The drawing is concluded.  Any comments left now (after 5 pm Saturday) will be appreciated but won’t be in the drawing.  The lucky winner (chosen by a random number generator on the internet) is comment number 16, Sylvia!  I’ll email you directly.

Sometimes the right book comes along at the right time.  For me, Intentional Printing by Lynn Krawczyk was that book. Lynn is funny (love her Facebook posts), creative and has been able in her book to get me (and hopefully you) to just “fling some paint” and have fun making cloth you will actually USE.  So I’m going to tell you a bit about her book.  Then I’m going to send you over to her website and blog:  if you’d like to win a copy of her book, comment here by 5 pm East Coast Time on Saturday, October 18th (that’s SOON), and tell me something that you liked about her website and/or blog.   Here’s her site, Smudged Textiles Studio and her blog.  Read on!

Lynn Krawczyk’s Intentional Printing.  Here’s a link to Lynn’s website page about her book, complete with a fun video of her telling you about the book and showing her printed cloth.

For years now I’ve been buying books about dyeing fabric and surface design, yet I do precious little (almost no) surface design in my own work.  So WHY do I keep buying the books?  There must be some deep desire to make my own cloth in a way that goes beyond dyeing fabric.  Many of the books I’ve purchased are intimidating:  so much to do, so many options, too many supplies, too much set up and clean up time.

With Lynn’s book, which is about paint (not dye),  all of a sudden I got up and started DOING.  No fuss, perhaps some mess (the fun kind), and productive work that has got me to develop a whole new workshop that combines the best parts of a class I used to teach (and eliminated because I hated teaching the other parts of the class) with Lynn’s approach to paint on cloth.

Lynn discovered that the pieces she made just didn’t quite work, didn’t fit what she wanted to do.  So she figured out how she could work to create pieces she wanted to use, was inspired to use, while keeping the spontaneity of the process intact.   The chapters of the book are:

• Introduction
• Chapter 1:  Exploring Intentional Printing
• Chapter 2:  Tools and Materials
• Chapter 3:  Fabric Printing Techniques
• Chapter 4:  Handstitching
• Chapter 5:  Layered Printing
• Chapter 6:  The Projects
• Templates
• Acknowledgments, Resources and Index

Inspired by this book, I worked up two pieces that you’ve seen recently on this blog, The Nest and my X and O (Hugs and Kisses?) pieces that I’ll be teaching in the Fiber on a Whim Booth at International Quilt Festival in a mere two weeks!   Here’s a link to more information about my mini-class and to my thermofax screens blogpost (and to Fiber on a Whim where you can ORDER those screens!)   Once you see the inside of the book, you’ll see Lynn’s X and O piece, which must have been in my subconscious when I made mine!

Learn to make the painted fabrics in this project in my mini-Whimsy class at IQF-International Quilt Festival Fall 2014.

And some art cloth–this is SO not my typical, but I could see playing with surface design, a lot, to make more fabrics to use in my more typical style. I wanted to have something totally “not me” though so that students get to try both representational and not!

What I really liked was that Lynn’s approach can work for the way I use fabric.  So many of the surface design books are by people for whom the fabric and the process are the be-all and end-all.  Once the cloth is done, no more needs to be done.  But I don’t like abstract stuff very much, and I don’t think the cloth is the artwork (for me! if it is for you, that’s great, but it’s not what I want to do), it is something that goes into creating the art.  With Lynn’s book, the cloth can be the goal and the finished product, OR it can be a component that goes in to the artwork.

In The Nest, for example, I used a couple techniques Lynn covers in creating the background fabric, the nest, and the eggs.    In a quilt that I will share with you next week, Insalata, I dyed the fabric for the background but it just wasn’t quite enough.  So I used paint and a couple stencils to create background texture that got the fabric from “pretty good” to “just right.”  That’s exactly what Lynn’s book is about:  getting the fabric you need for the idea in your head / the project you want to make.

