International Quilt Festival

It is rather surreal to be here having fun at International Quilt Festival while so many of my fellow Americans are suffering after the wrath of hurricane Sandy. My thoughts are with those of you who have been affected. I lived and worked in the NYC-NJ area for several years after I graduated from college, and my heart breaks to see what has happened there. I will be making a contribution to the American Red Cross, and urge you to consider doing the same.

That said, here are photos from International Quilt Festival in Houston.

I took a great class with the queen of Baltimore Album, Elly Sienkiewicz:


Had a great Mexican dinner with some old friends, and some new ones (that's Kelly Jackson of I Have a Notion showing off her dinner, and ribbon-winning Ruth Powers in the background):


It was fun to hear the big winners talk about their quilts at the Winner's Circle luncheon:





By Wednesday, the vendors had all set up their booths:


I have a piece in the "Rituals" exhibition:


The wonderful Karen Bresenhan, Founder and Director Emeritus of International Quilt Festival:


My friends Liz and DeLane are having a blast at their first Festival:


Victoria Findlay Wolfe with her brand new book!


Somehow, I always run into Maggie Winfield at Festival -- but she's hard to miss!


Look at her great collaged shoes!


Jan Girod and Kristen Girod Rodriguez of Fiber on a Whim:


Lynne Koolish demonstrates how to use materials in C&T's new Artful Fiber pack:


Liz Kettle has a book hot off the presses!



Cynthia England demonstrates how she stitches together her spectacular creations:



I volunteered at the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative, which raises money for research:



Susan Lentz with some of her Decision Portraits on display:


Liz and DeLane in their fascinators for Quiltapalooza:








Pat Sloan delivers a huge suitcase of Aurifil thread to one lucky winner.


Bonnie McCaffery prepares to shoot The Quilt Quine, a longarm quilter from Scotland who made this Quilted Yurt.






Bonnie McCaffery interviews Leslie Tucker Jenison and Jamie Fingal about the "Rituals" exhibition they curated. They are standing in front of their pieces.


I've taken many photos of the quilts that I will share with you once I get home!

Location:Houston, Texas

Off to Houston!

I’m headed out tomorrow to Houston, Texas, for International Quilt Festival! I’m going to try to post photos via my iPad while I’m there. I have several pieces showing in exhibitions at Festival:

“I See the Moon” is part of the Rituals exhibition currated by Jamie Fingal and Leslie Tucker Jenison:

“Maximum Cat Nap” and “Trouble in the Pumpkin Patch” are part of a special exhibition on pets:

And this one, “Detritus,” is up for the IQA Auction to raise money for International Quilt Association. It’s a silent auction, where you sign up with the amount you are willing to spend. So if you are going to Festival, please feel free to push up the price!

AAQI Celebrity Invitation Quilt Auction starts Nov. 1

Did you know that the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (AlzQuilts.org) has an online auction during the first 10 days of every month? And each November, in honor of National Alzheimer’s Awareness Month, the AAQI offers 12 very special quilts. 

This year the auction quilts have been made by world-renowned quilters Alex Anderson, Hollis Chatelain, Caryl Bryer Fallert, John Flynn, Diane Gaudynski, Becky Goldsmith, Pat Holly, Libby Lehman, Marsha McCloskey, Sue Nickels, Mary Sorensen, and Ricky Tims.

 The quilts are about 16" x 16" and the auction is open to the public. Last year the 12 quilts offered in the November auction raised more than $14,000 for the AAQI, an all-volunteer effort to raise awareness and fund research through art. Take a look at just a few of the beautiful works being auctioned:

“Clouded” by Hollis Chatelain (16" x 16")

“May the Lord Bless You” by Becky Goldsmith (16" x 16")

“Fresh Flowers for a Friend” by Sue Nickels (16" x 16")

“Sentinels at Sunset II: Someone to Watch Over Me”
by Ricky Tims (14.5" x 12.5")

Visit http://www.alzquilts.org/ciqa.html to preview all the quilts. You can also see them in this video: 



On November 1st you can bid on the quilts here:
http://www.benefitbidding.com/listings/categories/index.cfm?category=965774286

The Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative® (www.AlzQuilts.org) is a national, grassroots charity whose mission is to raise awareness and fund research. The AAQI auctions and sells donated quilts, and sponsors a nationally touring exhibit of quilts about Alzheimer's. The AAQI has raised more than $773,000 since January 2006.

Ami Simms of Flint, Michigan is the founder and executive director of the AAQI, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit operated entirely by volunteers. She is a quilter. Her mother had Alzheimer's.

I’m headed Down Under in 2013

In 2013, I’ll be headed Down Under to teach at the Australasian Quilt Convention in Melbourne, Australia! The event will be held April 18-21. I’m teaching four classes on wholecloth painting and thread sketching. I have never been to Australia before, and I can’t tell you how excited I am to be going, and to be meeting some of the many Australian quilters I’ve come to know through my blog and Facebook.

You can sign up for classes starting on Nov. 5!

Teaching in Hilton Head

I have spent the past two days on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, (lucky me!) with the Palmetto Quilt Guild. What a great bunch of talented women. They have some really amazing appliquers in that guild, including my hostess, Maureen Mack, who took me to several spots on the island so I could get a better look in the short time I was there. 

I took the shot above and these two below at a public park with a beach. I must admit that I like the beach better when it is not summer! We had beautiful blue skies and coolish weather, and it was a wonderful stroll. Aren’t the marsh grasses a lovely shade of chartreuse?

 

 I took this photo of a live oak with Spanish moss at Maureen’s house:

On Thursday night, they took me to a wonderful restaurant on the sound:

… and there was a gorgeous sunset!

Today, I taught my “Round Red Barn” class. The Palmetto Quilt Guild is extremely fortunate to have a large space in which they hold workshops and display their work. It is retail space unfilled due to the recession, and has been “donated” to the guild for several years. What a great use of an empty storefront! The guild also uses it to educate passers-by, and to let people know about the guild and what it does. Very cool!

This is the guild’s donation quilt (below) for their next quilt show (in 2014, I think). It is even more spectacular when you see it in person. It is hand appliqued, and beautifully machine quilted, and is a large queen size (queen with a pillow tuck). For those of you reading this who don’t know what is mean by a “donation quilt,” it is basically a quilt that is raffled off to raise money for the guild or for a charity. In some states, you can’t legally hold raffles, but you can ask people to donate money to your cause for a chance to win. Silly legal semantics, if you ask me!
 

Thanks, Palmetto Quilt Guild!

Uncle Albert’s Reverie

“Uncle Albert’s Reverie” (2012)

Cotton fabric, paper, gel medium, acrylic textile paint, cotton thread,
wool/polyester batting, cotton thread. Free-motion quilted.

I started this piece two years ago… or was it three years ago?… in a great class with Judy Coates Perez at International Quilt Festival – Houston. It’s been hanging on my design wall since then. A few months ago, I pulled it down and quilted it, and a few days ago, I faced and finished it. 

If you don’t know: “Facing” is a way of finishing an art quilt without a binding. I love how it gives the piece a nice crisp edge without the visual frame of a binding. I have two free tutorials (in a downloadable PDFs); one for a non-mitred facing, and a second for a mitred facing. You can download the easier non-mitred facing tutorial here. All my tutorials are available on my blog (in the “Free Stuff” section in the sidebar on the right-hand-side of this blog) or on my website (under the “Free Stuff” section). 

I called this piece “Uncle Albert’s Reverie” because it reminds me of the illustrations in the physiology textbook written by my great-great-grand Uncle Albert Brubaker.

Dr. Albert Philson Brubaker

This piece is 17" x 42". Here are some detail shots: