Sweet Finish

October Rose
20 x 16"
by Ilene Atkins

So I finally finished this October Rose quilt. I decided along the way that it needed a border. I wouldn't usually add a border, but I think this one was asking for one. I ended up cutting out all the embroidery and appliqueing it to a green batik I had on hand. As an added bonus, it turned out a little puffy and looks three dimensional. This quilt was a hard-won finish, and I like the final results.

Linking up with Design Wall Weekend, over at Fibre Artist Journey, link here, to Quilt Story, link here, to We Did it Wednesday over at Sew Much Ado, link here, to Richard & Tanya's Link a Finish Friday, here, and to Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday, here.

Thread-Painting a Finish

I've been working on a piece I started a while ago, printed onto cotton from my own photograph, 11x17". There was quite a bit of thread painting in it, on the butterfly and flowers.  Then I didn't know what to do with the background. With some new practice in FMQ, I decided to just jump in and get it done! Nothing fancy, just some long leaf-shaped filler moves. I'm just now finishing the hand stitching on the skinny 1/8" binding.

I had originally thought to add some beads to the flower centres, but now I think I like them in the thread painting the way they are, so I might just leave it the way it is. Any ideas?

I'm linking this up to Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting Project, one of my favourite blogs. See the link here, and read about what other quilters are up to.

A Fan-tas-tic Quilt Show!

There's nothing like a really great quilt show to get me out of a deep blue funk. A funeral, a sinus infecton, and a lot of rainy weather have combined recently to make me feel like not doing very much. But I managed to get out in the rain today over to Burlington so see a show called Fibre Content: 100% Fibre Art.  This was a truly beautiful show, in a wonderful venue.

The Burlington Performing Arts Centre has a huge atrium, with lots of natural light flooding the works of art. I saw 125 pieces, by 65 artists. Some of the artists were on hand to speak about their creations, and their stories are very interesting.

This show was a collaborative effort of five of Ontario's fibre arts groups, assembled specifically to showcase the artworks of Ontario fibre artists. The fibre arts groups are:

• Studio Art Quilts Associates (SAQA) Central Canada
• Connections Fibre Artists
• Grand Guild of Fibre Artists 
• Burlington Fibre Arts
• Group of Eight Fibre Artists

Quite often in my travels to these shows, I will see works of art that I have seen before, but in this case I was delighted to see all new works.  Many of the names of the artists were familiar, but their works on display were new to me. Some of these included Maggie Vanderweit, whom I wrote about here, Sandy Simmilink, whom I wrote about as well, here. Others I recognized were Elaine Quehl, Margaret Notar and Beverley White. 

I was intrigued by the details in many of the quilts, so I will show you a selection, including thread painting, fabric painting, beading, embroidery, applique, and other techniques.

Poppies (detail)
by Anne Sullivan
Studio Art Quilt Associates

Jay's Nest (detail)
by Judy Makinson
Burlington Fibre Arts Group

Cellular Aqueducts (detail)
by Mary Cope
Studio Art Quilt Associates

Spring's Golden Glory (detail)
by Ann Totten
Group of Eight Fibre Artists

There was not a single traditional pieced quilt in the show, which was fine with me! This show rivalled any I have seen, and may be compared with the Interational Quilt Festival in Houston. And the most amazing thing is that there are a lot of  very talented art quilters in this area, and it is a great honour to see so many of them in one exhibition. Well done, I say, to the organizers and the artists.

An excellent program booklet containing photos of all the quilts, and a well-rounded market completed the whole experience.

Quilt Festival St. Jacobs 2012 Part 5

Another day in St. Jacobs at the Quilt & Fibre Art Festival. Does a person ever get enough?!

Flowers by Angela Grasse

I took another short course this afternoon, this one with Angela Grasse, link to her blog here. Very cool, fun, and inspiring. She showed us how to make fun, funky flowers with bits of ribbon and string and lace and such. Her work encompasses so many other elements, but it was great fun to play with her for a couple of hours on these few techniques.  I suspect she uses many more in her work, and I would love the full course at some point. Just imagine the possibilities.

These flowers shown at left are made from painted cheesecloth, pipecleaners, heated ribbons, gathered ribbons, beads, hand stitching, lace, yarn, etc. My own flowers did not look so great, but I picked up a terrific tip from Angela. In Houston, I acquired a set of colouring pencils called Inktense Blocks, and wasn't sure how I would be using them. Angela showed us how to colour lace and other bits of fabric, very easily using the Inktense product. I'm thinking I'll be putting these to good use!

Car Quilt by Judy Taylor

A really big surprise in St. Jacobs was the quilt car. Of course, I've seen this quilt before, but I enjoy it with delight every time I see it.  It was made by Judy Taylor, and is owned by the St. Jacobs Quilt Festival. It is fully driveable and now tours around local parades and shows.

