Jan Krentz at EBHQ
Jan Krentz was in town at the end of August to teach from her wonderful new book Quick Diamond Quilts & Beyond. I wasn’t able to take the class (sponsored by my guild), but I did stop by on the first day to say Hi and to take some pictures to share.
Jan’s book walks you through all the steps to create an amazing variety of quilts made from diamond shapes (with no inset seams!). Everyone in class was having a blast, and the range of color combinations was great fun to look at.
A creative life is filled with challenges and rewards, puzzles and curiosities. This ongoing series of poems attempts to express the “Aha”s and “What if”s, the deep ponderings and casual observations of an inquiring mind trying to make sense of reality. May it serve, for you, as a bit of “Everyday Inspiration” along your own creative path.
Clean it up
As you go—
If it’s a molehill now,
It’s bound to be
A mountain
Later…
After a successful special exhibit based on a quilt challenge called “Two by Two” appeared at the 2008 Pacific International Quilt Festival, the group of women known as Sewjourners decided to try another challenge. Inspiration came from Kathy Shaker and Bevalee Runner, who attended the 2008 PIQF, and from Pat Pease—evidence that great minds do share great ideas.
"Yellow Fever" by Wendy Hill (photo by Craig Howell, Bend, Oregon)
In November 2008, the new challenge took form as 19 women each reached into a paper bag to pull out their random color assignment. No one wanted the color yellow, so I felt pleased when I pulled the yellow card out of the bag. After all, I never met a color I didn’t like. Armed with a color card and a list of simple rules, the women embarked on the Color Cascade Challenge.
Kathy and Bevalee chose the 3-in-1 Color Tool by Joen Wolfrom for this challenge for several reasons. For practical purposes, it was easy to disassemble the conveniently sized color cards so each person could carry around “their” color. For their compact size, the color cards pack a wallop of information. The front of the card displays the pure hue plus tints, tones, and shades—everything about this color at a glance. On the back of each color card, little color wheels show color plans for each color—monochromatic, complimentary, analogous, split-complimentary and triadic. This color tool packs a lot of information in an easy to read and carry format. The 19 participants in the challenge did get a jump start with these cards.
For months we were seen clutching our color cards while wandering around fabric stores. People in the quilting community became curious about our challenge, building up suspense about our quilts. We first shared our quilts as a group a year later, in November 2009. With Pat’s fabulous Fiesta® Dinnerware collection, the women showed off their quilts over lunch, with each place setting “their” color. By then, we knew our second special exhibit would make its first appearance at the 2010 Pacific International Quilt Show.
"Celestial Navigation" by Kathy Shaker (photo by Kathy Shaker)
One color quilt is fun to see, but at PIQF in October, we’ll get to see all 20 quilts hanging side by side, in 30 feet of continuous color and color changes, from yellow to yellow gold. We’ve already been invited to show our quilts in a quilt gallery for the month of November, and we might have a venue to show the quilts in July 2011.
"#14" by Pat Pease (photo by Craig Howell, Bend, Oregon)
Author Sylvia Pippen is a fan of quilt facing as a means for finishing off her quilts. A faced quilt hangs very straight and gives a clean edge without introducing another design element. Unlike a quilt binding, a quilt facing is turned to the back of the quilt and shouldn’t be visible from the front.
To complete your quilt with this finishing technique, follow these steps:
1. Cut 2 strips 2″-3″ wide by the length of the quilt sides.
2. With long raw edges even and right sides together, pin each strip to one of the quilt sides and stitch with a 1/4″ seam.
3. Press the seam and strip away from the quilt top. Top stitch through the seam allowances and the facing strip.
4. Fold the facings to the back, press and turn under the remaining long raw edges of the facings, and hand stitch them in place on the back of the quilt.
5. Cut 2 more strips the width of the quilt top + 1″. Repeat steps 2-3 while extending the facing strips 1/2″ beyond each side of the quilt.
6. As before, press the strips and top stitch. Fold under the excess facing at either end. Turn the facing to the quilt back, turn under the remaining long raw edges, and hand stitch in place.
This tip is from Sylvia Pippen‘s book Paradise Stitched: Sashiko and Appliqué Quilts.
Happy Quilting,
The Tech Editors
While I get loads of inspiration from working collaboratively with our creative staff, I do love working from home on Fridays. Sure, I get to work in my pjs and put in a load of laundry while I am responding to emails, but I also have fewer interruptions which is perfect when I need a seamless work environment to pull together large projects or even just to get my regular research done. More than half our staff here at C&T work from home at least once a week too. Which got me to thinking: We must save a lot of gasoline!
So I asked everyone how many miles per month they save by being able to work from home. And the results were really impressive.
As a company of 44 employees, we save 3,012 miles per month by encouraging our staff to work from home once a week.
And when you look at the annual numbers, it starts to get even more impressive:
36,150 miles which saves 1,643 gallons of gas per year.
That means that by driving less, C&T saves the refining of 72 barrels of crude oil and reduces greenhouse gas emissions by a little over 19 metric tons per year.
Not only does that save our staff just about $6,000 per year, it translates to the equivalent of taking 3 cars off the road for an entire year, every year.
In 2007 we were proud to become a certified Bay Area Green Business and have always aimed to be as environmentally friendly as we can from turning off the light in the kitchen when you leave, to recycling. We are always looking for innovative ways to reduce, reuse and recycle because we have seen how a little effort from everyone, adds up to a big impact.
How about you? What have you done to be green?
