The lovely ladies of Lutradur – four talented members of our Creative Troupe showed off four fabulous projects that use Lutradur. From the top…Rebecca Parsons, Andrea Currie, Cyn Gagen, and Angela Daniels each made something truly unique and truly fun!
Click here to watch the replay. Please be patient with the webcast technology, it’s still in a beta version – there is a little delay at the beginning, and between demonstrators the playback sometimes skips or pauses. Just use the slider bar at the bottom to bring the recording back to where you want it to continue. You will LOVE the show, everyone had so much fun and the projects are really inspiring.
Post pictures of your own Lutradur projects – join the “I love Lutradur” group on Flicker and upload your pictures! We also have lots of Lutradur projects here for more inspiration.
If you missed the live show, then you missed a chance to win a great prize…so join us next week to learn more about some wonderful fabric painting techniques. Our special guest is textile artist, Lisa Kerpoe! For the current list of topics and guest demonstrators, click here.
Speaking of guest demonstrators…if you are a C&T author, or one of our Surface Design Ambassadors, or part of our Creative Troupe – we’d love you to share something you have made with one of our books or products. Wednesday Night Live! is a great way to promote your work and connect with lots of people from the comfort of your own home. Email me at lisaf@ctpub.com if you would like to submit an idea for a demo.
Confused? Dumbfounded? Don’t worry, I was too. How could the words “paperless” and “paper piecing” appear in the same sentence? Blocks to Diamonds, that’s how. The author, Cheryl Malkowski, was tired of hassling with tiny bits of paper stuck in seams, so she developed a simple technique to avoid the whole mess entirely. I asked her to share a little more about her inspiration for the book:
” Blocks to Diamonds came to be because I couldn’t stand the thought of making a Radiant Lone Star quilt just like the ones my friends were making at that time. So I tried skewing a traditional block into a diamond and using that block as one arm of the star in the quilt. The next challenge was figuring out how to piece all the strange shapes. Paper piecing seemed like the only answer. Since I hate picking out the paper in the traditional paper piecing method—too much like hand work—I used an easy freezer paper piecing technique that simplifies the whole process. Instead of stitching through the paper, I stitched next to the folded freezer paper. The results were instantly spectacular and very satisfying. And I spent about a second pulling off each piece of paper rather than hours with my tweezers!
Now, I know you’re thinking it’s no big deal if I can sew these since that’s what I do all the time, but I have to tell you that I only made 7 of the 33 quilts in this book.
Most were made by people who had never attempted this technique before, and yet their quilts are so fabulous and the kaleidoscopic effect so fascinating that they are every bit as book-worthy as anything I could have made myself. Both the front and back cover quilts were made by people whose first attempts at this technique are pictured. Absolutely amazing! Maybe it’s time for you to try something just a little different. I hope you enjoy it as much as all of us have! “
Van Gogh's Bedroom—Any Way You Slice It
We’re done! Click on the picture to see the beautiful details up close. Click here to buy raffle tickets to win this amazing quilt. Tickets are $10, and the drawing will be held on April 15th. All proceeds go to the NAMTA Foundation to provide grants and scholarships for artists and art students.
Final size: 86″ x 68″
The Quiltmakers from C&T Publishing:
Slice 1 by Teresa Stroin, Managing Editor
Slice 2 by Lynn Koolish, Editor and Author
Slice 3 by Gailen Runge, Creative Director
Slice 4 by Susanne Woods, Acquisitions Editor
Slice 5 by Liz Aneloski, Editor and Author
Slice 6 by Sandy Peterson, Editor
Quilted by Sue Fox, Foxdreams Quilting Service, Berkeley, CA, foxdreams@earthlink.net
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.
Pink petals
Amongst the brown
Leaves.
Spring is certainly
Trying!
In her book Quilt Remix, Emily Cier puts a new, modern spin on 10 traditional quilt projects. Her Lone Star quilt is in the intermediate section of the book. This version has been deconstructed down to its basic elements and built back up into a lattice pattern, in the process avoiding the original’s difficult seams.
