My last quilting class in Paducah, and one of the most fun, was Nearly No Mark machine quilting. Marking a quilt top is up there in the (NOT) fun category with basting! But playing and doodling with your needle and thread IS fun! These designs are ones I use in art quilts all the time, but they can just as easily be used in contemporary and even some traditional quilts. I have come up with what I call my vocabulary of quilting stitches.

These are stitched out as fill patterns, but they could easily be enlarged and used for all-over quilting patterns for a lap quilt or snuggly. I shared my teacher samples a while back, but the pink sampler above is the one I like best so I’ll share it again!

Click on the thumbnail for a larger view (or right click on a PC, and on a mack apple-key + click, to open in another tab/window) with more details of the quilting.

Now lookit what my great students did, and how they translated my patterns into their own thing! This first photo is awesome because she has her hands in what I call the safe position… where you are unlikely to sew through your fingers (it hurts… I’ve done it and do NOT recommend it!) (PS–the following photos can all be viewed larger–click on the photo to resize and/or open in a new tab/window). This hand position also has the virtue of making a small, smooth “hooped” area for your quilting…cool!

I showed the students how to use your arm as an extended compass to make large arcs using your elbow as a pivot point. Many followed my example and made circles (using my high tech templates—yogurt and take-out lids) and arcs, then filled in the resulting spaces with the nearly-no-mark designs; in this one, I really like her variations on the spirals:

I want to find this thread… it is YLI and is heavier (cotton) than I usually use, but the colors are GLORIOUS and so “me!” The quilter lives in Florida, so I think the water colors are inspired by her home….

I think this student is comfortable and happy playing with free-motion, don’t you? (You can see a smidgen of my handout on the far right)

And another arc… I like the vine inside the arc and also switching up the fill on the mini-checkerboard:

One student took my “Southern California themed” piece:

and reworked it… I like her version better! Her thread contrast is way better than mine (I think I’m going to re-do the blue one… it needs it….)

I love that spiky sun that is just at the edge of the sewing table, and also how she used the loops to outline the circle:

And can you tell she loves to quilt… this lady must love playing with the quilting as much as I do! And poor thing…she was short, and tables were SO high… I have no idea how she managed to quilt so well in those circumstances… I love the merging of one pattern into the next:

I think one of the things I enjoyed most was watching the students take my designs and turn them into their own, modifying, improving, changing up, experimenting… WAY cool!

Most of Paducah was work, with some notable exceptions:

The rides to and from the airport in Nashville (2+ hours away) with Jan Krentz and Rachael Clark in both directions, and Charlotte Angotti and Rami Kim on the way home, too…laughed, talked, learned a TON just listening from the masters and practiced teachers on the circuit. And had fun and dinner too! Major thanks to Kenny Shroeder for the rides!

Meeting Leslie and Caty, having dinner, and seeing Paducah with them… yeah Quilt Mavs! Meeting online friends in the real is the best!

And going to the Ricky Tims concert on Friday night. I lucked into a ticket (thanks to a certain benificent soul!), and went on my own. As Caty, Leslie and I walked to dinner on Friday, we saw a Looooonnnnnnggggggg line snaking around the Four Rivers Center of folks (mostly ladies) waiting to go to the concert. I was so glad I was going to eat instead, and was quite happy to arrive just before the show and sit in the rafters. Well… when I walked in, first I was WOWED by the building; click here for a video tour online (warning for those on dial-up… find a high-speed connection before clicking on the link). What a gorgeous building. Then I made a bee-line for the ladies room before the concert began and before heading to where I was directed, the upper balcony. When I came out of the ladies room, I noticed a hallway that led toward the stage and orchestra seating that said Orchestra 5. So I went down it. Luck was with me… a single seat, on the aisle, ten rows back from the stage and directly in line with the piano bench! Here was my view:

Does it get any better? Ricky began with a trumpet solo, then told us it was the first time he’d played trumpet in public in 25 years or so, but that the trumpet had been in younger days his best instrument. It’s still good…I swear that man can play any musical instrument he touches. And he’s a born entertainer. Alas, I didn’t get pictures of his entrance… picture this:

• The theatre is dark except for the screen in the center and the spotlights on his two large quilts flanking the screen. Then those lights dim.
• The curtains in the back of the stage part and you see “smoke/fog” backlit… (think dry ice).
• Suddenly a bright beam pierces the dark into the audience, followed by a HUGE rumble….varoom, VaRoooom, VAROOOOOM…. and slowly, carefully, (ya know what Ricky drives?) in he comes on a HARLEY onto the stage! It was a total riot!!!!!