A creative life is filled with challenges and rewards, puzzles and curiosities. This ongoing series of poems attempts to express the “Aha”s and “What if”s, the deep ponderings and casual observations of an inquiring mind trying to make sense of reality. May it serve, for you, as a bit of “Everyday Inspiration” along your own creative path.
Make all
Your interactions
With others
Good ones.
How else
Can we
Ever achieve
A peaceful
World?
I recently visited my Mom and came across a project I finished in 1990. Thought you might like to see it…
I purchased the top the first time I attended Quilt Market back in 1988. I bought it, with the idea I would finish it as a thank you gift for Mom as she was the one that footed the bill for the trip. I wished I knew more about the quilt pattern and the person that made it.
When in doubt go to the experts I say! So, I consulted a friend in Kansas (Thanks Deb), who referenced the book Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns, compiled by Barbara Brackman. According to her, the pattern is known by the following names:
The blocks all seem to be hand pieced but the top is sewn together by machine. As to the quilt top’s age, the experts I work with here in the office seem to think it dates back to around 1950.
I cut my own quilting design stencil from a quilt pattern book I no longer have. I think it was by Pepper Cory. I used an all cotton batting as I like the well loved feeling of 1930′s quilts. It was easy to work on. I marked my quilting lines with a fine pencil and masking tape. Sure wish I’ d had some Inchie Ruler Tape back then! I enjoyed hand quilting, but after a few blocks I remember running out of steam. In fact, I ran out of steam several times during the course of this project, which is why it took me a couple of years to actually finish the entire quilt.
It was fun to see it again after all these years…I don’t know when or if I will pick up the quilting needle again any time soon, but I’m sure glad I once did and that I have this lovely quilt as a reminder.
Cover of the first issue of Quilter's Newsletter
I never had the opportunity to meet Bonnie Leman. By the time I came to quilting, Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine was in the able hands of her daughter Mary Leman Austin. After I started working at C&T Publishing, I began to hear some of the stories about how Bonnie and her husband started the magazine.
I really came to understand what Bonnie had accomplished when I was working with Mary on a book to celebrate the magazine’s 35th anniversary. In the book, Mary told about how her mother, an experienced sewer, had a treasured scrapbook of her mother’s collection of Kansas City Star patterns. Mary explained that her mother found quilts particularly interesting, and as she researched them fell in love with the designs and history. In the 1960’s, seeing a need for patterns for quilters of the day, Bonnie started by selling patterns and templates.
As Mary recalled:
Before too long, a customer comment inspired Mom’s idea of a newsletter for quiltmakers. Inexperienced in publishing, but still knowing the way to the library she once again began to do research, but did not find as much information as she had hoped. However, she was determined to make her “Quilter’s Newsletter” as professional looking as she could. “We started on a shoestring,” she [Bonnie] has said, “and all I had to work with was a $25 used portable Royal typewriter, and a vast ignorance of procedures for preparing material for printing. The printer rejected the first sample I showed him, explaining that it was not dark enough to reproduce successfully. So, for the first few issues, before I took each page out of the typewriter, I carefully and slowly re-rolled it back to the beginning and typed it a second time to darken each letter. If I made a typo, I had to start over. If correction fluid had yet been invented, I hadn’t heard of it.”
Over the years Bonnie and Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine set the standard for presenting quilting patterns, news, and features, growing the magazine and its influence as the quilting movement itself grew. Bonnie was instrumental in keeping quilters up to date with new takes on traditional favorites while also introducing them to new innovations in design and techniques.
I can only imagine that the quilting world would not be what it is today, if it hadn’t been for Bonnie Leman’s love of quilting, her perseverance, and her advocacy for all things quilting.
From everyone at C&T Publishing, we are saddened to hear of Bonnie’s passing and our condolences go to the Leman family.
Visit the Quilter’s Hall of Fame site for more details about this remarkable woman.
Designed by Marie Johansen
When we put a call out to our Creative Troupe to put their ideas and talent to a new product, the results always amaze us. The following collection of art quilts, show a variety of ways to use Ultra-Light Lutradur®. Some take advantage of the translucent quality while others make use of heat effects, paintablilty, etc. All approaches produced awesome effects. The above quilt by Creative Troupe member Marie Johansen shows the effects of printing directly onto Lutradur and layering it over commercial silk. Beautiful!
Designed by Angela Huddart
In Green Windows, Angela Huddart sews the Lutadur layer on top, quilts over it and then heat cuts alternating squares to remove the Lutradur. This shows the layering and gives the quilt variety in texture.
Designed by Deb Kolar
Deb Kolar approached her Summer Sky art quilt by painting the Ultra-Light Lutradur layers first, tearing them into clouds and sun shapes, then thread painting for final effect.
Designed by Melinda Cornish
In In the Arbor by Melinda Cornish, she draws, then paint fills her floral image onto Lutradur. After thread painting she loosely heat melts the Lutradur all over. Added bling with beadwork offers the final touch.
Designed by Susan Slesinger
Tropical Sea Postcard by Susan Slesinger has a painted and layered Lutradur background creating a home for fish.
View more Lutadur designs by the Creative Troupe on our Flickr Page.
The two lucky winners of the Kaleidoscope Kreator 3 & Innovative Fabric Imagery for Quilts Giveaway are…
I would use it to make Priority Quilts for the Alzheimer’s Quilt Initiative — my favorite charity.
and Debra Bentley!
I’d like to do something with butterflies. I have been photographing them in our garden.
Thank you so much to everyone who left comments here and on Facebook. If your haven’t already, be sure to check out the next giveaway posted on Monday.
