Quilt Market 2017: Introducing "Urban Garden"

I am very excited about my second line of fabrics with RJR called

"Urban Garden"

This is a very personal line for me.  I am highly influenced

by my garden(s), both current and those in my past.

My friend and sister guild-member Eileen created 3-dimensional "succulent plants"

using Urban Garden.  These were used in a vertical garden in my booth.

In addition, I made these slightly larger succulent plants as door prizes in my Schoolhouse presentation during Quilt Market.  Aren't they fun?

My friend Joanna made this gorgeous "Coalition" duffle bag,

pattern by Sew Sweetness.

The inside of this bag is lovely and the false bottom can be removed for a different shape.

I am standing in front of Garden Streamers Quilt made by

my friend Debra.  About to begin my "Schoolhouse" presentation.

Amy Barickman of Indygo Junction made these pretty pajamas from two prints of Urban Garden,

as well as a fun skirt and top.

Demi from RJR photographs some of the objects we brought to Schoolhouse.

I'm holding up one of these Crimson & Clover cases 

made by Joanna.  They are so fun inside and out!

On to the show floor and setting up my portion of the RJR booth.

I had fun mounting these half-sphere "bumps" stretched with each print of Urban Garden

and hanging a small "Girls" quilt made by my friend Jamie and all the cute little Beetles made by my friend Deborah!

Here is how the vertical garden looked after it was mounted to the wall and covered with moss.

The corner of my display was bursting with beautiful quilts on the rack and one on the wall.

A small storage vanity gave me a perch for bags, garments, and my business cards.

Urban Garden will be hitting shops in spring 2018.  Be looking for it, and please ask about it at your favorite local quilt shop!  Let's all support our local shops so we will always have them around!

Barbara Brackman presents a wonderful program at Moda Fabrics

Barbara Brackman is a quilt historian, writer, as well as a fabric designer at Moda.  And, she is from Lawrence, Kansas, where I was born!  She is a treasure, and I regret that I missed the opportunity to know her while I was still living in Kansas, but I am so happy I met her last weekend in Dallas.  She is a wealth of information about historic textiles, and a charming and funny speaker.  I was fortunate to hear her present to the AAQ board as well as a program about researching and documenting antique textiles, and listen to her being interviewed for Quilters:  Save Our Stories.

Barbara began her presentation with a look into a swatchbook from 1835 that was acquired by Mark Dunn 

Her investigation and documentation of the cloth designers was 

fascinating!

Mark shows members of the AAQ board another swatch book.

Floribunda (a little peek)

This is a detail shot of my piece which is part of a larger, collaborative piece.  I had fun doing it because I haven't made a dimensional textile piece in a long time.  This uses a lot of different types of cloth:  silk organza, habotai, cotton, and the base is one of Wendy Richardson's beautiful over-dyed home-dec canvases.  I can't wait to see the large finished piece!  Very exciting!

New Stamps

I finally tested some newly created stamps, made from various things.  Check them out!

 acrylic eraser stamps glued to clear scrap acrylic

stamped onto white muslin

stamps created from soft erasers glued to scrap acrylic

stamped onto white muslin

and here are other stamp marks created from scrap acrylic-stuff:

Shake Your Groove Thing........and we did!

I'm home with my feet up after facilitating a 2-day workshop on free motion quilting, free-hand cutting, and free-wheeling fusing.  I lured them in with the idea of free motion quilting, but little did they know that I was plotting other little things........
My students inspired me so much with their willingness to learn these new skills.  Many were learning on a new machine, so they had at least two new skill sets to wrestle.  As a teacher I feel fortunate to be in the presence of so much creative energy.  I know that learning how to free motion quilt is a difficult endeavor, stitch-regulator or not:  there is no substitute for "just doing it".  And "it" is frustrating at times.  I compare it to learning how to snow ski:  it just feels awkward at first.  Then, when you have an "aha" moment, and another, you begin to "get" why people really like to do it.  I'm honored to be able to nurture that in another quilt-maker.
It is uncharacteristic for me to forget to take many photos, but I only took 3 during the entire two days of class!  This is positively bizarre (for me, at least).  I'm counting on the students to send images to me so I can share their amazing work on the blog.

 here is a portion of the class, working on their small quilts

 progress, progress, progress....

look at those cute purple Grabaroo gloves!