So, he sings, he jokes, he does his thing, and introduces a friend / performer / Kit Bowser. And says she said “Hey, what are we gonna do special for MY entrance?” So…….

Kat Bowser’s entrance, on the not-quite-a-Harley , above, and a shot of her singing later in the concert, below:

The rest of the show was as hilarious and fun….Kat is very much a cabaret type singer / torch singer. You can see her MySpace page here and listen to her music at CuppaJoeRecords here. I enjoyed her singing so much I actually bought a CD, my first CD purchase in about 2 years! Oh yeah…work ALERT—don’t click on the My Space link with your sound turned up on your computer if you’re at work! But it is definitely toe-tapping music!

And during the show, as my throbbing, aching feet began to rest, I could sit there and mellow in the music (or laugh at the jokes) and enjoy the glorious color and dancing designs of Ricky’s quilts. Kat sang a song with “Glory Hallelujah Dance!” which I think would be the perfect title for a quilt…. I used to live to dance… took ballet for years as a kid and studied with the San Francisco Ballet Company. I’d probably prefer modern dance more now, but am too creaky… but I can still dance with my soul! Hmmmm…. I think I’m recovering from the past year, my creativity is coming back!

Next blogpost…some of my classes!

Just a short digression from the Paducah news…. SPRING HAS ARRIVED in Maine! Here’s proof: photos taken while walking the pug-wonderfulness (a.k.a. ‘Widgeon)….

First, the quintessential sign of spring in Maine, the fiddlehead fern. Don’t they look like a family, turned to each other for hugs?

Then, the beginnings of iris (I think that’s what they are) at a neighbor’s house. Wouldn’t that make a great abstract background for a quilt?

Rushing water:

And, at LAST, green on the trees! In two weeks, we should be about halfway leafed out!

Daffodils in the sun…. a couple years ago, our neighbor Dave did a major landscaping which I have dubbed the “neighborhood beautification project” since so many of us can see and enjoy results of his major expense. Then the yellow house where the road splits put in a HUGE load of small boulders as retaining wall so she could plant on the tiers… this is one of the treats (the coral bells are on their way out of the ground….)

And up the road a piece, more of the wild fiddleheads, these a bit more unfurled

–a couple days ago I saw an old guy on the side of the road…looked like he was picking fiddleheads which are often used in salads or sauteed….haven’t tried that yet… I like looking at them too much!

My first day in Paducah, I taught an evening 3-hour class called “Chunk and Jigsaw Fusible Applique.” This class is actually a portion of my Fabric Postcards all-day class which teaches various art quilting and embellishing techniques. I teach how to make up a small stash of fused fabrics ready for a quick project using leftovers from other projects (placed on the fusible web like a jigsaw) or small chunks of fabric…say 5×7 to 10×10 inches or so…. Then, we make a few postcards. For most students in these classes, it is their first time trying to design something, so I provide eight patterns. What is interesting, once I started providing a selection of patterns, the students didn’t use them! HOORAY! It meant the variety of ideas was enough to get them going on their own… mo’ bettah! Here are some of the results–the one above is one I would have loved to fly home with me… imagine, turquoise coneflowers…. glorious!

Note: if you were in my class and made one of these, PLEASE let me know and I’d love to include your name in this post! The class was so short that I wasn’t able to get names attached to each postcard for sharing here, but I did ask in the class if it was OK to share them. Michele E in Alabama… I’ll not share your wonderful birdie because I know you wanted to finish him/her before “going public!” but I adore him/her!

This student was game, despite never having designed something like a scenic card… I love how she placed the shapes, added the cut-out leaves, and used color. See how she cut out motifs from a batik to create the waterplants?

I love Love LOVE the swoopy roofline on this house! She had found some cool “postcard foundations”, in the YLI booth I think. They were dyed/painted, creating the cool colors and textures in the background… I’ll have to look for them! Also love how she used the circles in a Kaffe Fassett print (do ALL of us have this fabric in our stash?) for the window and doorknob.

Notice the cool not-quilting-cotton fabrics in the houses here?

