The Past becomes Present - Natalie Barnes

Meanwhile, trying to catch up I wanted to share a project mentioned in January. It was one of those projects that could not be shared because of the secret nature of 'business'.

But, all was revealed during Quilt Market in May...
and I am finally getting to share it with you.

My good friend Natalie Barnes had her first line of fabric introduced!
She is a great person and I was truly honored that she asked me to make up a quilt using her new fabric line.

I had a blast pulling this together, especially when I was able to utilize one of my 5-minute sketches from last summer for the design.

The piece is called 'Flowers for Natalie' and was part of a group of quilts used as part of the backdrop for her booth.

Love the colors and the designs -- they were very easy to work with... hope you look for them in your favorite quilt store in the fall.

BTW- Nat is offering a chance to win a Quilty Box over on her blog ... click over to check it out.

The Hunt Began

This Memorial Day finds me feeling much better, but still trying to kick the butt off this bronchitis...The 2nd round of antibiotics along with allergy medicine is finally letting me breathe.

While trying to be good and rest up I turned to my sketchbook and had fun working through some ideas that had been popping up several times while I was doing the daily word challenge.

To celebrate feeling better I decided to start pulling fabrics --- and I found my mind turning to this one particular blue silk.
The hunt was on - with the pulling out a blue bin of silk...
Sort of overwhelming.
It has been a while since I went for silk -- so much of my quilt making for my books is cotton.

First, I was a bit surprised by the sheer amount of silk that burst forth when I flipped off the lid. Then I was happily engaged with all the colors and textures of all the fabric --- mind you, I never really found the piece I was looking for, but I was having fun.

The opening of the blue bin, lead to the opening of the green -- then it was on to the purple and lastly the red/orange bin.

 

With the opening and digging through all the fabric poured memories. Fabric from this place or that place. Fabric that had been used in this quilt or that.
Does this happen to you, too?
The hunt for once piece of fabric let me reconnect not only to the fabric itself, but the history that brought it all to me.

It also was quite apparent to me that 1. I did not need anymore silk -- so during my upcoming trip to SoCalifornia I can stay clear of the Garment District, and 2. It is time for some silky projects!

All in all, a good day.

Sheeeee's Back...

I have been bad...
please forgive me!
Family, travel and lastly running off to Quilt Market have been all consuming this month...
BUT, you all are never far from my thoughts and I totally want to share about the grand finds at quilt market this fall.

As you would expect, there was amazing fabric everywhere...
and absolutely everyone will be enticed from 1-30 different company offerings.

It is the right time to start fortifying that fabric stash.

I loved the introduction of some new small, yet AMAZING batik prints from my long-time favs at Robert Kaufman, and Hoffman. These are great to work into the solid use, reading at a distance like a solid, but giving a rich texture on closer view.

Sadly, I took too much time figuring out how I was going to get Marcia Derse's latest collection home with me on the plane, that when I got back to the booth what was available was gone.... I will just be waiting with everyone else to see them hit the stores in December.

Beautiful as well were was the new line from Paula Nadelstern....as were her sample quilts.

Big too are the yummiest of neutrals coming out from P&B Textiles,
and on the flip side are Pepper Cory's luxurious solids from Studio E fabrics.

There was something there for everyone...
so you may want to ask Santa for gift cards to your favorite quilt store so you can have fun picking your favorites out, too!

I have a ton more to share, so check back for further postings this week.
Now I must go finish unpacking!

Fabric - Fabric - Fabric

Last month was to be all about fabric, but life seemed to be against me spending time totally engulfed in this fun wonder stuff. Family 'happenings' pulled me in a totally unexpected direction --

so, I'm letting the fabric roll on into October....

to kick it off here are some stacks of fabrics that have been selected for quilts in my upcoming book... some of these have already been turned into fun quilt tops, others sit teasing me to 'pick us next'.

which pile would you pick?

Mixing Words & Fabric - Meet Cindy Rinne

Talk about fabric and someone always asks - ' what do you do with your scraps'.

My answer always involves Cindy Rinne. She is a long time friend, amazing art quilter and the one who loves getting a bag of its and bits from me. Cindy then takes them and transforms them through her collages.

