Birds and Flowers Part 2

Little Fused Art Quilts with Frieda and Laura – Birds and Flowers Part 2 starts today on the Quilt Show. Laura continues her lesson on making her little quilt, Birds and Flowers, follow along as she shows you how to build a nest for your birds. Even a bird brain can do this easy weaving technique.

Don’t miss out on this great opportunity to watch Laura and I make art quilts. It is just like taking a class with us, or being in our booth. We don’t hold back.

If you are not already a member I think you would really enjoy being one. The Quilt Show is a great resource for all kinds of quilting information. I watch all kinds of videos on this site and learn a lot from some great and very experienced quilters.

Press ON!

Fascination II

I like to piece as well as fuse. And I particularly like to piece leaves this way.

This table runner is pieced.  It is called Aspen Leaves and was in the book Skinny Quilts II

It was inspired by this quilt called “It’s Good to Be Green” which was in an exhibit by the same name.

Here is a nice close up of the quilting.

You can see by these illustrations some of how it is made.

To start I made a pattern out of freezer paper.

And then used the freezer paper and some glue to help in the piecing process.

 

It is fun and yet still free form way to work. You can get all the directions from my pattern Aspen Leaves.

Here are a few other examples of pieced leaves.

Shimmering Foliage is a really large quilt and one of my favorites. It measures 82” square. I love this piece.

Wood Light 54” x 54”. All those leaves were made with the left overs from piecing the big leaves for Shimmering Foliage.

Have a great weekend and look at a few leaves while you are thinking about it.

Fascination

Why do we become fascinated with something? Is it a reminder of something we have lost, or something that we want?

Do we just love the shape?

Is it the color and texture that attracts us?

Is it the feeling that we like when we see, hear or feel it that we long for?

Perhaps it is all or none of the above.

I find that I am fascinated with trees and leaves in all shapes, sizes, colors and settings.
I will find myself gazing at them when I am driving in the car.

I cut out (really just rip out), or clip images from magazines and the internet. Long before Pinerest I started keeping files on my computer of images that I found on line of anything and everything that I liked.

When I am out walking with George I will be looking at the shapes and colors of the trees and leaves in the landscape. I will be thinking about how I can translate what I see into my art.

So I thought I would share here a few of the leaf imagery that I have made in my own art over the years.



This was one of the very first pieces I made with leaf imagery. It is fused and I used decorative blades to cut out the rectangles to place the fused leaves in.



It evolved into this – Organic Leaves. This quilt is in my first book from AQS “Fun Fast Fusies”.


It is also one of the design classes that I teach. It is a fun exercise in color and shape and design. Letting go and being free form. 

Some people really love this class and some people struggle with letting go. Lefty and righty’s working out their issues.









This table runner was featured on Quilting Arts TV several years ago. Laura and I were scheduled to do segments for the show and I ended up getting sick at the last minute and Laura had to present my episode for me.

I have never seen it, but I am sure she did a great job.
It is all fused and then machine quilted. So easy and fun to do.

I use this table runner all year long and it gets washed about once a week. It has held up like Iron.

What are your fascinations?

Can you translate it into your art?
Happy Quilting today.

Fusing the blues away

My good friend Roberta is recovering from cancer.

While going through her chemo treatments she found it hard to do any “real” sewing.

So she decided to do some fusing. Fusing helped chase the blues away and kept her hands, heart and mind busy.

Here are some of the pieces she made during her treatments.

This is the “tiny” version of my pattern Winter Dreaming. All my patterns come with a little version to make using your left over fused scraps.

Roberta has two or three cats, I’m not sure. One is untouchable when I go to visit. You know the kind.


I LOVE the coloration on this version of my pattern “Wild Blue Jacks”. Those are some of Roberta’s one hand dyes in the background and border.

Roberta had me teach dyeing to her quilt “bee” several years ago in her garage. We had a great time doing all the gradations and then just playing around with color. I worked them hard.


From my pattern “Peace, Love, Joy”. This just makes me so happy.


The colors in “Tulips” is incredibly gorgeous, this picture taken with my iPhone doesn’t do it justice.


Roberta is now done with her chemo and recovering well. She is starting to machine quilt these fabulous pieces. Roberta choose to fuse rather than fuss in the face of adversity. You go girl.

Managing Delay

There is a very interesting entry by Robert Genn on his blog.
Here is the opening paragraph. I enjoyed reading the rest, I hope you do too.
Dear Artist,

Frank Partnoy in his book, Wait: The Art and Science of Delay , tells us that procrastination is a winning formula. The idea that procrastination is evil came along with the Protestant work ethic and the Puritanical era, he claims, while most of the greats in ancient times sat around delaying decisions until they became obvious. Wise folks throughout history have waited until the last second, he says. As artists, perhaps we can take some wisdom from this.

I find that I often work this way, letting the piece “rest” while it speaks to me. Then all of a sudden I finish it and move on. Haste is waste in many ways.
Happy Quilting Today and Happy Birthday to my OLDER Sister xxoo


Prairie Grass

Come to merry ole England

Inspire Creative Events is a company which organizes Quilting and Creative Textile holidays and retreats. It is a partnership between Janet Gledhill and Gail Burton. There are 3 large events planned for 2013 up and down the UK. This blog documents the process of setting up venues and organizing the events themselves.

Frieda Anderson at Inspire April 2013

We are really looking forward to our Inspire April 2013 event. Coming over from the USA is Frieda Anderson whose work is really quite spectacular. Have a look on her website here. Her gallery of work is not to be missed.
Frieda is taking 5 workshops for us through from Wednesday 10th to Sunday 14th April 2013. They are Sundance, Duluth Trees, Frieda's Fun Fast Free Machine Quilting, Laughing Leaves and Trumpeting Spring.
This is a wonderful example of Frieda's Free Machine Quilting, so why not come and see how she does it. It gives us all something to aspire to. Oh how I wish my work was like this! I must carry on practicing.

I would love to see all of you in England next year :)

Crazy Busy

There was a great op-ed piece in the New York Times by TIm Kreider, about working and being busy.


If you live in America in the 21st century you’ve probably had to listen to a lot of people tell you how busy they are. It’s become the default response when you ask anyone how they’re doing: “Busy!” “So busy.” “Crazy busy.” It is, pretty obviously, a boast disguised as a complaint. And the stock response is a kind of congratulation: “That’s a good problem to have,” or “Better than the opposite.”
If you want to read more go click here.


I want to dream lazily and do work when I am inspired. That seems to be crazy, but I think it is the right way to work.

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

Morna McEver Golletz is the founder and CEO of the International Association of Professional Quilters, an association to help quilters, fiber artists and other creative arts entrepreneurs build business success. Her weekly e-zine offers tips, techniques and inspiration to help you craft business success from your creative arts passion. You can sign up for a F.R.E.E. subscription at http://www.professionalquilter.com.


Let me know what you think.

I like to play around

I like to play around, don’t you?


Here are a few more ideas using Derwent Pencils.

Derwent Inktense Pencils

Here are a few more ideas from Mary in HOT Arizona. I bet she plays around inside A LOT!


First...if I draw a line with the pencil and use a paintbrush, filled with the aloe gel, on the line it will spread the really intense color out into surrounding areas, with the darkest concentration of color being where the line is.  You need to make sure that you're good with having a line still showing.
Second...if I put some of the gel into one of those little plastic palette indentations, then immerse the pencil sort of like drawing in the cup and mixing the color in until it's as deep a color as I'd like, I can use that colored gel like watercolors to paint on the fabric.  If you want it darker, just either add more of the color from the pencil or multiple layers of the color...or both.

Third...if I only need a really teensy bit of the color, I put a bit of the clear gel on my finger and roll/draw with the pencil until I get the intensity of color that I want.  Then I dip my brush into it and use it to paint the area.  The caution with this one is that if you need to color a medium to large area, the color consistency would be tough to achieve.

Also, there are special paint brushes for fabric that sort of scrubs the ink into the fibers of the fabric, which is needed.  You want the ink to be more than just surface.

When you wet the Inktense pencils, the color becomes very intense and beautiful, but like all liquid (gels included), it will spread the color and the moment that it dries it becomes permanent.  If you want to contain it within a specific area, your 24 pencil kit has an outlining pencil that is usually located on the end.  If you use it, that sort of silvery-grey color will be visible when you finish, however, so play with it to see whether you want to use it or not.  Also...when adding gel or other liquids to the Inktense on fabrics, give them at least 24 hours to dry thoroughly.

The clear colorless aloe gel that I buy comes from Walgreens in their suntan lotion section and usually runs me 2 tubes for $5, so it's pretty cheap.

Hummingbird feathers

My little hummingbirds have returned for another year.
I have so much fun watching them at the feeder.
This morning I found these stuck to the feeder.
I know the three feathers with the white tips are tail feathers.

Look how little them are. I love the green glow them have.
I have to figure a way to display them in my studio.

Fusing for Fun, Liberation and Freedom

I don’t know if I ever mentioned why I fuse my quilts.

It has become so much of what I do I don’t think about the reasons anymore.
But maybe you would like to hear my reasoning.

I really, really, like the freedom fusing gives me in creating imagery.

I started out as a traditional quilter. Piecing and hand quilting.

But I kept getting ideas that just didn’t translate well with traditional pieced methods.

I begin to create these ideas with my own hand dyed fused fabrics.

I was just too impatient to hand turn my applique. And come on these are pieces that are going to hang on a wall not be laid on a bed.

Why oh why did I have to finish the edges. The fused applique if applied correctly isn’t going to come unstuck and I don’t NEED or WANT to wash my art.

So there it is in a nutshell, fast, efficient and fun. Liberated quilting.




If it isn’t fun you shouldn’t do it!! That’s my motto and I’m sticking (pun) to it!

Happy Monday.Press ON!

Dancing with your ideas

I struggle with the names of my quilts.

Some people are so lyrical, but for me language does not come easily. I see the world in images not words.

When I made this quilt I polled my blog readers to get ideas for it’s name and you graciously helped me out.

I think the name is perfect. SUNDANCE

This is the perfect project to use those decorative blades on. I have used the pinking blade and the wavy blade in my rotary cutter to help create this design and give it such liveliness.

I recently taught this fusing class. The students get to use my hand dyed fabrics and pattern to create their own version of this fun wall quilt.

I don’t know how you could make this design without fusing the fabrics first.


Placing the yellow flowers on darker fabrics and “shadowing” them gave me the elements for the triangle borders.

The triangle border was not  planned but evolved from the cutaways when creating the shadows behind the flowers.

Each quilt has it’s own rhythm and character that happens while you are making it.

You only have to give it a chance to grow and speak to you as you work on it.

Let the ideas dance around and feel the freedom of playing with them.

Enjoy your weekend.

Surface Explorations Volume 1 eMag

Quilting Arts has a new venture. They are always coming up with new stuff. And here it is…

Welcome to the premier issue of Surface Explorations! This eMag presents an interactive look at surface design and offers techniques such as screen-printing, dyeing fabrics, rusting, and more. New and well-known artists bring their tips, tricks, and favorite techniques to you through slideshows, videos, and photographs that you can pan and zoom. Get up close and personal with each project by enlarging photos to see the tiniest details. Pause and replay videos for virtual private lessons from nationally known and fresh, new artists. As you work along in your studio space, these are just a few of the great benefits of Surface Explorations.
Don’t just read it, experience it! Explore Surface Explorations with great features like:

• The Great Dye Experiment: Cotton vs. Silk with April Sproule
  
• Thermofax® Screen Printing: The mysteries of Thermofax explained with Lyric Kinard
  
• Rusting to Create Texture and Timeless Images: Designs in decay from rusty metalwith Laurie Brooks
  
• Screens & Stencils: Two Ways to Have Fun! with Leslie Tucker Jenison
  
• And so many more!

With an array of videos, interactive slide shows, and lessons in surface design, Surface Explorations is the perfect new studio tool. Download this amazing eMag today and start exploring the surface!

This is an E MAG, so you pay a small fee to download and print only the parts that you want.

I have a quilt in this issue, so I hope you will check it out and support this new venture.

Remarkable Rambling Rose

I have spent many hours this week cleaning the gunk out of my garden.

There is a big oak tree in the neighbors yard that hangs over my garden and drops oak leaves throughout the fall and winter into my garden. So every spring there is a big clean up to clear the garden of this gunk.

20 years ago I planted this rose bush in the front of my garden allowing me a view it from my kitchen window. The idea was that I would enjoy the blossoms while I do the dishes. And this is true.

I know nothing about roses, and every spring I just hack away at it to trim back the overgrowth and dead parts and in the process cutting off the dead rosehips. And every year it comes back healthy and productive. Now that I think about it, I bet I could make rose hip tea if I cut those rosehips fresh in the fall… hum

This rose bush is a very ardent producer of fragrant and pink rosy blooms. They smell like sweat tea rose. I love to cut them and have them on the kitchen table, or sprinkle them in my bath water. Oh yes, I am a bather, I take a bath everyday, no showers for me.

My rose bush has buds and roses all summer long and if I let it, I’m sure it would ramble all over the garden.




Last week I finally got inspired to create a quilt in honor of this flower bush that gives me so much pleasure throughout the summer.



This is my newest pattern “Rambling Rose” 16” x 20”. It uses two different decorative blades to give it a little drama and whimsy.

The pinking blade and the wavy blade are both used in my rotary cutter to cut the leaves and vines and shadow of the rose.

It would look pretty hanging on your wall too.

Don't forget to leave your comments for a chance to win the tablet keeper directions and fabric. I will announce the winner Monday. See you then.