Not bad for my first Collaboration art quilt.

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There was an article on Collaboration in the October/November 2014 issue of Quilting Arts.  A friend of mine, Paula, read the article and asked me if I wanted to try it.  I read the article and thought, why not!?!

The general idea was to share materials and ideas to meld together two different styles and see what happens.  Cool, how hard can this be.

Our collaboration of course would be different than the article.  First of all we are not famous art quilters.  Actually we are beginners.  This just seemed a good way to make us try a variety of art quilting techniques without rules, without limits, and WITH loads of fun.

We loosely followed the article, I stress the word LOOSELY.  We were to send each other anything we wanted to, and then each of us would try to make it into an art quilt in our own style. We live in different Cities and States so most of the exchanges would be by mail.  

I was really nervous about what to send to Paula. She kept reassuring me that there were no wrongs, anything goes, just do it.  I am an OA (over achiever), actually an OABT (over achiever big time!) And, a OAWBT (the W stands for worrier).  I have to think everything to death over a long time then do and re-do and then re-do again.  First I started with some paper piecing of Kaffe and Tula Pink fabrics.  I liked it.  But, it wasn't artsy enough. I attached it to some turquoise shot cotton, nice. But still "where's the artsy stuff?"  Ok, I had just looked at a book about Snippets. Fabric with fusible web already ironed on the back, then cut into random shapes and fused down.  The first layer of snippets went down.  It was OK but it missed something. Highlights, it needed highlights.  More Kaffe fabrics snippeted (is that a word?) on the top.  Yeah, that's better.  But wait, there's more.  I wanted some black and white.  Something that calms a conglomeration of colors. Hey, that's cute, a little of that on the top secured with some BIG rick rack.  There...Done.  Is it too much?  Too little?  What would Paula think? I asked her again, "Anything Goes?" Yep, anything goes.  I sent it off in the mail and then I didn't hear from her.  Did she hate it?  Did it have any art?  I was waiting to hear from her like a teenage girl waiting for the phone to ring. The worrier kicked in again. ugh.

Then I received Paula's package in the mail. WOW. So simple but so artistic. Two pieces of hand dyed fabric she had made a while back. Then she wrote on them with a sharpie and bleach.  Why didn't I think of that?  She did her thing and voila' a piece of art.  She obviously is from the less is more camp. Whereas I am clearly in the more is more camp from the other side of the river and up the creek without a you know what.

OK, Hmmmm...... what am I learning from this? I am not a minimalist.  I believe doing MORE and spending LOTS of time on this is the only way. I'm LESS sure of that now.  I won't become a minimalist but maybe I could learn to relax a little?  Maybe not.

As Popeye said, I yam what I yam.

I went to Reno on a short vacation and so we met and exchanged our Collaboration art quilts.

This is the stunning art quilt that Paula made.  Simple but elegant. It's obvious, she is a free motion quilter extraordinaire!  I love it! In fact I asked if I could keep it until our next exchange to remind me both of her talent and of the fact that I need to let go a little, just a little?

This was my first attempt at a collaboration art quilt. I used some of what Paula sent to me, some of what I sent her, and some new stuff just for good measure.  I wove together her two pieces of hand dyed fabric and darkened the message she had written, "Let the fun begin...Collaboration...Quilt...Fun...Thread...Art".

I had seen the design for the face in an old magazine, and I though, Hmmm, 2 sides of one face, she and me.  Her red hair and glasses and my half smile and sugar skull earring.  I pulled out threads from her green fabric until there was fringe then stacked her orange fabric, my black and white then again her fringed fabric on top and secured them with ties of embroidery floss.  I'm not that good at the free motion quilting but I tried. Finally some beading on the Tula Pink fabric.  Done, and I like it.  I really do.  Not bad for my first Collaboration art quilt.

This was way more fun than I thought it would be. We are ready for Number Two Collaboration art quilt.  I will worry less and enjoy more, that's what I've learned so far.  I am sure there are many more lessons to learn from this process, I can't wait.

We are shooting for April to have them done. When they are, I will share them with you.

