Yes, she did it again. C&T author Claudia Clark Myers has taken home another quilt award for one of her breathtaking quilts. Author of the new release, A Passion for Piecing, Myers recently took home the Best Machine Workmanship award at The Pacific International Quilt Festival. She won the award for her quilt titled “The Geisha and the Serving Girl,” that she made with Marilyn Badger. It’s a stunning masterpiece that involves painting on fabric. We asked her to tell us the details behind the making of the quilt.

In 2006, I started painting on quilts that were already quilted. The first one that I did, I held my breath almost all the way through–very scary thing to do! It took me five days to paint the birds that Marilyn had quilted on our quilt “Yellow Bird”. When I was finished, though, I loved it and decided to use this new method on a regular basis. So, then followed “Awesome Blossoms” with the painted nasturtium border, “Dragon’s Breath”–appliqued corners and feather wreaths, but all the designs hand painted and, now, “The Geisha and the Serving Girl”.

This quilt has machine pieced and appliquéd pieces of hand-dyed fabric for the background and border, but the rest of the designs were from a drawing that I did, using a Dover design for the two figures. Marilyn then had it enlarged and transferred it to the quilt top, where she meticulously long-arm machine quilted it, even their tiny finger and toe-nails.

When it came back to me, it looked like a wholecloth quilt, with the design stitched in, but no colors. I spent about three weeks hand-painting it and was truly amazed at how it came to life! It has so far won 2nd Place in Pictorial at the Minnesota Quilter’s State guild show, and now Best machine quilting at PIQF. Keep an eye out, it might be coming to a show near you! You can see all the other quilts at my website Nightowlquilter.com.

Do you want to start paining on fabric? The new Liquitex® Surface Design Center has everything you need to take your quilting to the next dimension. Look for it at your local quilt shop or click here for all the details.

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