For novices to surface design, this book is a great start.  For folks like me who have tried it some but just weren’t jazzed, this book is a great way to help focus random flinging of paint into a process that will give you something with which to create (instead of a pile of “what am I going to do with that now?” cloth).  HIGHLY Recommended!

So if you want to WIN A COPY, here’s what to do:  go to Lynn’s website and blog,  Then come back here and  leave a comment  by 5 pm East Coast Time on Saturday, October 18th (that’s SOON), and tell me something that you liked about her website and/or blog.   Here’s her site, Smudged Textiles Studio and her blog.  I’ll post the winner probably on Sunday–Eli has a Cross Country meet that will last all day Saturday.   ENJOY!

And thank you Lynn for offering a copy of your book…I LOVE IT!

Just a very quick note:  Interweave is having a 25 percent off sale on its top 25 products, and mine is among the top Quilting 25!   Check it out here.  The sale ends tonight, so move quickly.  If you do the download, I highly recommend the High Def version–it is really sharp and crisp. Will be back soon with some pics of teaching at Terri Sontra’s Purple Moose Designs inaugural retreat in the White Mountains of New Hampshire…so much fun!

The cover (back and front) of my DVD, Art Quilt Design From Photo to Threadwork, with Fabric Collage and Machine Quilting. Order the DVD from me here, or the download and DVD from Quilting Arts/Interweave here.  Click to see larger.

Thursday was a travel day for us, with the morning spent in London at the National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, and wending our way to East Anglia for our week on the road with our BritRail passes.   The trains are lacking in quaintness now (no more compartments with sliding / slamming doors and wrought iron overhead luggage racks), but they are modern, clean and fast, and go nearly EVERYwhere!

The view of the alley behind our hotel in the Gloucester Road/South Kensington part of London. Notice the silver car on the left. The cool funky one.

So we went down to see what it was.  It’s a Morgan, a make I’d never heard of before.   I now know why:  I could save every penny I earn for the next two decades and I’d still not be able to afford one.  It is a new car made to look old–really cool, roadster old.

The Morgan. Oh my. Beautiful REAL wood dashboard, leather everywhere, oh my. I remember the ferries to San Juan Island…so low-slung it probably couldn’t get on/off the ferry!  Made by hand.  I’m not sure Tom Cruise could even afford one of these!  According to Wikipedia there is a six month waiting list to buy one, but has been measured in years at some points!  We chatted a bit with the guy in the photo who worked there…if I recall, they start around 200,000 pounds sterling.   Start at that price.   As I shall never be a Saudi prince, I don’t think I can afford one.

Next we went on to the National Gallery. Eli was enchanted with the street artists. This shot is from the entrance to the gallery which overlooks Trafalgar Square. Though it doesn’t look too crowded, it was. An English friend had been the day before and said the crowds in London were as thick as she had seen in some 70 years! I love England, I love London, but I think if/when I return it will be in early February to avoid the hordes of tourists.

It’s not the best photo, but I have always been captured by this painting of the Execution of Lady Jane Gray. The silk of her gown glows.

Just look at the mastery in the painting!

And a close up of the velvet gown of Lady Gray’s lady in waiting.  It was fascinating to see what bits were in exquisite detail, and which were less finely detailed, like the straw (see first photo), causing your eye to focus on the sharply defined items.   The luster of the pearls, too, in the rosary she holds here.

An Odilon Redon…look at that seductive color.  The face in the lower right, the soft and crisp edges.

Eli, of course, wasn’t as enchanted with the art, but humored me.  He is a good traveling companion.  He grasps the concept of Mom needs to see some stuff, Eli gets to see some stuff.  We allow for the other person’s interests.  What a concept!

As I was whizzing through one of the galleries when Eli had temporarily disappeared (it turns out to find a men’s room, which of course is located in the distant basement reached by stairs at the end of the building so it takes forever to get there and back), I snapped these two photos while searching for my disappeared son:

I think this was one of the Cranachs, yep, Cranach the Elder.

