Inspired! Creativity Cards

Stuck in a rut? Discouraged? Need something to spur some new ideas? Try C&T Publishing’s new deck of 36 cards with motivating thoughts and beautiful quilt images called Inspired! Creativity Cards. One side of the cards contain little pearls of wisdom from some of C&T’s authors, including me!

The other side has detail shots of gorgeous quilts, both traditional and contemporary. Retail price: $9.95.

Quilt & Fiber Art Emporium 2010 coming up!

Marianne Fons (left) from Love of Quilting magazine and TV show is the keynote speaker at the Quilt & Fiber Art Emporium 2010, to be held in Hickory, NC, April 30 through May 2. Bernina of America is a show sponsor.

The event includes classes, lectures, demonstrations, a vendor mall and a large display area of quilts and crafts. 

Want to go?

Hickory Metro Convention Center

Hickory, NC

Friday, April 30: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Saturday, May 1: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Sunday, May 2: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
PRICE: One day admission: $7.50
INFO: http://www.quiltandfiberart.com/

My friend, Rene Crowder (left), who owns Rene’s Quilt Shop in Mooresville, is teaching her famous “Mile a Minute” Quilt on Sunday from 10 to 1:30. 

Another friend, Judy Whitehead of Goneaway Quilting, will be a vendor. Judy is a long-arm quilter who also creates fabulous hand-dyed fabrics, and will be carrying some of my patterns. You can see more about Judy in this previous post.

On the A-Team

 A few weeks ago, AURIfil Thread asked me to be part of their A-Team. Woo-hoo! I have been a big fan of AURIfil for years, so I am thrilled to be included in the list of artists, designers and educators that AURIfil selected to be part of this team. I’m going to be sharing with them projects that I do with their threads, and adding my name to the list of some very talented quilters who endorse the AURIfil brand.

They recently sent me this 48-spool thread kit! Here is the front:

and the back:

I selected mostly 50-weight Cotton Mako (orange spool), because it is perfect for thread sketching. I’ve been using it in the projects I’m doing for my series in Quilting Arts magazine on thread sketching, including this one:

 Vanity (detail)

Cotton Mako 50 is the lightest weight Egyptian cotton thread that AURIfil makes, and because it is so fine, it doesn’t cause my work to draw up the way heavier thread would. And there’s no heavy thread buildup, just a nice sheen. It works magnificently in the bobbin, whether I’m using a heavier thread on the top, or the same weight. And unlike some other threads, it almost never breaks, and it leaves practically no lint in my machine.

They even let me pick the colors! What a treat; it’s like having a humungous new box of crayons. Here is just one panel of their current thread card. If you’ve never seen a thread card before, it is what quilt shop owners get if they carry a particular brand of thread so they can pick the colors they want to purchase. Cotton Mako 50 comes in 260 solid and varigated colors, and I want them all!

I’ve said it before: when you make traditional quilts, it’s all about the fabric, really. At least I didn’t pay much attention to the thread when I was making traditional quilts. But now, my thread stash is as important as my fabric stash. 

Here’s a look at the outside of the AURIfil 48-spool thread kit. I think their packaging is very stylish. Maybe it’s that great Italian fashion sense.

Their display racks for shops are spectacular too. Here’s a shot I took at the spring 2009 Quilt Market, the trade association shows for everyone who buys and sells products for quilting. Don’t they look like works of art themselves?

(That’s my quilt Lepidoptera on the wall behind the stand.)

wool Lana thread

And look at their cones of thread!

And last, but certainly not least, AURIfil has top-notch, and exceedingly kind and friendly, people to work with. Here are (from left) Davide Moro, Alex Veronelli, and Elena Gregotti:

AURIfil’s blog (AURIfil Buzz) – http://auribuzz.wordpress.com/

AURIfil’s website – http://www.aurifil.com

Never say never

Nothing Could Be Finer (wallhanging size, 34" x 46")

You know that old saying, “Never say never!”? Well, I’ve never had one of my quilts quilted by someone else. I’ve always said that it would feel like sending my children to boarding school. 

But…

I’m in the middle of a mighty big project, and one or two other medium sized ones, and a whole bunch of smaller ones, and… I’m doing it! Yes, I am relinquishing control and sending my quilt, the wall hanging version of Nothing Could Be Finer, to be quilted! I’m getting busy enough that I think I’m going to have to do more of this in the future for my quilt pattern business. Because I do so much thread sketching on my art quilts, I can’t see ever sending them to someone else for the quilting. But hey, if it is good enough for Nancy Crow…!

