YES, I’ll teach you how to get perfect miters that match your seam measurement, no matter what it is, without having to measure! Today I’ll talk about my Fine Finishes workshop, #525 from 9-5 on Friday, November 9th, at International Quilt Festival Houston.  Link to register is here and at the bottom of this post.

This class is all about what to do with the edges of your quilt…and not just straight edges:  curves, inside points, sharp angles, facings not just bindings.  Using techniques adapted from high end garment construction, you’ll achieve precise results, perfect corners, perfect miters, without measuring your seam allowance!

You’ll learn about all of these and, depending on how fast you work, make at least four samples, maybe more. In Houston, it is class #525 on Friday.

Fine Finishes has proved a perennial favorite –sign up soon!  If the PERFECT bias binding hasn’t happened for you, or the PERFECT facing for an art quilt, one that doesn’t roll and bulge, you need this class.  Have you ever considered piping?  Time consuming, but OH MY what a wonder!  So worth it … try these and more as time permits.

Last but not least–and it usually fills up fast–is the Machine Quilting Forum on Thursday morning.   Think of it as not-so-speedy dating for machine quilters.  We meet in one of the large “ballrooms” at the convention center. The first hour is an introduction to the presenters (I think there are six of us, or maybe seven, this year):  each teacher gets a few minutes to share about 7 slides representing who they are as quilters.  Then the participants break up into six (or seven) groups.  Each group goes to a certain teacher, then after 20 minutes (15 presentation, 5 Q&A) a bell rings and the participants move to the next teacher.  This is a fabulous way to learn a lot in a short time, get a great idea of a teacher’s style teaching, see if you want to take a class with them or have them come teach for your guild.

Registration is OPEN for classes for International Quilt Festival Houston 2018, including my four classes.  For more info on the other workshops, my first class, Birch Pond Season,  is covered here.  Collage the Garden, one of my newest classes and proving to be one of the most popular, is covered here.

Interested in trying your hand at art quilts? Not sure where to start? This class has proved a perennial favorite at IQF Houston (and elsewhere)–sign up soon!

Yes, registration is OPEN for classes for International Quilt Festival Houston 2018, including my four classes.  I’ll recap my four classes (well, three full day classes and the Machine Quilting Forum). My first class, Birch Pond Season,  is already covered here.  Today, I’ll share about Collage the Garden, one of my newest classes and proving to be one of the most popular.  I hope to see some of you in it!

This workshop is all about how I –and now YOU– can create imagery from a photograph to create your own fused, collaged art quilt.  In Houston, this workshop is offered as a one-day class.  I’ll provide photos to teach you how to use a photo to map out your shapes and values, then you will start (and maybe finish?) creating the pink water lily or the orange tiger lily.  For this outing in Houston, you will be bringing and fusing up your own fabrics (or bring them pre-fused–I prefer Mistyfuse and will have it available in class–it has the lightest weight and softest hand of any of the fusibles).  This is a no-sewing class, but we will talk about how to quilt your fused artwork when you get home.

Collage the Garden: I’ll teach you “how did she do that” so that you can create your own art from your own photos

Detail of the Pink Water Lily

Here’s the Tiger Lily option fused in batiks

And the tiger lily done in hand-dyes….it’s the same but different. What fabrics will you choose?

You can see the supply list here.

Click on this link to sign up for Class 339 and spend Wednesday playing with me!   Class ends at five–just in time for IQA member preview opening at 5 (and general public preview at 7).

In other venues, a guild can book this workshop over to two or three days to allow students to bring in their own photographs and begin work on their own artwork with Sarah to help guide them.  The workshop can be booked in conjunction with Quilting the Garden:  Thread-Coloring the Flower to create a three-to-five day workshop.

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Interested in trying your hand at art quilts? Not sure where to start? This class has proved a perennial favorite at IQF Houston (and elsewhere)–sign up soon!  

Yes, registration is OPEN for classes for International Quilt Festival Houston 2018, including my four classes.  Over the next week, I’ll recap my four classes (well, three full day classes and the Machine Quilting Forum).  I hope to see some of you  in those classes!

On Tuesday, the day between Quilt Market (open to the trade only) and Quilt Festival (open to anyone who pays admission), I’ll be teaching Birch Pond Seasons.  The wonderful thing about this workshop is that you can bring a photo of your own favorite pond or hills and morph my pattern into your special place!   The class is always full or almost full–I’m hoping that with it scheduled on Tuesday I’ll be able to entice some Market-goers to stay over for a workshop.

Here’s the summer version:

Summer version

And autumn:

Autumn at Birch Pond

You’ll learn basics of fusing, working from a pattern without having to cut a bazillion pattern pieces, working a bit more free-form and improvisationally, how to “strip fuse,” fusing easy-melt fabrics like synthetic sheers, fabric selection, and time-permitting in the afternoon we’ll talk about quilting.  The class includes a kit fee that covers handouts, pattern sheet, a full package of white Mistyfuse, and a few tidbits.  You bring a range of fabrics but not a ton of any one fabric (maybe a fat quarter for sky and half that for the pond)…a range of fabrics is more important than a lot of any one thing.