Look at the detail on the textiles!  Think quilt designs!

Back in the Impressionist rooms were a couple Van Gogh paintings. Love this humble village.

Does this Van Gogh look vaguely familiar? Add a night sky with sworls of gold and you’ve got Starry Night….I LOVE being able to go up close and see the brush strokes.   I may need to try to do a sky like that in a landscape quilt.

And of course I had to take a picture of St. George slaying the dragon, though I prefer my dragons friendly and alive, thank you veddy much.  By Gustave Moreau.

And how can you not LOVE a nation that has a sense of humor.  There were some wonderful mosaic floors in the National Gallery (so many people forget to look UP and then look DOWN):

A pub sign that says Rest and be thankful in the mosaic floor.

And my very favorite of the mosaics:  MUD PIES!

Mud Pies mosaic floor, UK National Gallery, London, England.  And I’m sorry this is sideways–Photoshop Elements and whatever are NOT cooperating with letting me turn it right side up.  Anyway, ya gotta love a nation that will made a mudpie mosaic!

In the afternoon, we took the train to east of London to Woodbridge, because the next day we were going to the site of the Sutton Hoo burial ships.  I shared photos of some of the phenomenal artifacts that are housed in the British Museum earlier, here.

We stayed in a small B&B at the Station House, and our room was literally on top of the train station in Woodbridge, in East Anglia / Sussex.

Our view looked over the train tracks to the river.  Apart from a group of 30 or so inebriated 20 somethings heading to the last train at about 10 pm, it was lovely!

The view from our room to the river, across the tracks.

There is beauty everywhere:

Flowers popping up by the picnic table

We wandered about the small town, which Eli and I decided was about the same size as Belfast, Maine, just north of us.  Eli found a shirt and pullover jacket for school!  And I spotted this pillow in the window of a shop–so want to pull out my paints and play and sketch!

Don’t you just love hedgehogs? If you do, you’ll like what we did a week later. Stay tuned!

And we had the most scrumptious dinner–one of the best I’ve ever had.  I think it was called the Table restaurant.

Dinner–Eli had salmon, I had massuman (?) curry. SLURP. I was well behaved and did NOT lick the plate.

And since dinner was so good, we had dessert.

Chocolate mocha creme anglaise with fresh mint (homemade) ice cream, with crushed chocolate cookie bits.  At least I thought to snap a picture after just the first bite.  Because it went as slowly as I could manage, which wasn’t too slow at all.  SLURP.

As you can see, I continued to exercise Herculean restraint in not licking the plate, but managed quite well with my spoon.

Next trip when I get to London, I shall schedule some alone time so I can dawdle to my heart’s content in the art galleries, but it was a wonderful day.  I got to see the painting I most wanted to see again (Jane Gray) as well as more.  And finish with a top notch supper in a very pleasant small town.

I promised I’d share more of the thermofax screens I have designed and that Fiber on a Whim is making and selling, so here they are.  You can order these online or buy them at International Quilt Festival and other shows where Fiber on a Whim has a booth.

Onions is one of my favorite designs. I used a small white onion to stamp, then fiddled with the print in photoshop to create this screen. It makes a fantastic background print or part of a  layered piece of complex cloth.

I’m teaching two mini Whimsy-Classes in the Fiber on a Whim booth on the show floor at Quilt Festival, and we’ll be using the onion screen for oen of the two small projects in the classes.  For more information on this, visit here.  There is no advance sign up–come to the booth and the first 8 in line 15 minutes before the classes get in.  The modest $10 fee covers the kit fee–I provide everything you need.

The screens are so new I don’t even have some of them yet!

Squiggles thermofax screen by Sarah Ann Smith at FiberonaWhim.com 

Woven, thermofax screen design. Sometimes you just want a bit of something. This is a full-size screen so you can print as much or as little of the screen as you like. With the somewhat irregular edges, it is easily overlapped.

