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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art quilts
Free Motion Machine Quilting Landscape Quilts – Mountains
One of the things most fun about free motion quilting is the freedom to do so many different designs with thread, your sewing machine and your creativity. It really is boundless! If you work in the abstract arts as I do, these freedoms allow you to pick and choose how to accentuate colors or designs
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Free Motion Quilting TREES in Landscape quilts
I’ve created about 30 different art quilts with trees, some birch but many just brown/grey trees. In some of my earlier quilts I would try to quilt each tree in the quilt differently. THAT became a challenge I couldn’t maintain and I wasn’t sure it was necessary for the artistic quality of the quilt.
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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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New Art Quilt Hanging Sleeve Design
Gallery hanging systems have always created a challenge for my art quilts which hang from the ends of the dowel inserted in a sleeve on the upper back (all hidden from a view of the quilt). I’ve received some invitations to submit quilts for gallery shows but they require a split sleeve with a dowel.
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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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