I really like it. I’m still trying to decide if I need to darken a few places to make it clearer which petals are in front. I think I do, but I’m going to take it to the meetings of my two fiber art groups next week and ask their opinions first.

It is interesting to me how valuable it is to take photos of my work and look at them; I see different things, and tend to look at the whole composition in a different way than when the piece is right in front of me.

The metallic paints I used on part of this piece make these spots glisten; they look like satin, and really give the feel of the orchid’s petals. They always look so moist and shimmery to me in real life.

Here are some detail shots to show the quilting:















I have three more orchids to complete by February 1 so that they can hang in an exhibit by Fiber Art Options (details to come soon!). All must be approximately 24 x 36" like this piece. I’m excited to move on to the next one. They are going to look great all hanging together!

I’m a Quilting Arts columnist!

I am pleased as punch to announce that I’ve been asked to write a regular column for one of my very favorite magazines, Quilting Arts, throughout 2010! The subject is thread sketching, using thread to add color, dimension, texture, line, pattern and movement to the surface of an art quilt.

This is something I discuss in my Quilting Arts Workshop DVD, “Master Machine Quilting: Free-motion Stitching and Thread Sketching,” but in the column, I’ll go into a lot more detail and show you how to get great results through exercises, practice and lots of tips. I’m totally jazzed about this opportunity. Look for my first column in the February/March 2010 issue.

Editor Pokey Bolton announced this in the QA daily e-mail, Quilting Daily, which also includes my top 10 tips for resolving tension issues.

I’ve been a fan of Quilting Arts for years. If you want to learn more about art quilting, and you don’t subscribe to Quilting Arts, you are really missing out. With each issue, I learn something new and find exciting techniques to try. And there are also wonderful profiles on fiber artists, and fantastic eye candy. The Quilting Arts online community is also a great place to meet other art quilters, share ideas and make friends.

Quilting “Purple Phalaenopsis”

I started quilting Purple Phalaenopsis this afternoon. Here are a few shots. I am using drapery-weight cotton fabric for the backing, and Matilda batting (40 percent wool/60 percent polyester) inside, and it is staying nice and flat, despite the heavy quilting in some areas. I used this combination on Lepidoptera earlier this year and was very pleased with the results. My friend Nancy G. Cook suggested it.



The challenge here is to add interest, color and texture with the quilting, but still make some petals and flower parts appear to come forward. I may go back in with a bit more paint, or even some permanent markers, and add some additional shading, as I am not entirely pleased with this aspect of the piece right now.

Win this book: Threadwork Unraveled by Sarah Ann Smith

I’ve been online friends with Sarah Ann Smith for several years, but just met her at Quilt Market and Festival this fall, and guess what? She has a great new book just out, too! To celebrate, we are both giving away copies of our books. Leave a comment here on my blog after this post, and you can enter to win her book or her Nourish pattern (see photo below). Go to Sarah’s blog, where she is reviewing my book, Appliqué Petal Party, leave a comment after her post, and you can enter to win my book or my Pinata Purse pattern. Double the fun!

I’ll draw a winner at random from those who post by noon on Monday, Dec. 16.

Here is a photo of Sarah’s beautiful quilt, Nourish the Body, Nourish the Soul :


Threadwork Unraveled (AQS, 2009, 111 pages, $28.95) is both an excellent reference book on how to use thread to enhance pieced and appliqued quilts, and an inspiring look at how some of today’s best quilt artists are using thread in their work. Best of all, Sarah’s sparkling personality and sense of humor shine through on every page. (Kudos to the AQS editor who was smart enough not to edit out Sarah’s unique voice.)

Threadwork Unraveled provides an amazing amount of information about:

• thread – weights and plies, strength, how it is made, different types of thread and their advantages and disadvantages, and how to select the right type of thread for your project.
• needles – sizes, structure, types, when to change needles, selecting needles for different kinds of threads, and troubleshooting tips.
• sewing machine basics – throat plate, feet, harp, lighting, speed control, tension, thread path, using a thread stand. Note: This section would be particularly informative for those trying to determine which features they want when purchasing a new machine.
• workspace and ergonomics issues – the sewing surface, chairs, and proper body positioning.
  
