When Your Friend Falls Apart

My dear friend had to go in for repair today. Alas, the best sewing machine I have ever had, a Janome 7000, seized up and could not stitch another stitch. It may have something to do with the fact that I seldom clean it and have not had it serviced in ....er.....ever.

Is that wrong? Am I supposed to have it serviced once a year or something? It worked like a charm for years and we were such good pals! My newer machine stepped in to help out but I've always like the older one better. Is that wrong?

Are Your Cockles Warm Yet?

It was a cold day in February when Frieda and I traveled to Madison, WI to film 2 episodes of Sewing with Nancy. But our lovely hostess, Nancy Zieman, soon has us thawed out and ready to shoot. Well, Frieda was thawed. I was just ready to shoot.

Our new DVD with Nancy is called Art Quilts- Fusible Collage Workshop. And there is a companion book to go with it called..... Art Quilts- Fusible Collage Workshop. Here you see the cover of both. Frieda's is the little barn quilt on the cover and mine is the basket of flowers.

The DVD and book really are like taking workshops with us (without the singing). We give you lots of good tips and projects that will gladden your heart and warm your cockles if they need warming.

Here's Frieda rehearsing with Nancy on the set. (I am thawing my cockles off stage.) You can find the book and DVD this September at the Quilt Expo in Madison where we are also teaching and vending, and doing the famous Frieda and Laura show called, Two Hot Fuser Chicks. Please come see us!

Being a Do-er Ain't Bad: Day 5

Another free form sculpture created through the miracle of junk drawer hardware!

The jewelry class with Thomas Mann taught me more than how to saw and rivet metal. It also gave me a new perspective on how I work as an artist.

When I make art quilts I'm not mindful of how I create. I just make the stuff. Free cut at piece of fabric, fuse it into place. But when working in a different material like metal, suddenly I am very aware of how I go about designing and making the art.

This is what I learned from taking this jewelry class:

• It's hard to work in a classroom situation. With so many people bustling around it's difficult to concentrate. You can either ignore everyone else or engage fellow students and learn from them.
• Have the right tools for the job. Without the right tools for the materials you are working with, you can't even begin to make the art work. Without saws, hammers, drills, and the handy anvil, you can't work in metal.
• One piece of art work can lead to the next and the next. Left over shapes can inspire the next creation.
• Everyone learns a new skill differently. Some students need written directions, or visual directions, or verbal directions or are tactile learners. 

It became obvious to me that I am a tactile learner and need to work with the materials directly. The fancy name for this is a "kinesthetic". The not so fancy name is a "do-er". Are you a do-er or one of those other people?

Alas, A Jewelry Class Failure: Day 4

After a few days of jewelry class with Thomas Mann, it turns out I can't make jewelry. But, please, don't be disappointed for me. Instead I have discovered a new art form!

Making small sculptures from found objects! Yes, all those attempts at sawing, and riveting, and pounding metal turned into little found object sculptures. Here you a former bird pin lodged into a make shift easel made with some surprising ingredients- a rusty wrench and paint encrusted window hardware.

Sometimes you discover joy in the most humble of objects!

Beware of Flying Hammers! Jewelry Class Day 3

Remind be to wear steel toed boots next time I take a jewelry class. There are lots of hammers and anvils flying around and you never know when your toes will become one with a hammer.

Which leads me to this discovery, I love to pound metal! My favorite part of the workshop with Thomas Mann was stamping the brass sheets with different types of marking chisels (not the right name for the tools, but sure sounds technical, doesn't it?). See this little pin above? It is the center shape cut from the enormous leaf pin I showed you yesterday.

Like using the left over fused fabrics to make this leaf quilt above, the brass leaf cut from the center of the pin instantly became fodder for my next piece of jewelry.

It was great fun pounding the brass like a mad woman. After I pounded it for a while, it was etched with acid and pounded some more. My friend, Debbie, found a great photo from her collection to place behind the  piece. Our first collaboration!

Makes me smile!

A Soft Person in a Hard World: Day 2

Taking a jewelry class with Thomas Mann was a real eye opener. The first skill we learned was how to cut shapes from plexi-glass and brass plates using a jeweler's saw (sort of like a coping saw but with a finer blade).

After an hour of sawing small shapes with a tiny blade my hands ached, my eyes twitched, and my jaw throbbed from gritting my teeth. But soon I discovered the similarity between quilt making and jewelry making. You start by cutting out shapes. Those shapes become elements of your composition.

