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I am still trying to wrap my head around all the overwhelming emotions, activities and experiences I had while at the Houston International Quilt Festival last week. I taught 2 full day classes and presented at 3 other events during the 5 days I was there. I’m exhausted this morning as I write this-in a Good Way! Fellow teachers told me “Sleep when you get home” and most of them taught even more classes. Just to set the stage, the Houston Festival is the biggest quilt event in the world, with total attendance expected of 55-60,000 quilt/art/fiber enthusiasts. This is…
I am thrilled to share that my wholecloth quilt, “Morning Breeze” received a Second Place ribbon at Pacific International Quilt Festival last week! I can’t wait to get the judges’ comments back-I am much more interested in learning how I can improve than I am the kudos though. This is one of my largest quilts at 49″ x 69″. It is my belief that if you make a large quilt you’d better have something to say! I have posted some of these photos before but I will include them here again. I know my readers are visual and they need…
I think this is the first time in my almost 3 years of blogging that I haven’t posted at least once a week. Sorry-I’ve been busy doing less-than-glamorous tasks! I’ve also been playing with various ideas for the class sample for my upcoming “Reversible Christmas Table Topper” class. I’m happy to show that today: This is really easy and forgiving free motion work combined with some cut work-plain old cut work by hand, not on the machine with a gazillion dollar attachment! I used a red batik for the “back” and regular quilting fabric for the green front, fused them…
I must be insane if the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. This will be the fourth time I will block “Morning Breeze” and I think I have finally figured out the problem. Each time I blocked this quilt I would find new, dark smudgy spots on its otherwise pristine white front. I would wash again and block, only to discover new spots. I know this sounds so obvious now, but the problem was that I was blocking it face down on my carpet-carpet that had just been cleaned about 2…
I’ve got two donation quilts that are soon to find new homes: one is currently in the SAQA Auction going on now and one I’m sending off to Houston today for auction in late October. The Studio Art Quilt Associates annual Benefit Auction is underway-you’ll want to check it out. This year over 421 pieces were donated and there are some spectacular pieces that want to become yours! Even if you don’t buy, you will want to cruise the quilts, either on the SAQA website or Pinterest. Either way, it’s great eye candy. This is my donation that I previously…
I just can’t work intensely for too long or I’ll burn out. Fearful of the Big Burn Out, I grabbed a charity quilt and a quick wall hanging to break the cycle. Both are for my local guild, the Folsom Quilt and Fiber Guild. Like most guilds, we make charity quilts for various organizations and we also need quilts for our Boutique in our spring quilt show. This is perhaps the easiest/quickest pattern on the planet so I pieced the top in a flash. But I forgot how tedious binding is-the binding took longer than the top and quilting! I…
I get the biggest kick out of the antics of my plantings-probably more than a normal person should! Case-in-point: it’s ridiculous what one of my larger succulents has done over the summer. So this is the scene of the crime. I wanted something tall for one of my outdoor succulent pots. I found this guy at a local big box store at the beginning of the summer. This is what I call the New Baby Nursery-each one of those saucer-like things at the end of each branch of the mother plant produces a bunch of seeds. And apparently they sprout…
I recently completed a 50″x 70″ whole cloth quilt that I can’t share until it shows, but I still wanted to show a few detail shots now. When I post the full quilt I will give more information and details. The short story is that this quilt is made whole cloth from cotton ultra sateen with a white front and black backing, and is intended to be 2-sided. I wanted to capture the beauty of the plantings in my front yard in this quilt, which I have titled “Morning Breeze”. I recently had it photographed by expert photographer Darren Takegami.…
I feel like I am teetering very close to the edge of Burn Out and that’s a dangerous place to be. I’ve heard of this place from other artists and quilters and I had no desire to go there. So what to do? It’s not like I want to just go veg in front of the TV-I still want/need to sew and create. I decided to get outside of my box and do something fun, free and new-I need to just let go! I’ve been wanting to get more improvisational, more loose. So my first thought was to work from…