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
Calling all quilters, sewers and crafters! American Patchwork & Quilting is challenging all of us to join up and participate in their “Make a Pillowcase, Make a Difference” campaign for charity.
To take part in the pillowcase project, just make a pillowcase, find a a shop hosting One Million Pillowcase Challenge events in your area, and donate the pillowcase to the shop! Every pillowcase will go towards making a difference in your community. Your pillowcases will provide comfort for a cancer patient, hope for a foster child, encouragement for a battered woman, or beauty for a nursing home resident. Over 7,400 pillowcases have already been donated, but lots of help is needed to reach the goal of 1 million pillowcases.
“We are asking quilters to make and donate 1,000,000 pillowcases to local charities to show the world how caring quilters are. As I travel the country, I often hear stories of generous quilt shops and quilters who have turned their hobby into a conduit for good in their communities. That is the same charitable spirit that drives this challenge,” said APQ editor Jennifer Keltner.
APQ has set up an online counter to track the number of donations. They also have free pillowcase patterns available for download and tips on where to donate. This is a great example of how one person can really make a difference. The C&T staff will be setting up a pillowcase lunch hour in 2010. How will you contribute?
One of the things I love most about Lutradur® is that it doesn’t tear or fray. It’s perfect for durable pouches and pockets. I’ll be in the Graphic Products booth #4061 on Tuesday 1/26, showing CHA Trade Show attendees how to make this super easy 4″ square accordion-fold wallet to store or travel with artist trading cards. We’ll be using Liquitex® Matte Gel Medium to collage the wallet covers with beautiful Unryu papers from Thailand, made with strands of kozo (fibers from the bark of mulberry trees), mango leaves, and other organic textures.
Our friends at Walnut Hollow are joining us at our 3rd annual Stay-n-Play Café at the CHA Trade Show. At the Café, each attendee gets a Ready-to-Go! Blank Canvas Book. Then they travel at their own pace between 6 different stations to try new products and techniques from C&T and our partnering manufacturers. People will stay, play and be inspired for two hours, and leave feeling confident with their new skills and ideas to share with their customers, students and colleagues.
C&T author Rebekah Meier has designed this gorgeous canvas book for Walnut Hollow that shows off their super cool Creative Metal™ line of tools and metal crafting supplies. She also used our favorite - Liquitex paints and inks!
If you are attending the trade show, you won’t want to miss this big event on Sunday 1/24/10 at 6pm! Sign up today at www.chashow.org for workshop #0609. It’s a HUGE bang for your buck – lots of free samples, too!
Join C&T Publishing’s Lisa Fulmer this Sunday night, January 17th on Inspired at Home Radio with Tiffany Windsor. The show will broadcast live from 7:00pm – 8:00 p.m. ET.
Lisa, both a talented artist and the Marketing Manager here at C&T, will be talking about the launch of our new Liquitex® Surface Design Center. If you’ve ever been curious about surface design or painting on fabric, don’t miss this opportunity to get all the buzz and industry information!
Click here for the link to the live online radio program.
Our new author Lura Schwarz Smith is in an exhibit called “Imagery and Imagination” at the La Conner Quilt Museum in La Conner, Washington that runs January 13th – March 28th, 2010. Lura will be there for a special reception, lecture and exhibit tour on Saturday January 16th at 1pm.
Lura is the author of the February release Secrets of Digital Quilting—From Camera to Quilt. Once you see her work, you will understand why she was asked to feature in an exhibit.
One of her quilts was included in the 100 Best American Quilts of the 20th Century.
To learn more about Lura visit her website at Thedigitalquilt.com
Would you believe this fun little Steampunk Angel was designed using 6 of our wonderful products, plus 2 fabulous products from our friends at Beacon Adhesives? Now that’s packing it in!
For our first giveaway of the new year, you can win a HUGE prize package that includes all 8 of these products! That’s right…one package of each of the four surfaces, one jar of paint, one bottle of ink, and one bottle of each of the adhesives!
To enter to win, leave a comment here or on Facebook telling us whether or not you will be at the CHA SuperShow or the CHA Winter Convention & Trade Show….or if you will be attending CHA vicariously through us, by reading our live daily blogposts and tweets during the shows!
If you are coming to CHA, stop by the Beacon Adhesives booth #3069 on Monday, January 25th at 4:00pm — and I will show you how to make this Steampunk Angel! If you’re not coming, we’ll miss you…but I will post the project instructions for this little Steampunk Angel here on the blog in February.
Comments will be closed at 9amPST on Monday 1/18/10 and the winner will be announced later that day. Good Luck!
I just can not get enough of this stuff—Lutradur® Mixed Media Sheets are ALL that! Like paper, but better…like fabric, but better! We’ll be demonstrating lots of different creative ways to use Lutradur at both the Super Show and the Trade Show.
Here is a lovely Lutradur dahlia, designed by Glenna Valley, that we can show you how to make at the LisaLizaLou booth #758 on Saturday morning, January 23. But if you can’t make it to the show…Glenna provides her instructions at the end of this post.
I also wanted you to see these earrings that artist Heidi Rand designed. She uses her own nature photography in her work—she took a pict
ure of a butterfly, inkjet-printed the wings on treated Lutradur, then trimmed and stitched two wings together for each earring. You can run Lutradur sheets through your inkjet printer straight out of the package if you want a softer or rougher looking image. But if you want a crisp image like these wings, then paint Lutradur first with a clear medium, let it dry, then print on it.
Heidi won’t be at CHA, but if you’re in Northern California, you can learn how to make these earrings and many other beautiful projects with Lutradur in her classes. Continue Reading…
CHA is right around the corner! Formally known as the Craft & Hobby Association Winter 2010 Convention & Trade Show…this event will keep retailers busy for four whole days, exploring thousands of art and craft products in Anaheim, CA on January 24-27.
But never fear, dear general public! You get two days of your own to play and shop at the CHA Craft SuperShow on January 22-23.
We’ll be at both shows with bells on—with a full schedule of demos to show off our new Liquitex® Surface Design Center, our spectacular books, and creative surfaces.
During the trade show on Sunday, I’ll be at the ColArt booth (makers of Liquitex) demonstrating surface design techniques from Design Explorations for the Creative Quilter. Katie’s exercises for experimenting with shapes and lines are invaluable for quilters or anyone who wants to paint their own designs on paper or fabric. I’ll show ways to blend acrylic paints, inks and water to get different colors and effects on watercolor postcards.
Did you know there is a National Dress Up Your Pet Day? There is and it is coming up – January 14th. If you are anything like me, there is nothing better then seeing Fido in a perfect princess costume, or depending on my mood, we may choose ballerina, snow bunny, cowboy, etc…
Now, I know what your thinking. “OMG, I just finished celebrating the holidays, how will I ever prepare for National Dress Up Your Pet Day? Well, have no fear, I have the perfect solution. Two words: Wearable Arf. The book has 16 adorable, show-stopping costumes that you just can’t live without. Just look at these:
Order your copy today!