Dreamy Hexagons part 2

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The last time we talked about Dreamy Hexagons, we looked at the fabrics in the quilt kit. Beautiful Kaffe fabrics and shot cottons.




The first step to make the quilt is to cut squares from the shot cottons and use the hexagon papers to make the "Dreamy" hexagons.  I watched the video on CreativeBug. I discovered YouTube has many different video's with different ways to do the same thing.  It's called English Paper Piecing.  I chose to do it the way it was done in the class on CreativeBug.

I thought I'd finish them while on a trip back to Reno to visit my Daughter and my Friends but I had too much fun to get them done.

  Hey, it was a vacation after all.

Once I get all the seven colors of Hexi's made (cute shortcut name for Hexigon's I heard on YouTube)  and whip stitched together, I'll be back to take the next step in part 3.  Stick around, this is going to be a BEA-U-TI-FUL quilt!

"Dreamy Hexagons"

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I bought a quilt kit called "Dreamy Hexagons".  The kit includes 12.5 yards of fabric from the Kaffe Fassett Collective.  It also included an on-line class for the kit at www.creativebug.com. 

I'm excited.  This is on my list of things to do for 2015 because I Love, Love, Love, Kaffe Fassett fabric, AND, I have been wanting to take a class from Creativebug.

OK, you may not believe this but I am a on-line quilt class virgin.  Yep, that"s right, V-I-R-G-I-N.  Well, virgin no more, I'm taking this on-line class.

I opened the box, drooled over the rich saturated color fabrics and found the 1" English paper hexagon pieces. Then I went on-line and printed out my paper instructions.  I was ready to watch the class on my laptop.  Appearing before me was Liza Prior Lucy and quilt master Kaffe Fassett as if they were teaching this class just to me.  

I watched the class from beginning to end.  I looked through the kit to verify I had everything I needed, and I did.

The wonderful part of the class I hadn't expected was that Kaffe Fassett explained in detail why he choose the fabric he did.  He is the fabric designer so this was a bonus.  The construction of the quilt was explained very well too.

This is a Medallion quilt which means the main focus is in the center.  In the center of this quilt is seven Hexagons surrounding a cabbage print. The remaining of the quilt is made from many borders of various widths that compliment the center.  

Tomorrow, I'll cut the fabric and begin making the hexagons from the beautiful shot cottons that came in the kit.

I leave latter in the week for a short trip back to Reno, Nevada.  I get to see my Wonderful Daughter and some of my quilting buddies.  I'll take the hexagons along as handwork and should be able to get them done before I return.  Then we'll move on to the next step in the construction of this beautiful quilt.  Follow along as the quilt comes together.

Quilting in America™ Survey - 2014

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I stumbled upon some interesting data about us Quilters!

  The Quilting in America™ Survey - 2014.

For the most part I fit right in to their profile,

 Hey! whose been watching me, HUH?

The following are excerpts from the Quilting in America™ survey produced by F & W in cooperation with Quilts Inc.:

...there are more than 16 million active quilters in the country. That means one out of every 20 Americans quilts!

Dedicated Quilters don’t regard quilting as an optional hobby, but as part of their lives. They, like quilters throughout history, quilt during good times and bad. Their quilting is both a means of expressing themselves creatively, and also of expressing what is going on in their lives and how they are dealing with it...

Each Dedicated Quilter is defined as one who spends more than $500 a year on quilting-related purchases, which include sewing machines, fabric, notions, tools, patterns, books, computer programs, batting, and thread. In fact, the Dedicated Quilter actually spent an average of $3,296 per year on quilting.

Demographics of the Dedicated Quilter indicate she is female; about 64; is well-educated (79% attended college); has a household income in excess of $100,000; and has been quilting an average of 20.3 years. Among Dedicated Quilters, 81% are traditionalists, while 38% embrace art quilting, and 35% enjoy modern quilting styles. Some enjoy multiple types of quilting. The Dedicated Quilter wns, on average, almost $13,000 worth of tools and supplies and has a stash of fabric worth nearly $6,000, which the majority (88%) store in a studio or room dedicated solely to sewing and quilting activities.

