So am I the only one, or are other folks trying to get their holiday shopping done EARLY!?   I have two new pieces that I’ve just (finally!) uploaded onto my website, but wanted to share them here, also.  The first is a modestly priced art quilt postcard mounted on a mixed media canvas, Bird in the Woods:

The price is $60 (includes shipping by US Mail, within the US, write for other shipping options).  This began as just a canvas…at one of our Frayed Edges meetings.   Rather than simply create a silhouette of something and paint over a plain piece of cloth (Hannah was jazzed by a project on Martha Stewart), I decided to get clever and stretch strips of multicolored cloth over the canvas frame before slathering with Mod Podge (or was it Gel Medium?  same result….), letting it dry, then using torn masking tape to make the trees.  Well… I wasn’t so thrilled with the result:

It’s OK, but no great shakes.  So I thought I’d just cover it all up with batting, fabric, and mount a postcard.  I tossed a lovely card Deborah Boschert had sent to me a few years back–yellow with a red bird, and Presto…. I  decided I’d make my OWN (very different) bird in fabrics because it looked great (except for the fact that her bird was red and the fabric is magenta…shudder!  color change necessary, but the idea worked).  SO, I rooted through my stash, made up a quick bird postcard (inspired by my Batiki bird, which you can read about here), and got to work.  I hope you like it!

I’ll share the next piece in a few days… I also want to blog about Houston before it is ancient memories.  AND, I need to dash out, walk the dog, and meet Mom for lunch…. toodles, and back soon, Sarah

My how time flies!   I totally love my new totebag…which I made back in JULY!   I bought the glass button for it after teaching at Lowell, and here is is nearly November….. Well, better late than never!

The pattern is by Penny Sturges of Quilts Illustrated (click on name for website homepage), and the pattern is listed here.  I think this must have been one of Penny’s first patterns, as the production value is–to be rather blunt–not so great…. the written instructions are on one page, the illustrations are on another….    Still, since I sew well I was able to make the pattern easily.  Because  the bag has fusible fleece on both the lining and the outside, it stands up beautifully, which I really like. I also really like how I customized the pockets… usually when I go to Houston / Festival I leave my regular purse at home, but this one is perfect…pocket for phone, for pencils, wide enough for wallet to go flat on the bottom, carry a small notebook AND the camera…. so it is going with me!

However, I would change a few things…. even my beloved work-horse Janome 6600 had trouble with the many thick layers on the sides where the pockets and lining (all with fleece) are stitched together. I think I’d trim the fleece so that it just barely misses getting stitched into the seams, at least on the pockets. One of the local quilters has made MANY of these, and she tried doing one with just a single layer of fleece, but we both agreed it was kinda floppy and we prefer the “stand-up-ish-ness” of the two layers.  Wonder if I can find a slightly lighter-weight fusible fleece somewhere?

And, I solved the problem of “embarrasing stuff spilling” by using an old round case, purchased in Gabon (central Africa) when we lived there in 1990.  All the little messy stuff goes in there…available but hidden.

Finally, the fact that you can tighten up or loosen the bows on the end means that when tied snugly to create the tuck, the opening on the top is really quite small…when on your shoulder it would be very difficult for someone to pick one’s pocketbook, so I don’t miss a zipper or flap at all.

To my utter astonishment and delight, one of my newest pieces–Fields of Gold– (finished in the nick of time) has been juried into Art Quilts XIII at the Chandler Center for the Arts in Chandler, Arizona.  Actually, if I tell the total truth, the facings weren’t even completely sewn down when I took the photos for my entries!

I am mind-boggled to find myself in the company of so many of the leading art quilters today…. the list of those in the show is here.

A little bit about this piece:  I had designed the center part, which I called Sunset Trees, for a project / exercise for the applique section of my manuscript.  It is 9×12 inches (or thereabouts) and I intended for it to finish at that size…small and easy to manage as a learning exercise.  Then, I was able to help my friend Lisa Walton of Dyed and Gone to Heaven (Sydney, Australia) get an entry into the IQA / Festival at Houston when she unexpectedly got a quilt finished and photographed in time, but not enough time to mail reliably (i.e. quickly) from Australia to Texas.  I told her not to send anything, but she did anyway…a metre of her glorious hand-dyed fabric that ranged from rust to gold to green.  I pinned the fabric up on my design wall, next to Sunset Trees, trying to figure out how to make a journal entry for this year.  I couldn’t think of anything that wasn’t trite (the black silhouette of an Aussie cowboy and outback house against the glowing sun…been done well by others, and too many times).  Then I realized that if I used one section of the piece, it meshed PERFECTLY with Sunset Trees’ background.