Quilts by Blossom Bowman Zink

Point Well Taken, detail
blocks about 2x2"
by Blossom Bowman Zink

And one other venue I saw today was in the St. Jacobs Schoolhouse Theatre. It was funny to see quilts there, because we saw an Elvis concert there last winter, but it is such a great display area for quilts, so it seems perfectly natural. A real treat there was the featured guest artist Blossom Bowman Zink, from Elmira, who does mostly miniature quilts. She had about 30 quilts on display, and I just loved seeing her quilts. Her quilts are small enough to fit in the hallway on the way into the theatre. Amazing to see all the tiny pieces in her work up close.

Quilts by St. Jacobs area quilters
display at Schoolhouse Theatre

Part of the same display was a very nice group of local quilters. It is not a judged show, but the collection was impressive. I was spoke to Wendy Lamb, the organizer. She said she aims for a variety of quiltmakers, looking for quilters who may not have had quilts on display before. She also said she does not see any photos of the quilts until they show up to go on display. Given all this, she sure puts on a great display.

Leftovers from Leftover UFO's

In my previous post, I described a Tablet cover I made, using an old UFO. I was looking for ideas on how I could use the rest of this UFO, knowing I would never use it for any wallhanging. I was inspired by the work of many artists in the Art Quilt World, to make ATC's, or Artist Trading Cards. These are postcard sized quilted items, painted, beaded, or otherwise embellished to suit the artist.

Out came my cutting board, ruler, and rotary cutter. I cut as many 4x6" cards as I could get from my leftover piece, and cut the rest into Inchies, which are tiny versions of the ATC's. Mine are a little bigger, almost 2x2", but I still call them Inchies. Then I set about finishing them up.

The first step was to do a quick zigzag stitch around the edges. Nothing fancy here. Just getting the edges closed. Then I trimmed all the loose threads with scissors. Just cleaning up the edges.

Step two was to complete the finishing on the edges. On one card, I used a close zigzag with rayon thread. I've never liked this method. I can never get it to look as beautiful as I want, so I moved on to my favourite method, which is to zigzag yarns around

the edge. I thread matched the yarn, and used a grooved foot in

my machine to control the yarn along the edges. I found a better foot in my box of accessories, with more grooves, and an open toe, worked like a charm. I finished the Inchies the same way.

Then I used this same foot, and other yarn to race across the cards, adding dimension. Beads followed soon after, and the cards were nearly complete. My favourite card turned out to be the one for which I added three Inchies, shown at left.

Magazine Junkie

Only a few of you may know me as a magazine-aholic, though I've made no effort to keep this secret. I try to limit myself to one or two favourites a month, but there are more and more good quilt magazines out there now. So now I try to limit myself to one or two quilt magazines, leaving my other favourites behind. My old favourites included Canadian Geographic, Moneysense, though I haven't given up Moneysense, and Harrowsmith Country Life, which has now ceased publication.

A recent road trip included deeking into Chapters to look for the latest offers, and I found three choice quilt magazines.

One of my regular favourites, that I hardly ever miss out on, is Quilting Arts Magazine. From this magazine, I draw inspiration and ideas. It is wonderful to see what others are doing in the Art Quilt world. There is always a feature artist, quilts from recent shows, art techniques, and reader challenge quilts. All good stuff for me. Keeps me dreaming of the day I have my own dedicated studio, and what I will do when I get there! If you click on the link, you'll also find a lot of other interesting stuff on the QAM website, blogs, e-zines, how-to's, quilt shows, and much more. Once in a while, I check this website out, too.

Another recent magazine I've just begun picking up, is Art Quilting Studio. This magazine, too, showcases art quilts. And what wonderful art these artists are doing. There is some instruction, as well, but mostly what I enjoy seeing is the depth and breadth of various artists' work. Simply amazing. This issue shows work in many different styles, including articles on an orderly approach to Grout Quilting by Robin Ferrier, and a freeform style on Designing With Intuition by Deborah Fell. Very inspiring, both of them. Check out both of their links to see more of their work.

And the third magazine I found is a new one for me, International Quilt Festival. Wow. This one had not crossed my radar screen before, but now that I've been to IQF in Houston, this magazine really grabbed my attention. This issue had a lot of photos of the quilts I saw in Houston, and it just took me right back there. Love it. I enjoyed Houston so much, and this magazine so much, I'm thinking of going there again this year. Maybe crazy, but that's how quilt people are. On a side note, I'm in the process of picking holidays at work for the upcoming year, and I find myself picking weeks that include quilt festivals.

I'll include one last word on magazines. Available in my local grocery store is an old standby, Quilters Newsletter Magazine, for all things newsy in the world of quilting. I've enjoyed this magazine for about 12 years now, buying it before I actually made any quilts. It was my first inspiration for making quilts, and continues to be a good source for me, though I admit to not faithfully picking up every issue, being interested more now specifically in art quilts than traditional quilts. This magazine always contains a nice mix of art quilts, pieced quilts, patterns, readers' quilts, upcoming show info, new gadgets, and general quilt world news. It will continue to be a favourite.

A Houston Finish

So that very pretty yarn I bought in Houston is now knitted into a scarf. I needed a model to show it off, and my faithful cat, Tigger, was only too happy to help out. The wool has mohair in it, and it is very cuddly and warm, and I love wearing it. And I like the way it looks all bubbly and colourful.

