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?).

A while back, I shared a tiny tease from Little Brown Bird, a small wholecloth art quilt here.  Well, here is all 16×20 inches (or thereabouts) of it:

I made this quilt as an illustration for my Machine Quilting Unlimited article (July 2009 issue) on Negative space.  I developed the vine motif as part of the illustrative exercises, then decided to put it into use in the quilt.

The fabric is one of my hand-dyes, and is relatively monotone yellow-green.  I quilted it using five shades of green thread (Superior Threads’ 40-wt. polyester, with green Bottom Line — a fine 60-wt polyester — in the bobbin). The darkest shade of green is used in the bird, the next darkest for the straight lines and vine/leaf motif, and the lighter shades to shade/lighten the background.

Here is a detail of the bird:

And here is another of the leaf/vine motif:

If you visit my blog on June 16 (obviously it will not be “live” until the 16th!) blogpost, you can download a free PDF of the leaf/vine motif for use in your own quilting!

I request the pleasure of your company in a totally uninhibited, majorly deliriously insanely happy snoopy dance…… (cue the drums and trumpets):  MY BOOK COVER IS OUT!

Yes, folks…. it is really gonna happen!   The major editorial work is yet to be done, but the projected publication date is Fall 2009!

The book covers using thread by machine on the surface of the quilt, so it touches on applique, free-motion stitching (I can’t bring myself to call it embroidery) and quilting, plus lots of tips and tidbits and good stuff–choosing threads, understanding your machine’s tension and all that.  The book is also written so that both art and traditional quilters can use it and find inspiration and technique.

I was surprised at the quilts AQS selected for the cover, but understand why:  both of these teaching samples showcase the stitching, and the photography is simply outstanding.  (And the one on the left is in a class I’ll be teaching in Houston in October about using Fiddly, Fussy Threads!) And I really love the dangling thread on the “d” … after all, quilters come with threads attached!

Much closer to actual release date, I’ll have information here about how/when to order (yes, I will be selling it from my store page….but that’s still a few lifetimes away…like October or November).  Hmmm…timely for Christmas gift giving???? Heh heh…..and now, back to jumping and flailing wildly (and making my kids grateful I’m doing this inside the house and not  in public LOL!)…let’s CELEBRATE!

When I teach the after-intro-level machine quilting class, the one for folks who are comfortable with free-motion (I always say you don’t have to be good at it, just comfortable with the concept) and want to explore playing with threads, usually I have students do a sampler to test thread tension on their machines with various needles and thread combinations. However, in Paducah, the students will be using loaner machines (HOORAY>… I got the Janome classroom filled with my loved 6600s!). I wanted the students to learn HOW to make the tension sampler, but what they need most is to take the sampler home and then play with the tension on THEIR machines! That would leave some extra time in the class.

That led to the idea of a project. I grabbed my tossed leaves patterns to use as handouts, and thought gee, let’s quilt up a square that could be practice OR be a pillow top (or whatever) that lets students play with a variety of fancy threads. Rather than fuss with applique or whatever, the students can simply outline the shapes on their fabric, then quilt them as if it were a wholecloth. Of course, I decided I wanted to play with paint (who wants to mark a quilt when you can paint it?), which led to the sample above. I took some 12+ year old black print fabric and painted on the back through a freezer paper stencil using Lumiere paints. I then tossed in a few other leaf shapes (the fine white lines you see on the black) .

I used the following threads, all from Superior Threads:

• Rainbows, a variegated 40-wt trilobal (shiny) poly
• Highlights and the other 40-wt. trilobal polyesters in a solid color
• Metallic (gold I think it was?)
• Glitter, a holographic thread
• in the bobbin, The Bottom Line, a 60-wt poly

To see a close up of this quilt, click on the thumbnail (if you are on a PC and right click, you can open in a separate tab or window, if on a Mac click the apple key and mouse at the same time):

And here is a detail shot:

if you click on the shot, it will open up larger, too.

Superior offers this awesome service: as a teacher, I can order a bunch of thread, then have them re-wind the cones onto “bobbins” (not for use in the bobbin, more like micro-spools on a clear plastic bobbins). Then I can make kits for students with a range of threads. For $15, my students will get samples of the Bottom Line (on bobbins that can actually be USED in the bobbins), King Tut (variegated cotton), MasterPiece (50/2 cotton, solid colors), Rainbows (variegated poly), 40-wt trilobal poly, metallic and Glitter! You’d MAYBE be able to buy two spools of thread, and they get to try six different types of thread to see if the look is right for their style of quilting and compatible with their machines (after all, we KNOW some machines are just cranky!) without spending a fortune on spools they might never use again. Cool! Love the service!  And then I know the students will have good quality thread and not be frustrated with junky stuff or not have a good selection because 8 spools just costs too much!

Double-duty projects (aka the grim phrase killing two birds with one stone) is becoming a habit. I needed to make some samples for my still-not-finished (sigh) book on threadwork in quilting AND have different free-motion designs for the 3-bhour “Nearly No-Mark Machine Quilting” class I’ll be teaching this week. I made two… one on a pink batik, the other on a turquoise “batik solid.” I like the former much better, but still really like the patterns on the turquoise, just not the overall piece.

The pink one is done with about six different Superior Threads 40-wt. trilobal polyester (shiny like rayon but stronger and more lightfast) through the needle and a single medium-pink/coral Bottom Line (60-wt. poly) in the bobbin. I LOVE the design on this one. I’ve had this “thing” for circle, arcs and orbs lately, and this was a fun way to play with different quilting patterns. The thing I have found is that I prefer curvy shapes to actually quilt, but that to make them really stand out, I need to incorporate straight lines (either in separators or alternate background patterns).

This detail shot let’s you see every stitch, and that I varied the shades of color slightly for effect. You can also see that what you look at isn’t so much the stitching line, as the puffy in-between shapes the lines create. See how much more the scroll (snails and spiky snails) stands out when I didn’t fill in the background? To see a larger version of this detail shot, click the thumbnail, below:

Here’s the turquoise one, which I did first.

A copule problems… the beautiful variegated thread I used for the “sashing” is too dark compared to the colors I used in the quilting, which seems to disappear. Oops. Also, the overall composition isn’t great, but oh well….   think of this as my Southern California quilting motifs:  sun, palm tree fronds, orange sections, stucco arcs (like the patterns on the stucco on the outside of my gramma’s house), sailboat sails, and Joshua trees.  This was a class sample not a work of art. Obviously. Clicking on the thumbnail below will open up a larger window/view:

The fill patterns are done on a fairly small scale…these pieces are approx. 18×18 inches, but it would be easy to scale them up to use as an overall quilting pattern for a lap quilt, say. Anyway, I hope you like them. Also hope the editors of my book like the, too!