Another student worked on a slightly larger background that the 4×6 peltex cards I included in the kit, using her awesome selection of sheers (which I wouldn’t have minded if they flew home with me, either). Her first piece was squares, in progress:

and fused up:

Then she made this totally wonderful sun scene:

One student with a completely different sense of color and composition than I have used the prints in her fabrics SO effectively:

The combination of soft batiks creates a soothing landscape:

And here’s another landscape under construction:

Despite the hour of the class– 5:30 to 8:30 pm — the students seemed to have fun, and I know I did. And the peanut M&Ms and Milky Way bars I brought to share helped!

Phew! I did it! I taught at the AQS Show in Paducah last week, which also happens to have been my first major teaching gig at the national level…what a way to begin! It was exhausting, fun, a learning experience, and I’d do it again…just not every year please! Unlike Festival in Houston, the show is spread out in Paducah’s Expo hall, convention center, and the (icky) attached Executive Inn. The rest of the town joins in, from the MAQS Museum 3-4 blocks away, to Hancock’s of Paducah (a major store and catalog/online quilt store) several miles away via car/shuttle bus, to the many shops in town including Caryl Bryer Fallert’s studio and the new Eleanor Burns emporium. Regular stores all have quilts in the windows… it’s just fun! (Even if the weather can be hot and humid and sticky. Showers please!)

I did get to see the show, and thought I’d seen all of it, but since my return it appears I missed a section of the exhibits…bummers! From my arrival on Tuesday, to my departure for the Nashville airport on Saturday evening (I actually reached home at 9 pm Sunday), I had maybe 4 hours total during open hours to see everything and do just a little shopping! The first thing I saw, above, to my sheer delight was Gloria Hansen‘s quilt with a big ribbon (that’s me doing a stand-in for the much prettier Gloria, who is also my website designer extraordinaire)! (Note! All photos in this post are clickable for larger views.) Across the aisle was my Koi quilt. I totally love its simplicity, but it suffered in comparison to the heavily worked quilts in the show, I think. Still I’m glad that some of the folks in my classes saw it and remembered it!

One of the best parts of going to a big quilt show is meeting folks from online. I’ve also discovered that hanging out with other teachers is a phenomenal experience. Like quilters, they are so sharing, helping newbies like me learn the ropes. Jan Krentz was awesome (I may have to take a piecing class with her just to learn from watching a master teacher at work), and I got to room with Suzanne Marshall, whose quilts have earned spots in the top 100 quilts of the 20th century and the next best 100 quilts of the 20th century… amazing! (Click on their names to open a new window to their websites.)

And such a kind, down-to-earth lady. I’d room with her again any time! Our dinner out after our evening classes on Weds. was the best dinner of the week–we yakked for hours! This is her entry in this year’s show The Beast and The Boy…yes, all hand appliqued, hand quilted, hand stitched…sigh!

Here I am with Caty and Leslie from the Quilt Mavs list (they are sisters, yes their hair is that gorgeous, I want Caty’s!):

I was so busy teaching, that I didn’t get to really see much of the town. Thanks to meeting online friends, Caty and Leslie, for the first time, I DID get a lovely tour of the town (and was so glad to be able to do that sitting down in her comfy car! I was literally hobbling by the time I met them Thursday evening). We saw old homes, beautifully renovated old homes, dogwoods in bloom (the thing I may miss the most about Virginia), and also azaleas and redbuds. And we drove the Lower Town Arts Walk area…what a great idea to revitalize a town.

From the Janome 6500 list, I met Maggie S. and Madge Z. and we got this pic (thanks for taking my classes!):

and from the Pickles list, Michele E. from Alabama — if we look tired it’s because it was the end of my sixth and final class, and I was ELATED–I did it!

I also met and really enjoyed having Ruth Ann W. from the QuiltArt list and her friends in my classes…Ruth Ann, how did we miss taking a photo????? Maybe in Florida!

The hotel was, well,….. ugh. The folks who run AQS have apparently threatened to leave town and find another venue if the owner doesn’t fix it up, but according to the “word on the street” (aka gossip) the owner doesn’t much care and wants to turn it into a casino. If you go to Paducah, try to stay somewhere else then drive or shuttle to the expo center! Over the next few days I’ll be adding more posts….pictures of the show, of students and classes, the Ricky Tims concert… can you tell I had fun (and that I’m now catching up on sleep enough to enjoy it LOL!).