Quilting Arts In Stitches Blog Tour!

UPDATE 3/12: My apologies, I wrote and posted this last Tuesday while I was at the Quilting Arts TV taping and it wasn't until today that I noticed that the post was still in the drafts folder and had never actually posted. THAT explains why there were no comments!

Welcome to the last stop on the Quilting Arts In Stitches blog tour for issue 6!

You can find the action-packed issue here at the Interweave store for your PC or Mac or in the App store for your iPad.

If you've been following along, you've visited a slew of the contributing artists for this action-packed issue.

Lindsey Murray 

Betty Busby

Barbara Schneider
Nancy Cook
Tracy Stilwell
Sandy Donabed

We are SO excited about this issue and hope that you have a chance to check it out. You will find videos, slideshows and images that you can zoom in to see every detail. There is a wide variety of interesting techniques and ideas to read and hear about - from Barbara Schneider's remarkable out-sized leaves to Sandy Donabed's update of traditional Redwork; from Betty Busby's painted and stitched macro designs to Tracy Stilwell's fabulous mixed-media art doll. And wait until you see how beautifully Nancy Cook echo quilts her designs. We even show you (with a wicked cool animation) how a stitch is formed in your machine to help you achieve the perfect stitch!

 

Barbara Schneider's Leaf Fall as it is exhibited - gorgeous!

 

Plus, in this issue, we reviewed an assortment of cool gloves and tools to make free-motion quilting easier and pain-free. At each stop on the tour we gave away one set of gloves or tools to a lucky commenter (we opened the packages for photography, but they've never been used!) If you would like a chance to win a set of Noble Notions' Quilter's Grips (really cool caps for your fingers to help you free-motion stitch) then please leave a comment below.

 

If you have a great idea for an article, please consider submitting it to the magazine. Who knows? Maybe you'll be part of the next blog tour!

Quilting Arts In Stitches - the magical mystery blog tour!

I'm so excited to be part of a super fabulous blog tour for the latest edition of the eMag, Quilting Arts In Stitches. If you missed the first issue, you'll want to go back and check it out and you'll definitely want to take a look at this second one as well! This is an entirely new and innovative product from the talented folks at Quilting Arts and, just like their print magazines, it's very high quality and jam-packed with both inspiration and useful information. There are videos to go along with the articles, so if, like me, you're a visual learner, then the videos of the artists you know and love working on hand and machine stitching techniques will be absolutely invaluable. Instead of just telling you how to do something, they'll show you how to do it! It's like having a team of experts right in your studio, ready to pause if you get interrupted, and replay over and over to catch every word.

If you read Quilting Arts and Cloth Paper Scissors magazines with your nose pressed against the page, trying to see more details and wishing that you could hold all those gorgeous quilts and projects in your hot little hands, then the high resolution slideshows of In Stitches are for you! Zoom in on each photo until you can see every tiny stitch. Get super up close and personal with the beautiful art like you never could before.

And! Dum-da-dum!! I have super exciting news to share!! I am the new free-lance editor of In Stitches starting with the next issue. We're already hard at work on it and there are so many lovely, talented artists contributing. If you have something you'd like to see in a future issue, or if you'd like to propose an article to write - send in an email. :)

Since Pokey is having a fun give-away on her blog, I decided to do one too! Leave a comment here and on Friday I'll draw a random winner for the February/March issue of Quilting Arts.

Don't forget to follow along on the blog tour and learn more about In Stitches

Tuesday: Lynn Krawczyk (March 1): http://www.fibraartysta.blogspot.com/
Wednesday: Jackie Cardy(March 2): http://dogdaisychains.blogspot.com/
Thursday: Deb Bates (March 3): http://stitchtress.wordpress.com/
Friday: Deborah Boschert (March 4): http://deborahsjournal.blogspot.com/
Saturday: Michelle Allen (March 5): http://allendesigns.typepad.com/
Sunday: Liz Kettle (March 6): http://textileevolution.com/?option=com_wordpress&Itemid=203
Monday: Lyric Kinard (March 7): http://lyrickinard.blogspot.com/
Tuesday (March 8): A surprise guest on Lindsey’s blog will be the final stop of this tour

As seen in...

