Brave New World......

Yes, this is me! Last night I did a presentation for the Spirited Quilters Guild in Duluth GA. This was my first guild presentation and I think it went well. I want to give a special thanks to Karen Gornall, the programs coordinator, for giving this novice the opportunity and to everyone else for making me feel so welcome.

I had a great time and am looking forward to more guild engagements.

Look What My Students Did!

Rhonda's quilt

Connie's Quilt

Betty's quilt

Last Saturday I taught another 'Beginning Landscape Quilting ' class. It was a lot of fun and the students did a great job. Look at some of the fabulous results.

Departure reveal - 'Off The Grid'

Here is my piece for the Fiberactions 'departure' challenge. Check out everyone's work here. This is a 'departure' for me. It all started with the 4 blocks below that I handpainted and then quilted and then decided 'what was I thinking'....

I cut apart the four squars and then cut each into 4 pieces. I arranged and rearranged until I was happy with the layout and zizzagged it together. Thought it still needed more and used puffy paint to paint the squiggley squars on top and then rubbed them with copper paint. Still need more and found some nylon screening material and cut out some to add to the top.

My friend Suzanne has a saying she uses to describe some quilts: 'is it art or just crap'. Does this apply to this piece. What do you think?

Triple Berry, Raspberry, Sweet Squash Relish, Wild Blackberry

At our house in NC for the weekend and have been busy. I did work on my sewing room setup here and now have a project on my new design wall. My first attemps at canning have worked out well.

I have been up to something.....

My blogging has gone by the wayside again.........

However I have been busy. Here are 2 small landscapes (about 30" x 24") I created as samples for a 'Beginning Landscape Quilting Class'. I had my first one last Saturday at the Atlanta Sewing Center in Marietta and will teach this again next month at the Duluth location. It was really fun and rewarding to see what the participants were able the create.

I am also preparing to give a talk and teach a class at a local guild in Duluth at the end of July. I am always up for a new challange and this will be one....... I guess I should start working on my talk.

A big garden at our NC house has also been taking a lot of time. I made my first batch of jam a couple of weeks ago and now decided I must really be getting old since I plan to try my hand at some canning. Hope everyone is having a great summer!

Embellish Reveal

A couple of weeks ago I actually cleaned and organized my work space! This was really a major accomplishment since I was at the point where it was a total disaster and I could hardly find anything. In one of the layers I uncovered this 'tie painted' fat quarter that I must have done a few years ago. I immediately knew I had to use it for this challenge.


I used about 15 different threads for quilting and spruced up some of the flowers with additional paint, beads, crystals, yarns and hand stitching. I couldn't stand the thought of squaring this piece since I would have lost so much of the flowers so I used my rotary cutter freehand to create the uneven look. I pulled hard on the edgers while stemming them so they would slightly ruffle. I had fun with this one and really love this piece. Click on the Fiberactions box on the right to see the other pieces created for this challenge.

It's new to me.....

A couple of weeks ago I bought a used Bernina Artista 180e to keep at our house in NC. Here is a picture of all of the stuff right after I wheeled it into our house in GA. It came with 8 different feet, embroidery software and hoops and all of these cases full of miscellaneous stuff. I bought it from someone who works at the Atlanta Sewing Center. It has 87 hours on it and has been serviced every year so it has been well cared for. The owner was upgrading to a different Bernina. I have never owned a Bernina and am excited about the machine. Any tips from some of you Bernina owners. Also, how is it for free motion quilting?

Impression Reveal

Here is my quilt for latest Fiberactions challenge. I made this based on the above photo that I took in Venice a couple of years ago. I was trying to go for a more abstract look but as you can see my brain does not do abstract very well.

For this quilt I was also inspired by a new book that I got early last week. It is 'Quilted Symphony ' by Gloria Loughman and I highly recommend it. I was working on another quilt for the challenge but I really was just not excited about it so I started this one last Tuesday. First I cropped a section of the photo and printed it with the tile option on 4 sheets of paper. I used this as my pattern.

I then traced it on freezer paper and used the freezer paper as templates to cut the pieces. I used Steam-a-seam Lite as the fusible and after I was happy with my fabric choices I ironed them in place on a muslin backing. Of course this process took much longer than expected and I put in some late nights to make the deadline. I cut the dome pieces from 1 piece of batik and this took quit a bit of fussing to get the colors like I wanted them (it has over 50 pieces). I am not a big fan of fusing and I did find the quilting a bit challenging with the extra bulk of the fabric. Maybe one of these days I will tackle a quilt of the entire photo......now that would be an accomplishment!

What to do with this?

This is another UFO from almost a year ago. I was sick with an ear infection last year and still wanted to do something. I painted these 12 squares of fabric over a couple of days while recovering. They were then pieced together to create this quilt top. I liked it at the time and even started to quilt it (the four squares in the upper right are quilted). Now when I look at this I wonder what I was thinking.

The question is now what, if anything, to do with this. I have it hanging on my design wall so I can ponder it in passing. If I just abandon it I can salvage most of the batting and backing fabric. I could also use the unquilted squares as backing for another quilt. Of course the real challenge would be to rework this and turn it into something I like. I think this may be on my wall for a while since I am working on my Fiberactions piece that is due on the 15th. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

UFO Attack!

I am really itching to start something new but I also have been feeling the pull of my UFO's. Can you believe that I have finally gotten around to quilting my 'Flight Over Greenland II'. If you have been following my blog you may recognize this piece as a whole cloth that I painted in the summer of 2009. I am almost embarrassed to admit that. The problem I was having was figuring out how I was going to quilt this. You can see the original post on how I painted this here.

I put a layer of Warm and Natural on the backing and then a layer of 50% wool/cotton batting for the next layer. Next the top.


I started the quilting with white Isacord thread for the mountain tops, then light blue for the rest of the mountains. For the water I used a medium blue and clear thread for the sky. I must say that I love how this turned out. I was really excited about the piece and called my husband down to look at it.....he burst my bubble and had a very cool reaction to the piece. Guess it is hard to evaluate your own work but not to be discouraged I entered this in the Indiana Heritage Quilt Show.

This will be my 4th year entering this show and I have won a couple of first places and a judges choice so wish me luck. You can see a couple of up close photos and I really think it looks 3D. What do you think of this piece? I would really appreciate you true opinion. Thanks!

City and Guilds Award

Here is part of the email I received yesterday:

I am pleased to inform you that you have achieved your City and Guilds Award in Creative Techniques in "Sampling - Exploring Potential of Ideas and Materials". Your work was of an excellent standard and you have achieved the highest grade of Distinction.

I am excited!!!!

'Journal Spilling' on fabric

I just joined a small group of art quilters that meet every other month and create a small work based on a theme. This challenge was 'inspired by fruit' and was one of the pieces I was struggling with when I wrote the previous post.

One of the books I love is 'Journal Spilling' by Diana Trout. You can see it pictured below and read about it here on Amazon. I decided to journal spill on fabric and made this 9 1/2 x 10" little piece.

I used the Pastel Dye Sticks pictured (these were great and only $3.99 for the box of 15 colors!) to draw the apple on a square of PDF fabric. Then I wrote random thoughts about an apple with different colored markers. I dry brushed on different colors of fabric paint and finally did some thread painting and quilting. This was a fun little project.