What To Do with Old Work

From the Botanica series, 2001

There is a stack of small quilts in my studio that does a good job of filling up a shelf. They are seldom seen by anyone including me. So why bother keeping them?

Abstract Shuffle, 2003

Are these quilts useless? Do they have a purpose? They are not pretty or especially good. But they do document my progression over the years and when I visit them occasionally, I see my history.

Chicken Dreams, 1997

These quilts are like my sketchbook. They represent a set of ideas, inspiration, and practice pieces that led to more quilts that are practice pieces. Each one taught me something and prepared me for the next piece of art work.

I may not remember where I was yesterday but when I look at that shelf of quilts, I know what I've been doing for the last 20 years.

A Little Known Fact about Fabrics for Fusing

It's a little know fact (I love that phrase!) that when you pick out fabrics for your next fused art quilt you want to look at the back of the fabric. You are making a raw edge or fused quilt which means you don't necessarily finish the edges of design elements with stitching. You see the edge of the fabric.

 If you have a great print on one side, the other side may be almost white. When you cut out an element from that fabric, a white edge will appear around the element. Use hand dyed or batik fabrics. The color goes all the way through the fabric. It's a little known fact!

Seduced by an IPad Cover

Digital sketch made with the Art Studio app on the IPad

Like many of you I've been seduced and charmed by the IPad. It houses my favorite app, Art Studio, and let's me surf at the touch of a finger tip. So why not give it a sweet place to live?

Seedpods #2 was printed in repeat using Spoonflower's custom fabric printing service.

Hence a new IPad cover made using a sweet template and instructions from Clover and Nancy Zieman of Nancy's Notions. The outside cover fabric is an image of my quilt, Seedpods #2 (above), that I had printed in repeat using the Spoonflower  custom fabric printing service. Inside is a green batik fabric.

For someone who can not read or follow directions without changing course, this was a very easy project. The well written directions for E-Tablet and Paper Tablet Keepers have great illustrations to match. (Watch a helpful Youtube video that Nancy's made on how the tablets are made.) The construction of the IPad cover goes quickly and you can easily alter the design if you like.

Which I did.

Here are the changes I made:
First I painted the elastic for the corners to hold down the IPad. My reason? We had a snow storm and I could not go to the store to get the black elastic and I kinda like this blue-green version anyway!

A stylus keeper was necessary too to hold my handy-dandy BoxWave stylus in place using another painted strip of elastic. I just stitched it to the top of the inside cover.

Instead of using elastic on the base of the cover, I chose to make little triangles to hold hold the Ipad in place.

A fused binding with decorative machine stitches was really fast to do.

My favorite innovation in the design? Adding a small pocket to the inside to hold papers. (I used the flap template for this.)

This is Frieda Anderson's version of the paper keeper. Just beautiful!

There are several other versions of how to make an Ipad cover or tablet keeper (like Frieda's above) available on Nancy's blog. You'll be amazed at what people did. After you visit her blog link, you want to leave a comment on her blog. The generous people at Clover have provided 3 prizes for a February 1 giveaway!

Guest Artist: For the Birds.....Kinda

Lisa's quilt from my Fowl Play class at Quilting by the Waterfront in Duluth  is delightful! From the design, to the stitching, to the border, she did such a great job. What I like best about this quilt is that it tells a story. It engages you and draws you into the picture.

Thank you Lisa for sharing your work with us!

Not Sure About This Stuff

Life on the Roaring Fork

You know what it's like when you are a fiber person. Anything that has the potential of becoming fiber art has appeal. From the lint in your dryer to the shirt on your husband's back, you see it all as a potential piece of art work.

Hand painted by my little hands.

I'm not sure what to do with this fibrous stuff, painted Lutradur, but it is now the property of our lucky winner from yesterday, Susan. You can see her blog at Suztats. Congratulations Susan. Let us know what you do with it!

Free on Friday: Mystery Stuff

Hand painted by my little hands.

Can you guess what this is? It's called Lutradur. Lutradur is a non-woven textile that is sort of transparent, doesn't fray when cut, and can be painted like these sheets above.
So what do you do with it? I don't know, but it could be yours! Leave a comment today and you could be the lucky winner.

What's All the Fuss About?

Each student designs their own colorful leaf.

My Colorful Leaves class is complete here at Quilting in the Desert and the students made beautiful work! You know a class is a success when no one sets off the fire alarms when cleaning the irons and nothing catches on fire.

Kay's Bouquets #11 is an example of what we make in class.

Today we take on Stitch after Fusing where we avoid stabbing the teacher with needles and conking each in the head as we reach for thimbles on the floor. Will the fun never end!