Back to blogging after a month plagued with computer problems and too-much-to-do-itis. But back, so that's what counts, right?

I have three projects in the new Cupcakes! book by Lynn Koolish for C&T Publishing. This is a fun book full of all sorts of ideas and recipes for that hottest of confectionary treats - cupcakes, so trendy and so tasty. Yum!



I also am delighted to be a contributor again this year to the Quilting Arts Gifts special issue. I made fast, easy and gorgeous "sugared" pears with fabric and glitter. This issue is jam-packed (get it?) with fantastic ideas for the holidays and more.



And hopefully you've been reading the "Minding Your Business" column I've been writing for each issue of Quilting Arts magazine. I enjoy writing those tremendously and if there's a topic you'd like to see tackled, please drop me a note.

Upcoming...

Coming up - lots of events and traveling and teaching!

Next week I'll be in Chicago for International Quilt Festival. I'll be vending in the mixed-media section as Flourish-Country Quilter. I'll be teaching a Make It University workshop on Friday afternoon (1:30 - 2:30) on collage pendant necklaces and then demonstrating in the Open Studios section both Friday and Saturday from 2:45 to 4:45. Please stop by and say hi!



Saturday, April 25th from 12 - 3 pm will find both me and Elin at Elm Street Books in New Canaan CT for a book signing and talk about art quilts. We'll be signing both Art Quilt Workbook and Art Quilts at Play. Elm Street Books is a gem of a bookstore, one of the last great independent booksellers in our area. They bring in lots of authors for signings and host lots of interesting events. I'd love to have a really big turnout for our signing - we aren't as mainstream as Calvin Trillin (a recent author there), but I like to think that our readers are just as dedicated.



Saturday and Sunday, May 2-3 is the quilt show in Somers, put on by the Northern Star Quilter's Guild. I'll be vending all weekend and demoing on Saturday afternoon. This is a fantastic show with something for everyone. It's on the train line from Manhattan and an easy drive from anywhere in the tri-state area (NY-NJ-CT).



And Saturday, May 23, I'll be at the City Quilter in NYC teaching a workshop on self-expression quilts. You'll learn a variety of direct and indirect photo-transfer techniques and lots about composition and design as you make a small art quilt that expresses you.

A busy, busy spring!

Quilt Festival

A belated post from Houston's Quilt Festival - I had nothing but problems with blogger while away, but I can finally post this one. I gave up even taking pictures after two frustrating days trying to upload photos.

A whirlwind couple of days have resulted in a complete switcheroo to our booth and now we have all of the art quilting goodies out.



We're directly across the aisle from Judy Gula's booth (Artistic Artifacts), where Liz Kettle and Laura Cater Woods are too. Look at all the pretty colors!



Diagonally across is the Make It U workshop area. Yesterday I taught an ink class there and had great fun, tomorrow I'll be teaching stampmaking and then demonstrating fish printing in the Open Studios area. Pokey had a couple of Make It U classes today. She's so enthusiastic and high-energy.



Terry White stopped by from her booth around the corner for a visit.



After the show closed Natalya and I headed across the street into the park for an outdoor meal overlooking a small lake. Looking back at the convention center we could see the lights and their reflection in the water. There was an outdoor concert to entertain us and we bopped along to a lot of great 80s songs. A lot of those songs took me right back to high school and my roller disco days - does anyone else remember that? How weird does that seem now? Rolling in circles around a rink for hours to (now cheesy) music under a disco ball. It was fun, it's just hard to explain the appeal now.

Quilting Arts Workshop

Last March I was invited to go to Stow, MA to tape a workshop for Quilting Arts. The taping was held in a big, beautiful barn at the Bolton family alpaca farm. The paddock was full of baby alpaca, called cria. Aren't they sweet?





In the workshop, I show you how to make a One-Page Book out of fabric, using a wide variety of mixed media techniques, including stampmaking, antiquing, water soluble wax pastels and image transfers. This book is pretty cool because each page is the size of an Artist Trading Card and it's a lot of fun to work with a theme. My theme was insects, quel surprise!



Also taping their own workshops the same day was the inestimable Leslie Riley



And my intrepid co-author, Elin Waterston



(Which reminds me - a BIG announcement is coming soon. Stay tuned!)

