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Archive for the ‘Machine Quilting’ Category

From Sarah’s Bookshelf

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

Towards the end of the editing process for ThreadWork Unraveled, my editor said “OK Sarah:  we have two empty pages and three things we could use:  the Index, Resources and the Annotated Bibliography.  Which would you like in the book?”  I chose the Index instantly, since any good reference book MUST have one.  The resources list was shorter, and I really wanted to keep the full bibliography intact.  So I suggested that we add a note at the start of the Resources page that if folks wanted, they could visit here (my blog) to download a FREE annotated bibliography:  From Sarah’s Bookshelf .

The categories include:

  • Art Quilting
  • Breaking Out and Stretching Yourself
  • Color
  • Decorative Stitch and Free-motion Embroidery
  • Drawing, Design Inspiration and Creativity
  • Hawaiian Applique
  • Machine Applique
  • Machine Quilting and Design
  • Miscellaneous Cool Stuff
  • Painting and Dyeing Fabric

You can click on the link to download the entire PDF, but when you print it (it is 14 pages long), you can select just one section to print if you only want, for example, Painting and Dyeing Fabric books.  Also, if I decide to update a section (I’ll probably be adding Melanie Testa’s Inspired to Quilt book soon to the latter category), you only need to check to see if a section has been updated and re-print that one, not the whole thing.

If you have any favorite books that aren’t on my list, DO share the information by leaving a comment.  I LOVE books (can’t you tell?).

You can order ThreadWork Unraveled now!

Saturday, October 3rd, 2009

Cover95My book is now available for order, with shipping to begin about October 26.  It’s all about thread, how to use it, how to make it work with you not against you, and having a whole ton of fun with lots of color!

Click here to order and
click here for more information.

Chunk and Jigsaw Fusible Applique, Houston 2009

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

Hi all!   In just one week (GASP, Shriek!) I leave for Houston to help launch my book AND teach AND have a ball at Festival.  My Wednesday class on thread is (hoooray and thanks to those who signed up) FULL!  But I still have spaces in my other classes.  I’ll blog about each of them separately in hopes that a more extensive description might encourage a few more folks to join the fun.2009.10.blog.chunkJigsaw014
Chunk and Jigsaw Fusible Applique is really a fabric postcards class that sneaks in a few art quilting techniques such as stencilling with textile paint, rubbings with Shiva Painsticks, stamping, using Angelina, and creative edge finishes.  Also I’m debuting what will become my next pattern:  Little Brown Bird.  Students can use the bird on a postcard OR make a larger piece.  My LBB quilts (the wholecloth and the in-progress fused applique seen here) are about 16 x 20 inches:

LBB Fused 16x20, in progress

LBB Fused 16x20, in progress

I’ll start the day with my technique that I call chunk and Jigsaw which uses up all those leftover bits to create a “stash” of pre-fused fabric.  Then when you want to dash off a quick thank you postcard to someone, it’s easy peasy…just pull out the pre-fused stash and start collaging!

LBB Postcard w/poptart edges

LBB Postcard w/poptart edges

Here are some other samples of postcards I’ve done that may get you inspired to give it a try:

Hannah's Flower

Hannah's Flower

Trees on Point

Trees on Point

Kathy Daniels' birches card framed and Sarah's Mt. Fuji in a shadow box

Kathy Daniels' birches card framed and Sarah's Mt. Fuji in a shadow box

Umbrella Abstracted, mounted onto batik on stretcher bars

Umbrella Abstracted, mounted onto batik on stretcher bars

Loons in Maine notebook cover

Loons in Maine notebook cover

Hope you can make it to the class!  Just head to the second floor of the convention center to the education desk to sign up.  Cheers, Sarah

Getting “The Call”

Monday, August 31st, 2009

OH MY GOSH……….. I am in near disbelief, but I have the message on my machine and I talked to Houston just now…

I HAVE WON A CASH AWARD for Fields of Gold, and you better believe I’m SHOUTING!!!!!!   And yes, I am also in orbit and gaining speed.  (PS–I forgot to mention earlier that this is absolutely my first, major, national-mega-show award!) Here’s the quilt:

FieldsOfGold425Full

Thanks of course go to Lisa Walton of Dyed and Gone to Heaven in Sydney, Australia;  she sent me the metre of her glorious fabric as a gift (AND tells me that if you join her monthly fabric club, this is the sort of delectable goodie that comes in the mail!  and yes…she ships internationally and easily to those of us in the US, Europe, wherever!).  It was on my design wall along with the center window of the quilt while I was trying to decide what to do with the latter.  Then I realized that one portion of the rust-yellow-green fabric PERFECTLY matched the sky and ground……

While deciding how to quilt it, I gave my husband “Fields of Gold” by Sting for Valentine’s on his iPod, and was listening to it…..  that led to the stalks of wheat waving in the foreground.  WOOOOHOOO!  Guess I’ll spring for a more expensive haircut than the usual $14 with no wash at the barbershop!

I won’t know until Festival what I won, but since it is cash (and not one of the top prizes), it will be 3rd, 2nd or 1st in its category.  I *think* I entered it in small art quilts (it is 18 1/4″ wide by 20 3/4″ long)…which makes this all the more astonishing as that is usually a very competitive group and size.  Who ME??????!!!!!!!!!!!!  Shaking head, thoroughly enjoying the rattling!

OK….enough talk…I’m going back to floating around the house!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Please join me in a raucous, really LOUD WOOOOOOHOOOOOO!

Windows and Sketches–Exercise your Imagination!

Thursday, August 27th, 2009

Download is available here: Windows and Sketches PDF.

The September issue of Machine Quilting Unlimited is now hitting mailboxes, so I thought I’d share the cover:

productimage-picture-mqu-september-2009-22_t280

My article this month is about texture:  both literal and visual texture in machine quilting.  Quilts can be old-timey puckery like the 1930s quilts we know and love, but they can also be (literally) flat, like the fabric postcards made on Timtex or Peltex (a rigid stabilizer sometimes used in cap brims).  But there is also visual texture…what the eye thinks it sees depending on the type of line created by the quilting.

One fun exercise is to give yourself 30 minutes (at most!) to fill the 12 small boxes on a page.  Fill each square with a different “something” from around your house and garden; for a change of pace, take your sheet (or another one!) into town, walk in a park or look at the downtown buildings, and look for images that might make good quilting designs.  Check out the article for more information!  It is in the September Machine Quilting Unlimited magazine (ask your local quilt shop to carry it!) or order an issue / subscribe at www.mqumag.com.

Here’s the Windows and Sketches workpage I shared in the magazine:

2009.08.Blog.WindowsSketchesFilled600

You can download a blank template of this form using the link at the top of this post or here: Windows and Sketches PDF.  This is what the blank looks like:

2009.08.Blog.WindowSketches