I’m very comfortable using commercial and hand-dyed fabrics in my creations, but I have a few quirky fabrics that I have to treat differently. Things that ravel, ones that melt, and thin silks. I recently pulled out a few of these to think about how I might use them. The yellow-green fabrics are the result…
If you’ve done much machine quilting you’ve probably had some “friendly” quilts. You know, the wavy ones? This is pretty standard for me so I correct the problem by blocking my quilts. Take this quilt for instance. Pretty bad, right? But, a combination of stretching, pinning, and steaming turned it into this perfectly flat quilt….
My sister and I had a great time attending a recent scarf dying class. Taught by my good friend, Jo-Ann Jensen, she provided me with plain silk, knowing that I’d want to use it in quilts. Of course! She first taught us how to do a tie-dye sort of thing. She calls her geodes. Well,…
My latest piece, Coastal Overlook, is now complete. It’s about 30″ x 40″ and I’m pretty happy with it. If you’ve been following my blog you know that this quilt was inspired by a drive along the Pacific Coast Highway in California. I wanted to abstract it and, for me, that’s the tricky part. I want to hit…
To say that my Floral Improv students rocked it is an understatement. After a little instruction, they jumped right into drawing and cutting free-form flowers. Then, they learned a little about composition and design considerations and gave that a try. Along the way they were not afraid to try new things and they received suggestions beautifully….
Color was everywhere as I taught Floral Improv for the first time. Just look at the backdrop I had for my demo board! After only a short while students were making free-form daisies and poppies in a myriad of hues. Oh what fun we were having! Even the scraps were beautiful. This was a “guinea…
You know all the improvisational piecing I’ve been doing lately? It’s all Pat Pauly’s fault. When I saw her demonstrate it on Quilting Arts TV, I jumped in and tried it. Plus, there were several other segments featuring Pat which included a variety of design and creativity exercises. These really intrigued me and I tried…
We’re lucky to have many Sandhill cranes in my neighborhood. They’re an endangered species and, to me, rather unusual. They are very tall, almost 5 feet. They generally walk slowly with their heads moving gracefully forward and back as they go. We don’t seem them fly very often, but they can easily do so. And…
Or is that “God is in the details?” Either way, it was the details that often demanded my attention at the World Quilt – FL, which was recently held in Orlando. As you might expect, many of the most exceptional quilts were the winners from the World Quilt traveling competition. Several of them had abundant…
I really enjoyed a visit to the World Quilt Show – Florida, in Orlando, yesterday. There were many wonderful quilts, great vendors, and FRIENDS to visit with! It doesn’t get much better than that. I took photos of some of my favorite quilts, as well as ones with something that was either new to me…