What a thrill–another one! Janome has featured my DVD giveaway on their blog today! See it here (post dated September 25, 2013).
Visit Janome’s blog today to see the write up! Right click to see this larger.
I’ve been incredibly lucky to be sponsored by Janome and sew on one of their fabulous machines for nearly a decade. THANK YOU, Janome America!
Today is the second giveaway of my video workshop, Art Quilt Design from Photo to Threadwork, and is hosted by my friend Deborah Boschert. Her website is here, and her blog and the giveaway post are here. Be sure to surf over and comment to enter the giveaway!
Haze and Hope by Deborah Boschert
When I moved to Maine in 2004, the first thing I did was find the quilters, especially the art quilters. Maine has a great statewide guild with many regional/local chapters and a few statewide groups, including Art Quilts Maine. At the very first meeting I attended, I met Deborah, whose husband was then in the Navy and assigned to Brunswick. I didn’t realize for quite some time that Deborah was also relatively new to Maine. We began emailing back and forth, and within a couple of months decided to start our own mini-group, The Frayed Edges, with our dear friends Kate Cutko and Kathy Daniels. If you click on the categories, you can see the many wonderful times we have shared over the years.
Fast forward many years: our kids are growing rapidly, we’ve both been published in journals and books, made DVDs, exhibited at national and international venues! I think if you had told us as we chatted in the parking lot after that meeting what we would have done in less than a decade, we would never have believed it!
Deborah is a member of the amazing group known as the “Twelves.” You can see tons of their inspiring work, here, and find the book, Twelve by 12: The International Art Quilt Challenge, here.
Twelve by Twelve: the International Art Quilt Challenge
The first year the challenges were by theme, then by color. As someone who lives for color, I was surprised that one of my favorites of Deborah’s is this monochromatic beauty, In Light Of
In Light Of
Deborah has filmed the DVD workshop Contemporary Fabric Collage, been on TV segments for Quilting Arts TV, as well as done some great web seminars for them. You can find all the QA/Interweave offerings with Deborah here, at the Interweave Store.
Thank you Deborah for being part of the bloghop and giveaway, but most especially for the gift of being my friend.
Let me introduce you to Jamie Fingal, whose colorful, whimsical quilts brings smiles! Visit Jamie’s Twisted Sister blog to read her post and enter for the giveaway for a copy of my new DVD 
from her blog, but I also encourage you to surf in to Jamie Fingal Designs, her website, and take some time to really enjoy her work! Jamie loves bright colors, metal zippers and grommets, funky shoes, the Girl Scouts and, especially, RED!
I was tickled silly when, a few days ago, I surfed in to her blog and learned that Jamie’s first fabric line is about to come out. At long last, I can get me a little Jamie! You better believe I’ll be lobbying my local shop to put in an order!
Jamie at Quilt Market getting a first look at her fabric line! How cool is that?
The Selvage for Jamie’s new fabric line. Don’t the colors and images just make you happy?!!!
Jamie supports many great quilt efforts including the Quilt Alliance. She made this quilt for auction, and OH do I WISH I had that ever-elusive winning lottery ticket, because I would have outbid EVERYone for this typewriter quilt, which is one of my favorites of hers!
How I wish I could have been the winning bidder for this quilt!
Jamie also does lots with the Girls Scouts; this quilt is quintessential Jamie-style:
Jamie made this quilt for the It’s Good to be Green exhibit.
Jamie and her friend Leslie Tucker Jenison are the forces behind Dinner @ 8, which has sponsored exhibits that have debuted at International Quilt Festival in Long Beach and can also be found at IQF Houston and other venues. I was so thrilled when they first invited me to submit a piece for one of their juried invitational exhibits. Leslie will be participating later in this blog, so you’ll have to wait to hear more about her!
So please DO surf over to Jamie’s website and her blog, and enter the Video giveaway on her blog (and be quick, because you only have a day or two to leave a comment!). Thank you, Jamie, for being a part of this bloghop!
Great news! A number of wonderful artists and quilters have kindly agreed to review my new Art Quilt Design, From Photo to Threadwork DVD (or download) in a bloghop and giveaway! The Quilting and art community has given me so much, that I wanted to do something in return and to celebrate my first DVD (and I’m still agog at how wonderfully well it turned out!).
Now available!!!!