And quilters are also tech-savvy, with 87% owning a tablet or eBook reader today. The percentage of quilters who access the Internet daily has grown to 86%, up from 73% four years ago. The data indicates that quilters spend 3.5 hours per week watching quilting-related online broadcasting to learn new tips and techniques, get inspiration, purchase fabric, tools, and supplies, and to search for free patterns.

If  you would like to know more about the Quilting Industry and the results of a recent survey produced by F & W in cooperation with Quilts Inc. go to this link and you to see the entire document on their website: http://www.quilts.com/announcements/y2014/QIA_survey.pdf

Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry FINE ART QUILTER

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Yesterday I drove 3.5 hours through Fog to see and hear Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry speak at the Block Party Quilters Guild meeting in Sammamish, WA.  It was worth every minute of the drive to hear the Internationally recognized fine art quilter.  She has been selected as one of the thirty most influential quiltmakers in the world.  If you ever get the chance to hear her speak, do it.

I wish I'd known about her sooner, she has just retired from teaching. She still lectures and shows her work.

See samples of her work below:

She is smart and funny too, my favorite kind of person.  So talented and willing 

to share her "Secrets" to fellow quilters.  Thank you Caryl for the remarkable lecture!

"Begin at the beginning" 2015!

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My head is spinning!  I have so many ideas for this year I don't know where to begin.

I guess the best thing to do is:

“Begin at the beginning," the King said, very gravely, "and go on till you come to the end: then stop.” 

― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

In Twenty Fifteen I have plans for myself and you, should you choose to join me, to expand our knowledge of our quilting community:

• I have a long road trip (shop hop) in mind
• both on-line and in person classes to take
• quilting philosophies to discuss
• techniques to learn and share
• collaborations to participate in
• history's to learn
• guilds to visit
• books to read
• studio to finish
• retreats to attend and enjoy
• shopping - both buying and selling 
• having fun

Come on along, join me when the topic sparks your interest.  2015 will be awesome!  2015 IS awesome!

Just like Alice, I've come to the end of this blog... so I'll stop.

Starting out 2015 with "Dogs I have known"

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Happy New Year Everyone!  2015 has arrived bringing very cold weather.  While out with the dog we saw a blue heron WALKING on a nearby pond rather than wading in it.  Poor guy won't find fish to eat that way.  I think he was surprised by the cold snap too.

COLD, CRISP and CLEAR.  It was as though you could see forever from our front porch. The view of  Mt. Baker was breathtaking!

We packed away the Christmas decorations and I took down the Christmas Wall hanging I had up in the Living room - the red work, pattern by Crab apple Hill, "Over the Hill and through the woods to Grandmother's house we go". 

I'm going to change the wall hanging in the living room every month this year.  I picked out a favorite of mine to put up.  I call it "Dogs I have known".  It has four rows of four Scottie dogs representing the 16 dogs that either We have had, My children have had or my Grandchild has.  None of  them were Scotties but they were all kinds of dogs and all loved very much!  Sixteen was the perfect number, when the Family acquires more, I will add them to the back until I make a new quilt.

I used material I bought when I worked in a quilt store.  It is called "Authentic", I had fallen in love with it.  I have made a few other quilts from the same fabric and still have some left.  Like I've told you before, I have a STASH!

Each "Dog" is made differently.  I either used different fabric for the dog or the background. Each has a collar made of assorted ribbons and trims.  And each dog has a dog tag with his or her name on it. You can probably tell this is a really sentimental quilt, made with love and many thoughts about the dogs we have had or have now.  I believe some of the "LOVE" was sewn into the quilt and became obvious, because the quilt received "Viewer's Choice" at the TMQ quilt show. 

Prairie points and buttons were added around the inner border and up'd the cuteness of the quilt.  My friend Paula quilted it for me, knowing how much it means to me.  Her work was exquisite and added the perfect touch to "Dogs I have known".   She is a Dog lover too.