Many of us tried them for the first time and they are winners!

Halloween/Day of the Dead

There's something about Halloween.  I've always loved it.  It is a chance for kids to pretend to be something/someone else for a day.  I remember how excited I was each year to decide what I wanted to be, and saw the same thing with my kids.  I love skeletons and the colorful decor I find here in San Antonio, so it just keeps getting better!  Here are a few images around my house:

Wedding Banners

My oldest daughter visited last week.  She was on her way to attend the wedding of friends and fellow-classmates from the Rhode Island School of Design.  She graduated in 2005 with a BFA in Textiles.  She was commissioned to do the decor for the wedding, and spent part of her time finishing two huge (16 feet wide by 24 feet long) pieced banners.  The venue was in an outdoor amphitheater and the banners were to be suspended from two large columns.  I'm anxiously awaiting photos of the event, but here are a few images of the process of construction.  Once she sends me photos from the wedding I'll add them to this post.

laying out the banners for cutting (one on top of the other)

pieced banners were cut in arcs, sections switched from one to the other

banner transport system (to and from the sewing machine)

finished banners, end-to-end in the garden

The humans, and Bizzi the Schnauzer (who "helped")

the dog has the tough job of supervising the humans

Folding the banners (Bizzi says, "My job is done.  I'm outta here!")

Cool new (for me) gel pens

I took a journal workshop in Chicago @ CREATE with Dawn Sokol.  In the class we learned how to make our own books from old hardcover books by removing the original pages and stitching in our own page stock.  I made a book with two "signatures", meaning two sections of stitched pages.
Of course, I had to make it complicated.  I used a variety of oddities:  watercolor paper, maps, old pattern sleeves, and even some polyester sheer that I laminated with paper through a thermofax screen.

In addition to learning how to construct a book, which thrilled me, Dawn introduced me to Sakura gel pens.  The ones we were given in the workshop were the souffle pens.  The ink behaves as puff paint after you write on a surface.  Very cool.
I ordered a couple of additional packages when I returned home, and just got around to playing with them a few days ago.
One of the pleasant surprises was the set of opaque pens:  I found that I could write on a boarding pass that I "ruined" by heating and turning the paper black.  No problem now:  I wrote on the page with my white pen!  The other happy surprise is that I can write on the laminated areas of my sheer and the script shows!
I tried various other types of pens and markers and the script didn't show up.
Take a look:

Here is a page with writing using the Sakura Souffle pens

Here is the laminated sheer, turned to left

Here is the laminated sheer with Sakura opaque pen scribblings.

Pretty cool stuff

Preparation for the Artist Faire at CREATE in Chicago

In addition to creating a number of small mixed-media pieces, I have been dyeing and printing both fabric and t-shirt knit (both standard and tissue weight) scarves.  Here are a few images:

I'm wearing a tissue-knit scarf that is 25 inches wide by 125 inches long!

It is soft, lightweight, and oh-so-yummy

this is another scarf made from standard weight t-shirt knit.

It has been screen printed with a dragonfly image.

For as much dyeing as I did, this doesn't look like a big yield!

Each piece of gorgeous cloth is one-half yard.

This cloth started out as white Kaufman "Radiance", which is half silk, half cotton.

It has a lovely hand, and really looks like silk charmeuse.

For quilt makers, the true beauty of this cloth is that it handles like cotton:  none of that skittery slipperiness that accompanies sewing with silk (or is that just me?).

Here are rolled bundles of bamboo batting (in the foreground) and more lovely scarves.

If you can see the background of these shots of the remains of my studio, my apologies.  I have SUCH a mess in here right now!  Staging all the supplies needed for teaching at CREATE, selling at the artist faire, taking a workshop at the retreat, and then traveling on to Cleveland to tape several episodes of Quilting Arts Television has been daunting, to say the least.  I have torn this place apart.  When I return, I vow to take time and re-organize this work space.  Really.  I mean it this time.  No, seriously.

Jamie and I still have a few slots available in each of our workshops.  Please drop everything and come to Chicago!  Cloth Paper Scissors CREATE retreat