Tulle Appliqué

In my Instant Art Quilt classes, students use hand dyed fabrics that often yield dramatic results. Sometimes, however, the fabric is more subtle and it produces a very interesting background for appliqué or embellishment. I've been thinking that tulle could be used for appliquing on these, since it would still allow some of the wonderful background to show through. I finally got around to trying it, and Spring Remembered, at left shows the result. I really like this effect, and I'm sure I'll use it again.

I posted about this technique on my blog, which includes a detail shot, and larger photos.

Color Article in The Quilting Quarterly

How can I mix bright colors with duller ones? This is just one of many color issues mentioned in my second color article, which was recently published in The Quilting Quarterly magazine. Learn about this and much more in this useful article.

Upcoming Events

- Venice, FL, October 28, Venice Area Quilters' Guild
- New Smyrna Beach, FL, November 18, Pelican Piecemakers' Quilt Guild
See Teaching and Events schedule for more details, and other events.

"Sticky Fingers," a New Class

I've been having lots of fun working on samples for my new class "Sticky Fingers: Glued Fabric Collage." The project will be an abstract cruciform image, created on an artists' canvas. Students will have endless options with the design with one possibility being something like I've done in Cruciform #4, at right.

Creating glued collages is lots of fun, largely because it's so fast. Once the design is composed, there's no need to quilt it, add a binding, etc. Plus, it's possible to work with tiny little bits of fabric that would be too small for easy stitching.

I've written about the process of creating this sample piece on my blog. (See August 26th entry and forward.) I'll be adding more entries as I work on additional samples.

Hopefully, this class will be ready to go in the fall. If you'd like advance notification you can use the subscription box at the bottom of the page to sign up.

New Work

What do you get when you mix seven women, tons of sewing paraphernalia, a beach side setting, good food, and wine? Why, a retreat of course! This marked the sixth year that the Dirty Dozen Fiber Artists had assembled for such an event, and it was a blast!

Each retreat includes a group project or challenge, which we call "Group Therapy." Since we'd recently been learning about using acrylic paint and other acrylic media we decided that using these items would be the criteria for our small (8.5" x 11") challenge pieces.

My piece, Mangolicious II, at left, was a delight to make! Prior to the retreat, I had textured my background fabric with molding paste and painted it. I had also packed some potential collage materials, including several photos printed on fabric. This photo is the same one I used as the inspiration for my quilt Mangolicious.

I'm very happy with this little quilt. It will be displayed, along with the other retreat pieces, in the upcoming Dirty Dozen Exposed! 2009 exhibit, which will be in October, in Melbourne, FL.

New Student Quilts

As usual, my students are creating some fantastic pieces! You'll find two new Instant Art Quilts on the student gallery page. Look for the bold titles, about half way down.

New on the Blog

Have you checked out my blog, lately? Recent topics include:
- Gesture sketches, with both charcoal and a sewing machine,
- Interesting texturing and painting techniques with acrylic products,
- Making leaves from painted and melted plastics,
- Dirty Dozen retreat report,
- Fabric luggage tags (made by me.)

I hope you'll pay me a visit.

New on the Website

New quilt pages: Bird of Paradise, Mangolicious II
Updated: Art on Tour

Resources

When printing to fabric, I get extremely good results with the printable sheets from Color Plus. The photo shown was printed on their Cotton Sheeting.

If you found this newsletter useful, you may be interested in my free articles, online classes, and e-books. You'll find a full directory here.

Enjoy the adventure!
Ellen

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