Starting on Thursday, September 19th through Saturday, October 5th, you’ll have EIGHT chances to win a free copy of the DVD or a download, thanks to the generosity of Quilting Arts/Interweave! Then, in November, I’ll be hosting another round, a second bloghop and giveaway! And, for the final day of each bloghop, there will be additional prizes from Mistyfuse (thank you to Iris K and Mistyfuse!) and Havel’s Scissors (thank you Havel’s!)! Here is the schedule for the first bloghop:
September 19: Jamie Fingal Twisted Sister Blog
September 21: Deborah Boschert Deborah’s Journal
September 24: Vicki Welsh Field Trips in Fiber
September 26: Leslie Jenison Leslie’s Blog
September 28: Terry Grant And Sew It Goes
October 1: Gloria Hansen Gloria’s Blog
October 3: Diane Perin Hock Going to Pieces
October 5: Sarah Ann Smith Right HERE!
I’ll post a reminder each day there is a blogpost and giveaway. You get to surf over and visit their blog (and I hope explore their wonderful art and blogging) and, if you want to enter, leave a comment. Each blogger will pick one person to win the prize, will notify me, and I’ll arrange for you to get a DVD or download. Let the fun begin!
The cover (back and front) of my DVD, Art Quilt Design From Photo to Threadwork, with Fabric Collage and Machine Quilting. Order the DVD from me here, or the download and DVD from Quilting Arts/Interweave here. Right click so you can open in a new tab and read all the bits on the left.
Today I want to share some hotlinks to some of my favorite things, products that I use and recommend in my DVD. By having the hotlinks, you can go straight to a site to order. I expect I’ll be referring folks to this post for a long time; if you discover a link is no longer working, please let me know by leaving a comment or using the Contact Me page and I’ll try to find a new link. Thanks! Since this post is quite long, here is what you’ll find below:
- Threadwork Unraveled, my book about all things thread
- Point, Click, Quilt! by Susan Brubaker Knapp
- Mistyfuse Adhesive Web
- Mistyfuse Goddess Sheets
- Transdoodle from Mistyfuse
- Karen Kay Buckley’s Scissors
- Janome 8900 Sewing Machine
- Havel’s Scissors
- Panasonic Titanium non-stick Iron
- Textile Paints and Derwent Inktense Pencils
My book is about all things thread. You’ll learn everything you need to know about thread, from how it is made to what will make your life easier, and your quilting better! The book is organized in three sections: The Basics, Applique, and Quilting, and is designed to be a reference book you’ll come back to again and again. You’ll learn how needles, tension, your workspace, sewing machine, stabilizers, and other tools all help you in using all those wonderful threads now available. I’ll help you understand how and why certain tools and notions work best and when another option is a better choice. Click here to read more and to order.
I met Susan Brubaker Knapp over the internet and we have become friends. We share a similar approach to our art and quilting, and her book is fabulous. Especially in regard to my DVD and how I work, I would like to recommend to you the first section on taking and selecting a good photo. Susan talks about composition, lighting and cropping, all of which are essential to a successful work. To learn more about Susan’s book, click here.
I am a complete fan of Mistyfuse products. I LOVE this fusible web! It leaves such a light, soft hand, never “expires”, doesn’t gunk up the needle EVER, and works really well. I also like that it does NOT come packaged with release paper (which in other brands either comes loose too easily, or sticks, or whatever); you use baking parchment of a non-stick press sheet (next item) which is less wasteful than all that release paper, and once you understand how to use Mistyfuse is infinitely easier! For most projects you would want either the white or the Ultraviolet; the latter is best for light colored fabrics. The black has lots of fun uses… All items are listed on one page, so just scroll down until you see what you seek!
Mistyfuse Fat Goddess Sheet
Goddess Sheets are non-stick press sheets. You could use Reynolds brand Baking Parchment, but these sheets won’t wrinkle and wear out or tear like Reynolds Baking Parchmnet. I’ve been using my press sheets for YEARS–the only wear and tear is where I accidentally sliced off a sliver with my rotary cutter! I prefer the largest sheets, the Fat Goddess, so named because it allows you to fuse up an entire Fat Quarter (18×22 inches) of fabric without having to move the sheet. In fact,
To transfer designs, I use Transdoodle or trace; I don’t use a light box. Either the fabric is light enough in color that I can trace by placing the fabric over the design, OR I layer things up with the fabric on the bottom, Transdoodle Transfer paper in the middle, and the pattern on top. These sheets last a LONG time, can be used over and over and over again. They come in 8 1/2 x 11 inch packs with white, yellow and blue in the package. I use mostly the white and blue. Saral is a transfer paper available in art supply stores and online and is available in sheets like Transdoodle and in rolls. It lasts a while, but not nearly as long as Transdoodle. However, sometimes you just want a long roll of white for a large design or motif. You can find Saral here at Dick Blick among other places.. I will note one caution: if like me you forget to test for removability, whenever you use ANYTHING yellow, TEST! It doesn’t like to let go of some fabrics!
My beloved Gandalf, well OK, he’s really a Janome 8900…..
