Blog
I am just no good at trying to cobble together a proper blog post on vacation, from my laptop. Here’s a brief peek at my mini-adventure: We are doing a good job of splitting our vacation to satisfy both of our tastes. While he golfs, I do art, visit quilt shops, hang by the pool or redo my whole cloth (yes, I am redoing it). Love the La Paloma where we are staying. Gorgeous grounds! The sunsets from our balcony are divine. Art at Tohono Chul and… feather art at the Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum. Yes, those are feathers. And the…
I was hoping to have the first stage of the trapunto stitched on my blue whole cloth quilt before I took a few days off next week. I’m going to Tucson and I’d love to be able to sit in the warm sun and snip around the trapunto while enjoying Tucson’s beautiful scenery. I had very few appointments or must-do’s this week so this was my week! I was going to get that top trapuntoed and return from Tucson to begin the quilting. Hah! It looks like my plan is not to be. I’m having treasured guests this weekend,…
I’ve written previously about this whole cloth quilt that I am obsessed with. Just to review, this is my inspiration: This quilt was made between 1830 and 1850, probably in the area of Marsielle, France, by an unknown maker. I saw it in person at the International Quilt Study Center and Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska while attending the SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) Conference. I swooned upon seeing this quilt. It. Is. Stunning. As I studied this quilt, I knew I MUST make a quilt inspired by this beauty. I studied it and what attracted me the most are two…
I flew to Southern California, Orange County, to spend some time with the Flying Geese Quilters Guild, an active guild with about 300 members. I arrived early afternoon on Saturday and was picked up by Bonnie who drove me to a lovely hotel. She left me with a goodie bag: Is that not the sweetest thing? It was so nice to have snacks for the room – such a thoughtful gesture! Even though I am not a shopping kind of girl, I knew I had to go to the Fashion Island Mall, an iconic, huge, open-air mall in Newport Beach.…
When I teach, I often find frustrated free motion quilters who need just a little tweaking to find their free motion quilting nirvana. Sometimes it really is the little things. I want to focus on three often overlooked choices that can have a big impact on your free motion quilting success: You need a place to put your hands. That may seem obvious, but you need to plan ahead to have enough room to put your full hand down to be able to quilt well. I always allow enough batting and backing to accommodate the width of my hand, no…
I’ve been getting great feedback on my book, which warms my heart. Also, I am delighted to receive notes from all over the country letting me know about “21 Days of Plactice” groups forming spontaneously . How cool is that? If you’re not familiar with my book, I provide a 21-day plan to move your free motion quilting from ordinary to extraordinary. I want my reader to discover fun ways to up their game so I call that “plactice”, making practice playful. As I hear from my readers, I notice some comments that I want to address as an…
Here’s part 2 of my local guild’s fabulous show – the Small Quilt Room. As before, this year my comments will be very brief as I’m super busy right now. And some amazing work is not represented here due to my lack of photography skills! Cream and Sugar, Dee Cavanagh. From Bunny Hill Designs for Dee’s daughter in Scotland. Quartz Architects, Joan Barker. Joan responded to a challenge to create her own unique building. Adaptation of In Full Boom, Beth Kondoleon. Beth changed some of the design elements to make Sue Spargo’s “In Full Bloom” her own. The Blue Door,…
The Folsom Quilt and Fiber Guild is my home guild and we had The Best Show this year by far! I was so proud of our show, the diversity of quilts and styles and the number of members who participated. It struck me this year how skilled the quilting was throughout the show, whether it be free hand long arm, panto, digitized long arm, walking foot, free motion or hand quilting – it was all good! I had a last minute cancellation of a gig in central California (weather – snow!) so I had more time at the show than…
I hope you don’t think quilters come up with a great idea and just go into their studio and create it. It ain’t so! It is always a circuitous path for me, never direct. I created this diagram awhile back: I am somewhere in that jumbly area to the left on that drawing. Even getting to where I am now was a muddle. I started out with this fabulous idea for a happy, trapunto’d whole cloth quilt on metallic linen. There were all sorts of logistics issues, not the least of which was dealing with the significant glare from…
I had The Most Amazing Day at my Book Signing at Meissner Sewing Folsom last Saturday. It was wild and vastly exceeded my expectations! I am pretty good at estimating crowds and I would guess around 60 attended in total throughout the day. The signing lasted longer than the hour we allowed, giving me time to talk with friends and to meet others. Meissner’s ran out of books! Meagan said she has sold 35 and took orders for more. I will drop in and sign them before they call people to come in and get their copy. Wow, who…