Then I mulled over the quilting… at first I thought of blowing grasses.  Then, in the back of my mind, the song Fields of Gold by Sting came to mind.  I knew I had seen a quilt named after that song somewhere…and when the Frayed Edges got together in early September I mentioned it.  Deborah piped up:  it was on my blog!  I did one!  So here is Deborah’s version!  To me, the wheat fields of late summer /autumn are Fields of Gold, so I googled wheat images, learned that some wheat has the really long whiskers, other varieties have shorter, fewer whiskers, etc.   I think my favorite part of this entire quilt is the wheat quilting!  Once again, I seem to be moving toward nearly wholecloth pieces that are drawn with thread…. Here’s a detail:

Enjoy…now back to working on the Elusive Crested Batiki Bird, a small piece I’m doing for another Lark book on small quilts.  Cheers!

One of the most fun classes I taught was Hawaiian style applique by machine.  Normally, this applique is done by hand using the needle-turn method.  It is beautiful, meticulous, and time-consuming.  Some years ago I saw a quilt made by a New Zealand quilter, Donna Ward, that was stunning… similar to Hawaiian quilts in style, and satin stitched!  The stitching became a whole new design element, and I was hooked.  And I must repeat… I love google!  Here  is a link to Donna’s quilt Jewel of the Pacific–scroll down a bit to the blue quilt.

For my book, Unraveling Threadwork, (hopefully due out Fall 2009) I’ve designed a quilt with nine 18 inch blocks using five different designs, as one of the main pieces.  I’ve also designed two smaller “practice” blocks, one of the taro leaf, another of the turtle.  This class was the first time I offered the smaller practice blocks as an option, and it seems to have been a good decision.  Sally was the one person in the class who opted to start with the large block, in her case the pineapple.  Her combination of deep purple and mottled green (above and below) was wonderful. I also recognized her name from the quiltart list…way fun to meet someone you’ve “seen” on line!

A couple tricks to Hawaiian applique:  high contrast in your fabrics works well!  Variegated threads don’t always look so good…opt for a solid color. THEN you absolutely must:

MAKE VISUAL DECISIONS VISUALLY!

That means make a test, and try your threads to see how the look when stitched out.  Try adjusting width and length to see what looks best.  And if necessary (it probably will be) use a stabilizer under the background fabric to prevent unsightly puckers and uneven stitching.  Here is one student’s thread stitch-out sample.

Her print fabric actually didn’t contrast a lot from the background–UNTIL she used the bright yellow thread to outline the design, at which point the subtle change in fabrics became awesome.

Sally had brought a variegated that was PERFECT for quilting her pineapple, but when satin-stitched out, it really didn’t look so great, so a classmate lent her a perfect purple.

Another student opted for the traditional solid colors in very tropical aqua and yellow.  This simple choice is smashing!

One student brought some VERY bright fabrics which had a stripe, but they worked!  Here are her turtles (before stitching)

Since she hadn’t brought a varied enough thread selection, she opted to work on prepping a large block, also…talk about vibrant…wow!

When she uses a starkly contrasting thread, like a tangerine or orange-y yellow or turquoise, the bright line of satin stitching will help pop the busy fabric inside the pineapple motif…trust me, this one will work amazingly well!

Other students preferred softer colors.  We were all surprised that this taupe-cocoa brown thread was such a good choice on the soft colors of the applique–sometimes the least expected selection works best:

And here are her Taro blocks, in purple and soft lavender (which alas looks more white in these photos):

and the reverse applique:

Here’s what I learned from teaching my class:

• the small shapes on the turtles are a bit fiddly for beginners.  I need to make another, simply-shaped design, and have both turtles and taro leaf (or whatever) stitched out for students to see.
• I should say on the supply list that variegated threads generally don’t work so well for satin stitching—be sure to bring plenty of solid colors
• Also on the supply list, I should say to bring at least twice as many colors of thread as you think you will need!
• Using the black Misty Fuse (adhesive web…a heat-activated glue for fusing fabrics) for demonstrating is perfect, since it is easy to see the bits that get left behind on the fusing sheets or baking parchment
• I need to bring more Misty Fuse to sell….I ran out!

