Archive for year: 2013
 |
| Barbara O’Steen, Marylee Drake, and Rosalyn Duffy at the Contemporary QuiltArt Association’s (CQA) booth |
This past aweekend I enjoyed going to Stashfest, the fund-raiser for the La Conner Quilt and Textile museum. As a contributor in several ways for this event, it was exciting to see it come to fruition.
The biggest effort I was involved in was in making fabric with the Contemporary QuiltArt Association (CQA), as a vendor for Stashfest. I got an early entry and have photos to share of all the fantastic unusual fabrics that were available at this event.
 |
| Donna DeShazo from CQA with more of our handmade fabrics |
 |
| Ice-dyed and other hand-dyed fabrics |
 |
| More of the CQA collection |
 |
| Annie Lewis with her fabulous hand silk-screened fabrics |
 |
| Hand-dyed Kona Cottons |
 |
| Hand-dyed Kona Cottons |
 |
| Vintage Kimono Silks |
 |
| Margot Myer’s NW Batiked Cottons |
 |
| Barbara Kanaya (of CQA) working at Mary Ogwell’s booth |
 |
| Mary Ogwell’s West African cottons |
 |
| Patricia Beleya’s Japanese Yukata fabrics |
 |
| Early-bird shoppers get a spring on all the unique fabrics! |
 |
| Patricia Beleya’s incredible Yukata fabrics |
 |
| Rack of “insider visits” for sale- studio tours of NW Quilt Artists (mine on top!) |
 |
| Business starting to pick up as doors open |
I’ll be getting some photos up soon from a new fiber exhibition that I went to last week, as well as my finishing my Salsa quilt and the start of a freemotion quilting practice quilt. Make sure and stop in this coming weekend and link your blog up for Design Wall Weekends!
You Might Also Be Interested In:
 |
 |
 |
| CQA Surface Design Party | Viewing for Inspiration | Designing, Stenciling & Making Marks on Fabric |
 |
| Working on sample of True Triangles |
I’ve had some wonderful comments on my Salsa blocks, as well as a few questions on how I did certain aspects, including my background of my most recent block, Chili Pepper. Today, I’m going to go over the triangles freemotion quilting design.
 |
| Practice and notes from my sketchbook – True Triangles |
I started working out this triangle design in my sketchbook, because I wanted a way to have triangles, but not a bunch of connecting lines or other angles.
 |
| More notes from my sketchbook |
The main trick with this design is to make your first triangle and then backtrack (or “travel stitch” as Leah Day of the Freemotion Quilting Project calls it) to the middle of one of the sides of your triangle, where you start the first corner of your next triangle.
Difficulty: Beginner- The main difficulty with this design is in getting your sides of your triangles straight and in carefully backtracking, so your stitches stay on the line of the original triangle’s line.
OK, I’m still working out the bugs on how to do a nice job on videography for my tutorials, so bear with me. I cut down time on this video by speeding it up a bit during part of the sewing, but I need a bit more practice on my hand position while videoing and also adding audio to the part which has increased speed.
Click Here if the Video isn’t Showing Above
 |
| True Triangles used in the background of my Chili Pepper block |
If you haven’t linked up yet, make sure to visit Design Wall Weekend! Or just stop by to find some other great blogs!
You Might Also Be Interested In:
 |
 |
 |
| Design Wall Weekend #1 | Tutorial: Adding Your Link to a Blog Party |
Design Wall Weekends |
I’
 |
| Christina’s Salsa quilt (in progress) |
I don’t know about you, but I generally have too much on my design wall… and sometimes the things that are up aren’t what I’m currently working on! Not only am I working on finishing up my Salsa Quilt, I have my Waterfall colorplay quilt, my little “Waiting” piece, and fabric to start a piece for the Outdoor “Salsa in the Sun” show. I guess if they’re up on my wall, I don’t really count them as a UFO… which implies that you’ve sort of given up on it.
By the way, I’m just finishing up my tutorial on “True Triangles”, the freemotion quilting design which I’ve created for the Chili Pepper block. Check back on Sunday (April 7) to see the video tutorial!
So, what do you have on your design wall? By the way, if you don’t yet have your own design wall, click here for a great tutorial on how to make one for yourself from Quilts by Jen.
Years back, I never used a design wall. I might sketch out a design on graph paper or in my sketchbook, but then I pretty much just went with it and constructed as close to what I’d drawn as I could. It certainly is possible to get a good result from that… but it’s kind of hit or miss. It’s much more effective to use a design wall.
Your design wall can simply be a piece of batting that you pin up on a wall anywhere you have some space to step back from it (preferably at least 8-12 feet or 3-4 meters) and be able to look at your design as it progresses.
 |
| First try- lower left seems a bit heavy with the dark backgrounds |
The change for me came when I started taking a Design series – classes for quilters that taught you the basic fundamentals of design. Our teacher always said “Make visual decisions Visually.” In other words, you have to actually look at something to see if it’s going to work, rather than just thinking it will work.
Tonight it was time to put my Salsa blocks all together. So, up they went on the design wall. I arranged them, then stepped back and took a look (and a picture).
I then rearranged them several times, each time checking to see how I liked the arrangement.
 |
| I like having the two red backgrounds on opposite corners |
Looking through a reducing glass or at a photograph can also help you get a sense of how well the design will work from afar.
After determining the placement of the blocks, I then had to decide which fabic I was going to use for the sashing. To do this, I pinned different pieces of fabric up and put the blocks on top, stepped back and looked at the overall effect.
The green fabric to the right is bold and seemed like a good prospect, but when I tried out the black with red/yellow/orange batik, I think I found a winner!
|
| Salsa blocks with sashing complete |
Next step will adding batting/backing and freemotion quilting of the sashing.
You Might Also Be Interested In:
One of the best places to learn FreeMotion Quilting: Leah Day’s FreeMotion Quilting Project
I’ve decided to open a “Design Wall Weekend” link party each week for Fiber and Mixed Media of all sorts. You might notice a couple new tutorials I just posted to help out anyone who is interested in participating in the link party.
 |
| “Waiting for Inspiration” by Carolyn Hitter |
I think that it’s best to have content that matches the content and interests served with the blog that’s hosting the party, so blogs that will be featured will have and emphasis on the following:
- Quilting and fabrics
- Fiber art of any kind
- Hand & machine stitch or embroidery
- Mixed media art
- Book-making, art journals, and sketchbooks
- Tutorials for any quilting, fiber, mixed media, sketchbook and other arts
- These can be works in progress or finishes
So, if you’re a blogger, make sure and check in on Saturday or Sunday and post your blog. If you’re just interested as a reader, you’ll find a whole lot of additional diverse, fun and interesting content during the weekends!
 |
| “Chili Pepper” by Christina Fairley Erickson Freehand machine embroidery with decorative stitching and freemotion quilting |
Make sure to check out the start of my Design Wall Weekends Blog Link Party coming Saturday April 6!
Well, I finally finished up my final 5 x 7″ block for the Salsa Quilt. I had some fun with this and will be posting a couple of tutorials later this week for both how to do unusual lettering and a new freemotion quilting design. I also will work on documenting my process for installing new fonts onto your computer, so you can play around with different lettering styles like this “Taco Modern” font I use in each of my salsa blocks.
I’ve been super busy this last week catching up after being gone for 5 days in the “Experimental Hand Stitch class.” I’ve been working on continuing to complete my hand-stitch samples, which are quite relaxing to do. I’ve also started cutting and piecing a new practice quilt, which I’m doing along with Leah Day’s Craftsy class. Although I’m pretty comfortable with freemotion machine quilting, the more you practice, the better you get. The one thing I haven’t completely decided upon is whether I’m going to do all the fillers which Leah suggests in her class, or whether I’ll pick and choose those which I want to do. I’m not 100% thrilled with every design she’s picked, so I may just substitute some of my own, or others I’ve learned from Leah’s blog.
One thing that’s going to be a little different in the future is that I will be hosting a “Design Wall Weekend” blog linking party. This will be open to quilters, fiber artists, mixed media artists, and book/art journalists who have blogs to help increase exposure to all sorts of great ideas.
Now, it’s on to do the sashing and binding for this quilt. Not to mention, I will need to get going on a new 5 x 7 Challenge piece for next week! So check back for tutorials later this week and I hope you will have some fun quilting this week.
You Might Also Be Interested in:
 |
 |
 |
| And the Winner Is… | A Slice of Lime | Peppers and Avocado |
Check out these other great blogs:
 |
| Waiting by Charo Lopez |
My small art-quilt group, the Fiber Funsters, met yesterday with our every-other month challenge. We take turns choosing a theme. This time, Charo picked “Waiting” for us to interpret. Charo’s piece, left, features her cat gazing out the window at little birds and bugs made from beads, buttons, and embroidery. The pillow her kitty sits on is puffy and with little braid and tassels.
 |
| Allison Chang’s “Waiting” (work in progress) |
Allison started with white fabric and she wrote “Waiting” in Chinese characters across it. She then fused shapes in a metallic gold, red, green, and black. The squares and plaids contrasted with the circles, spirals, and dramatic red diagonal slashes made for active composition. She also has put three half spheres of beaded wool felted roving.
 |
| Carolyn Hitter posed for several photos for her quilt |
Carolyn started with having her husband, Jim, take some photos of her contemplating something from behind. Using a method she learned in Leni Levenson Wiener’s “Photo-Inspired Art Quilts: From Composition to Finished Piece“, Carolyn took the photos and applied a Cutout Filter in Adobe Photoshop Elements. She then chose the photo she liked the best (on the far left) and traced the shapes (below.) The background of Carolyn’s quilt is made from a fuzzy interfacing… just like on a design wall! Her title says it all: “Waiting for Inspiration”
|
| “Waiting for Inspiration” by Carolyn Hitter |
Any of us who are mothers can relate to the sense of waiting that goes along with pregnancy. Waiting to get pregnant, to find out whether you’ll have a son or a daughter, to make sure they’re healthy, and finally for the wonderous day when you meet your child. Lise’s humourous spin on these aspects of pregnancy is whimsical with the pink (for girls) and blue (for boys) background that the pollywog shaped sperm are swimming through.
 |
| “Waiting” by Lise Vandandaigue |
Similarly, Debbie has a beautiful pair of thread-painted birds waiting over their nest filled with three eggs. The background has a very delicate soft changes of color with light blue and lavender squares pieced by fusing. My piece is still a work-in-progress. After missing a flight out of Paris one year, I had to wait for 9 hours for the next flight. Pretty tough when you’re by yourself and already time-lagged. Of course, it’s nothing compared to those who have been stuck in an airport for days due to whether or other problems… my heart always goes out to them. I’m adding freemotion quilting for shading will continue for background
 |
| “Waiting” by Christina Fairley Erickson (work in progress) |
You Might Also Be Interested in:
 |
 |
 |
| Fiber Funster’s Group Reveal- Celebration |
“Opening” – The Fiber Funsters |
The Fiber Funsters Group Challenge |
Here’s some other great blogs to check out:
Leah Day’s FreeMotion Quilting Project
Confessions of a Fabric Addict