This is one of our free projects in celebration of National Craft Month! Click here to download the Lone Star Quilt project PDF. Click on the image to the left to find out more about Quilt Remix.
We have the slices done. The next tasks were to sew them together, add the border (which we made using a tone-on-tone brown fabric and gold, black & brown Paintstiks and rubbing plates), and get it to the quilter.
Raffle tickets for the quilt are available at the NAMTA Foundation website. Buy them before April 15th!
Lining up the slices to sew them together.
Previewing the border (from the top of the conference room table).
Longarm quilter Sue Fox of Berkeley (foxdreams@earthlink.net) working her magic.
Stitch up some sweet petits fours!
Click here to watch the show…tonight our special guest demonstrator was Bari J. Ackerman, author of Inspired to Sew by Bari J.
Bari shared a few of her favorite embroidery tools and some essential embroidery stitches, perfect for dressing up any sewing project! She taught us how to make a french knot, a bullion rose, and more. We also talked about the many ways to use Shape-Flex® and Inchie Ruler Tape® – great supplies for every craft room!
Next Wednesday – it’s time to profess your love for Lutradur®! We have four fabulous members of our Creative Troupe joining us to show off their Lutradur projects and ideas…Cyn Gagen, Andrea Currie, Angela Daniels, and Rebecca Parsons are joining us live in the Digital Lounge on March 30 – don’t miss it!
I’m one of the six people who volunteered for the C&T slice quilt for the NAMTA raffle. I was hoping this quilt would challenge me to work with some new techniques all for a great cause, and I was right!
Here is a picture of my slice
I began by sketching out the main elements onto a black fabric as I wanted to have the dark accent lines receed.
I knew I wanted to try a confetti technique and had grand illusions of collecting together all of my solids to fuse and cut the days away. However, reality soon reared it’s ugly head when about 10 hours of work resulted in this:
and this:
So, I revised my plan and decided to quilt the heck out of the floor only. I was really happy with those results:
Continue Reading…
Jane Dávila, author of Jane Dávila’s Surface Design Essentials, has created a fast and fun way to enjoy fabric you’ve created yourself using art materials. The big squares in the design of this table runner pattern will show off your own surface designs, such as this paint-washed and stamped fabric. The size of the finished table runner is 63” x 15” but it can easily be made longer or shorter to suit your table.
Supplies:
- Hand-painted or printed fabric ¾ yard
- Sashing fabric ¾ yard
- Backing fabric 1 yard
- Batting and thread
Cutting Instructions:
- Five squares 10 ½” x 10.5” of your hand-painted fabric
- Ten pieces 3” x 10.5” of sashing fabric
- Six pieces 3” x 15.5” of sashing fabric
Sewing Instructions:
1. Sew a 3” x 10.5” piece of sashing fabric to either side of each hand-painted fabric square to create five rows. Press seams toward surface designed fabric.
2. Sew a 3” x 15.5” piece of sashing fabric between each of the five rows and on either end. Again, press seams toward hand-painted fabric. 
3. Cut backing fabric into two pieces 18” x 34”. Sew together along the 18” side to create one large 18”x 67.5” piece.
4. Lay a piece of batting at least 18” x 67.5” on a flat surface. Lay the pieced backing on the batting, right side up. Place the table runner top, right side down, centering it on the backing and batting. Sew around the perimeter of the table runner with a walking foot to keep the layers together. Leave a 6” opening along one side, backstitching at beginning and end.
5. Trim the backing an batting even with the table runner top. Clip corners. Turn right side out through opening and press carefully. Hand sew the opening closed. Quilt in the ditch along the seams or as desired. Enjoy!
Learn Jane Dávila’s surface design techniques (such as paint-stamping fabric as shown above) with Jane Dávila’s Surface Design Essentials. See all of our surface design products at ExploreSurfaceDesign.com.
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.
The only way
To get clued in
Is to go through
Being clueless…
