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I am absolutely a project-oriented person. I am a little embarrassed to admit that only recently did I even begin to understand the world of process-oriented people. I just thought they didn’t finish their projects. It never occurred to me that process-oriented people are completely content with UFO’s. They want to play with the process and once that fun is over, they move on. What a concept! Giggle-Fall leaf speared by my cactus I did a Google search and this is odd: process/project-orientation articles focused almost exclusively on children, formal education or, get this, the dating and mating world. Oh…
Detail- “Emerge” Preparation is key for beautiful quilting. Before you take one quilting stitch, you have already made a lot of decisions that have a huge impact on how easy it is to quilt that quilt. Your quilt sandwich carries with it a set of decisions that are set for the duration of your quilting. So a lot of factors go into that “perfect” quilt sandwich and it’s best to make mindful decisions about each part of that sandwich. I finally I think I have found the best combination for an easy-to-quilt quilt: Terial Magic + Misty Fuse + batting of your choice…
I am passionate about free motion quilting-have you noticed? I am also passionate about teaching/enabling others to free motion quilt their own work. And I am so excited to be a part of Pokey Bolton’s brand new art retreat, Craft Napa. This week I’m part of a blog hop with my fellow teachers and there is a big grand prize drawing that happens at the end of the hop-a $500 gift certificate to eQuilter! Simply leave a comment on this post and you’ll be entered into the drawing! If you followed the whole blog hop and commented on each one,…
I hope all my American friends are enjoying a wonderful Thanksgiving! This is my final post on Houston. I have a couple of comments: I don’t generally post photos of the big prize-winners. I figure you can find excellent photos all over the web for them. Also, as usual, some of my photos of lovely quilts were just not fit for print. If you want to see some great photos of the quilts at the Houston show, hop over to Pamela Holland’s blog here. Enjoy the last round of photos: Peeper, Phyllis Cullen Shall We Dance?, Jan Reed Wonky…
I’ve got more quilts for you from the Houston show. I will be posting just the quilt and its maker except this first one. What a story: This quilt is jaw dropping in person. But the story of the quilt and its maker is even more amazing. This is Angela’s first quilt! Her husband travels a lot for work and they do not have children yet, so Angela was looking for something fun to do. She decided, hm, quilting would be fun. So she bought a small Janome to start with. She thought she would start out with the square-in-square blocks. She kept on…
Now, the quilts! Today I’ve included photos from Viewpoints 9, two of the SAQA exhibits: Wild Fabrications and Balancing Act, Modern quilts, and 3 quilts that are simply my favorites. I have seen several other posts by others with photos of amazing quilts that somehow I missed. You must know that my tour of the quilt floor was done in fits and spurts. I would start a category and get distracted with a conversation or the need to rush back to class, not realizing that I had missed part of the category. But it was a great show! I am pressed…
I’m overwhelmed, in a very good way, and it’s hard to know where to start. Maybe with the numbers: 8 days, 5 full classes except one (5 short), a Sampler and Machine Quilter’s Forum (hundreds at each, multiple instructors), 2 Meet the Teacher events, at least 5 countries represented in my classes, countless renewals of friendships, many miles walked with over 20 pounds of quilts and product on my shoulders, hours slept-hmmmm, number of items purchased at vendors-2! Apparently I was not the only one overwhelmed. I can’t tell you how many times I saw a conked out quilter sleeping on the…
I’m in Houston at International Quilt Festival now so I’ll post more next week. It’s fun to see visitors enjoy my Morning Breeze. I’ve taught 4 classes and have 5 more events to go. What a show this year! More posts about Houston to follow.
I’m down to the wire on my Houston prep and one of the things I just got to was my donation quilt. Quilt Inc. is the non-profit umbrella organization of the quilt show. Each year they ask their teachers to consider donating a small quilt to raise funds for the organization. I’ve donated one each year I’ve taught and I really wanted to do that again. But this year I’m barely getting it done in time. You, um, may have noticed that I seem to be in a series based on grasses and other drought tolerant plants. Windswept is part of…
Prairie Afternoon is the title of my entry into the 2015 Pacific International Quilt Festival (PIQF). It was one wild ride to make this quilt! Everything went wrong, until it didn’t. I like the final product and I’m shocked that it all turned out. My inspiration was drawn from photos I had taken when I visited my home state of Illinois a few years ago. I love the fields and grasses and how the wind puts them in motion. I am happy with the completed piece. But it was not easy to get there! Come with me on the journey:…