And to those of you don’t celebrate Christmas, Merry Mistletoe!  We can all do with a hug and a smooch, including pug smooches.   Just checking in briefly to say hullo, thank you and whatnot.  Can’t believe it has been a week and a half since my last post.  Can you say BUSY?  First and foremost, though, I wanted to say thank you to all of you who read this blog.  I am still astounded that there are people who read my blog and  know who I am!   I’m just plain old me, I putter in my sewing room, and blather on here and there, so thank you from the bottom of my seriously-thread-linty heart!

Christmas Tableaux, made for my alma mater, San Domenico School in San Anselmo, California.  Right click to view larger.

Widgeon sends smooches to the universe.  Makes me realize that perhaps, if the world were as friendly as a pug, it would be a better place.

Smooches and adorable eyes from the pug to the universe.

I made a few ornaments again this year, once again using the beautiful ribbon from Renaissance Ribbons as my inspiration.  I bought the wool felt up at Fiddlehead Artisan Supply in Belfast, Maine, and stitched the mistletoe in either two or six strands of floss, then used perle cotton for the big-stitching on the edge.

This year’s ornament with ribbon from Renaissance Ribbons.

And to close, of course the Christmas tree.   Thumper decided to grace us with her presence.   I expect there is at least one other cat asleep under the tree.  So far, none IN the tree.

So Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

Our tree, 2014.

So I have this idea for an article.   Which requires (SHOOT ME) about ELEVEN of these 8×11 small quilts.  ALL THE SAME.  Shoot me please.  Now.  Can you say BORING?  But I want to do this test of stabilizers.

Yellow Rose by Sarah Ann Smith. The first sample, with no stabilizer. The two fabrics began the same size–even at this small scale you can see noticeable shrinkage just from quilting.

I’ve been in a number of exhibits where you have to have an exact size, like the Dinner@8 and Living Colour Textiles exhibits.  For the latter, size was to be 40 x 100 cm.  That’s 39 inches long.  My top was 44 inches long.   Once quilted, I had exactly enough to make 1/8″ seam allowances for my facings!

Amaryllis by Sarah Ann Smith (C) 2014. See the Living Colour Exhibit at http://livingcolourtextiles.com/

YEP, the quilt shrank up FIVE flippin’ inches in length.  So I decided I needed to find a way to stop the massive shrinkage, and that means a foundation of some sort.   Jennifer Day likes one product; my friend Susan Brubaker Knapp prefers another.  I decided I needed to test a range of options.   So shoot me.  And please excuse me while I vanish for a week or two to quilt the same yellow rose umpteen times!  EEEEK!

My post reviewing Lisa’s wonderful Creative Journeys book is part of a bloghop, so I invite you to visit these wonderful artists and friends and see what they have to say.

When my friend Lisa Walton asked me to review her eBook Creative Journeys: Fun & Easy Textile Surface Design Techniques and participate in a bloghop, I jumped at the chance.  We’ve known each other online for many years n0w and met over the years in Houston, even done a couple video chats where our respective husbands wandered past in the camera while sitting on opposite sides of the planet–another “I love the internet” moment!   Over the years I’ve watched her try on new techniques and absorb them into her voice, her way of doing things, and now she shares them with you in her new eBook, the first in a series.

Creative Journeys: by Lisa Walton

When I met Lisa, her business selling hand-dyed fabrics was well under way.  Then, I still remember that fateful trip she took to Hong Kong where she fell in love with beads and (I think!)  came home with a full suitcase worth, or at least the pictures looked like that!   Then she tried and fell in love with surface design, taking classes as part of the prestigious Jewel Pearce Patterson Scholarship she received.

A screen shot of a later page in the book where Lisa shows felting and the use of the felt in a completed artwork that features additional surface design.

In the incredibly modestly priced “Creative Journeys,” available on Amazon and which you can read via the free Kindle App (I have the app downloaded on both my laptop and ipad), Lisa shares with you some of these things, including the how and why.  Her book is just as approachable, down to earth and fun as Lisa is.  It’s like going to her studio and playing around with cloth and paint and fun stuff with her.   The book is thoroughly accessible for the newcomer to using paint on cloth, but also provides meat for those of us like me who have been around for years.  One great surprise was the link to a  15 minute youtube video lesson where you can actually watch as Lisa does several of the techniques from the start of the book, great those who learn better by listening and watching than by reading alone.

The book covers:

• Introduction
• Techniques
• Fabric Painting
• Stamping
• Decorative Rubbings
• Metallic Foils
• Simple Screen Printing
• Stencilling
• Combining Different Fabric Types
• Creative Stitchwork
• Textural Quilting
• Resources (including hotlinks)
• About the Author

On the technical side, navigating the eBook was easy, even though I’ve probably only ever read one think on my Kindle app.  You can set the font size, display (one or two pages at a time) and so on.  This would be fabulous if you’ve got your iPad or eReader set up on your work table:  you can enlarge the print so you can read it while working!   The software allows you to add bookmarks and notes, too.

On the fun stuff side (everything else), there are LOTS of photos of  in progress steps, walking you through each part of each process plus completed art quilts by Lisa that use the fabrics she creates.  She also includes the photos she uses as inspiration, so you can see how she began with an idea, then worked through step by step.  In Fabric Painting alone she covers washes, repeating shapes, sun printing with scrunching and twisting and pleating, salt effects and more.   In Stamping, she shows carving your own stamps (easy and SO much more fun than buying something ready-made).  Her explanation of creating a tiling design was new to me–a much easier way than I had learned!