I started another scarf from some wool I've had in my collection for a while now. I haven't been doing very much sewing lately, though. Hopefully I'll get back at it now that Christmas is past.

One of a Kind for Inspiration

Yesterday, I was in Toronto for a meeting with a group of women I know, and I stopped by the One of a Kind Christmas Craft Show and Sale. I went for a big hit of inspiration in general, and to see the fibre artists specifically. I came away with much more that I anticipated.

I had a nice little chat with Maggie Vanderweit, whose wonderful work you may see here. She works out of a studio in Fergus, and I saw her trunk show at our Guild meeting last March. Her journey and work are amazing. I've seen her and her work around the region, but usually in bits and pieces. Seeing a large number of her pieces yesterday in her booth really gave me a sense of what is possible for a fibre artist.

There were a few other fibre artists as well:

• Diane Stewart glues various bits of fabric onto a background into a landscape. Though she uses no sewing to accomplish her work, it is really something to see.
• Kalyna Pidwerbesky uses felting, beading, handstitching and wonderful colours to create pieces from her heart and soul. Her work is featured on her website here.
• Valerie Page actually had quilts for sale. What a treat. She uses vibrant colours to create warmth under her quilts. And she's designed a tea cozy to keep your pot of tea warm for three hours.
• Noelle Hamlyn does a variety of fibre art, which you may view on her website, along with her very cute pocketbook purses. Very clever.

Several other artists also caught my eye:

• Andrew Collett's landscape photography is very striking and beautiful. Photos of beautiful scenery from all over Canada. Makes me wonder how he gets those shots. His work is right up my alley.
• Stephen Yau paints nature in a slightly dreamy style that I really enjoyed looking at. I was looking closely at his technique to see how I might use it in my own work.
• And finally, Marie-Joel Turgeon, who makes ceramic quilts. See them here. Fantastic artistic interpretation of quilts in a ceramic version. I loved it.

Laptop Case

I decided before I went to Houston, that I wanted to take my laptop with me. Heavy, doesn't fit in my backpack, but it might be useful for looking up stuff in the hotel at night. It's fairly new, and I hadn't yet acquired a case for it. I had in mind a zippered colourful neoprene thing. That's what I had in mind. What I ended up with is colourful all right, but not zippered, not neoprene!  I looked around the house for another UFO I knew was somewhere. . . I found this.

I had this quilted piece around, one of the first things I made, before I knew anything about quilting.  Looking at it now, I didn't know how to do bindings or applique. It all seems pretty unorthadox now, but I really like the colours, and the second chakra design I worked with at the time.  And I didn't have much stash to work with!  My stash has improved immensely by now, and I probably wouldn't have stuck that turquoise on it.

Anyway, it didn't have any quilting on it, so I did some quick free-motion work to it, joined the corners together, added some velcro for a closure, and voila:  a brand new laptop case. And it makes good use of an old piece that wasn't seeing any action before.

More on Houston

 When I was in Houston, one of the quilt displays I saw was a selection of Texas Star Quilts.  It was an amazing display of a variety of pieced, appliqued and art quilts, mostly with a star or Texas theme. All were made in Texas by Texas residents.  Here you see the front and back covers of the book, Lone Stars III: A Legacy of Texas Quilts, 1986 - 2011, by Karoline Patterson Bresenhan and Nancy O'Bryant Puentes. Images reproduced here with written permission.

There were two previous books about earlier Texas quilts, and this third book represents the more recent history of quilts in Texas. It was a very impressive display. I think I've said this before, but to see the quilts in print is one thing, but to see them on display is quite another. You get to see the stitching and pieces up close, and get a real feel for the piece in person.

There was no photography allowed in this particular exhibit, so I bought the book. I am pleased to do so in any case, since it is the best representation of the show, and is a good memory keepsake of my trip to Houston.

In Houston. . .

So I spent the weekend at the Houston International Quilt Festival, with two of my friends from Alberta.  I've known them for a long time, from way back in my tailoring days, and we are all quilters now. Anyway, they are both a lot of fun, and all three of us had a blast in Houston.

We will never be the same again! Seeing so many amazing and beautiful quilts all in the same place is spectacular, and changes the way you see the world of quilts. It also changes the way you see your  own place in the quilt world, and the way you create your own work, so I'm very happy to have been there. We all feel now, that there is room to improve our own work. If nothing else, seeing all the fabulous quilts will make us better quilters.

Seeing the quilt displays was one thing.  The quilt market was quite another!  HUGE. Did I mention it was huge?!  There were so many vendors, it was hard to cover them all, but not impossible. And cover them we did. We all bought a lot of fabric, gadgets, patterns, and other cool stuff that we can't find in our corners of the world. At the end of each day, we would all lay out our purchases to show and tell. So much fun. Now we all have enough projects to keep us busy for a while. Can't wait to get at it.

Marmalade's First Snow
by David Taylor

I want to include a photo of a quilt that I particularly love. A cat of course, and there were a number of cat quilts, and being a cat person, I especially like this one. When I was looking at this quilt, I feel like I've known this cat for a long time.  Plus, I really like red tabbies, so that caught my eye, too. This quilt is by David Taylor, called Marmalade's First Snow.