It has been about a year since we launched the C&T Creative Troupe. We have been so impressed and thrilled by the excitement around the Creative Troupe and the amazing talent our troupers posses, that we have decided to add a few more incentives and rewards to it’s members. The first new feature of the Creative Troupe is the Pay for Publication Program. A program that pays Creative Troupe members to promote C&T Products in the media.
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Do you remember my Dr. Seuss post back in October of last year when I said that I was working on some exciting new projects that I couldn’t tell you about until the Spring?
Well, Spring is almost officially sprung and everyone at C&T Publishing is excited to introduce Stash, our new line of how-to books celebrating fabric arts for a handmade lifestyle. If you’re craving beautiful authenticity in a time of mass-production…Stash is for you.
Officially, Stash is an imprint of C&T Publishing. What is an imprint, you say? I’ll try not to be too much of a publishing geek when I say…in book publishing, it is a way for a company to respond to the needs of a new or growing group of readers.
This imprint concept is very common in publishing but more easily understood in the automobile industry. For example, Toyota has their main Toyota cars but in recent years has launched Lexus and Scion to accommodate a variety of aesthetics. Similarly, Stash is a line of books that compliments the C&T list by providing content that accommodates the craft sewer.
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A couple of years ago, Elm Creek Quilts author Jennifer Chiaverini organized a contest among her devoted Elm Creek Quilts fans. In the novel, Circle of Quilters, two founding members of Elm Creek Quilts Camp decide to leave the fold. The remaining members had to select two new teachers to join their staff, which is really more like a family. In the book as a part of the application process for the teaching position, each of the five finalists was instructed to design an Elm Creek Quilts quilt block as a test of their quilting skills, creativity, and understanding of the spirit of Elm Creek Quilts.
Jennifer decided to invite Elm Creek fans to design an original quilt block to be used as the new logo for Elm Creek Quilts. The entries were as delightful and varied as those in the story do, and the block that best captured the spirit of Elm Creek Quilts was chosen by an online vote. The grand prize winning block was made by Jane Klocker. Click here to see the complete list of winners.
The winning block by Jane Klocker
We are excited to announce that C&T has made the 10 winning block patterns available in a downloadable eBook called To Be an Elm Creek Quilter featuring a sampler quilt project. You can only find it on the C&T website.
Alissa Haight Carlton, a soon-to-be C&T Publishing author, is at it again. Not content with merely working on her first book (along with co-author Kristen Lejinks) while hosting a quilt-along, while holding membership in a variety of block-swaps, and having a full-time job, Alissa is doing what she can to help spread the word about modern quilting. And C&T thinks she is doing a bang-up job!
After successfully starting her own local guild for L.A. area residents interested in modern quilts, Alissa has inspired many other modern quilt guilds to spring up around the globe. If you are interested in joining one, check out this link to TheModernQuiltGuild.com.
If you visit the site and find there isn’t a modern quilt guild in your area, use this resource for starting one yourself. The term ‘modern quilting’ is a tricky one to explain, so the group is inviting guild members to express what modern quilting means to them personally, and describe how it differs from contemporary, traditional, and art quilting.
Here at C&T Publishing, we encourage any and every type of quilting and are excited to see this growing quilting niche attract sewers and quilters, both new and experienced. If Alissa’s modern quilt guild looks like the aesthetic you are interested in and want to learn more about, then join (or start) a modern quilting group today!
C&T author and art quilting phenom Katie Pasquini Masopust is inviting you to spend some of your summer with her at the 2010 Alegre Retreat!
According to Katie, the retreat is comprised of a small group of quilters from all over the world, and a staff of amazing instructors. It all takes place this coming June at the beautiful Colorado resort, Gateway Canyons.
Click here for all the details. We hope you can make it!
Australia based quilter Lesley decided to enroll herself in a virtual beginning quilting course based on Harriet Hargrave’s & Carrie Hargrave’s Quilter’s Academy books. She is starting with Vol. 1–Freshman Year and plans to continue through all 6 volumes.
She built her virtual quilting course around a blog called “Block Head” that she created to show her progress, turn in her assignments, etc.
When I came across her blog, I was (of course, completely & totally) fascinated. I had to know who she was, why she chose Quilter’s Academy and how her progress was going. I asked Lesley if I could interview her, and she said YES!
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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 and Lutradur, using Liquitex paints and mediums.
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The Chapel Hill Newspaper recently published a feature on Hollis Chatelain. It tells the story of how vivid inspirational dreams led to beautiful, moving quilts which then led to numerous quilting awards, one of which changed her life. Click here to read the full article and learn how you can help Hollis in her mission to use art to promote awareness of world issues.
We were lucky enough to work with Hollis on creating Imagine Hope Notecards. It’s a collection of 12 notecards with four inspiring images in a beautiful package. Hollis’ quilts are a great reminder that no matter the medium, art has the power to change lives.
Good times! Lots of laughing, prize-winning, making and taking, experimenting, painting, scrapping, sewing, learning…definitely more creative inspiration packed into one place that you could even imagine!
At the Lisa Liza Lou booth, all the C&T surfaces were shining brightly. Our demo table was full all day, literally not one minute passed where there weren’t people learning about new surfaces, paints, mediums and techniques. You can catch videos here on our YouTube channel of the booth before the show opened, plus a quick interview with artist Sarah Hodsdon, who spent the first couple hours of the show at our demo table, painting a Ready-to-Go! Blank Canvas Book that will be auctioned off tomorrow night at a charity raffle.
Danielle shows off her canvas book
Jan paints a board book
Also at our table was the host of the Diva Craft Lounge, Danielle Forsgren. She painted a fabulous canvas book, using lots of yummy Liquitex® Iridescent Medium for extra diva sparkle! And joining them to play was Jan Mollet Evans, author of C&T title “Scrap Your Stuff.” Jan painted a gorgeous pattern on a Ready-to-Go! Blank Board Book. Continue Reading…
I am very happy to be a participating in a very important event beginning February 2, 2010. Virginia Spiegel is launching ToteTuesday, her newest effort to raise money for the American Cancer Society, and the event will run through the end of March. To date Virginia has raised over $190,000.00 from fundraisers involving the fiber arts and all of the money raised from this Fiberart For A Cause fundraiser goes directly to ACS.
ToteTuesday is not just any fundraiser. It’s also a showcase for everything that is fun and creative about the fiber arts. Themed totes are filled with unique, beautiful, and inspiring items from the worlds of fiber arts, knitting, art quilting, mixed media and surface design then auctioned off to the highest bidder. You can expect to see totes offering original artwork, autographed books, hand-dyed fabrics, gorgeous yarns, handmade journals, fun and useful materials/tools for mixed-media and surface design, and much, much more.
My book, Fabric Art Collage, 40+ Mixed Media Techniques, will be included in the Tote named Fabric Art Collage. Also included in the Tote will be fabrics, dyes, fibers and many more cool items donated by Peggy Schroder. A list of more than twenty themed totes and their contents can be found here.
I hope you all will stop by the event, bid on and buy cool stuff, and create beautiful things. Check out Virginia Spiegel’s blog for more information.
Rebekah
