Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2016 - January 2017 i Quilting Arts Magazine

Growing up, Susan didn’t learn to stitch by her grandmother’s side, even though her paternal grandmother excelled in all kinds of needlework. As a Girl Scout, Susan learned to sew on a treadle machine, but that didn’t stick. She took an oil painting course in college, but deems the experience “a disaster.” Yet Susan always had an artist’s eye. As an adult living in Ohio, she visited the Ohio State University’s arts and industry building where graduate students had put up a needlework show. Intrigued, Susan obtained a copy of the READER’S DIGEST COMPLETE GUIDE TO NEEDLEWORK and made one of everything in the book. She had fallen in love with stitching, but indulged in her passion for only one week every year, at the Embroiderers’ Guild of America’s annual…

URBAN ARTIFACTS Leslie Tucker Jenison’s new fabric line reflects her love of texture and surface design. Warm tones in green, golden brown, crimson, and jade are offered in dots, ovals, and squares, while others evoke a feeling of surface design as text—such as newsprint and lithography. Prices vary • RJR Fabrics • rjrfabrics.com “COMFORT & GLORY: TWO CENTURIES OF AMERICAN QUILTS FROM THE BRISCOE CENTER” BY KATHERINE JEAN ADAMS This beautifully curated book showcases 115 quilts spanning more than 200 years of American quilt making. The Winedale Quilt Collection at the Briscoe Center for American History in Austin, Texas, has displayed a quarter of their collection in these pages. In addition to timehonored quilts, informative essays about each quilt’s history and construction are included. Photographs of related documents and material…

Our lives are fraught with tiny moments, mundane, everyday occurrences, and momentous occasions. Tales get shared with the world (often now through social media), laughed over with friends, and swept under the rug. Tell us a story that has meaning to you and captures some small snapshot of your life. What story do you want to tell? Our challenge is for you to create an art quilt based on the theme “Tell Us a Story” in a way that theme moves you. Share your quilt with us and we’ll publish a sampling of reader’s artwork in the June/July 2017 issue or at quiltingdaily.com. mark your CALENDAR JAN. 16: Emailed submissions are due with low-resolution jpeg photos. JAN. 19: Names of finalists will be posted on the blog at quiltingdaily.com. FEB.…

RECENTLY I RECEIVED AN EMAIL FROM A FRIEND WHO MENTIONED DOING A GOOD DEED. She said she didn’t mind doing this good deed (or any other deed that can be interpreted as good) because it “gives her permission to spend luxury time in her studio.” Good deeds give her permission? Wow. This comment snagged my attention. What does this say about our approach to creating our art? Are we so afraid to spend quality studio time that we need “permission” to do so; hoping it will be perceived by ourselves and those around us as worthwhile? We shouldn’t have to earn permission or feel guilty about exploring our art. It does so much for us by providing satisfaction, inner happiness, and, for me, a feeling of self-worth. I must admit…

DEAR QUILTING ARTS, Thank you to the staff at Quilting Arts Magazine for the creative, informative articles that you have provided us for the last 15 years. As a long-time subscriber to your publication, I look forward to the vicarious thrill I get from imagining all the art quilts/panels I could create from the ideas in many of the featured writings … sadly, they remain in my brain. When upgrading my 1960s model sewing machine a dozen years ago, I purchased a computerized instrument, no longer the thread-and-go machine with which I was comfortable. This new machine consequently was hidden in the closet waiting for me to have the courage to teach myself how to use it. After seeing the “Who do You Love?” Reader Challenge in the August/September issue,…

have you ever wanted to get behind the wheel of a vintage Ford truck and take it for a spin? Do you long nostalgically for a 1969 Volkswagen bus? Or maybe you yearn to feel the rush of starting the engine of a classic Mustang? Then you are probably already a fan of “Cool Classic Rides,” a series of quilts by artist Teresa Shippy. Teresa’s work is charming, whimsical, and fun: the next best thing to the real car. (Let’s face it—owning a vintage vehicle is not always an option!) It’s a walk down memory lane with the work of an artist who captures the soul of a vehicle in fabric, paint, and thread. I had the pleasure of meeting Teresa in person on the set of “Quilting Arts TV”…