In the afternoon we learned how to attach the plexi-glass and metal shapes together making a sandwich. Sandwich, Again, we have a connection to the quilt world!

After drilling holes for rivets and screws, my plexi and metal bits were assembled into this leaf pin above. No one in the world has a bossom large enough to accommodate this enormous pin. But my first piece of jewelry is created for a giant woman!

My friend Debbie made this lovely pin. Not only is the design tastier but it will fit on the standard bossom.

A Soft Person in a Hard World: Day 1

Art jewelry by Thomas Mann

Last week I took a jewelry class from art jeweler, Thomas Mann, whose work I've long admired. Leaping at the opportunity to take a workshop with him at The Fine Line, was ......a big leap! To go from the soft world of fabric to the clanging world of metal is a little jarring.But also very satisfying.

I've never really made jewelry. And being of the non-jewelry wearing tribe, you ask why take the class?

Pin made by my friend Debbie. Isn't she talented!

First it was a way to spend time with my friend, Debbie. She knows how to make jewelry and has great taste. But as the days wore on other benefits of taking a class outside of my field became clear. Here's what I discovered:

• By taking a class outside of your field, you expand your knowledge of how other art forms are made.
• You learn to appreciate the ingenuity of artists working with different materials.
• You gain a better understanding of why and how you make your own art. 
• And, as a teacher, you learn what it is like to be on the other side, to be a student. It was fun!

In the next few days I'll show you what I made out of a material completely alien to this fiber artist. Here you see me as I prepared to leave for class. Don't I look happy!

Tea Bird Gets a Make Over

Our next contestant for a stitch make-over is a thirsty little Tea Bird. First we concentrate on stitching the focal point, the subject, the object of our affection: the bird. The Outline Stitch is placed right next to the bird fabric to give her emphasis. May as well Outline Stitch the cup and saucer while you're there. Embellish with French Knots, Straight Stitches, and the Famous Pistil Stitch.

Once the little bird and cup and saucer are emboidered to the max, we move on to the ground and trees always stitching just through the batting and top layers of the composition. The hand stitching complete, the whole quilt top is wrapped around Timtex. Machine quilting will be added at a future date when there is a free hour in the day.

Please note the striped stockings on our little Tea Bird. It's important to be on the cutting edge of fashion when decorating your bird. I can not stress this enough.

Do You See a Difference?

This is why hand embroidery stitches make such a difference in your art work. Look at this drab little bird sitting in her dull little nest contemplating a boring morning.

Now look at her! She is thrilled to be stitched! Rejoicing in her newly embroidered nest, she sings to the morning sun and declares, "I am stitched and alive!"

Stitch something today and bring your quilt to life. And cheer up a bird too.

Does This Sounds Like a Gargling to You?

C&T Publishing (the best publishing house in the world!) has created a trailer for my new book, Fanciful Stitches, Colorful Quilts. In the trailer I sing a song about stitching as they show my quilts.

For some reason my voice sounds as if I were singing underwater or maybe gargling as I sing. I don't expect to sound like Aretha Franklin, but why do I have to sound like a drowning fish? Check it out and let me know what you think.

Jane LaFazio Has Your Number!

If you pop your head into Jane LaFazio's blog today, you'll see my mini-tutorial on what size embroidery needle to use with what size pearl cotton thread.

Like a PBS documentary on insect life, it is very educational (without the creepy factor).

Pretty Planet. It's a mystery!

Please don't ask me about threads in sizes other than pearl cotton 3, 5, 8, and 12. The numbering system of thread and needles is a vast mystery, right up there with birth of the universe.

So please go visit Jane in Janeville and tell her I said, "Hi from Lauraville!"

Try This Adaptive Re-Use of a Forest Home

Forest Home from Fanciful Stitches, Colorful Quilts

Good news! I have finally had a stroke of genius!

It finally dawned on me that there are all these great patterns in my new book, Fanciful Stitches, Colorful Quilts. And these patterns are just sitting there moldering away.

Sure you can make the Forest Home quilt (above) as it appears in the book. But, (and here is the genius part!) what if you were to reuse that very same pattern and make a different design?

What if you were to used the Forest Home house pattern and turn it into....... a birdhouse!!!

I amaze myself!

