Tonight the talented (and always entertaining) Laura Wasilowski shared some techniques and quilts from her new book, Fanciful Stitches, Colorful Quilts. Click here for the replay!
One of our Surface Design Ambassadors, Cyn Gagen, was kind enough to help me host – I’m working in our booth at NAMTA, where my remote internet access was spotty. I’m sure I looked pretty silly walking all over outside the Phoenix Convention Center, with my laptop open, typing in the chat room, trying to find a decent signal for my aircard!
Next week we’ll have two guest demonstrators with terrific projects for your home – Lynn Koolish and Laura West Kong. See you then!
When my new children’s book, Pocketful of Posies: A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes came out last fall, many people were introduced to my work for the first time. I’ve been illustrating with fabric, embroidery and found objects for 20 years and I’m delighted to report that this book has taken off like nothing I’ve done before. Pocketful of Posies has attracted a lot of unexpected attention, but the biggest surprise is that it has been given the Golden Kite Award for picture book illustration from the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. To my knowledge, this is the first time this honor has been given to fabric or dimensional illustrations of any kind.
In the months since Pocketful of Posies was released, there has been a renewed interest in my how-to book, Felt Wee Folk: Enchanting Projects,published by C&T Publishing in 2003. Many people who see the fabric relief artwork in my children’s books want to learn how to make dolls and scenes of their own. So, I’m glad to have an instructional book already on the market. There are projects to suit all skill levels, from simply constructed dolls to finely made figures with intricately embroidered felt clothing. In Felt Wee Folk, I teach how to make little dolls, which are basically made the same as way as the characters in Pocketful of Posies. The wee folk appear in both books, with their painted wooden bead heads donning acorn caps and wearing similarly stitched outfits.
The two books seem to compliment each other, with Pocketful of Posies spurring the imagination and showing possibilities of what can be made with the techniques demonstrated in Felt Wee Folk. Not only do I hope to inspire creativity in children, but I want to encourage people of all ages to try their hand at making their own miniature worlds with a needle and thread.
It has been 8 years since Felt Wee Folk was first published and I’ve been asked if I will write another instructional book. It’s satisfying to hear that my book has created a thirst for more, but I probably will not write another. So, what are my plans? I’ve been feeling the urge to experiment with my fabric relief techniques and make more personal one-of-a-kind artwork. I’ll still work in 3-dimentions and stitch like crazy, but lately my muse has been calling and urging me to try a new approach. I’m not sure what I’ll be doing, but I figure that if I’m going to expand my horizons, now is the time.
I have truly enjoyed sharing my stitched world through the nursery rhymes in Pocketful of Posies as well as the photos, directions and patterns in Felt Wee Folk. I hope that both of these books will remain available for years to come.
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Check out Salley’s blog to get the latest scoop on what she’s been up to.
Visit her website to find out more about Salley Mavor, her books, and her creative work.
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Look what Creative Troupe member Rosalind Pollock created using Liquitex® ink! and paint, fabric and thread! This is a great project for anyone interested or curious about surface design. The technique is simple and the results are stunning.
TWO BUTTON PURSE
By Rosalind Pollock
Materials:
- Liquitex® Professional Acrylic ink! -Naphthol Crimson, Phthalocyanine Blue, and Transparent Raw Umber
- Paintbrush, plastic palette and water
- Cotton fabric, thin batting and backing fabric (approx.13” x 8”)
- Thread
- 2 buttons
- Scissors
- Pencil or wash away marking pen
Instructions:
- Mix a few drops of each of three colors in varied combinations in a palette.
- Paint onto the top cotton fabric in random organic shapes, diluting with water as desired.
- Iron fabrics once inks have dried.
- Free-motion quilt the painted fabric and batting together to accentuate and compliment the painted design
- Fold into thirds along the length to create the back, front, and purse flap.
- Mark a flowing asymmetrical line along the flap area of the purse.
- Pin the backing fabric to the quilted fabric and batting. This will become the purse lining.
- Straight stitch around the whole shape going slowly around the curved shapes of the flap.
- Carefully trim around stitching and then stitch, twice again, with a zigzag stitch.
- Right sides together, stitch the purse sides.
- Fold bottom corners and stitch across about 1/2” inch to give a boxed effect to base.
- Turn right side out.
- Stitch on two buttons with matching buttonholes.
Wah hoo! I did it, I finished my first quilt!
