Quilter's Take Manhattan 2014: Bigger and Better Than Ever!!

Please Join Us!!  Click here for details

Here's the disclaimer:  I am on the board of the Quilt Alliance. So, it goes without saying that I am just a wee bit biased about how awesome this weekend experience is.  Each year the board sends participants an evaluation and we work hard to bring the things people want.  Last year, we added several great tours and theater experiences as well as workshops at the a-mazing City Quilter shop!

You won't believe our line-up this year!  Please go to the Quilt Alliance website for all the details, but here is a "taste", and there may (hint) be a few more things added so stay tuned:

Quilters Take Manhattan 2014 Schedule of Events

Friday, Sept. 19		Saturday, Sept. 20		Sunday, Sept. 21
Workshops at The City Quilter withJodie Davis and Allie Aller.		Quilters Take Manhattan Main Event at FIT		Breakfast with Lizzie: Mark Lipinski Interviews Lizzie B Cre8tive for Q.S.O.S.
Tours of the Garment District with Mark Lipinski and Paula Nadelstern. Tour of High Line Park with Meg Cox		QTM After Dark Cocktail Party at the studio & home of Victoria Findlay Wolfe		Workshops at The City Quilter with Michele Muska and Jamie Fingal Workshop at the Garment District studio of Victoria Findlay Wolfe
Behind the Scenes Tour of the Metropolitan Museum's Renowned Textile Center  Quilters Take Broadway, outing with Mark Lipinski to see Avenue Q		Can't make it to New York this year? Find out about our Home Ticket, sponsored by Moda.

Quilters Take Manhattan Tickets On Sale Now

Please visit the Quilt Alliance website to sign up and to read all the details!

My good friend, Hollis Chatelain, is the keynote speaker for this amazing event. 

View some of her amazing work here.

I am the proud owner of two giclee prints of her quilts:

Also at the main event at the Fashion Institute of Technology:

Go Tell It at the Quilt Show! Interviews with Semper Tedium

Semper Tedium, left to right: Amy Orr, Katherine Knauer, Paula Nadelstern, Robin Schwalb. Photo credit: John Woodin.

The tongue-in-cheek phrase Semper Tedium celebrates the ritualistic act of creation for its own sake. Paula Nadelstern, Katherine Knauer, Amy Orr and Robin Schwalb meet twice a year for cherished artist retreats which reinforce their shared dedication to integrity of construction and pursuit of unique personal visions, in spite of societal pressure to work faster and produce more. 

Each of these 4 lauded artists will celebrate some of her work and talk about how this type of "slow craft" philosophy affects her technique and the final product. 

Go Tell It at the Quilt Show! is a new Alliance project designed to capture the stories of quilts where quiltmakers and quilt lovers gather. The protocol for Go Tell It! is brief and personal: one person talking about one quilt in front of one video camera for three minutes, recording the most essential and compelling details of the quilt according to the "teller." Documenting, preserving and sharing these stories online via video is another way the Quilt Alliance provides education and inspiration to today's quilt lovers and tomorrow's historians and genealogists.

We are excited to present live Go Tell It! interviews with the members of Semper Tedium at this year's event.

There are so many add-on events this year!  I can't wait!  I will be offering a fun little workshop called "Random Acts of Stripping" at the fabulous City Quilter shop in the heart of Manhattan.  One hundred percent of the proceeds from the workshop will go to the Quilt Alliance to support the mission of the organization.

Here is the info about my workshop:

Random Acts of Stripping with Leslie Tucker Jenison
Friday, September 27, 11:30 am-2:30 pm, at The City Quilter
Tickets: $50 per person. Limited to 12 students.

  

Take strip-piecing to a new destination in this fun and productive workshop. Using jellyroll pre-cuts and/or your own cut strips learn a different way to create large pieced shapes. Each student will have a unique set of pieced blocks of varying sizes to use in a quilt. These shapes may be joined together or used with large negative space for a very modern look.

Students should bring:
Pre-cut strips of fabric (prints and solids that are compatable) Bring the equivalent of 1 jellyroll.
4-6 fat quarters or a layer cake set of solid cuts (these do not have to be the same color but should be compatable with the prints in the).
*Note: I'll be working with solid strips and print fat quarters, which is my preference. Either is fine, but it is good to have a combo of prints and solids that coordinate!
Machine thread
Fabric scissors
Nippers

This is where all three of the event-related workshops will be.

City Quilter is awesome!!

Two other workshops will be offered by my good friends:  the fantastic Frances Holliday Alford and the ever-gorgeous Mark Lipinski!  Check the Quilt Alliance website for all the details and links to sign up. Don't hesitate because many of these events sell out quickly!!  See you there!

An Evening at City Quilter for the AAQ!

I love City Quilter in New York!  If you are in Manhattan, this is a fantastic place to visit.  They have recently expanded their space and now have the only gallery that exclusively features fiber/quilt art in the city.  We were treated to an amazing solo exhibition of Noriko Endo's Naturescape quilts.

Walking through the gallery into the shop.

This is one-half of their space.  They also have a large classroom

with lots of Bernina 440 QE machines!

A contest and silent auction of AAQ Board members' quilts was held during the event.

The winner was top center:  Luke Haynes!  

My quilt, "Empire State of Mind", is on the lower left, and went to a good home!

Posing with Jay McCarroll, winner of Season One Project Runway

His earlier attempt at styling my hair was lost during the rainy walk between events.

Sorry, Jay!

Empire State of Mind

I have almost finished another 16-inch square quilt to be auctioned off in a silent auction at City Quilter in New York City, as part of the events for "Quilters Take Manhattan".  This is going to be such a fun weekend!  If you can make it, please join us for the Saturday events.  I believe there are still a few tickets available.
During the cocktail party at City Quilter there will be a fun set of events, one of which is a silent auction.
This quilt, "Empire State of Mind" (thank you, Jay Z, for the inspiration and name), is a New York Beauty style of quilt.  I wanted to put an iconic building shape in the center, and of course the Chrysler building was my first pick.  It resembles the New York Beauty shape.
I sketched the building top, made a thermofax screen and lightly printed the image onto the deep pink silk dupioni cloth, then thread sketched it using free-motion quilting.  The quilt is entirely free motion quilted.  I really enjoyed making it.  As you can see, I have yet to stitch the binding on the back so there are many pins in place!  The quilt back is the same as the borders and binding.

 lower right corner

lower left

upper left

upper right

I wrote a paper about the history of the New York Beauty style of quilt, which should go live on the Quilt Index site very soon.  I've always been attracted to this particular style of quilt.  I think I might need to make a slightly larger one.

What is your favorite "traditional" pieced quilt style?