Over the last couple of years she re- committed herself to one of her first loves, poetry... and she found ways of combining this with her fabric works.

Enough, now it's time to Meet Cindy...

Which came first the poetry or the quilts, and how did you get started with quilt making?
The poetry came first as I started out as a watercolorist and then acrylic painter. I have always liked collage and included texture in my water media works. I was adhering photo transfers on fabric and fabric squares in the 9-patch block onto wood when I was invited to my first quilt meeting. Both of my friends were painters and had gotten involved with quilting. I enjoyed the guild meetings, especially learning about the history of fabrics and the history behind the various traditional blocks. I attended for three years before trying quilting. I was having my photo transfers done at a quilt shop. The owner, assuming I was a quilter, said that these photos on muslin will make beautiful quilts. I drove away thinking that I am not a quilter, but the idea stuck. I designed my first art quilt and never looked back.
When did the light bulb go off about combining these?
The light bulb went off last summer. I helped to start a poetry critique group called PoetrIE. I was seriously getting into poetry by last summer. I even had a bio of poems being published. A poetry friend of mine and I decided to do a drawing-a-day for the month of July. At the same time, my PoetrIE group decided to write a poem-a-day. It was a crazy month trying to write and draw everyday, but transformation came. The story I was writing became the source for my drawings. I translated the word "drawing" into using fabric, ink, pencil, etc. I will be having a solo show of this work next spring including a reading at the opening of the poetry we both wrote for this story.

I know you like using others scraps ....when did this begin, and what's the best thing about using these scraps?
As I said, I have always enjoyed collage. Before I was mostly collaging paper. Now I began to collage with fabrics. In art quilts I could use most any fabric as my pieces are not washed. The best thing about using scraps from others is that I think about them as I use their fabrics, including you! This way each of my fiber pieces is a community. I've even had people come to my exhibits and pick out the fabric they gave me. It's fun for them to see what I did with their treasures. I receive some special fabrics (international, vintage) because I only need small pieces.

What is one of your favorite ways to spend an afternoon?
I enjoy being in nature which inspires both my art and poetry, but as much as I quilt and write alone, friends and community are vital to me.

 

 

Hope you enjoyed meeting Cindy.
Fantastic use of scraps don't you think?!?
(btw - Cindy is in one of the pictures on my header -- can you find her?)

September Just Kinda of Slid In...

OK, can anyone tell me just what happened to last week?
One day I am writing about visiting Maddie, for the opening of her new store 'SPOOL' and whoosh...this is all a thing of the past.

My week was one filled with so many ups, downs & in betweens...
my new laptop went quite dead - was wisked away and replaced -- and I can happily report to be writing this on it's replacement -WOO Hoo.

The trip to Chattanooga was quite remarkable. My husband and I had never been and we just loved everything that we encountered --- especially Maddie's store. Boy, talk about lucky stitchers!!!

But, enough.... as I sit here sipping tea out of my new BadAss Quilters mug (yes a must have!) I realized it is September and all about FABRIC.

Part of my reason for picking FABRIC as my topic this month is that I am all wrapped up in the planning, choosing and very soon to be cutting and sewing the fabric for my newest book. It is pretty exciting.

Once I have a design in mind I just begin the fabric choosing by first thinking of COLOR. Now we spent a whole month earlier this year chatting about color (click on April posts), but really....
can we ever say enough about the most important part of our quilt making or art making process??

Some pieces actually begin with the color and the design is created to support it.
Color is magic - It plays with our eyes and our emotions.
Blues, cool & soothing; Reds, wild & hot; Yellow can make you feel happy....
and I was once told that Orange (the new black) is the color of conversation.

And, conversation we had --- so much conversation under the orange fabric of "The Gates" --now long gone are the miles of gates of Christo's Central Park installation, but it was a gate keeper who told me that the color was selected so there would be lots of conversation.

 

 

 

 

 

I took these and hundreds more photos over two days back in 2005 -- I flew in from LA and my sister flew in from Seattle --- and we had a grand time walking through the snow to be part of this.

Orange fabric -- kicking off the month of conversation about fabric....

So, how do you begin choosing fabric?
is it color --- or something else?