Thread Dyeing Marathon

These baskets of thread are merely the tip of a thread-dyeing-marathon iceberg. During December I dyed every colorway and every size of thread available on the Artfabrik website. It was messy. It was back breaking. It was a miracle I got it done!

Note that one of my favorite colorways, Sunflowers, is on top of the  top basket. I use a lot of this colorway in my hand stitching (see Coleen's Calling Birds #14). Twisting the thread skeins and adding a label is the next step... best done in front of a long TV movie with a cup of tea.

Nice Neighborhood (detail)

Calendar Girl
OK, maybe I'm no longer a girl, but images of my youthful quilts are appearing in 2 calendars this coming year. Look for Nice Neighborhood during the month of August in the AQS 2010 wall calendar. Housing Department #7 is in the International Quilt Association's award winning quilts calendar published by Martingale.
May your new year be happy and festive!

Festival of Socks on Its Last Leg!
Sadly, the Festival of Socks will end at midnight, December 31. But, if you place your order for anything on the Artfabrik website totaling $35 or more (excluding shipping) you will receive a free pair of colorful, genuine-hand-dyed, cotton ladies socks!

This enormous feat of sock dyeing will not be repeated until next December. So get your hot socks order in before midnight December 31, 2009!

Keiko's Fabric is Here!

I am one lucky girl! Look what arrived in the mail from Glorious Color. Behold the complete collection of Keiko Goke's new fabric line. From stripes to little posies, each design is a delight! The fabrics are better in person than on the web, especially the dot in the square pattern. They look like they've been hand drawn and colored by colored pencil or crayons. Neat!

Thank you Liza Lucy for making them available to us. Now, what to make with my new treasure?

Quilt Italia

While attending the Spanish Patchwork symposium this past Spring, I met 2 friendly Italian quilt makers, Gabriella and Giovanna. I enjoyed strolling through beautiful Sitges, having dinner with them, and  viewing their special exhibit of exceptional quilts by Italian artists.

Gabriella is the Italian representative to the European Quilt Association and also a contributor to Quilt Italia a glossy  quarterly magazine with lots of colorful photos and articles about European exhibits. Included in the Autumn issue is an article on my exhibit in Sitges. I don't read Italian so so far the only words I recognize are "Fusible Web". There is no mention of spagetti, the only Italian word I do know and appreciate.

Denmark Quilters
What a delight to see what the quilters in Denmark are doing with my fabric! My friend, Lis, and 30 members of her group ordered lots of colorful fabric in September. The class used fusing techniques learned in my workshop at the Birmingham Festival of Quilts in August. Didn't they do a wonderful job!
I'll be back at the Festival in the UK in 2010. Please visit me!

Class Premier

During my down time, I like to develop new classes for students and guilds but mostly I do it for myself. A new class is a challenge and a creative process in itself. It gives me the opportunity to explore new ideas and pretend I know what I'm doing.

Hot off the press is my class Stitch After Fusing. It will premier at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival in Hampton, VA where I'm teaching February 25 - 27, 2010. The idea behind the class is to make a quick flower quilt, steam set it to the batting, and then bring it to life with hand stitching. Come join me at the class and we'll see if I know what I'm doing.

Like many things, the International Quilt Festival is just a fuzzy memory to me right now. But recently I came across this video of the Hands All Around exhibit at IQF. One of my favorite quilts included in this exhibit is Seedpods (see detail above made from a combination of hand dyed cotton and silk).  It's funny how some pieces of artwork become beloved to me and others are abandoned without a second look. I'm such a heartless soul!
The design is the result of a doodle I did years ago in one of my many sketchbooks.

Fast Friends
In reviewing my 2009 travels, I see that I  taught for 28 different quilt groups throughout the world. That's a lot of new adventures and best of all, new friends. Thank you to everyone who invited me to visit them this year. It was great fun!
The best part of teaching is seeing art work being created right before your eyes. Students bloom. A light bulb flashes and they realize that art making can be fun, easy, and trigger even more possibilities. Here's an example of a wonderful quilt by Jan Hutchison, one of my students from Witchita. Thanks Jan for sharing it with me. It's called Lettuce, Turnip, and Pea.

Cover Girl!
Imagine my delight in being chosen to grace the January cover of Machine Quilting Unlimited! I've talked with Vicki Anderson, Executive Editor of the magazine, many times and found her to be lots of fun and a woman of great spirit. Please check out their newsletter for more information on their wonderful magazine.
Or better yet, buy the issue and read my tell all interview.

One of my favorite Japanese quilt artists is Keiko Goke. Her work is full of color, humor and delightful stitching! And she has a new book out called All My Thanks and Love to Quilting. Although the directions for making some of the quilts are in Japanese, the illustrations and diagrams for construction are really easy to follow.
And you have to check out her new line of fabrics from Yuwa. The Flowers on the Hill design is wonderful! It's good to see beautiful things.

Dyeing Lifting
Every wonder how I got those fashionable weight-lifter biceps? It's from hefting buckets of water. My hand-dyed thread has to be washed out by my little hands to keep it from tangling. So I fill bucket after bucket with the water that is flushed from the washer when I do my laundry. Then I wash and wash and wash the thread. With any luck I'll spill lots of water on the floor, cause I like that squeaky sound my shoes make.
The first wave of  give-away socks are dyed and in the mail to those celebrating the Festival of Socks this December. Now I intend to dye all the thread I need for Spring. You could say I'm dyeing before my time.

Up to My Socks in Dye!

Every December I give away a pair of hand-dyed socks (ladies size) to anyone who places an order over $35 through the Artfabrik Store. That means I have to dye the stupid things first!

And being ever prepared, that is my job these first days of December .... dyeing socks. So if you need me, you can find me in the basement dye studio up to my ankles in dye. (Not that I use my feet to dye the socks. That would just be goofy!)