Category Archives: Elsewhere

Teaching Painting on Fabric with Picasso’s Rooster

March 5th, 2010 in Elsewhere
By Danielle Dews

Carlotta White is using our Liquitex® products for a painting on fabric quilting class she is teaching this month in Northern California! Take a look at these photos that show her progress through the project.

the finished quilt

Here’s what Carlotta had to say about the project:

The rooster pattern was made from a photo I’d taken at a farm. The colors where just basic but fun, black, yellow, red, green, and purple. The [Liquitex] fabric medium really helps the paint not to wick on the fabric! After he was painted I put fusible on the back cut him out and attached him to the background. Then the thread painting just adds more color and texture.

Carlotta’s classes are on March 13th and March 20th at Sew What in Redding, CA. In the class students will get to use her pattern to paint a Picasso rooster of their own!

A Great Way to Spend 30 Minutes: Secret Life of the Sewing Machine

February 19th, 2010 in Elsewhere
By Susanne Woods

I can’t be sure how I stumbled across this this fantastic series of videos on YouTube, but I am so glad I did. It may be the British side of me that loves this Monty Python mix of serious and fall-of-your-seat-funny comedy, but this is so worth spending 30 minutes with. You’ll laugh (even when I am not completely sure they intended laughter….with the young lady’s outfit in Part two, for example) and you’ll probably learn something new about your sewing machine. And so, I share the fun with all of you. The Secret Life of Sewing Machines….

And because I know you will want to watch the entire series, here are the links to Part 2 and Part 3.

Winner of Susan Brubaker Knapp’s Orchid Notecards

February 18th, 2010 in Elsewhere
By Tristan Gallagher

The winner of Susan Brubaker Knapp’s georgeous Orchid Notecards is Darlis Johns. Lucky her! The good news for everyone else is you can find them here on Susan’s website.

Thank you to Susan for not only this giveaway but sharing her experience of putting a show together with 6 other members of Fiber Art Options.

If in the area be sure to check out this incredible exhibit that Susan is part of.

“Orchids: Sensuality Stitched”
Feb. 6 through March 14, 2010
Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden
Belmont, NC 704.825.4490

More Fun With Surface Design & Painting on Fabric

February 11th, 2010 in Elsewhere
By Lynn Koolish

I had another opportunity to teach a class using the Liquitex Surface Design Center. This time it was for a retreat at Point Bonita in the beautiful Marin Headlands. Most of the participants were accomplished quilters and many had some experience with paints. I gave them a quick demo of some of the things you can do with the paints including painting washes, using the Acrylic Inks!, and monoprinting, and set them loose.

It was exciting to see all the different ways that people were using the paint, and all the different looks they were creating.

Stevii Graves monoprinting

Susan Brubaker Knapp’s Orchids: Sensuality Stitched Exhibition

February 8th, 2010 in Elsewhere
By Susan Brubaker Knapp

For a few years, I’ve belonged to a wonderful group of seven fiber artists from the Charlotte area, Fiber Art Options. It includes me, Nancy G. Cook, K. Grace Howes, Deborah M. Langsam, Janet A. Lasher, Linda Stegall, and P.J. Howard. This weekend, our group exhibition, “Orchids: Sensuality Stitched,” opens at Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden (DSBG), near Charlotte. This is my first group show, and I’m pretty excited!

For a while, we’ve been wanting to have a group exhibition to show our work, and about a year ago, we decided on an approach: We would all take photos of orchids, mainly at DSBG, and then create a series of pieces based on these photos. The Garden has an “Orchid Spectacular” event that runs from January through March, and loves working with groups on events that will bring people to DSBG and tie in with their events.

Our goals were to increase our production, to work in a series (which several of us had not done before) and to create an exhibition that could travel to different places after its initial showing at Daniel Stowe. Lots of cities have orchid shows, so our exhibition would be appealing to many different venues.

I love creating quilts from photos I take, so I was very excited about working in this concept. I chose three subjects, partly for their flamboyant color, and decided that I would create each piece as a wholecloth painted quilt. This is something I’ve only started doing in the past year or so, and I wanted to improve my skills. Continue Reading…

Interpret This! Challenge

February 5th, 2010 in Elsewhere
By Danielle Dews

One of our blog readers, Libby Fife, emailed me the other day about Interpret This!, the new monthly textile art challenge group she is co-sponsoring with Debra Spincic. Their concept is to bring together Internet based artists with a common goal:

to create a body of work in an organized intimate group setting using photos that are personal to the artist as the creative launching point.

The group’s twelve member artists will be making fiber art based on photographs supplied by each participant. Then the artwork will be revealed to the larger online textile art community via the blog.

I am really impressed with not only the participants’ beautiful artwork, but also their commitment to revealing all aspects of the challenge to the larger community. It’s easy to be drawn into the stories revealed on the blog when so much background information and detailed description is provided by the artists.

Our time at CHA

February 2nd, 2010 in Elsewhere, Industry & News
By Lisa Fulmer

100_3017 Phew…what a whirlwind of a week we had in Anaheim at the CHA Craft Super Show and the Winter Convention and Trade Show! It took a few days, but I have finally made a respectable dent in the post-travel mayhem of dirty laundry, craft supplies, and snapshots to sort out. I was hoping to post here a few times from the show, but we were on the go, non-stop, 24/7 – no time for sitting at the computer!

For me, the highlight of every CHA show is always the people. Nothing beats connecting in person with friends, colleagues, and customers to relish and rave about all that is new in our wonderful world of craft. Of course, C&T has some new and totally rave-worthy products – the Liquitex® Surface Design Center, Lutradur® Mixed Media Sheets, and our upcoming new book imprint, Stash—Fabric Arts for a Handmade Lifestyle.

So after the first day of the Super Show, we braced ourselves for the weekend masses expected on day 2. We built it and they came! The C&T demo table at the Lisa Liza Lou booth was full all day – Creative Troupers Tina Kay and Joy Lily kept people happy and busy with creative ATC and fabric painting projects.

Joy shows how to paint white tone-on-tone printed fabric with gradient colors of Liquitex paints

Tina shows how to create ATCs with upcycled papers, using Liquitex paints and mediums.

Tina shows how to create ATCs with upcycled papers and Lutradur, using Liquitex paints and mediums.

Author Blog Round-Up

January 22nd, 2010 in Elsewhere
By Danielle Dews

Whenever I have a spare moment (and sometimes when I don’t), I go straight to our Links page and then go down the lists of authors, Creative Troupers, and fans, clicking on each link and reading a post or two from each blog. I like to be “in the know,” you know? And then I like to share some of my findings. So, here I go with another list of hotlinks for the January edition of the Author Blog Round-Up.

Wendy Hill started blogging just this past October but I love visiting her blog because her posts are always short and sweet and witty, always offering a huge return on my time investment. I love the 8 1/2″ by 11″ “Zebra” quilt she entered into the Quilting Arts Magazine quilt challenge.

Alissa Haight Carlton is one of the the authors of upcoming Spring 2011 title Block Party. I learned on her blog that she cast the 7th season of Project Runway which just premiered! I also love her quilts and the photos of Simple Squares her latest baby quilt simply had me drooling (like a baby). Continue Reading…

Advice and Inspiration from Kathy Mack

December 10th, 2009 in Elsewhere
By Susanne Woods

I have been an admirer of Kathy Mack from Pink Chalk Studio for ages now and am so impressed by her recent post on laminated cottons.

Photo courtesy of Kathy Mack

I have been so excited to use these but have been a little intimidated. Kathy saves me, and you some time with her tips and tricks at her blog.

From Anna Maria Horner

from Annette Tatum

I’m feeling a lot more confident about trying some of the laminated cottons now and see a coloring/painting table cloth in my near future.

Black Friday Sales Online!

November 25th, 2009 in Elsewhere, Staff Pick
By Lisa Fulmer

Who needs to mess with parking, traffic, long lines, and tired store clerks who have been up since their doors opened at 5am? You can shop for lots of post-Thanksgiving bargains this Friday from the comfort of your own home.

Our friends over at www.CraftCritique.com are posting a special Black Friday notice that will link you to lots of online bargains from several different craft manufacturers and retailers. C&T will be there with a great sale on our beautiful gift items—and ONLY Craft Critique readers will get a special Gift with Purchase with an online order from us of sale items and all our regular-price books and products too!

Here’s whatchya need to do:
1. Visit www.CraftCritique.com this Friday to get your special promotion code for your Gift with Purchase.
2. Link to our site, www.ctpub.com, shop ’til you drop, enter your promotion code, and check out.
3. Go on back to Craft Critique and shop some more! Be sure to bookmark them for regular reading. Their reporters give valuable and unbiased hands-on reviews every day for a huge variety of craft products.

So here’s the deal…C&T Publishing will have a wonderful selection of gift items on sale for 4 days only – at 50% off! Stylish and eco-friendly tote bags, lovely note cards, fun playing cards—all featuring stunning quilt images made by our authors. Plus gorgeous blank journals, beautiful pop-out gift boxes, and more.

Visit the On Sale & Close Outs page of our website as soon as you’re done gobblin’ to see it all!

Offer is valid November 26-29, 2009 only for online orders placed at www.ctpub.com. Prices will be marked at 50% off retail; no further discount applies. Resellers welcome.

C&T Publishing is a group of quilters and crafters dedicated to publishing products tailored to our audience. This blog is where we break away from book schedules and marketing campaigns to focus on what drives us to be creative and how this creativity manifests itself in our every day lives.