Here are two in-process photos of painting a wash over a stencilled piece. I am SO going to try this!  Right click to view larger.

And with rubbings and stencils, I have NO idea why it had never occurred to me to do a rubbing or paint with a stencil then use dilute paints to create a wash over the first layer!   Nor had it occurred to me to use stencils with adhesive and foils….   As you might guess, my mind is (as usual) running amok with the possibilities.

Lisa’s book is highly recommended–it’s hard to find value like this at this price.   For the price of a latte and a cookie you could have umpteen hours of fun playing with paint, cloth, textiles and color.   Go for it!  Now I’m going to go get out my paints, open the book up on my iPad and have a play-date with Lisa!

Find Lisa’s eBook at Amazon.com

So my road to the hot place is clearly better paved today than it was when I last wrote that I was going to get to this post before Thanksgiving.  Sigh.  I’ll just say I cooked instead and the pie and gravy (not eaten together) were REALLY good.  But at long last here’s my post about International Quilt Market, a trade show open to quilt industry professionals.

Eli, Cross Country 2013 in the Dinner@8 exhibit Reflections

I only had about 90 minutes on Sunday afternoon and the same on Monday during the lunch break from the class I was teaching to visit International Quilt Market.   It is aimed primarily at shops who come to see what’s new and order inventory for their stores for the coming season from the various independent designers, fabric companies, notions manufacturers and wholesalers.  But other industry professionals (teachers, longarmers, authors, press) are allowed to attend, also.  There are many booths at Market that do not stay for Festival, so it’s a great time to network if you work in the industry as I do.

On the way in, I dashed through the exhibits (fewer people, easier to get from here to there quickly) and spotted my quilt of Eli running around the corner in the Reflections exhibit.   Jamie re-hung the exhibit so the quilts were in a better color-flow order for Festival (more pics in a future post), but I got this picture.   The theme was Reflections, and I vowed for once I would NOT be literal!  Instead, I chose to make this portrait of Eli, four years (and the same age) after I did the portrait of Joshua playing guitar.   I see reflected in him my father’s and brothers’ shoulders, brother Charlie’s forehead, Paul’s (hubby) athletic ability, my eyes and sense of color and taste.   Can you tell I’m proud of all my guys?

And I also spotted this…Two of Us , in the Inspired by the Beatles exhibit!

Two of Us, my quilt, is on the right. For the exhibit we were to make a square quilt (I think it was 24 inches?) with the title of a Beatles song but, due to copyright issues, no lyrics on it. I chose to make an anniversary quilt for Paul (then promptly told him he had to give it back to be in several exhibits, the life of a quilter’s husband!) with hand-drawn and collaged images in the center and a scrapbook style frame pf photos from the time I met him in west Africa, through our wedding and life overseas, the birth of our children, life in Maine,  to mother’s day in 2013. 

Then I made it to the floor of Quilt Market.   On the way to meet someone, I passed this booth and had to stop.  I fell in LOVE with these fabrics and quilts from the RiverWoods collection by Troy.  Hope they will be available locally or online!

Now isn’t THIS an eye-grabbing display featuring fabulous fabrics?

And

The fabric samples. Yes, I’ll take a yard of each!  Actually, I’d take a BOLT of that mango and pink!

A close up of one of those quilts:

That glorious color!

They also had this lovely sample in quieter colors…I’d love a bed quilt like that!

Blues beautiful sea blues

I’m taking a bit of a teaching sabbatical from Aug 2015 to late June 2016 to be home for every day of Eli’s senior year.  Maybe I can make some new bed quilts!

Booths to enjoy

One thing about digital cameras, you can take pics as you whiz by.  This booth was, I believe, part of the Westminster fabrics area (they print the Kaffe Fassett Collective fabrics)…love the carpet, the kimono, the riot of color!

Then you see things I for one wouldn’t think to do…like black and white (by Jennifer Sampou) but that are fab!  That storm at sea is one of my favorite traditional patterns, and love this contemporary take on it.

But color wins out….I managed to pass by Jamie Fingal’s booth promoting her new line of fabric just after the closing bell rang…Jamie had already made it out, but I snapped a pic anyway!

Jamie Fingal’s latest line of fabric features pinks, greens, oranges….. LOVE IT!  I’ll tae a yard of most of these, too.

Tula Pink had a colorful booth.   Check out the fantastic Union Flag quilt on the left, the stylized alphabet quilt on the wall in the corner (above the pinked up Bernina on the table), and that arched doorway quilt on the right wall.   Maybe I need to make a Union Flag pillow for my living room chair to commemorate Eli’s and my trip this past summer!

And last booth pic,

What a profusion of pattern and texture.  I am pretty sure these are  Parson Gray and Amy Butler.  I just want to sit in room with those ottomans and funky old wood bits!

And no trip to Houston would be complete without at least a couple dinners at Ninfa’s on Navigation!  We can get lots of good ethnic foods in Maine, but alas Mexican is not among them, so I indulge in Houston:

My favorite dinner of taco, tamale, and enchilada with refritos and rice. And when the teaching is done, add a margarita or mojito! I started eating then remember the photo, so the tamale is already eaten!

Back soon (I hope) with more good stuff from Houston and England.