quilting samples

While writing up the free-motion quilting class, I decided I needed to have some new samples that will eventually be bound together into a fabric book. I've intentionally tried to stitch them in a way that a student might be able to follow my stitching, instead of back tracking as much as I normally would. I thought you might like to get a peek, so here is part of a page with few leaves. When I teach in person, my plan is to bring the book along so that it can be passed around for reference when I'm busy helping someone else.

Artistic Free-Motion Class Going Online!

On October 12, my Artistic Free-Motion Class will begin at http://www.quiltersthreads.com/, so all of you that have been wanting to take the class with me, but haven't been able to make it into class, can come to my virtual classroom. This is the first session of online classes at Quilter's Threads, and with the possibility of having students from all over the world, it's going to be exciting! Before I forget, the charm of online classes is that you can work at your own pace, from anywhere in the world, and in your jammies if you want!

If you've never taken an online class before, you'll find that there are a few differences. The obvious one is that the teacher isn't in the same room with you, so to make up for it as best as I can, there will be lots of pictures to go with the written lesson. I'll be talking with you through the use of a forum, and we'll have a gallery that's not just for finished work. The gallery will also be the way that we can show each other additional pictures, such as a place that you need help with.

Beautiful Bargello II

Somehow in the midst of everything else I've got going on right now, I've managed to finish the second version of the Beautiful Bargello pattern that I'm working on. Don't fabric choices really change the look of a quilt! This one started with one of those jelly roll fabric bundles that are popular right now (the roll has more than enough strips to make two of these quilts). The roll is from Moda's Roman Holiday line of fabrics, and I purchased coordinating yardage for the back, borders and binding. I'll let you know when the pattern is finished and available (should be this fall).

Flower and Bird collage

Well, this collage is about finished, although I do think it needs something more, and I'm not sure what. The background has many layers, starting with buff titanium gesso, quinacridone nickel azo gold acrylic paint and quinacridone crimson. At this point I felt it was too bright, and I also wanted some texture, so I collaged on some natural colored japanese tissue paper, which I scrunched first. This was dry brushed with titanium white, and a bit of raw umber. The bird (from the same collage/ wrapping paper sheet as my last bird collage) and flower (The Vintage Workshop) were added. Shadows and corner shading were done with a thinned wash of raw umber.

Birds and Music

So far my collages have been on the small side, mostly 4" x 4" chunky book pages, but I've been wanting to do larger ones, so this one is 12" x 12". First I applied one coat of buff titanium Gesso (yes, colored gesso that I discovered during one of my visits to the local Daniel Smith store), then the vintage music sheet was added. Since the music didn't stand out as much as I wanted, paint was lightly added (I think it was Quinacridone Gold). Two birds were added to fill it out. The base is an almost ready to hang (just needs the hanging hardware) hard surface from Ampersand, called Clayboard smooth.