I took a year off from doing festival shows in 2017 except for a few very local, one day events. This was due to a variety of things from the physical activity required for packing, set up and tear down along with the unpredictability of selling, often influenced by the weather. I think if I
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quilted
Curved quilt piecing
CURVED PIECING is one of my favorite characteristics of contemporary quilting. Traditional quilting relies almost completely on straight edge piecing but unlimited options open up when you begin to sew curves. Curves can be small wiggles or whole circles though often whole circles are made with four blocks of quarter circles (see quilt in photo). Curved
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Birch Tree Art Quilts in Two Seasons
A few months ago I created “Birch Trees 8 in Autumn”. I’m totally partial to fall/autumn colors so I have created quite a few birch trees in autumn in different designs. I liked the size and simplicity in design of the Birch Trees 8 so I thought I’d try making a very similar one of
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First Quilt Workshop a Success!!
I had an awesome time with 17 eager quilters today. I presented my first quilt workshop for the Juniata County Quilt Guild. I taught them how to piece using curved cuts and to design a quilt in a more contemporary style. The three hour workshop was just enough time to piece the art quilt itself
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Teaching a Quilting Workshop
While teaching and training was part of my professional career before retirement, since I started making art quilts I have shied away from doing this. I have done the occasional trunk show for quilt guilds, traveling a few hours away to meet new quilters. Often at those show and tell events they ask about workshops,
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Festival Season 2017 and some changes
I am in the midst of applications for 2017 arts festivals though this year will be very different from years past. It is a lot of physical work to load and unload and load again at the end and unload at home upon return. When you add to that the cost of the booth, and
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Importance of Fabric Selection
I must have 600 or more different fabrics in my studio! Thankfully I’m getting better about buying fabrics which work well in my art quilt designs as opposed to buying every piece of fabric I like. When I start a new quilt, I get out all the fabrics I think I might want to use.
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I love large wall quilts!
When I first started making art quilts, I was making them for my own house. I live in a home with high ceilings — 24′ in living room and master bedroom and 10′ standard in other rooms. I didn’t put many limits on my design and creative process because I knew I could find a
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How to Make a Pieced Tree Quilt
One of my signature art quilts is my Tree design. I’ve worked at creating different backgrounds and different foregrounds, sometimes a creek or stream, and colors of different seasons. I want to share the basic process for making a landscape tree quilt that has trees placed such that the quilt has depth to it. First
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