Quilting in Colorado
Attending the Denver National Quilt Festival brings you within site of the glorious Rocky Mountains. And although I love the mountains where I was born, the walls of the Denver Merchant Center hold some beautiful sites too. The quality of the quilts on exhibit in this show is really pleasant to behold. And the welcome from the Colorado quilters is warm and friendly.

You can find me teaching Stitch After Fusing today and a half-day version of Tiny Homes on Saturday followed by my lecture Art Quilts: The Musical. Come join me in the mile high city, mountain viewing optional.

Thread-u-cation Thursday: Wheat Ear Stitch

 

Thread-u-cation Thursday- Wheat Ear Stitch
The cute Wheat Ear Stitch reminds me of little people holding their arms up. They are so happy to be part of your quilt they are madly cheering you on. You could also think of them as grains of wheat or bugs.....

The Wheat Ear Stitch can be used alone as a texture making device, like the field decorations above, or as a linked stitch to form lines or shapes. Here's the Little Bird on the Prairie singing to a celestial sighting, maybe the sun.

Here's how I make my Wheat Ear Stitches: Make a straight stitch about 1/4" long from A to B. Then bring the thread up at C and insert the needle at point D (also point B) to form a V shape with the AB line. Bring the needle and thread up at point E about 1/4" down from the BD point. Scoot the needle under the AB and CD lines.

Re-insert the needle at E and draw the thread to the back of the quilt to make a single Wheat Ear. Or re-insert the needle at E and come up at point F about 1/4" up and to the right of E. This point now becomes point A. Repeat the directions above to form a line of Wheat Ears.
I hope you enjoy adding the Wheat Ear Stitch to your quilt tops. I'm cheering you on!

Collector's Item
Meet Ricky Tims, a man of great taste. He is the new owner of my latest little art quilt Weezie's Wildflowers. Thank you for adding my art work to your collection! (I'm the one in the hat.)

I'm happy the little quilt is going to a good home. The second in this series of Weezie's Wildflowers was also sold at the Paducah show to another of my collectors. And like the first quilt above, it is also all hand embroidered (no machine work at all) and placed on a curved piece of Timetex for a support using a Wrapped Binding technique. Thank you to all my collectors!

Thread-u-cation Thursday- Little Bird Make Over
Remember this fellow from a new series I'm working on called Little Bird on the Prairie? He is created from my stash of pre-fused fabric scraps and lives in a 12" x 12" square. Through the miracle of hand embroidery he is now transformed! (Sort of a fowl make-over.)

You'll find his new plumage incorporates several stitches already included in Thread-u-cation Thursdays. From head to tail there is the outline stitch, French knots, and fern stitch. His little legs and the fence posts are straight stitches and the flowers are surrounded by the blanket stitch.

I love how simple hand stitches transform a plain little bird to a fancy bird. Try it today and discover the power of the stitch!

Paducah!!!
If you are in Paducah, KY this week, please stop in to see me at the American Quilter's Society show. I'm in the Artfabrik booth #1905 in the Expo Center. You'll see me up against the wall in the back left corner of the room. If you can't spot me, look for the most colorful booth in the show with a wall of thread like this above and 3 walls full of small art quilts like Weezie's Wildflowers below. Hope to see you there!

The Quilt Life!
It's so wonderful to be part of the premier issue of a new magazine brought to you by Ricky Tims and Alex Anderson called The Quilt Life. There are great articles and beautiful photos including one of my quilt, Three Sisters in Autumn, hanging from a tree and found on page 25.

Three Sisters in Autumn 

There's also a photo of me leading a tour of my exhibit at the Quilting in the Garden at Alden Lane Nursery in Livermore, CA last fall. You may want to skip that page.

Tucson Quilters Guild is Terrific!
The brave women of the Tucson Quilters Guild are delightful! For the past few days, I've been teaching and giving lectures to this group of over 700 members. Why do I call them "brave"? Because they live in a desert full of pokie things hiding rattle snakes, bobcats, and a creepy creature called a javelina. You have to admire someone who can stare down a herd of thundering javelinas and still live to quilt in the morning.

Above, you see the fair Alice stitching away on her quilt made in the Stitch after Fusing Class. And below are members of the class admiring their beautiful quilts. Thank you brave women of Tucson!

Thread-u-cation Thursday- Battle Hymn of the Stitcher
Instead of presenting an embroidery stitch this week, I'd like to offer you my new song to stitch by. Music and stitching have a lot in common. They are both rhythmic and measured and done with gusto! So loosen up your pipes, don your thimble and prepare to belt out:

The Battle Hymn of the Stitcher 

(sung to the tune of the Battle Hymn of the Republic)

Mine eyes have seen the glory of embroidery on quilts.

How a simple stitch can take your quilt from flat to fabulous.

Whether running stitch, or French knot, or the might herringbone,

One stitch is all you need!

Glory, glory to the stitcher!

May your quilt tops look much richer.

Be proud of what you do,

For your work is artistry.

All hail embroidery!

Now don't you feel better!