Luckily it is a friend, and someone who I trust to do spectacular work, Judy Whitehead. Judy is a fellow artist, and has been turning out beautiful quilts for customers through her longarm quilting business, Goneaway Quilting, since 2003.You can see some of her work by clicking here.

You can see her art, both quilts and drawings, by clicking here.

Judy Whitehead with Beach Eleven

Nothing Could Be Finer is a design I created for the 2010 North Carolina Symposium's donation quilt. The larger version was beautifully appliqued and pieced by women in the Charlotte Quilters Guild. Here is a photo of it:

Nothing Could Be Finer (82" x 84")

It was hand appliqued by some very talented members of the guild, and then longarm machine quilted by Kay Giese.

Detail of Kay’s quilting

Detail of Kay’s quilting

In the next few weeks, I have to finish up the pattern for this quilt. It will include instructions for both the large and small sizes, and will be for sale at Symposium. Proceeds from both the raffle of the big quilt and from sales of the pattern 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. For more details, check out the 2010 Symposium Blog.

My work featured in SAQA ad

I got word last night that my work Red Coleus is featured in an advertisement for the SAQA Auction! SAQA, or Studio Art Quilt Associates, is a group of fiber artists, and this auction of several hundred small art quilts donated by its members brings in a lot of money each year. The money raised goes towards SAQA’s exhibtions, education, and outreach programs.

The ad will run in Fiberarts, Surface Design Journal, Selvedge, and American Craft magazines. Here is the whole piece:

If you are a fiber artist and don’t know about SAQA, you should! SAQA offers so many things for fiber artists who are serious about their art. There are great professional development opportunities, including conferences and programs, exhibitions, online galleries, and publications. You can join as an active member, professional artist member, or as a student member.

IQF moves spring venue from Chicago to Cincinnati in 2011

Quilts, Inc., the producers of International Quilt Festival, announced today that the location of the show’s spring edition will move from Chicago to Cincinnati, Ohio, beginning in 2011.

The first International Quilt Festival in Cincinnati will take place April 8-10, 2011, with Preview Night and classes beginning April 7. Spring Festival’s new home will be the Duke Energy Convention Center.

“We're all about trying new things, and after eight years in our current location, we're happy that we will be able to act on many of the suggestions made on our recent attendee surveys,” says Festival director Karey Bresenhan.

“These include such things as providing easier parking, more accommodation options, and access to a great variety of restaurants at all price levels. All will be available when we make this move.”

The final edition of International Quilt Festival/Chicago will take place as usual from April 16-18 of this year (with Preview Night and classes beginning on April 15) at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, in Rosemont, Illinois.

“We've enjoyed making new friends at our Chicago-area show, and we’re looking forward to seeing many of them just about 300 miles away in our new location,” Bresenhan continues. “I think this shows that we're really sincere in our desire to seek out and act upon well-thought-out suggestions for improving our shows to make them as appealing to quilters and quilt lovers as possible.”

Introducing Linn Shimek

Trading Post by Linn Shimek 35" x 48"

In February, I received an e-mail from Linn Shimek of Sebring, Florida. She wrote: “I have one of your ATCs from the Houston Show on my quilt entry for the International Quilt Festival/Chicago (April 16-18). I traded 30 ATCs in Houston and mounted all of them on a quilt called Trading Post and was lucky enough to be accepted in Chicago. Just wanted you to know your card will be there and hope you will too.

“I didn’t realize I had one of your ATCs on my quilt until I saw your article in the latest Quilting Arts magazine on thread sketching and saw the picture of Indian Corn, which is similar to the card… I love your work and do a lot of thread painting myself. ”

Oh, Linn, I wish I were going! I have too many deadlines right now to make this show. I’m lucky that I’ve been able to get to the IQA Houston show three times, but have never been to their Chicago show. It is one of my long-term goals to make it to both the IQA shows in Chicago and Long Beach. 