So it’s off to update my class supply lists!  Hope you enjoyed this vicarious tour around the classroom.  I sure had fun seeing my blocks interpreted in so many wonderful ways.  I hope the students had as much fun as I did…imagine, I get paid to do this!  WOOHOO!

PS:  I wanted to post a public thanks to the show organizers for the Lowell Quilt Festival.  The teachers were treated like royalty…. we had rooms to ourselves (weren’t required to share with another teacher), were presented with lovely welcome boxes with some snacks, little bottled waters, an a Lowell Quilt Festival badge holder in a color just for teachers…..   the hotel rooms were huge and comfortable, too.   It was a particularly nice experience, so thanks to all who were involved!

I had the great good fortune to be invited to teach at Lowell Quilt Show earlier this month.  I’ll blog about one of my classes in a couple of days, but today I wanted to give you an overview, starting with this overview of the show, which is held in the Tsongas Arena in Lowell, which is northwest of Boston (about 45 minutes by car, I think….it’s about 3 1/2 to 4 hours from Camden, Maine). Note:  photos in this post are clickable to be viewed larger.

The vendors are on an upper level that surrounds the arena, so you get a bird’s eye view.  This photo was taken early on Sunday (hence the lack of crowd).   I got over to the show earlier in the week, after class was over, and was thrilled to spot my Koi quilt for the first time….when folks were looking at it!  I guess a white glove lady was near it a lot of the time to show the back (LOVE IT!):

I had not realized until shortly before the show that the 2007 journal quilts would be there (I am not sure if this viewing included all of them or not, but I think it did).

As always, the journals are a popular exhibit (sure hope one of my entries gets in this year… I need an acceptance!!! instead of a “sorry” letter!).  On Sunday, I was thrilled to see someone really looking at mine… my journal is quite subtle, not a grab-you-from-a-distance piece, so it was really rewarding to see someone drawn in and taking a long time to take it in…thank you to whoever you are in this picture!  I hope it is OK for me to have posted this photo of you:

Wow…just realized I never uploaded this quilt to my website… I’ll do that when we get back from vacation in a week or so!   There is a lot to it… it is about Hiroshima, peace and all that….

One of the best things about quilt shows is the teachers.  If you ARE one of the teachers, one of the best things about a quilt show is getting to hang out with the other teachers!  I was thrilled to run into Nancy Prince, whom I had briefly met in Paducah, Joanie Zeier Poole, Judy Cisneros, Nancy Brenan Daniel and others….. dinners were a GAS.  This first night we each and every one of us had lobster of some sort at the hotel restaurant:

Nancy lives in Arizona, so she decided to splurge, and ham it up a bit… I totally love this photo and need to send it to her before heading out on Wednesday (and yes, she did take the meat out of the shell before eating it LOL)

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On Sunday I got to have breakfast at the locally famous Four Sisters Owl Diner, a real OLD diner, with good old fashioned cholesterol-heaven breakfast:

To my great astonishment and pleasure, I got an e-mail a couple days before leaving for Lowell informing me that I had won an honorable mention for Naiads!  After viewing the other quilts, I’m thrilled even more…. here’s  a picture of Naiads with the ribbon alongside and the “neighborhood”:

I taught Thursday, Friday and Saturday, so got to see the show on Sunday to my hearts’ content.  But even tired teachers wear out.  And get hungry.  So mid-afternoon I set out on the town to see the shows at the Brush Gallery, The Whistler (more on those two in future posts), and get some lunch.  I was fortunate to be able to wait to pick up Naiads and my teachers quilts (Koi and Garuda Dances Under the Ocean Moon) at 5:30, after show take-down (thereby saving a bundle on  shipping) before heading home.  So, while waiting, I had an iced coffee…perfect: