Introducing "Quilting: The New Classics"! Woo Hoo! Let's hop!

All quilters draw inspiration from the past. But how do today's artisans put their personal stamp on classic patterns? Twenty influential quilters from across the stylistic spectrum present their unique creative vision of timeless designs. Each pattern, Double Wedding Ring, Crazy Quilt, Dresden Plate, Bear Paw, Log Cabin, Nine Patch, Hexagon, Yo-Yo, Flying Geese, and Rail Fence, comes with step-by-step instructions for two adaptations, one traditional, the other modern.

The book also includes a history of each pattern, images of heirloom or museum-quality quilts for inspiration, easy-to-use templates and essential quilting techniques.

Forwards by Meg Cox and Janneken Smucker.

I was thrilled and honored when my dear friend, Michele Muska, invited me to contribute to her book, "Quilting:  The New Classics".  I began my journey as a quilt maker in the early 80's, inspired by the work of a nurse-colleague.  My paternal grandmother, Maude Tucker, was the town seamstress and a quilt maker of considerable talent.  Participating in this book as a contributing artist makes me feel like my grandmother would be proud of me.

I love many things about the style of this book.  First, the paper feels so great!  I think we are weirdly tactile creatures, us artists.  The paper quality is exceptional.  I love that the book has folds on the front and back cover which makes it easy to place-hold a page.

The matte finish is wonderful and so is the photography and layout.  Each quilt "style" is represented by a traditional interpretation as well as a modern translation, and they are featured side-by-side in the book.  I have never seen this done before and I love it.

Since I adore hexagon quilts of any size and shape it was great to be asked to create a 'modern' version of this classic shape.   As much as I love paper piecing hexagons I wanted to see if I could construct them in a different way.
First, I constructed a long section of strip-pieced fabrics.

After drawing and cutting several graduated sizes of hexagons from paper, I used these to cut my hexagons using a 1/4 inch seam allowance around the paper shapes.  I cut two in each size, front and back.

Placing the right sides together, I stitched the front and back of each hexagon together leaving one side of each open (in order to turn the shape right-side-out).

Before turning, the corners need to be trimmed close to the seam to allow a crisp point.

After turning the hexagon right-side-out, I turned the raw edge opening in so it could be pressed into place, then stitched it closed.

After the hexagon is stitched it was placed onto the quilt top surface and stitched into place all around the perimeter.  

Just for fun, and because I am slightly nuts, I added four octagons for a little visual confusion.

I like the result!  Hexi and Octi go out for a date!

I continue to have an intense love affair with all shades of gray.  Fifty?  Why limit oneself to so few?!

(Side-note:  I was just in a class with a woman who told me she loved this shade of Kona gray so much that, if this color of fabric were a man, she would marry him.)  I sort of understand.

Apparently the book also functions as a hat.

Here is Michele, posing with our fellow Quilt Alliance board member, Mark Lipinski.

There is so much great stuff in this book, and you could WIN one by leaving a comment!  I will be doing a drawing to give away a copy of this gorgeous book from those who have written me a note here.   You must comment by November 1st to be eligible for the drawing.
Please use the following link to order your own copy of this gorgeous book:

http://www.amazon.com/Quilting-New-Classics-Inspired-Traditional/dp/1936096803

Stop by all these amazing artists for more inspiration:

Oct. 20th Michele Muska http://www.lolarae.com/blog.html

Oct. 21^st Leslie Jenison  http://leslietuckerjenison.blogspot.com

Oct. 22^nd Janneken Smucker   http://www.janneken.org/category/blog/

Oct. 23^rd Valerie Bothell http://pinkbunnykansas.blogspot.com

Oct. 24^th Kaari Meng www.frenchgeneral.blogspot.com

Oct. 25^th Elisa Sims Albury : www.stitchoutsidetheditch.com

Oct. 26^th Heather Jones www.oliveandollie.com

Oct. 27^th Victoria Findlay Wolfe http://www.bumblebeansinc.blogspot.com

Oct. 28^th Amy Smart http://www.diaryofaquilter.com

Oct. 29^th Jackie Kunkel http://cvquiltworks.com/blogs/blog\

Oct. 30^th Pat Sloan http://blog.patsloan.com/

Oct. 31^st Shelly Pagliai  http://prairiemoonquilts.com/?page_id=62

Nov. 1^st Allie Aller www.alliesinstitches.blogspot.com

Nov. 2^nd Kristin Omdahl www.styledbykristin.com

Nov. 3^rd Jacquie Gering http://tallgrassprairiestudio.blogspot.com/

Nov. 3^rd Pat Sloan 4:00pm eastern time http://toginet.com/shows/americanpatchworkandquiltingradio

“The Voice of Quilting” American Patchwork and Quilting radio show 

Also, stay tuned for some great inspiration and ideas from some of our contributors’ newsletters and social media platforms!
Meg Cox with Quilt Journalist Tells All
New York times Best Selling Author Marie BostwickMegan Frock of Downtown Housewife

And more from Marci Elmer Warren, Linda Pumphrey, Bonnie Bus and Darlene Zimmerman!