Look at her beautiful quilt! Isn’t this a wonderful way to display small pieces of art in one bigger piece? And look at all the cool buttons and beads she used! The ATC (Artist's Trading Card) that I made is in the middle of the third row from the top. Here are some of the ATCs like it that I made to trade at International Quilt Festival in Houston last year:

Linn says that her Trading Post piece was a result of a group challenge. She belongs to a group of ten artists called Frayed Edges, and they decided to make “chrysalis quilts – rectangles pieced in unlike fabrics and a smaller rectangle fused in the center of the larger ones with a fabric bead (chrysalis) in the center of each small rectangle.” She tried to think of a unique idea for the challenge, and happened to glance at the ATCs, which were hanging on a bulletin board. It gave her the idea to replace the fabric beads in the centers of the small rectangles with the cards.

“Voila!” says Linn. “Trading Post was conceived! I had a piece of red burlap just the right size in my stash for the top base of the quilt. Loved the color! I needed to make it a quilt so added cotton batting and backing. For design continuity I used all poka dot fabrics in different colors. The cards are hanging on yoyos and buttons so they can be turned to see the maker’s name. I added a scrappy border with fabric beads and the bottom is fringed burlap with fabric and glass beads hanging.”

Linn has been quilting for about 30 years, but only really got interested in art quilting after retirement. She is in several local art quilt groups: SSS ArtWorks, Contemporary Art Quilters, Frayed Edges, and Art Quilters Unlimited of Fort Myers.

Last year was the first time she entered a major show (the West Palm Beach Show), and she won a second place ribbon with her quilt Sultry Shadows.

Here are more photos of Linn’s wonderful thread-sketched pieces:

Banana by Linn Shimek

Rocky Mountain Columbine by Linn Shimek, 31" x 35"

Rocky Mountain Columbine (detail) by Linn Shimek

   
I wish Linn all the best with her work and with her show entries. It is so nice to meet other quilt artists in these unexpected ways.

Blue Ribbon Quilt Shoppe has PPP as a block of the month program

If you want to make my Pink Petal Party quilt (featured in my book/pattern pack Appliqué Petal Party by C&T Publishing), here’s a great way to get the pattern and the fabrics, a little bit each month…

The Blue Ribbon Quilt Shoppe in Wylie, Texas, is offering it as a block of the month program! You get the pattern pack and all batik fabrics. Here are the prices:

Start-up fee: $9.98
Pattern fee: $17.95
Monthly fee: $22.00

You can check out all the details and sign up on their website. But hurry! It starts the weekend of April 17!

Huge give-aways at I Have a Notion

Want a chance at winning some amazing stuff? Hustle your bustle over to Kelly Jackson’s I Have A Notion blog. Kelly founded the online store, I Have a Notion, one year ago, and she’s celebrating with 30 days of giveaways. This week, Kelly will be giving away my Tulip Bag pattern and a set of my Orchid Notecards.

Here’s just some of the stuff you could win:

Amy Butler fabrics and patterns
Scissor fob by Simply Tracy
The book It’s a Wrap II by Susan Breier
Mistyfuse
Toni Whitney pattern
Eleanor Burns pattern
Isacord thread
Batik fat quarters
Dupioni silk
Qtools Cutting Edge Strips and Sewing Edge Strips
The book Laundry Basket Quilts by Edyta Sitar
Mark Lapinski thread collection by AURIfil thread
pattern from QuiltWoman distributors
rulers from Simplicity Studio rulers
The book Floorquilts by Ellen Highsmith Silver
Roc-lon Multi-Purpose Cloth
Mod Podge
Mary Ellen's Best Press clear starch alternative
Kaleidoscope Kreator 3 software
GrabARoo’s gloves
The book Hook, Loop & Lock by Theresa Pulido
Texture Magic by Superior Threads
Reliable Corporation's Digital Steam Velocity V100 iron
Sizzling Circles pattern by Lacey Hill of Golden Thyme Designs
Books and notions courtesy of Checker Distributor
Thread carousel by Virginia Lauer
Quilt Design Wizard software by Electric Quilt Company
Famore Cuttlery scissors and seam ripper

This is the last week of the event, which runs March 15 through April 15 (this Thursday!) , but you still have time to enter all of the giveaways. All you have to do is to leave a comment after the post for the items you want to win. All the drawings will take place at the end of the event.

I met Kelly Jackson last fall when I was attending Quilt Market in Houston. The Hilton only had free internet service in the lobby, so guess where all the quilting bloggers congregated each night, sometimes in pajamas (in the wee hours of the night)? At first, I thought it was going to be a giant pain in the rear to go down there every night, and then I realized that it was THE place to be. I met some really wonderful people there, and made some great business contacts.

Kelly was one of them. Her online store includes books, DVDs, Electric Quilt software, lighting and magnification products, patterns, notions, paintstiks, travel tools, hangers and holders, punchneedle patterns and materials, threads and floss, and much more I can’t list here. And she’s a really nice – and really funny – woman.

On Monday, April 12, Kelly is posting about a chance to win an AccuQuilt Go Fabric Cutter! It is a revolutionary way to cut fabric... “safe, easy to use, accurate, and 90 percent faster than rotary cutting and scissors.” Retail value is $349.

I Have a Notion direct links:
Blog Link: http/www.ihaveanotion.blogspot.com/
Website Link: http://ihavea-notion.com/store/

Wanna win this? Here’s how!

Quilting Arts and Bernina are giving away a brand new Bernina Aurora 440QE sewing machine to the winner of their “Stitch This!” competition. Wow!

To participate, you have to make a 14 x 11" art quilt interpreting this lovely swan photo:

Members of the Quilting Arts community will have the chance to vote on the competition entries and decide the winner. You can read all the details on the Quilting Arts website. But you better get hopping! You stand the best chance of accumulating the most votes if you have images of your art quilt to Quilting Arts by May 2, 2010. The winner will be chosen on June 28.

Fun at the East Cobb Quilters’ Guild

I just returned from teaching two workshops and speaking to the East Cobb Quilters’ Guild in Marietta, Georgia, near Atlanta. What a wonderful, warm group of quilters! I was invited to teach there after Danielle Morgan wrote me; at the time, I think she was the guild president, and discovered my blog and website. That’s Danielle above with the wonderful dragonfly she created in the thread sketching class I taught on Saturday.

I can’t tell you how wonderfully they treated me; taking me for great meals, helping me schlep all my stuff in and out of several different workshop and meeting sites, helping me set up, helping me sell my patterns, book and DVD, but most of all, helping me out when I got sick. It is hard to be away from home and attempting to be professional when you are sick. Especially sick the way I was sick (I will spare you the details, but you can take my word for it that it wasn't pretty.) Luckily, it was only a 12-hour bug and I was back on my feet in time to speak to the guild on Friday morning.

What a great program chair this guild has in Pam Cornutt. She is a ball of energy, and was unfailingly helpful, organized and cheerful. 

After the guild meeting, Linda Christensen came up to me, excited to see my rust-dyed piece. She had been collecting rusty stuff, and after talking with me and finding me to be a fellow admirer of rust, went out to her car and brought back a big box filled with the most marvelous rusty bits. Look at this!

These are scraps from a metal stamping company. Wow, wow, wow! Thank you, Linda! I wish I had time to work with these right now, but they might have to wait until I get some big projects finished up. (After I took this photo, by daughter came in and said, “Those are interesting rusty things on the kitchen counter, Mama… you have had a tetanus shot lately, haven’t you?”)

Asking students to complete evaluation forms after I teach a class is something I started to do recently. I’m so glad I decided to do it, because I’m getting wonderful feedback from my students. Most of them gave my two classes and my teaching good marks, and that was reassuring. But the constructive criticism and suggestions were invaluable. It made me wonder why more teachers – and more guilds, for that matter – don’t make teacher/class evaluations a regular thing.

Not quite right

Here’s a new piece I just finished. I needed a new sample to take to the class I’m teaching later this week for the East Cobb Quilters’ Guild in Marietta, Georgia (near Atlanta). So I was hurrying, hurrying, hurrying along, but I had a vague feeling that something was not quite right. Nothing I could quite put my finger on. But I was in a rush, so I ignored that nagging sensation and moved along. The minute I finished quilting. I knew what it was. Do you? Yep. The dragonfly’s wings are on upside down. Aaaaaaaaaaaaargh!

Beyond the wing issue (I will never look at this piece without knowing it is WRONG!), there are some things I love about this piece, and somethings I'd do differently. I love the beautiful colors and texture in the wings. I love that hand-dyed background. I love the circle raindrops, where I did some thread sketching on the surface, and then some quilting to add dimension. But if I had to do it again, I'd do more dragonflies, probably three (the one looks kind of plunked there), or at least not center the one dragonfly so much on the piece. I could have added more movement to the piece if I had quilted it differently.