For quite a good long while now I have used and loved Janome’s wide-harp sewing/quilting machines, beginning with the 6500, then the 6600, 7700 and now the 8900. I LOVE THEM! In 2003 I was frustrated with my then-machine’s balkiness using assorted fun threads. I wanted to decide what threads to use, not have my machine dictate what I could use because the machine would otherwise crab at me (for example, on that other-brand-machine, it didn’t like it when I used Superior Threads 40-wt poly in the needle and 60-wt Bottom Line in the Bobbin; ALL the Janomes I have used handle that with ease). When I test-drove the 6500 it handled every thread I put on it with ease, as has every machine since. I was so in love with my 6500 I didn’t think they could make it better but with each generation they have. A HUGE, HUGE HUGE Thank you to Janome America for their long-term support of me! I think I’ll go hug my Janome 8900 right now!
Karen Kay Buckley Large scissors, my most frequently used
Karen Kay Buckley’s Medium scissors, which may soon take over as my most-often-used scissors
Karen Kay Buckley’s curved tip scissors, great for trimming. At first didn’t think I’d use these much, so surprised at how useful I have found them. Nice large finger holes!
Karen Kay Buckley’s Little scissors, great for detail work
Honestly, I love and use all four of them! They are well worth the not- expensive price, and will likely soon become YOUR favorites, too. You can find all four of these scissors here on Karen Kay Buckley’s website. Karen’s products are great; she spent a lot of time perfecting these scissors, and they are now taking off in popularity with good reason! The Large, Medium and Small are all non-stick coated which is great for working with fusibles!
Havel’s 5 1/2 inch curved tip embroidery scissors
The 5 1/2″ curved tip Embroidery scissors from Havel’s are also great. I find I use them most at the sewing machine. I particularly like the length of the curved blades at the machine. Thank you!!!! to Havel’s for sponsoring various and sundry Quilting Arts TV and for sponsoring several Dinner@8 exhibits and International Quilt Festival over the past several years! And, drum roll–Havel’s is also donating goodies for my part of the Bloghop and Giveaways to celebrate the release on my DVD (more on that on September 17, 2013; giveaways will be in September and November 2013). Thank you!
Panasonic TITANIUM Non-stick iron. Titanium coating is usually a gold color. Gunk just wipes clean!
Oh how I LOVE LOVE LOVE this iron! The key word appears to be Titanium–other non-stick irons don’t work the same way! And of course this one is lime green–this is GOOD! There are several models available at the moment on Amazon. The one pictured is here. They have other model numbers, different colors. They key thing is the word “titanium” in the description. You can put this iron down right on the Mistyfuse, let it melt onto the soleplate, and then wipe it clean! No more Hot Iron Cleaner! No more nasty fumes! For the price of four or five tubes of iron cleaner, you get an iron you can wipe clean! Mo’ bettah!
Oooh pretty colors, so many colors! a.k.a. Sarah’s thread stash!
There are many brilliant threads out there now, that is one of the things that prompted me to write my book: so that folks could understand how to use them. Since I teach, I try to be fair, honest, and give all companies an equal chance. There are a number of companies that make threads I use, respect and like: Superior Threads, Aurifil, Madeira, Isacord and others. But Superior is far and away the best at striving to educate the public. I highly recommend the Education section of the Superior Threads website. As well, they make brilliant quality threads, stand behind their products, and have great customer service. When I switched from quilting with only cottons to using a wide range of threads (thanks to my Janome’s ability to do so without a grump), I decided to build my stash to “one of each please”–the thread equivalent of the BIG box of crayons! I did so 10 or 12 spools at a time, and having a wide range makes it so much easier for me to do my thread-coloring.
You could spend years having fun with surface design, textile paints, drawing materials and dyes. My DVD just mentions the use of transparent Textile Paints and Derwent Inktense pencils. To take the easy one first, Derwent Inktense pencils look like a pencil but, when activated with water and set according to instructions, they are pretty much permanent. The lead used is also available as blocks, but for the way I used them a pencil works better. You can find the box of 12 colors here at the Interweave Store; one year for Christmas I asked for and received the box of 72 (of course I wanted the BIG tin!). We got it here, at Dick Blick.
There are many, Many, MANY types of textile paints including opaque, transparent, metallic and so on. You’ll find different ways to use them, too. In my DVD I used Setacolor Transparent Textile paints (here at Dick Blick , please note this link takes you to a page with opaque as well as transparent–check the instruction in the video to see what you prefer). I also love Jacquard Lumiere paints, which are opaque, metallic and delicious (Lumiere here at Dick Blick). Last but definitely not least, I really like the paints made by Pro Chemical and Dye, a dye house in Fall River, Massachusetts. Click here to visit Pro Chem‘s paint page, where you can find transparent, opaque and metallic textile paints.
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