Common Embroidery Stitches All sewists have their own group of embroidery stitches they revisit time and again for embellishment. We’ve collected just a small selection of stitches used most commonly in modern quilts, contemporary home decor, and fresh accessories. BLANKET STITCH Working from left to right, bring the needle up at 1 and insert at 2. Bring the needle back up at 3 and over the working thread. Repeat by making the next stitch in the same manner, keeping the spacing even. FRENCH KNOT Bring the needle up at 1 and hold the thread taut above the fabric. Point the needle toward your fingers and move the needle in a circular motion to wrap the thread around the needle once or twice. Insert the needle near 1 and hold the…

Ana Buzzalino is a fiber artist and quilt instructor living in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Ana has been teaching a variety of quilting techniques for over 25 years. Her recent work focuses on surface design such as fabric dyeing, rubbings, stamping, and monoprinting. She is a frequent contributor to Quilting Arts, has appeared on “Quilting Arts TV,” and has two Quilting Arts Workshop™ videos, “Machine Stitching and Painting Quilts” and “Quilting and Dyeing Serendipity.” anabuzzalino.com Diane Powers Harris utilizes fussy-cut, raw-edge appliqué to fabricate stunning, award-winning pictorial quilts. Creative problem solving and attention to detail allow her work to sing. Her art is included in private collections and various quilting books. She and her husband live in the mountains of northern New Hampshire where they enjoy a pastoral, rural lifestyle. Susan…

do you think in two dimensions when you create your art quilts? Perhaps it’s time to consider adding some 3-D techniques to your personal toolbox. There are many subjects that come to life with additional texture and surface interest: the rough bark of a tree, the uneven surface of a stone wall, the flutter of leaves in the breeze. Fortunately, these are easy to create with readily available materials. For instance, using high loft batting allows you to mimic a stone wall simply by quilting with large, irregular pebble stitches. The densely stitched channels in between the ‘stones’ create dramatic textural contrast. Some of my favorite techniques come into play in my raw-edged, fused pieces. By folding and creasing the fabric while fusing, and then accentuating those folds with thread…

i was brought up in a family of storytellers who believed the details of their tales were important. My father, three uncles, and grandfather wrote expressive poetry with many descriptions of life as they saw it. My father could turn an ordinary event into something great, like pretending we were in Africa on a hot day or that our sprinkler provided drinking water to the wild African animals. These stories were a gift. His tales always took me away and made me smile while I pretended to see his stories firsthand. My childhood was full of stories from many family members, and that has been continued in my quilts. I started quilting in the late 1960s, thanks to my grandmothers. After taking some quilt classes in the 1970s and early…

now that I am no longer worried about the rules of the traditional quilt world, I am not constrained to binding edges or creating pillowcase backs for my art quilts. After experimenting over the years I have settled on two different edge finishes that look clean and are easy to do. I do not use batting anymore, but both of these techniques will work with either a simple canvas backing (as I use) or one with batting and a cotton backing. DIRECTIONS Use a stretcher bar frame Much of my work is relatively small (less than 16" on any given side) and for that size work I prefer to use canvas stretcher bars, like those used on painter’s canvas. This gives the finished piece a nice “art like” look. Canvas…

in brainstorming to create original free-motion quilting motifs, I get the best results when I think within one narrow category at a time. For example, within the “modern” motifs category, I focus on things like science, medicine, space, and technology. If you are not familiar with the imagery, it can be helpful to do an online image search. In searching “technology,” the results might be circuit boards, gears, keyboards, screens, turbines, fiber optics software, computers, and remote controls. Even if you don’t work in a high-tech field, you will recognize these images as great jumping-off points for designing your own free-motion quilting motifs. Try choosing your own narrow category, searching for images, and creating your own original free-motion motifs. Top Tips for Free-Motion Quilting Over many years of teaching free-motion…