Regardless of the design flaws, and the wing malfunction, it is still a good sample to demonstrate the techniques I’ll be teaching. I’m going to teach my “Start With a Photo” workshop where we make my Round Red Barn design this Thursday, meet with some of the quilters that night, then do my presentation at the guild meeting on Friday, and teach a thread-sketching class (the dragonfly) on Saturday. I just love meeting and teaching other quilters! It is going to be fun.

What do you think I should name this piece?

Trials and tribulations

In the past month, I have been working on getting better shots of my quilts, and learning how to take better how-to shots that I can use on my blog. There have been days when I wanted to rip my hair out. I am an artistic photographer, not a technical one. Today, the members of Fiber Art Options came over for our monthly meeting, and to photograph all of our work from the "Orchids: Sensuality Stitched" exhibition that just closed at Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden. Our goal is to create a CD of our work to send out to potential future venues.

We worked inside today, with professional flash units and light stands, and pinned each piece to my design wall. We rigged nylon fabric over the flash units to soften and diffuse the light. We bounced the lights at a 45 degree angle off foamcore positioned at the sides of the pieces. We tried putting one flash to the side, to skim light over the surface (the result was hot spots, or bright areas, near that flash, even at lower settings). We experimented with setting the flashes at different power settings. I shot in manual mode, and I played some with my f-stop and my shutter speed and my ISO. You can see the result here:

The color is fairly close. The light is even, and I think the exposure is okay. But it is totally flat. When you zoom in, the detail is okay, and you can see the stitching, but it looks like a painting and not a quilt.

If you look at the photo at the top of this post, you can see a photo I took a few months ago of the same piece. The texture is great. I took it outside. I put it on the ground, got up on a ladder, and shot straight down. It was a sunny day, and either early morning (9-ish) or later in the afternoon (4-ish) to avoid the harsher lighting of mid-day. I shot in auto mode.

If you read my post earlier this month, you can see the little foam core “stage” I set up to shoot my smaller pieces and how-to shots. This quilt is too big to fit on that stage, so it had to be shot in a different way.

So… here’s my big question: Why is the first shot so much better? What am I doing wrong when I shoot inside? If you know and can help me, please leave a comment! I’d really like to have some of my hair at the end of the month. Thanks.

NOTE: Since writing this, I have had several e-mails from people suggesting Holly Knott's excellent information called “Shoot that Quilt!” on her website. I read it long ago, and built her stands and purchased the special bulbs. I’m still not getting the texture. I just e-mailed  her, and when I hear back, I will certainly share what I learn by posting here. The lights I’m using now are professional level flash units, so that changes all the variables. 


LATER NOTE: Here is Holly's response to my plea for help: 
"Hi Susan! I hear your frustration! Just checked out your blog post and you are certainly doing all the right things. It’s all in the lighting. You have to light one side brighter than the other, to create little shadows from the raised areas in-between your quilting lines. The only thing I can think of is that even though you’ve tried different lighting scenarios, that perhaps you’ve evenly lit *both* sides of the piece. You’ll want one side to be lit a little brighter than the other. I’m guessing that your quickie shot taken outdoors that shows the quilting fabulously worked because the sun was hitting it at an angle. Perhaps try moving one light stand close to the quilt and aiming it at a 25-degree angle across it, and move the other light stand to the other side of the quilt but farther away, 45-degree angle as you normally would, just to make sure that side of the quilt isn’t in total darkness. Possibly even try a brighter bulb in the light closest to the quilt. See this very quick graphic in case this doesn’t make sense:

"Also, you mentioned using flash units. Are they literally flashes, that only go off when the shutter clicks? I never use those myself (unless I’m taking a quickie auto shot) because I can’t see the light before it goes off (compared to the fixed lights on the stands that you can move around and judge brightness with because they’re always on). "


Thanks, Holly! I guess it is back to the drawing board! Stay tuned, everyone!

Very lucky

I have a knack for finding four-leaf clovers. I’m not sure exactly why, but I suspect that my figure-ground perception is especially acute. I found one on my daily walk Monday, and gave it to my friend Nancy G. Cook, for her 70th birthday. I hope it brings her another decade of good luck. Today I found another, the one pictured above!

According to information I found online, scientists estimate that there are about 10,000 three-leaf clovers for every four-leaf clover. The four-leaf clover has long been a symbol of good luck, its petals said to represent faith, hope, love and luck.