I received a preview copy of my workshop yesterday and boy, did I pack a lot of info into 51 minutes! The workshop is available as a download or a dvd from Quilting Arts. Here's a preview:



Quilting Arts has quite a few workshops available and they all look so tempting! What a great way to learn a new technique without leaving home. No need to pack up and schlep all of your stuff anywhere, instead bring a teacher home with you for a personal lesson, then pause and re-play any part of it to your heart's content. What a fantastic idea - the folks at Quilting Arts are brilliant.

Quilting Arts Gifts

The new 2008 issue of Quilting Arts Gifts arrived in the shop today. I contributed two articles to it, one is my take on a gingerbread house and the other is a cool idea for using fiber postcards to present gift cards to the special people in your life.

It's a gorgeous issue, jam-packed with all sorts of neat projects. I have to get busy making some decorations to replace the ones we lost in the basement flood after hurricane Wilma a couple of years ago and this magazine is giving me tons of ideas.

Cloth Paper Scissors - Studios

The latest special interest issue, Studios, from Cloth Paper Scissors is shipping now. My studio is featured in a six-page spread and the layout looks fantastic (in fact I wish the room was as clean right now as it was when I took the pictures!) The issue is wonderful and has pages and pages of inspiration and organizational ideas.


It's energized me all over again to get going on a few more pieces of furniture. I've got at least one more thing to build once the deadlines that have taken over my life abate somewhat. And the floors need re-finishing. And the walls need painting.

Bopping to Cleveland and back

Sunday morning Carlos and I jumped in the car and headed to Cleveland Ohio so I could tape a segment for the second season of Quilting Arts TV. What a blast we had!

We arrived early enough to meet up with Rayna Gillman, Claire Fenton and Shelly Stokes for dinner and had a great time. Claire was excited about the snow and the rest of us were glad that there wasn't much of it.

Carlos and I decided to visit the museum district after we checked in at the studio on Monday morning since we had the day to ourselves. The Cleveland Museum of Art was closed for renovations (until 2011!!) and the Museum of Contemporary Art is closed on Mondays so we headed to the Museum of Natural History (along with several hundred school children who had the very same great idea). The first sight as you walk in the door is of a juvenile tyrannosaur named Jane. How cool, that almost beats Tarzan's Jane for namesakes. Later in the afternoon I headed back to the studio and hung out with Rayna, Claire and Judy Coates Perez.

This morning I taped my segment with Pokey and it was great fun! Pokey is so perfect as host of the show, -- entirely capable, unflappable and professional, and at the same time enthusiastic, genuine and completely adorable. All around it was a wonderful experience with a terrific group of people. The second season will start airing this summer on PBS.



As soon as I was done, we snapped a pic in front of the studio, hopped in the car and headed for home.


Oh, here's a question for anyone in the blogosphere: All along Route 80 in Pennsylvania (which is like 3 weeks long - Rayna's observation and I agree) some of the exit sign posts have small, cryptic signs attached to them stating "Red Detour Route" or "Green Detour Route" (or black or yellow). What is this about? What do we detour from or to? Why are there different colored detours and how do you know which one to take, and when? Curious, I am.

Quilting Arts Gifts Issue

The Quilting Arts Gifts Issue hits the news stands today. I contributed two articles to it and, as always, the crew at Quilting Arts did a fantastic job with the photography and layout. All of the contributors were asked to make a holiday card for the issue as well and mine is a Peace Beetle. Nevermind that I made that up, it could become a new iconic holiday symbol, right? I started with a piece of watercolor paper (90# Arches), embossed it, added mulberry paper with stamped letters (Paz is Spanish for Peace), printed a beetle onto a piece of batik, stamped it with a Chinese saying and overprinted it with a found object, topstitched and painted the edges and finito! Maybe all of my Christmas cards this year should be Peace Beetles. Watch for one in a mailbox near you...

My articles are about creative wrapping with fabric (good for the earth!) and table settings. The rest of the issue is terrific, -- as soon as I have time I'll be trying out some of the projects. A bunch of the people I met in Houston last week have articles in it and Elin does too. I have to start thinking about ideas to submit for next year's issue.