One of FoaW’s best-selling thermofax screens is an old French ledger, so we thought we’d try an alphabet, hand-written by me in a brush pen. Again, a good background design, which is what I was going for with most of my designs.

Another vegetable–this time celery!

The dagger-drops screen is a smaller size because you can easily repeat it. It will be fun to play with this, alternating the direction of the print 90 degrees or at diagonals or every which way.

The Queen Anne’s lace is from a photo I took, modified in photoshop elements, then scaled into three sizes. We will use this in the mini Whimsy-Classes project you can see in this blogpost.

Another onion print, a full size (9×12 inch) screen, that I call Tossed Onions.

Grasses, a full size screen with two ends to use. Kristin of FoaW requested this one–I had ordered it earlier for one of my own projects.

And last but not least, another great background print design, corn! Yep, I sacrificed an ear of corn on the cob for the sake of art.

In a few days I’ll do a review of Lynn Krawczyk’s great new book, Intentional Printing.  It will give you TONS of ideas on how to use thermofax screens and other surface design techniques.  Stay tuned! Here’s a link to Lynn’s website in the meantime, and she’s a ton of fun and on Facebook here.

And just in case you don’t feel like scrolling to the top but want to see the website where the screens are sold, here’s the link one more time!  I can’t wait to go to Quilt Festival, but I’m also looking forward to returning to my studio and playing with paint and thermofax screens!

What a thrill!  My copy of American Quilter, the AQS magazine for members of the AQS (American Quilters Society, as in the quilty folks in Paducah), arrived a day or two ago.  Yesterday I pulled it out of its wrapper and was leafing through it while making decaf tea last night.  I set it down, cover down and my eyes just about popped out of my head–there was the banner I made for Janome in thanks for their long-term support and loan of machines over the past decade ON THE BACK COVER in Janome’s new ad!

The back cover of the current issue of American Quilter with a Janome advert and MY quilted banner!  Right click to view larger.  They photography is great–it is really hard to photograph quilting on white fabric and show the depth and texture and they did a great job with this.

The banner was quilted on an 8900 to show what one can do with the machine.  It is a *brilliant* machine.   If you don’t want the top of the line 15000 (what I currently am using on loan and OMG is it a phenomenal piece of computer and machinery) and all the embroidery functions, the 8900 is tops and has a zillion options.   Anyway, here is a picture I took of Janome’s booth last year in Houston, with my banner hanging!

The banner in the Janome booth at International Quilt Festival last year (2013).

And some shots of the full front, back and a couple of detail photos.

The full banner. Right click to see larger.

The back. I LOVE the backs. The more I quilt, the more I like the back even more than the front!  Right click to see larger.

And some detail shots.

Detail of stitching.  Right click to see larger.  I really like the way the background quilting turned out.

And one more detail photo. Right click to see larger.

Thanks again to Janome America for years of support and making the best machines ever.

Thanks are also due to Jenny Bowker, a fanatastic art quilter from Australia.   About four years ago at Quilt Festival I was chatting with Jenny Bowker, who was telling me about how she teaches free-motion quilting and invited me by her classroom to see her samples.  In my classes I have always suggested using a large print to free-motion practice, but Jenny had this great way of using a square of big print surrounded by a solid color then by white (like a log cabin blog of sorts).  I asked permission to use/borrow/adapt Jenny’s idea and, Jenny being the wonderful and generous person she is, instantly said of course I could.   When I started my samples and offering this as an alternative to the main exercise in my intro free-motion quilting class, I wanted mine to be different so I eliminated the colored fabric and changes the shapes a bit.  Think of it as big print meets Quilt Modern!

After Festival I made some samples and blogged about them and Jenny’s work.  This banner is an extended version of those samples.   Thanks again to Jenny for a brilliant idea and sharing it!  Do go visit her website and enjoy her artwork, here.  Warning:  do not drool on your computer…her work is what I aspire to be able to do!