• foundations – stabilizers (tear-away, heat-away, wash-away, cut-away/leave in; freezer paper; coffee filters and dryer sheets; machine tape; copy paper/tracing paper), hoops and batting.
• marking tools – pencils, chalk, pens, scoring tools, transfer paper, how to mark a quilt and how to remove markings.
  
• applique – using thread to outline machine applique, and as a design element on its own; using thread to tone down, shade and highlight; stitching options (straight stitch, blind hem, blanket stitch, zigzag stitch, satin stitch, decorative stitches); and using thread to add visual texture, contrast and value.
  
• machine quilting – quilt top, backing, batting, basting, alternatives to pin basting, starting and stopping, stitch length, speed, getting sharp points, practice tips, stitching density, blocking, quilting designs.

But this is not just an excellent reference book. There’s also lots of eye candy, beautiful examples by both Sarah and other accomplished fiber artists (Hollis Chatelain, Gloria Hansen, Joan Hawley, Jane Sassaman, Pamela Allen and more).

In my mind, Sarah’s information on tension (both in the top thread path and in the bobbin) and how to solve tension issues is well worth the entire price of the book. When I teach machine free-motion quilting, at least half of my students’ problems are tension related. Sarah explains these issues in a straight-forward, step-by-step way that will be useful to quilters of all experience levels.

The section of the book that inspired me most was the machine quilting section. Using lots of examples from her own work and that of other exceptional art quilters, Sarah ponders many issues quilters face when trying to decide on how to quilt a particular piece. I learned a lot from this part of the book.

One of my favorite projects in Sarah’s book is the Thread Tension Quilt Reference Sampler. Sarah gives instructions for marking a grid with thread and needle information and tension settings, and then sewing straight, zig zag, and free motion stitches while gradually changing the tension settings. This would be both an educational exercise, and (when completed), a practical tool and reference guide for any sewer. Check it out:



There are also several beautiful projects (a table runner and three small art quilts) quilters can create to learn new techniques and then stitch them with thread.



Sarah is an art quilter and quilt pattern designer who lives in Camden Maine. You can purchase a copy of the book from Sarah on her website. To be entered in the drawing to win her book, take a look at the Gallery section on her website, and leave me a comment after this post, telling me which of her quilts you like best and why.

NOTE: We have two winners! Kate from Hamden, CT, was selected using a random number generator. She wins the book. And Sherri from North Little Rock, AR, won Sarah’s pattern, "Nourish the Body, Nourish the Soul." Congratulations!

Purple Phalaenopsis in progress

Today, I finished painting my next orchid piece for the Fiber Art Options exhibition. It is a purple phalaenopsis orchid painted with acrylic paints on Pimatex PFD (prepared for dyeing) cotton, which has a very tight weave and accepts paint well.

This piece will be about 24 x36" when it is finished. I am very pleased with how the painting turned out, and I can’t wait to start stitching on it!

I started with this photo that I took a year or so ago:


The photo I printed out, from which I worked as I painted, had a good deal more pink and red tones in it, which showed up in my painted version. I think I’m going to use a lot of bright purple thread to unify it a bit. The painted surface has so much detail that I’m not going to do my normal thread sketching on this piece. I’m just going to machine quilt it pretty heavily.

I’m so excited that I fear I will have to force myself to go to bed tonight, and not stay up until the wee hours working on it.

Pink Phalaenopsis

I finished this piece a few months ago, and posted about it in progress, but I don’t think I ever posted a photo of it finished. So here it is. It is called Pink Phalaenopsis, and it is 12x18". I just found out tonight that one of my fiber arts groups, Fiber Art Options, has a definite venue for a group show featuring our orchid pieces. It is time for me to hustle my bustle and finish my four remaining pieces before February 1. They will all be larger pieces, all 24 x 36".

Here are some detail shots:




I have one piece of a purple orchid in progress. I am painting it on white fabric, and the painting is about 3/4 finished. I did some of the painting in my room at the Houston Hilton in the evenings after Quilt Market and International Quilt Festival. I just spread out a big plastic sheet and went to town. I’ll try to post some photos of it later this week.

I’m going to have to put myself on a serious studio schedule to finish these pieces on time (while completing a lot of other things at the same time during the holiday season)!

Good thing I seem to thrive on deadlines. ;-)

Wishful thinking

The kids and I are starting to whip up our annual blizzard of paper snowflakes to decorate the door and windows on the front of our house. We started two nights ago, and are adding a few here and there as we feel like folding and snipping. I love the lacy look, and usually keep them up through February.

I’m dreaming of a white Christmas... Wishful thinking on my part; we rarely get snow here near Charlotte, NC, and when we do, it is usually not enough to play or sled in, and it is soon gone.

Want to learn how to make a paper snowflake? I described it in an old post; click here to see the photos and instructions. We use double-sided tape to stick them to the glass.

Tomorrow, at The Mint!

Tomorrow, Janet A. Lasher and I will be guest speakers at The Mint Museum’s Artists’ Forum. These events are designed to give area artists a platform to discuss their work as well as current issues and activities in their artistic fields. If you are in the area, please come!

The forum is being held in conjunction with American Quilt Classics, 1800-1980: The Bresler Collection, showing at the Mint Museum of Craft + Design now through February 6, 2010. The collection includes spectacular examples of Baltimore Album quilts, crazy quilts, Chintz pictorial quilts, Amish quilts and log cabin quilts.

DETAILS:
Tuesday, Dec. 1
7 to 8:30 p.m.
Mint Museum of Art
2730 Randolph Road, Charlotte NC
Cost: free

Happy Thanksgiving!

Johannes A. Gaertner
To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven.

Anne Frank
I do not think of all the misery, but of the glory that remains. Go outside into the fields, nature and the sun, go out and seek happiness in yourself and in God. Think of the beauty that again and again discharges itself within and without you and be happy.

Melody Beattie
Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.

Fred De Witt Van Amburgh
None is more impoverished than the one who has no gratitude. Gratitude is a currency that we can mint for ourselves, and spend without fear of bankruptcy.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy
As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.

H. U. Westermayer
The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving.

W.J. Cameron
Thanksgiving, after all, is a word of action.

Meister Eckhart
If the only prayer you said in your whole life was “thank you,” that would suffice.

Edward Sandford Martin
Thanksgiving Day comes, by statute, once a year; to the honest man it comes as frequently as the heart of gratitude will allow.

E.P. Powell
Thanksgiving Day is a jewel, to set in the hearts of honest men; but be careful that you do not take the day, and leave out the gratitude.

W.T. Purkiser
Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving.

Theodore Roosevelt
Let us remember that, as much has been given us, much will be expected from us, and that true homage comes from the heart as well as from the lips, and shows itself in deeds.

Surface Design Center and Jane’s new book

A few months ago, I was invited by C&T Publishing to test drive some products they were considering for their new Liquitex Surface Design Center. I created my Indian Corn and Hosta pieces using these products, and they are now touring around the country publicizing this new collection of professional acrylic colors, mediums and inks.

C&T designed this Surface Design Center as a way for quilt shop owners to bring surface design materials into their shops, making them more accessible for quilters who want to explore making art quilts. The Center will include Liquitex Soft Body Acrylic colors and Professional Acrylic Ink! colors, Liquitex Fabric Medium and Matte Gel Medium, and Winsor & Newton brushes.

These are really cool products, and I think you’ll enjoy using them. I had never used the Liquitex Acrylic Inks, and they are really great.

The Surface Design Center debuted at Quilt Festival in Houston to an enthusiastic response.



In conjunction with the Surface Design Center, C&T is releasing a great new book by Jane Davila that teaches you how to use all the products in it. Jane Davila’s Surface Design Essentials (72 pages, $16.95) will be available in January 2010. You can pre-order autographed copies from Jane by e-mailing her at info@janedavila.com

This is a smaller format book with a covered spiral binding that will be a helpful reference for fiber and mixed-media artists. Through 15 techniques and 7 projects, it shows you how to use acrylic paints, mediums, acrylic inks and water soluble pencils on fabric and some unusual, mixed-media surfaces.

In addition to Jane, the following fabulous artists contributed samples for the book:

Natalya Aikens
Terry Grant
Lynn Koolish
Jane LaFazio
Judy Coates Perez
Virginia Spiegel
Elin Waterston

I’ve had a number of questions from people curious about the Liquitex Professional Acrylic Ink! (and yes, the exclamation point is part of the brand name). I’d never used them before this. They come in little bottles like India ink that calligraphers use, with an eyedropper:



Here’s a sample of the inks used in a calligraphy pen on off-white muslin (I mixed the yellow and red in different combinations as I added more ink to the pen making these marks):

What’s really cool about them is that they don’t bleed at all into the fabric.

Here is the ink painted onto the surface of white Kona Cotton. The yellow band at the bottom of the photo was done with watercolor pencils to achieve the bleeding I wanted there; the other marks were made with the inks:


And here are the inks mixed with a bit of Liquitex Fabric Medium and stamped onto Kona Cotton:

The fabric medium acts as an extender (makes the inks go farther), and also keeps the hand of the fabric a bit softer.

You can also dilute them with water and paint on fabric to get a nice watercolor effect, where they bleed out into the fabric.

I really liked using these inks, and plan to buy them in a bunch of different colors and experiment some more.

“Bohemian Bouquet” giveaway!

I’m giving away a copy of all 11 block patterns for my “Bohemian Bouquet” quilt! To enter, just check out my website and then leave a comment on the C&T Publishing Blog, telling which of my patterns you like best. You have to leave your comment on the C&T blog, not mine, to be entered in the contest. Each block is regularly priced at $5 ($55 for the set of 11).

Here are some detail shots from the quilt:

SAQA Frontiers: Art Meets Science

I just got the news that two of my pieces were juried in to the Studio Art Quilt Associates’ exhibition “SAQA Frontiers: Art Meets Science.” They are Lepidoptera and Coleus, shown below.





My friend Nancy G. Cook also had her piece, Southern Hospitality, juried in. There were 147 entries, and juror David Fraser, MD, selected 35 for the exhibition.

This exhibition will travel to the 2010 Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, England. Additional venues are to be determined. This exhibit “explores the unexpected intersections of two seemingly different disciplines, Art and Science. The works focus on inspiration from scientific theories or phenomena expressed in new or unexpected ways, from the harmonies of randomness to the dynamics produced by scientific imagery.”

House Rules 2

I am in the middle of teaching an online course on how to make this little art quilt on joggles.com. I made a version several years ago called “House Rules” that featured only my kids and the dog. When I was getting ready to teach this class, I needed to re-do it so that I could take photos of each step and write directions, so I decided to include the whole gang this time. Yep, even Fishy. That’s him/her on the right, about to get trampled by Miss McDoglington.

How to make a French Knot

Here’s a little tutorial on how to make a French knot. You can download a printable PDF version by clicking here. This is free, so please share it, but keep my name and logo on the printout, okay? Thanks!

Note: Directions here are given for right-handers, but the PDF has photos and directions for left-handers on the second page.


Thread the perle cotton or floss in your embroidery needle, and knot the end. Bring your needle up from the back of the fabric to the front, exactly where you want the knot to form. Pull until the knot is snug against the back of the fabric.

Put the fabric down on a flat surface, like your knee or a table.