When I was a child, my mother used to sing me a song about four-leaf clovers that had a lovely melody. I found it online, attributed to Ella Higginson, born 1861, (published in An American Anthology, 1787-1900):

I know a place where the sun is like gold,
and the cherries bloom forth in the snow
and down underneath is the lovliest nook,
where the four-leaf clovers grow.

One leaf is for faith, and one is for hope.
And one is for love, you know,
And God put another one in for luck,
if you search you will find where they grow.

But you must have faith, you must have hope
You must love and be strong, and so…
If you work and you wait, you will find the place
where the four-leaf clovers grow.

Today I celebrate my Celtic ancestry; I have a good amount of Scot-Irish in my bloodlines. Happy St. Patrick’s Day, everyone. Three cheers for the lovely Emerald Isle!

I’m a cover girl!

Well, I never thought I’d be saying this, but I’m a cover girl! No, not a scantily clad model, or a spokeswoman for Covergirl makeup… My art is on the cover of the next issue of Quilting Arts magazine! I made this peacock feather piece called “Vanity” to demonstrate how you can use thread to highlight the element of line in your work.

It’s featured in the second installment of my thread-sketching series, which will run through 2010. 

You can pre-order the April/May 2010 issue of Quilting Arts right now by clicking here. It will be going out to subscribers in the next few weeks, and on newsstands (including Barnes & Noble) soon after that.

I am over the moon!

Dreams of ancient Persia

I have just finished listening to the audio version a wonderful book by Susan Fletcher called Alphabet of Dreams that has me dreaming of ancient Persia. It is set at the time of the birth of Jesus, and follows the story of a 14-year-old girl and her little brother, who are of royal blood, but hiding out in the City of the Dead in Rhagae after their father's failed attempt to overthrow the king.

The best of books transport you into a different place and time, and this one has me thinking of pomegranates, dates and chickpeas, of royal purple tunics and fine woven linen, of camels and donkeys and Magi, and prophesies… If you are looking for a good read, I recommend it.

When I have grown weary of this world and its problems as I am today, it helps me to create something. I did this little sketch after finishing the last chapter. Perhaps it will end up in an art quilt someday.

The Pandoras play with PhotoEZ sheets

At our monthly Pandoras meeting today, we played with PhotoEZ sheets. This product allows you to create your own silk screen stencils without chemicals or heavy equipment. To see a step-by-step tutorial on the PhotoEZ website showing how to create the stencil, click here.

We met at Grace Howes’ house, since she had done this before. It is best to apply the PhotoEZ in a semi-dark room, since it is photosensitive, so we had some funny moments crammed into her coat closet in the dark and then running outside to expose them in the sun. But the laughs stopped when none of our stencils came out! What was wrong? We tried and tried and nothing worked. Until Alisan arrived and read the directions. Duh! We had layered them incorrectly! As soon as we actually followed the directions (and made one call to the PhotoEZ headquarters help line), we were fine.

I started with this design I made from a paper cutout, scanned, repeated and resized in Photoshop:

Here’s how the stencil looks:

The green stuff is Duck Tape (a brand of heavy-duty tape similar to duct tape that is sold at craft stores and comes in funky colors) used to create a bigger surface for the paint to sit on before it is pulled down across the stencil.

When I got home, I played with screen printing onto fabric. I didn't have a squeegee, so I used an old gift card, which meant that I had to pull the ink down in several swoops. I need practice at this part, and get a real squeegee. And I need to try some different kinds of paints and inks to see what works best. Here are my very first results, using the old gift card and Jacquard Textile Color (a blue and green on the streaky one):

This is something I definitely want to try more! I think I need Grace to give me some lessons on the printing part.

Curious? You can read more about using PhotoEZ in Belinda Spiwak’s article in the current (March/April 2010) issue of Cloth Paper Scissors magazine. 

When I got home, I called in to be interviewed on Pat Sloan’s Creative Talk Radio Show. Once I got over my nerves, it was such fun. Pat is a sweetie! We talked for about a half hour, and then Pokey Bolton, editor of Quilting Arts magazine, joined us. If you want to hear the whole thing, just go to the website by clicking here, and then click on the 03-08-10 title under “Recent Shows” at the top of the sidebar on the right. Then go to Pat’s blog (click here), where you can leave a comment and get the chance to win a copy of Appliqué Petal Party, or my Piñata Purse pattern, or a set of my orchid series notecards.