Something About Nothing

FYI: In an attempt to catch up the blog with the last year AND stay up to date, I'll be attempting two short posts a week. One that will show what I am currently working on, and one that will be back dated. Hope it doesn't confuse anyone too much (myself included!) I'm currently working on this 18" square, improv pieced art quilt. I'm thinking about entering it in to the Springville Quilt Show this summer. We'll see. I have an idea for a larger piece too, so if I'm lucky, I will have two new pieces to enter. If not then I will enter one of the pieces I created for my Art Cloth Mastery Show (more on that in another post). This piece is created with hand dyed fabrics. I was experimenting with gradations of color by adding neutral gray or black to blue. I really love the dark grays I made with these combinations. You can see the progression of the piece from the top left, down to the bottom right. This is the current state of affairs. I will start quilting the...

I keep saying to myself that I am going to be better at keeping up with the blog. Sigh.  This has been a very long month. Living in a pandemic is weird.  I am fortunate. I know this. I have so much, however I am still in mourning for what was. This is my busy season and I had a lot of plans. Plans which had to be postponed or cancelled all together. These plans have been mourned.  And despite these losses, I am so fortunate. My husband still has his job, and although he goes in to work everyday he does not come in to contact with the public. I know others do not have these privileges. I have a home, food, bed, and a pesky cat. I recognize these privileges, and am working each day to be busy and happy. Some days I am successful, and some days, well, not so much. But that is okay. The 100 Day Project was starting at the beginning of the Stay at Home orders,  and I felt extremely stressed trying to come up with a project. I had several ideas, but couldn...

My friend, Lynn Krawczyk  of Smudged Design Studio, wrote an awesome book this year. I really admire Lynn's ability to let her art brain fly. She gets a fabulous idea and she just goes for it! I spend too much time telling myself why the idea won't work, but Lynn thinks up fabulous stuff and then writes a book about it. I want to be more like Lynn. The Hand-Stitched Surface is all about creating great mixed media art with hand stitching. I've been doing a lot more hand stitching lately thanks to her book, and I have a tip for you: As I've quilted straight lines on my Thunderstruck quilt and the lines aren't always straight. They are straight-ish. I suppose that is part of the charm of this style of quilting, however as I am finishing the quilt I discovered an easier way to make straighter, better spaced lines and I want to share this simple idea: Fold the fabric over, and finger press (or iron) a line.  You now have a straighter line to follow...

Liz and Ruth introduced me to Wonderfil threads. I have had a good time using them in all my hand stitching, and even some machine stitching too. I can't show the machine stitched piece for another year though!  I will have to make more I can show. I am enjoying doing big stitch hand quilting with them in my Thunderstruck quilt I started last year in Victoria Findlay Wolfe's class at Craft Napa . I love the texture the big stitches and thicker thread give to the quilt. I have also been using the thread in the pieces I am embroidering for the  Social Justice Sewing Academy.  The kids who are putting these blocks together are amazing!  They really come up with great ideas. My job is to get it all stitched down so it can be pieced into quilts and machine quilted. You can find out more about their program at this link . And then maybe volunteer to help embroider a block or five.

I had the opportunity to do a trunk show and teach about prayer flags at the Greater Salt Lake Quilt Guild Meeting this month.  The quilt I am holding is my first hand pieced, hand quilted piece made about 25 years ago.  It is yet to be finished.  Maybe someday I will feel the need. I did a lot of applique before I discovered art quilting. After the trunk show I told the ladies all about prayer quilts and then gave them each a flag to embroider.  Some of the flags had images I stamped on them from my hand carved stamps.   These ladies are so talented!   I encouraged them to hang the flags in their yard or give them to someone in need.

My friend, Korrin, started an avalanche at our house!  She was cleaning out her basement and asked if we would like a beautiful, hardly used,  Grace hand quilting frame . I hesitated wondering how much use I would get from it because of my carpel tunnel, but I decided to go for it.  She brought it over and before I knew it my daughter, Ann, was excited to learn to hand quilt!  I put a call out to my quilt group for someone to teach her, as I don't feel confident in my hand quilting skills.  My friend Leigh, who has been my roommate at the Utah State Quilt festival for several years, happily volunteered!  We went to Leigh's house today and she began to teach my daughter to hand quilt: I hope Ann continues to enjoy this new skill for many years! Leigh's basenji, Katie, kept watch for us.  We were not disturbed by any squirrels or birds. She is so adorable! I look forward to seeing the beautiful things Ann will create! Are you...