Take the thread coming out of the fabric in your left hand between your thumb and pointer finger. Have the needle in your right hand.


Wrap thread over the needle …


and around it three times. (To make a smaller knot, wrap only one or two times.) It should be wrapped tightly, and close to the tip of the needle.


Slide the loops of thread close together, down toward the tip of the needle, holding them with the pointer finger on your right hand. Push the tip of the needle back into the same place where the thread came out (or just a thread or two away).


As it goes in, keep pinching it in place with the thumb and pointer finger of your left hand. The loops must be kept tightly together, or you will not produce a neat, tight knot.

Pull the thread completely through to the back of the fabric, and the knot will form on the front.

Practice, practice, practice!

Lark Books contest

Lark Books has announced a new contest called Quilt It! and is offering some great prizes, including a grand prize of a $100 gift certificate from Hancocks of Paducah and 11 Lark quilting books. Four other quilters (one in each of the four categories in the competition) will each receive the 11 books as well.

Entries are due by Jan. 5. Winners will be announced Feb. 1, and all winning quilts will be posted on www.larkbooks.com.

To enter, read the rules then email them at QuiltIt@larkbooks.com with the title of your piece, at least one photo of your quilt, and the category in which it should be judged. Entries must be an original quilt of any size that incorporates at least three of the following five required elements:

• Bird(s)
• Mountains
• Silver fabric, thread, or item
• Recycled/repurposed material
• Beads
  

The categories are:
1. Best Use of Beading or Beaded Elements
2. Best Use of Hand-Dyed/Altered Fabrics
3. Best Art Quilt
4. Best Use of Recycled Material

The Grand Prize will be awarded to the quilt that exhibits the most quilting creativity, originality, ingenuity, and artistry in addition best use of the required elements.

The Grand Prize winner and Category Prize winners will each receive the following 11 books:
Quilt It with Wool
Simple Contemporary Quilts
Freddy & Gwen Collaborate Again
Quilts, Baby!
Masters: Art Quilts
Color Your Cloth
Pieced Symbols
Quilt National 2009
Creative Quilting with Beads
500 Art Quilts
Pretty Little Mini Quilts

Good luck!

A Tulip Bag of steel

My mother’s friend, Winnie Lemmon, a member of The Village Quilters in Loudon, Tenn., made this super-cute version of my Tulip Bag pattern. Can you tell Winnie’s a Pittsburgh Steelers fan? Just a little bit? She actually made this purse for someone she knows in Pittsburgh. It’s all done up in Steelers black and gold, complete with a little football button on the tab.

Winnie and her husband, Bill, are incredible Steelers fans, and even have a room in their house devoted to Steelers memorabilia.

I grew up in Pittsburgh, so I am waving my Terrible Towel right along with her. Go Steelers!

Nothing Could Be Finer

“Nothing Could Be Finer” is a quilt I designed for the Charlotte Quilters’ Guild’s 2010 Raffle Quilt. It is 82" x 84", and was hand appliqued by some very talented members of the guild, and then longarm machine quilted by Kay Giese. I just love how she quilted it.





Proceeds from the raffle will help cover the expenses of the 2010 North Carolina Quilt Symposium, which will be held in Charlotte at Johnson & Wales University June 3-6, 2010. Teachers now scheduled are:

Bonnie Hunter
Carol Taylor
Velda Newman
Robbi Joy Eklow
Flavin Glover
Cythia Corbin
Terry White
Laura Wasilowski
David Taylor
Susan Purney Mark
Charlotte Angotti
Paula Scaffidi
Janet Lasher
Elin Waterson
Karen Eckmeier
Patti Culea
Pat Sloan
Jenny Raymond
Ellen Anne Eddy
Melody Crust
Karen Stone
Kim Diehl


It’s gonna be great … because (sing along y’all!) “nothing could be finer than to be in Carolina!” For more details, check out the 2010 Symposium Blog.