Tim and Jen with Christina's baby shower gift
Last week, we hosted a baby shower for one of our own, Tim Manibusan and his darling wife, Jen. The soon-to-be Mom and Dad were showered with creative gifts by the talented C&T Staff. Stuffed animals, tiny booties, a Sue Astroth hand-knit hat, and a much-appreciated cradle swing delighted the first-time parents. Designer Christina Jarumay even wrapped her gift (above) with proofs from books that Tim has worked on as a Production Coordinator.
Following C&T tradition, the quilters among us pooled their talents to create a special quilt for baby-to-be Addison Mae, using a design derived from one of our books, StrataVarious Quilts. Jen confessed we had already spoiled her with a C&T wedding quilt. “My Mom kept asking me ‘Do you think there’s a C&T baby quilt in the works?’”
Yes, there was! And it’s all quilted and bound before the November 11 due date! Now that’s what we like to see!
The Pacific International Quilt Festival in Santa Clara, CA was this past weekend. I tried to be good; I really did. I even convinced my friend that if we brought just a small amount of cash and NO credit cards, and if we treated the show like a museum exhibit instead of a shopping mall….that we’d be good. My friend’s willpower held strong—mine, not so much. I bought beautiful Burmese silk, bone celtic knot buttons, traditional japanese heavy woven cottons, and hand-dyed wool roving. We laughed about the question that nobody should ever ask a quilt show attendee…”what are you going to make with that?” I was very impressed by the number of vendors who had C&T books and products on display. Our mother ship, The Cotton Patch, was enjoying brisk traffic in their booth.
Carolie Hensley - The Cotton Patch, Lafayette CA
Batiks were everywhere, and there were several makers of gorgeous hand-dyed fabrics and trims. Besides the vendors, the show itself was full of incredible work. I was particularly pleased to see so many different art quilts that incorporated photography, poetry, ribbons, beads, netting, felt, paint, found objects, and even organic elements like tree bark. The more traditional quilts were amazing as well, the amount of work that went into some of these pieces was astounding. I took lots of pictures to add to my personal inspiration gallery, and I snapped some of our authors’ entries. All in all, it was a great day and well worth every dollar I spent. Now I’m faced with the rather daunting task of having to stop THINKING about how to become a fabric artist, and just start DOING it.
Photo by OCPetPhotos on Flickr
I adore the two “fur people” in my life. They provide me with hours of entertainment and companionship. Our cat Dink has been with us since his beginning, and Raider was a rescue cat that our daughter found at the local college parking lot. They like to take turns sleeping in the window of my studio or jumping on my worktable to provide their opinion on a just-laid-out pattern or a freshly poured paint.
“The boys” really aren’t one for store-bought toys… though I faithfully keep trying! Oh, they humor me for a minute or two—literally—but they have more fun with twigs from the garden or bringing furry surprises to me late at night. That is until last week….
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A few days ago, Lynn Koolish mentioned Ruth McDowell in her post. Lynn used some of the Ruth’s techniques to make the quilt, Silk Shibori. I took a class from Lynn at The Cotton Patch in Lafayette, and I’m currently finishing my own “Ruth quilt.” It’s an iris from Ruth’s book Pieced Flowers (which is currently out of print, but you can find here on Amazon).
Iris Possibilities
As you can see from the photo, I found several purples that blended and used a green border as an accent. I thought it was “done” when I added the off-white border, but then I placed it on a yellow background and decided to add one more border. To me, the final yellow represents the sun.
I stitched in the ditch around the borders and around all the parts of the flower. Then I found some Swirling Sensations thread by Robison-Anton in my thread stash, and it was the perfect purple. So I stitched 1/8″ in from the purple seams to give the flower more definition.
Quilting lines are drawn in green.
Next I plan on getting some Swirling Sensation in green and machine-quilting iris leaves in the background. Here’s a sketch I did by photocopying and enlarging the iris from the book. I’ve drawn the leaves in green.
I didn’t really need to take the class because I had edited one of Ruth’s books and learned the techniques that way. Because I seem to have more ideas than time, a class is a great motivator for me. There’s a deadline by which I have to make up my mind and buy the fabrics. (A few friends donated purples from their stashes because I couldn’t find “just the right shade!”) My fellow students often give great feedback and are inspirations in their own right. Sewing away from home at a shop reduces my distractions, too, and I get a LOT done. All in all, a class does me good and it’s fun.