Birdhouse Garden (detail)

And what if you make lots of birdhouses?And then take the tree pattern and turn the trees horizonatally rather than vertically? What do you have? "A Birdhouse Garden!" she shouted breathlessly.

Add some French Knots, Lazy Daisy, and Scattered Seed Stitches to festoon your Birdhouse Garden and you have a new design through the miracle of adaptive reuse. Will wonders never cease!

Please excuse me now while I go rest my little genius mind.

Why You Should Make Some Art Today

This is why I love to work with fabric and stitchery: It is the feel of the fabric in your hands. It is the repetative motion of needle and thread. It is the combining of color and texture and pattern that thrills me.

 

Above you see the stitchery on a crazy quilt by Emily C. Badders made in 1852, a hundred years before I was born. I love looking at these images and imagining her adding the hand stitchery. You know that she delighted in making every stitch. But did she know how much pleasure we would get in looking at her work?

This is a great reason to make art. Someone, somewhere, someday will enjoy it and delight in viewing it.

So go make some art today and make someone happy a hundred years from now!

They Are Everywhere You Look

The best part of being a quilt maker is that no matter where you go there they are. Here you see Michelle and Karen members of the Colorado West Quilt Guild in Grand Junction, CO. We ran into each other during the weekly Farmer's Market in Junction. They were selling raffle tickets to win that big quilt in the background.

They guaranteed that I would win! Isn't that sweet!

Colorado is really green this year and the wildflowers are in high bloom. It's this natural beauty and the lovely people that keep me coming back!

Filming The Quilt Show: Roll Tape!

Here we are filming The Quilt Show with Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims. One segment is an interview where we are all seated around a coffee table and chat. As the camera rolls Alex and Ricky ask me questions about my art and books and how I acquired a Minnesota accent.

As the audience sees photos of my family, home, and ancient pictures of my childhood, I assure them that I was an adorable little girl. Lucky them. They get a goodie bag at the end of the day from The Quilt Show sponsors.

Our second segment is a demo on hand carving stamps to print fabrics. Ricky and I get so absorbed in the process we forget the camera is rolling and make funny remarks about Libby Lehman's stamp collection. I forget what I'm doing and slip into a Minnesota accent.

At last the filming is complete, we depart for lunch, and the crew prepares for the afternoon shoot with my friend, Cara Gulati. What a relief to watch someone else have to face the camera!

Thanks to everyone at The Quilt Show! What a great group of people!

Filming for The Quilt Show: A Very Brief Rehearsal

It's 10:42 am and I am filming for The Quilt Show in Boulder, Colorado. Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims, the hosts for the show, are about to interview me when I realize a very important fact: I am at 5,000 feet above sea level and I can't breath. I am a low land girl in a high land world.

10:55 am. Soon the camera crews are in place and Ricky now has Rabbit ears. Will this nightmare never cease!

11:05 am. We lay out all the step-by-step demos on the table and talk about the sequence of the presentation. Luckily the items I packed a week ago are all there, although I can't remember why I packed them. Then it dawns on me: I'm going to demo the 10 Commandments of Hand Stitching a Fused Art Quilt. Yes!

11:06 am. A tiny microphone is attached to my shirt. They assure me that they only turn on the mic when I'm actually being filmed so that trip to the restroom won't be recorded.

11:11 am.We are ready to roll. Notice how at ease I am as Alex and I make fun of Ricky behind his back. But once the lights are on, I become a deer in the head lights! How can they be so calm?

Please return tomorrow and I'll show more photos of the shoot.

Filming for The Quilt Show: In the Beginning

It's 9:16 am and the crew begins set preparation for the last day of filming of The Quilt Show. Hosted by Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims, The Quilt Show spans the globe delivering much needed quilting information to the masses online.

9:21 am. Ricky and producer, Shelley, explain my duties as guest on the show: laugh at his jokes and appear perky. Perky I can do!

9:32 am. My quilts are put up on the set. I must get a wall, lighting, and camera crew like this in my home!

10:01 am. The audience is ushered into the studio and Alex entertains them with stories of her burping contest with Justin. It is fascinating!

10:16 am. Justin prepares to film an introductory piece. I assume it doesn't involve belching. All is ready for the shoot.

10:34 am. A rabbit explains the camera action before the tape starts rolling. I later learn that he is really a member of the crew.

Stay tuned tomorrow for more photos of Filming at The Quilt Show!