About a month ago my 3 1/2 year old started preschool and I was starting to feel a little bit of the empty-nester syndrome. Dramatic? Maybe, especially since I’m at C&T every day of the week, I’m not a stay-at-home mom taking her child somewhere else during the day for the first time. But I was still shaken by the reality of it all and channeled that energy into piecing the top for my little preschooler’s nap-time quilt in a weekend…gotta love what can be accomplished with anxious energy!
I flipped through some books, got inspired by the quilts in The Gentle Art of Quiltmaking, dug through my fabric stash and got to it. The quilts in that book feel doable for a newbie and allow you to play with fun prints because the piecing isn’t super intricate.
After piecing it at home, I brought it in to the office and got quilting and binding tutorials from Lynn and Teresa and finished up my quilt! I wanted it to be a soft blankie and wasn’t concerned if it started to pucker, so I did minimal quilting. I can’t say enough about how lucky I am to work with the fabulous Quilt-making Goddesses that reside here at C&T, every new quilter should be so fortunate.
And that’s it! I’m starting to get over the not-so-straight stitching and the bunchy binding because really all that matters is: 1. I FINISHED a quilt! and 2. My little girl is going to be wrapped in mama’s love during her nap at school and that makes me happy.
Everyday Inspiration: Hopeful
A creative life is filled with challenges and rewards, puzzles and curiosities. This ongoing series of spoken word 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.
Author Monique Dillard kicked off her Fat Quarter Winners book tour on Monday, April 4th, and it looks like a winner, indeed! Follow the four-week tour of the quilts being made, and all the fun posts on Monique’s blog…plus she promises prizes and surprises, so you certainly don’t want to miss out on that. Her next stop is this weekend in New Hampton, IA, where she’s paying a visit to Quilter’s Window. If you’re a fan of Monique’s, be sure to check out her events calendar.
It’s all about the brayer, baby! Textile artist, Lisa Kerpoe, shared some terrific ways to create interesting textures and patterns on fabric with brayer painting. Click here to watch the replay…you will be inspired! I also demonstrated some fun ways to work with tone-on-tone fabric using Liquitex inks and paints.
Next week, Laura Wasilowski will be our guest demonstrator – and we’ll get a sneak peek inside her new book, Fanciful Stitches, Colorful Quilts.
Click here for the Wednesday Night Live! schedule – see you next week!
Tristan’s corner block from Birds in the Branches – this already laundered trivet shows how the raw edge appliqué softens when washed.
During our last series of Craft Camps here at C&T (whereby we take turns teaching and making wonderful things using new products and books, or playing with new twists on older titles) I taught a version of a soft trivet that won’t scratch or burn your table, using the fabulous designs in Tile Quilt Revival by Carol Gillham Jones & Bobbi Finley, and our fantastic Insul-Fleece®.
We took over the conference room to make some resized Birds in the Branches and All in a Dream blocks from the book, making 8”, 10” and 12” squares, whichever each person wanted to do. Continue Reading…
The Technical Editors here at C&T have been publishing tips on this blog for two years. They’ve posted over 30 tips, covering topics from beginning piecing to binding and everything in between. Now it’s time to take a break.
You can always access the tips by clicking on the Quilting Tips Series in the categories section on the right. We’ll keep this available for you. Please write in if you have a request for a new tip or a question on an old tip. We love hearing from you.
The best tip yet: keep quilting. It’s an art; the more you do it, the better you’ll get!
Practical storage meets pretty display!
Embrace spring cleaning and create the tidy quilting space of your dreams with guidance from organization guru, Carolyn Woods.
Don’t know where to start? No problem! Carolyn’s new book, Organizing Solutions for Every Quilter provides a step-by-step, gorgeously illustrated guide to making this task manageable.
She covers it all—from setting personal goals for dealing with your clutter, to room design, fabric and project storage, to quilting on the go, and long-term storage and display. We dare you not to be inspired after checking out this fantastic book! So how about a little something to kickstart your organization spree?
Enter to win one of these featured sturdy storage bins! Many thanks to our friends at ArtBin for providing these great prizes!
To enter, post a comment here telling us what area of your home or studio needs organizing the most.
Maximize your chances to win! Enter an extra comment for each of these actions you want to take:
The deadline to enter is midnight PST on Friday, April 8, 2011. Four comments will be selected at random to each win one of these ArtBins; winners will be announced here on the blog shortly after. Please allow 2-3 weeks for delivery of prizes; maximum one prize per person.
Click on the links below for details on these fabulous prizes. Clockwise from top left:
Easy View™ Storage System
Double Deep Super Satchel™
ArtBin Super Satchel Slim Compartment Box™
Artbin Super Satchel Box: Single Compartment™