Here is a blogpost about students taking this class some years ago.  This post will give you a feel for the class.

If you click here to get to my classes page, scroll down to Birch Pond Seasons class and you can click on the link for the PDF Class supply list, too.

Sign up before it fills!  If you have questions, just leave a comment or contact me via the Contact page (link up top).  Here’s the link to IQF enrollment   again.  See you there!

Here’s what I wrote on my entry: Beneath the Surface of the Edges of the pink oyster mushrooms, the Space Between the gills forms rhythmic Patterns of shadow and light. My Affinity for fungi and lichen extends to the inspiration I find in the world around me in Maine, even at at the Belfast Farmer’s Market. Dyeing and painting white cloth is part of my artistic voice, my Personal Iconography.

I am over the moon excited that Pink Oyster Mushrooms has been juried in to the 10th and final (SOB) Dinner at Eight exhibit and that I can now share it with you–I made this back in the January to April time frame, and keeping it under wraps has been difficult!  From that website, “Dinner at Eight Artists is pleased to present The Best of Dinner at Eight Artists: Celebrating 10 Years of Exhibitions. Each artist selected a theme from the last 9 years for what will be our last exhibition. Quilt size is 30” wide by 50” high. The exhibit is sponsored by Havel’s Sewing.

“Artists considered the following:

We’ve explored the Edges and the Spaces Between

We examined things Beneath the Surface

We all admit that we have Rituals

We shared our Exquisite Moments

We Reflected upon ourselves and the world around us

We expressed our Affinity for certain things

We’ve noted the many Patterns in our lives

and expressed ourselves through Personal Iconography”

First and foremost:  Yes, oyster mushrooms really can be PINK!   Here’s the photo I took at the Belfast (Maine) Farmer’s Market last September:

Yes, the mushrooms really grew that color of pink!!!!! The tops are the usual brown, and apparently they lose the vibrant color when cooked, but still….Gorgeous!

Here are two detail images.  For this piece, I dyed the background fabric a very pale, warm pink. Then I used Tsukinenko inks mixed with aloe vera gel (the white kind from the organic food shop that is about 98 percent gel, not the green yuck that is barely 60 percent aloe gel from Rite Aid) and painted the browns and pink shadows on the gills.  I used stabilizer underneath and did all the stitching on the curled tops before layering up with batting and backing.  I then quilted the wholecloth top, outlined the brown tops/edges, and added a little more quilting where necessary to prevent buckling on the brown areas.

Detail 1

Detail 2

It has been such an honor to be a part of so many of the Dinner at Eight exhibits.   I am a better artist and a happier person for having met and worked with and become friends with the strong women involved, starting with Jamie Fingal (http://www.jamiefingaldesigns.com) and Leslie Tucker Jenison (http://www.leslietuckerjenison.com).  I am proud beyond belief of the work I have done for these exhibits, which I consider to be the best of everything I have done, and deliriously happy to be included in this final exhibit.  THANK YOU, Jamie, Leslie and all the Dinner@8 artists.

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At the entrance to the Rising Stars exhibit. My work isn’t on the left, Karolyn Blue Lorenz is on the right. Come visit!

The fun has begun with Preview night yesterday.  I will be Doing gallery tours and more.  When I’m not doing what is on this schedule, I will be at the exhibit most of the time but seeing the show some of the time.  Swing by and say hi, take a look at my book of the exhibit ( on sale, link on my website Store page, ships direct from Blurb).  I will also do a Facebook live event at 8:30 or so Houston time, which is 9:30 a.m. East Coast US time!

At RISING STARS

Gallery tours:

10:30 Thursday and Sunday
1:00 Thursday, Friday, Saturday
6:00 Thursday, Friday, Saturday

SCHEDULE

Thursday:

9:30 Save Our Stories Quilt Alliance interview

10:30 Gallery Talk

1 Gallery Talk

4 pm ? Bernina booth Q20 meet up

6 Gallery Talk

Friday:

9 Lecture-Katrina Walker, Cotton Chic! (garments in Q cotton)
10-12 Open Studios–Machine Quilting: Work Smarter, Not Harder
1 Gallery Talk
3 Lecture-Deborah Boschert Art Quilt
4 Gilbert Muniz, Wearable Art
6: Gallery Talk

7:30 dinner@8

Saturday:

9 Lecture-Martha Sielman, top 10 trends in art quilting
11:30-Noon Meet the Teacher
1 and Gallery Talk
2 pm ? Bernina booth Q20 meet up
2 Lecture-Deirdre McElroy, the Tifaifai Way
6 Gallery Talk

Sunday:

10:30 Gallery talk

4 Pack up quilts

First visitors Wednesday evening Preview night

On the right, She persisted in her quest to reac h the shore and sing the anthem of the sea, in the judged show