Lynn’s teaching Piecing Ruth McDowell Style at Asilomar next February, and I highly recommend it. Email us a picture of your quilt when you’re done! I’ll keep you posted on mine.
We had our quarterly company meeting yesterday and figured it was the perfect opportunity to take a group photo. Here we are in front of our office building.
We all know that no group photo session is complete without a silly picture. Jazz hands, everybody!
Here’s a news flash from Diana Taylor, creator of fabulous fabric Ficklesticks and author of Fast, Fun & Easy® Fabric Ficklesticks:
A Fabulous Ficklesticks necklace created by Diana Taylor
Ficklesticks, the Full Monty, is on the road again, headed to the Houston International Quilt Festival October 30–Nov 2. Dotty Oliver will be helping me handle all the Ficklestickers in booth #1215. Lots of gorgeous and outrageous jewelry will be available for sale, as well as some large and luscious wall flowers, weavings, and baskets. Naturally, signed copies of my book, Fast, Fun and Easy® Fabric Ficklesticks, will be there for the purchasing, along with the wire, turners, kits and other supplies needed for making your own Ficklesticks. As Ms. Ficklesticks, I will teach a bracelet-making workshop with Janome Sew It and Take It at 6 pm on opening day, October 30. Be sure to come by for that!
The new museum shop at the International Quilt Study Center in Lincoln, Nebraska, will be selling Ficklesticks jewelry very shortly! Ficklesticks were discovered by buyer for the shop during the brand new American Quilter’s Society quilt festival in Des Moines, where she hand-selected some of my one of a kind patchwork fabric and wire Ficklesticks pieces. They will offer for sale several of my new designs, including swirly girl, ponytail, twentyfiori, and S&O necklaces, the new daisy bell pins and those infinitely versatile double posy bend-and-wrap bracelets.
So, the other day I was working away at my computer and I received an email from the first-season winner of Project Runway, Jay McCarroll.
Now, pretty much everyone who is interested in sewing, wearables, or fashion knows about (and is addicted to) the show Project Runway (including yours truly). I eagerly opened my email and almost jumped out of my seat when I read it. Jay was writing to tell C&T that he loves our fast2cut® Foolproof Circles!
The fact that Jay, a creative genius and overall really cool person, likes our product enough to take the time from his busy schedule to tell us about it made my day. I’ve posted his comment, along with a bio that he provided. Check it out! Continue Reading…
I’ve been working on ads all morning, so I’m taking a break from ads, to look at ads that we’ve done through out this last year. I know it doesn’t make sense, but in a way, I think it does. Sometimes it helps to look back at what we’ve been doing, to see how things are progressing and to make sure that we’re being consistent.
The ads that we’ve been doing this past year are really new for us. About 6 months ago, a team consisting of members from the Sales and Marketing and Creative Departments met to strategize a new way of advertising. We came up with an idea to have a large, eye-catching image at the top of the page along with a bold headline placed over the image. I am really happy with our ads, but I had a difficult time choosing just a few . . . sooo here’s EIGHT.
I’ve had this fabric for years (through 3 different houses!). Until pulling them out to take this photo, I’d never even taken the squares out of their tidy little ziplock bags. (The fabrics are from two Keepsake Quilting collections: Wild Things, forty 10″ squares, and Chicken Parts, sixty 6″ squares.)
What would you do with these fabrics?
I don’t particularly like chickens. Animal prints aren’t necessarily my thing, either. However, something about these colors and textures really attract me. They just haven’t attracted the right project yet. The closest I’ve gotten to something that would work for me (and the fabrics) is a basic square-in-a-square pattern. But it doesn’t seem special enough to cut the now-carrying-way-too-much-pressure Venerable Fabric Collection.
What does a quilter do now?!?
How do you pick the perfect patterns for favorite fabrics?
Silk Shibori
One of the things that I love about my job at C&T is that I work with many different authors who have developed many different and interesting quilting techniques.
One of the authors that I work with is Ruth McDowell. If you’re familiar with her work, you know that she does amazing pieced quilts, often using nature as her inspiration. I really like her techniques—I teach a class called Piecing Ruth McDowell Style using her book, Ruth B. McDowell’s Piecing Workshop.
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