Get A Clue: I'm Just Wild About Nancy Drew!

When I found out that Moda was launching a line of Nancy Drew-themed fabrics, my young-reader-self crawled out of hibernation and starting jumping up and down!  Nancy Drew.  I credit these books with sparking my love of reading.  Birthdays, holidays, sick days:  all I wanted was another Nancy Drew Mystery.  Naturally, I jumped on this blog hop bandwagon as soon as I learned about it!

I decided to make a throw-sized quilt, something that you could curl under on the sofa while watching "Murder, She Wrote" (which is a ritual around here on occasions when my daughter is here visiting).

First, I asked my architect friend to enlarge this figure, as derived from one of the cloth designs.

Placing the image over a lightbox,

I traced the shape onto a piece of the ND fabric that

had been pre-fused with Mistyfuse.

I worked on the reverse (fused) side of the cloth, tracing with a 

Pentel Gel Roller Fabric pen (which I adore BTW!)

Here is the complete tracing on wrong side of fused fabric.

Now, I cut the shape out.  It was easy because I was using my fabulous 7" Havel's Scissors

with the micro-serrated blade.  You should try these scissors because they are amazing for this type of work!!

Here's Nancy!  

She is ready to be fused onto the book panel.

So far, so good!

I like how this looks!

Here, I am "free-cutting" block strips with my wonderful Havel's 7" scissors.

I've had these babies for years and they are as sharp and amazing as the day they 

came out of the package.  Seriously great scissors!

I made a bunch of pieced blocks that I later changed my mind about.

These are now on the back of the quilt...

before...

I changed my mind and switched to the blue-yellow colorway for the quilt top.

after

Here is a corner block, under-construction

I wrote the quilt label on a piece of plain yellow pre-fused cotton, 

using my Pentel Gel Roller Fabric Pen (LOVE).

After fusing, I stitched around each edge.....

The label is the yellow block with blue border in the center of the quilt back.

I decided to place the label prior to the quilting.

I used all the extra pieces of ND fabric to create a scrappy-pieced quiltback.

I like how it looks!

Here is the finished quilt,

long-arm quilted by my friend, Danielle Wilkes.

I machine-stitched the binding.

Here is the quilt "in action":  tucked around my daughter,

who was visiting from out of town.

We have a  ritual of watching old "Murder, She Wrote" episodes on Netflix.

I think it was even more fun all cozied-up under "Nancy"!

I had so much fun making this quilt!  For even more great ideas about how to use this fun fabric line, please stop by today's other blog hop participants' sites:  

Gracie Oliver Arts

Life In Every Breath

Made By Me In Red

Agnes At That Other Blog

Words and Stitches

Rose Creations

Retired to Quilt

Leslie Tucker Jenison (that's me!)

Feathered Nest Studio

Here is a link to the entire blog hop on a day-by-day basis:

Just Let Me Quilt

Please leave a comment and be eligible for a gift!  I'll draw a winner from the people who comment!
ltj

Oh, and PS:  The winner will receive a pair of Havel's scissors as well as a Pentel Fabric Gel Roller pen!  Woo Hoo!

"The Coffee Break"

"The Coffee Break" is my curator's piece for the upcoming special exhibition, "Rituals", which debuts at the International Quilt Festival, Long Beach, in July 2012.  After honing down which ritual theme I wanted to work with for this exhibition, I started and stopped several times.  I even changed the cloth on the coffee cups at the very last minute (see last image).

This ritual has to do with a long-running email conversation with my friend and teaching partner, Jamie Fingal.  When I see "coffee break" in the subject line, I know to get my cuppa and put my feet up, because it will be a long conversation in print.  We discuss business items, personal issues...you name it.

The coffee break has been a long-running habit which is often more of a lifeline.

I took quite a number of our email exchanges, printed them on paper, then cut them into small rectangular strips.  The strips were laminated onto polyester sheer with matte medium.  This was subsequently fused with Mistyfuse, cut into "vapor-like" shapes and fused to the surface of the quilt, along with the interior of each cup.

I wanted the quilt to have a mirror-image effect, so the background shapes and the coffee cup are inverted at the top.  The vapor was appliqued onto the surface, then more vapor was added by free-motion thread-painting.  The background shapes, though rather abstract, are created to reference portals, doorways, windows.  

Creating this piece was a joy.  I hope you like it, too.

Finished size:  60 inches long by 24 inches wide.

emails, cut into small rectangular pieces

after laminating to polyester sheer

looking at cast shadows.....

Here is my original cup (which I adore!). 

I changed it because I felt these got "lost" on the surface of the quilt.

I'm still sad about them....

...but they just didn't work as well as the black and white ones.

Also, the vapor looks too "vine-like" here.  

Picky, picky, picky.