 Illinois Landscape by Frieda Anderson

My Friend Frieda
You have to check out this video of Frieda Anderson's new book, Color to Dye For. It is filmed in her studio and shows all the wonderful dye and art quilt projects she covers in her new book. When you enter Frieda's studio, you are immediate struck by all the color. There are colorful quilts on the wall, stacks of dyed fabrics, and beautiful quilts in process.You can see her fabric, patterns, and book at the IQF show in Chicago this week. Look for #1123, The Chicago School of Fusing Patternworks.

Curious George by Laura Wasilowski

When I visit Frieda's studio, there to greet me is my favorite dog, George. (He even appears in one of Frieda's quilts in the book.) Here's my version of her funny dog: Curious George.

Quilters of South Carolina are Wonderful!
This lovely box of goodies arrived in the mail recently. It is a basket from the Quilters of South Caroline made up of items from South Carolina companies and artisans! From Hilton Head wine to Peach Stand Preserves the gifts kept pouring from the split reed basket by Henrietta Shealy.  I found a sweet grass basket, soaps, music, salt water taffy, ginger ale, pin, and a greeting card make with paper pulp from kudzu vines.

There was a star fish ornament, a children's book by Kate Sally Palmer, more wine, tea, and cute hand made pin cushions. And the gift that got me chuckling, a bag of garlic cheese grits from Savor the Flavor. Did you know that Jim Shore is a native of SC? I didn't until I received a Shore angel ornament in this generous basket of South Carolinian hospitality. Thank you again Quilters of South Carolina. You are wonderful!

Thread-u-cation Thursday: Couching

Thread-u-cation Thursday: Couching
Lets say you're a bird and you need stripped legs.You don't want to spend a lot of time making your skinny legs with fabric. So what the solution?  Couching.

Couching is a method of securing thick threads to the surface of fabric by laying the a heavy thread down and stitching over it with a smaller, easier to handle thread. You can make shapely legs, outline a shape, create lines, or add heavy duty texture to your quilt tops all with this easy stitch.

Here's how I Couch down threads: Using a Size 1 embroidery needle, bring a Size 3 pearl cotton thread to the top of the fabric where you want the line to begin. Then bring a needle threaded with a thin thread (Size 8 or Size 12) to the top of the fabric about 1/8" from where the heavy thread emerges from the fabric. Lay the heavy thread flat on the fabric surface just to the right of the thin thread. Insert the thin thread needle on the other side of the heavy thread and draw the needle and thread through the fabric. The thin thread traps the heavy thread into place.

Repeat the directions above, forming a line with the heavy thread. When the shape or line is complete, re-insert the heavy thread needle back into the fabric and draw it through. Do the same for the thin thread and tie them both off. Now you know how to make your skinny little bird legs.

The Positive of the Negative
Thank you all for your wonderful ideas about how to use the negative cut-aways or debris left over after cutting out shapes from my fused fabric with the Accuquilt cutter. We have 2 winners!
I am a real sucker for children's books, so the mention by Melissa and Beckie of creating a texture book for youngsters seemed like a perfect idea. They'll both receive a packet of pre-fused negative shapes. Thus the positive of the negative!

View from Here

A Negative Give-Away
To my distress I discovered that my stock of Fuse Fast Shapes has dwindled to a handful of dots and leaves! How can one function? These handy pre-fused shapes create  patterning on quilt tops like the leaves in the border of View from Here (above).

Fusing up several yards of fabric, I ran 6 layers of fused fabric squares through my handy dandy Accuquilt studio die cutter and made dots and leaves and petals. There, I feel much better.

 

When cutting out the shapes, there is a happy accident. The cut-away shapes, like these negatives of the leaf die, have great possibilities. Interested? Leave a comment on how you would use these pre-fused negative shapes and I'll give them out to whom ever comments with the best use of fused debris.

So Long Quilters of South Carolina!
My 10 day teaching stint in South Carolina has ended. It was great to sing in an opera house, drive through the piney woods (to my new best friend Linda's house), and to drink peach ice tea. Thanks to the exuberant Margaret Hunt (above) for arranging the last leg of my trip to the Pieceful Heart Quilters in North Augusta, SC. And thanks to my other new best friend, Siobhan. She not only took care of me, but gave me a quick tour of Augusta, GA thus giving me new incite into the mysterious world of golf. Apparently golfers are crazier than quilters. Who knew?

Thread-u-cation Thursday: Fern Stitch

Thread-u-cation Thursday- Fern Stitch
Need a vine to climb your castle wall? Try the Fern Stitch. This embroidery stitch is perfect for all your climbing vine needs as it winds across the fabric surface.  Add a few French Knots to the tips of the fern fronds and instantly you have a climbing rose. Although it takes several steps to make these spiky linear stitches, it is so worth it.

Here's how I make my Fern Stitch: Make a straight stitch about 1/4" long from point A to point B. Then bring the needle and thread up at point C (to the left and a little down from point B). Insert the needle back down into point A and draw the thread through to the back. Bring the needle and thread up at point D (to the right and a little down from point B). Insert the needle back down into point A.

 Repeat the stitch sequence by starting at a new point A about 1/4" down from the original point A.

If you build up a set of Fern Stitches next to each other, they become a forest of pine trees or maybe a little birds tail. It's another great stitch for building texture or line.