My friend Bari J has a new fabric line our for Art Gallery Fabrics, called Indigo & Aster. As always, it is full of her lush, signature florals. She asked me to design a new quilt to go with it, and of course I said yes. Especially when I saw the menagerie print full of her sweet animal portraits!READ MORE
Have you heard of Camp Thundercraft? A weekend retreat happening here, in the Pacific Northwest, on beautiful Vashon Island, April 13-15. This retreat is geared towards people like me, who own or are starting small creative businesses and want to spend a weekend getting recharged and inspired among like-minded folks. Organized by the same folks who are responsible for Urban Craft Uprising, this is the kind of weekend we creative folks really need.READ MORE
I had such an inspiring time at Quiltcon last week. I got back on Sunday and, after collapsing on the couch just in time to watch the return of The Walking Dead with the family, started unpacking the class projects started, things I purchased there, and reflected on my trip.
I’ve been Quiltcon one other time, and I believe it was the 2014 one in Austin, TX (time speeds by so fast, its hard to remember some days). This year, Pasadena was a no brainer for me to get to – a 2 hour flight from Seattle. How could I miss it?READ MORE
Thanks to everyone for the wonderful response we’ve had to the Ruby Ruler™! We are close to selling out of our first run! I am beyond excited to see it being used as the design aid it is.READ MORE
Where would my own Interwoven Quilt live? At least in its original, colorful, happy form, I’m thinking below. I knew that there was a nod to the look and feel of Gilmore Girls in Denyse’s original inspiration, and even though I’ve never seen GG (one day, I’ll binge it, I promise!), when I did a little research online I could definitely see the connection. That green! This collage was challenging, it took longer than I anticipated, but the finished image might be a new favorite!READ MORE
If you are on Facebook and enjoy watching FB Live videos like I do, I wanted to let you know about two recent videos from folks who reviewed the new Ruby Ruler™. It may give you even more insight into how to use this nifty tool!
Alyssa Thomas of Penguin and Fish (above) recently did an entire FB Live to her Penguin and Fish FB subscribers just on using Value in your quilt designs, and demonstrates how the Ruby Ruler™ can help determine value. The best takeaway from it is now my new favorite line-
Our next #wisecraftstitchalong is beginning soon in the Wise Craft Quilts Facebook Group. For this next one, we will be stitching up the colorful, textural wool appliqué pattern called Springtime Posey Appliqué Banner. The original pattern stitches organic shapes like flowers and leaves to a background fabric which becomes a banner that can be hung on a wall or door. A beautiful pattern to get some good practice adding wool texture over texture, as well as dimensional embroidery stitches. There are endless ways to embellish this piece with hand stitched details. Its also very easy to adapt the pattern to a pillow, or stretch it over a store-bought canvas. (Which is how I plan to do the new version that I will be stitching on air.)READ MORE
Introducing Interwoven. Another new quilt design using the Ruby Ruler™ . Simple, yet impactful quilt design all by just playing with value.
I’m not sure why, but simple repeating shapes like the ones in this quilt make me so happy. Each “unit” or block is the same configuration, but also little bit different from the others when made in a scrappy way. READ MORE
Member of the Modern Quilt Guild? Join me tonight, Thursday, February 8th at 9pm EST/6pm PST. I will be discussing different strategies for cleaning and stabilizing vintage fabrics to use in your quilts. One of my favorite things to do with vintage fabrics is incorporate them in my quilt designs, but they often need a little help to make them clean, strong, and ready to be used in a quilt design.
I did a collage of where the new Starflake quilt could live almost as soon as it was done.
This one was tough for some reason.
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