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NOTE: I will not be publishing my newsletter this week. Whaaaat? You’re not on my mailing list? My readers tell me how much they enjoy it. You can sign up here. I was so excited to attend the opening of “Commentaries in Cloth” at the Gallery at Natomas 48 in Folsom, CA. Currently showing is the work of the Pixeladies (Deb Cashatt and Kris Sazaki) and Susan Else, as well as the work of Quartz, the mini art group from my home guild, the Folsom Quilt and Fiber Guild. So three shows in one! I didn’t get all the photos…
I had a play date yesterday, a rarity for me. I met with Linda Waddle, Lin Schiffner and Denise Schmidt to play with paper lamination and molding paste. Oh did I have fun! Linda is an expert at many methods of surface design and shared her techniques and knowledge with us. She has studied with Jane Dunnewold and regularly uses laminated paper in her work. I wish I had thought to take photos of some of her work yesterday. She uses paper laminate in a variety of ways in her work and I saw how useful this technique could be…
I love teaching at Craft Napa! For the foreseeable future it will continue to be virtual. Craft Napa students are unique: they tend to have large stashes of all manner of ephemera, paints, dyes, stamps, markers, screens and of course, fabric. This is a great example of why online classes can be fabulous. One student showed her jacket in process, and I felt like the white lace she had chosen was not the best choice, it needed some color. Well, not more than 30 minutes later, she had dyed the lace and added it to the jacket! That’s how…
I am a Board member of the Northern California Quilt Council, and we we are a laison of sorts between teachers, guilds, shops and others in the Northern California quilting industry. When I first began to travel to teach in 2010, almost 100% of my gigs came through NCQC’s Meet the Teacher events. We do a great job of connecting those in the quilting industry in Northern California and beyond. We are a FUN Board with wildly varying areas of talent. We decided the name of this year’s January meeting was the “Diva Demos” and we each would wear…
“Make a quilt coat” they said. “It will be fun, easy and fast”! Um, no. It was fun. Fast and easy, no. It was an adventure. This is a really long post and very garment-centric. Some of you may not be interested in the details, so feel free to scroll through the pretty pictures! Several crucial decisions were made, some of which made it more complicated than it needed to be: My choice of pattern, the Tamarack by Grainline includes set in sleeves, which is a bit challenging when using quilted fabric. The pattern I chose did not include darts.…
NOTE: I won’t be sending a newsletter this week. Also, I have a separate post here in which I write about my visit to the current exhibition of textile art at the Visions Art Museum in San Diego. Hubby, my youngest son and I decided to spend Christmas in San Diego; it’s kinda sorta half way between my son and Hubby and me. There is so much to do in SD and the weather is just perfect, so why not? I booked us at the Hyatt Manchester which is on the harbor, close to the convention center; rates were very…
NOTE: I won’t be sending a newsletter this week. Also, I have a separate post here in which I write about my Christmas visit to San Diego. Lucky me! Hubby and son went golfing, so I Ubered down to the Visions Art Museum to tour their current textile exhibits. The main current exhibit was “Quilt Visions 2022“, which is described here: “As humans, we ponder age-old questions of identity and community. Who am I? Where do I fit in? For generations, people have turned to philosophy, science, spiritual wisdom, poetry, and art for answers and solace. We may now also turn to…
I am skilled at taking something simple and making it complex. So, the quilt coat…. First, what pattern to use? I didn’t want darts, fancy seaming or lots of pieces. After culling through my existing patterns, I settled on the Tamarack by Grainline. I initially rejected it because it has a curved hem. I am not fond of curved hems, but I liked the rest of the pattern. I initially redrafted it to have a straight hem, only to then decide that the curved hem wasn’t so bad after all. I kept the curve. I realized too that I needed…
I started my quilt coat. And I’ve made some odd decisions that I must explain. Unfortunately the instructor for the class is ill, so I decided to forge ahead on my own. I may be doing several stupid things😊 First, a story. I was Program Chair for my local quilt guild, the Folsom Quilt and Fiber Guild. Twice. On my first go round, maybe 2006-ish?, I hired Rachel DK Clark to come for a lecture and class. Rachel is a phenom; she is a prolific maker of exquisite garments (mainly coats), also makes fabulous quilts and is just a hoot.…
I am cobbling this together at the last minute. My world has not stopped spinning since before Thanksgiving and I keep on thinking it will slow down! My Thanksgiving was wonderful! Both sons and my Daughter-in-Law were here and it was a cozy family holiday. Our Grandson has reached a new development stage and it was so fun! He is almost 2 and a very chatty little guy. At one point he threw some food on the floor and of course, he was warned not to do it again. I casually said “Zero Tolerance Policy” and he parroted back something…