Asilomar class from Gloria Loughman

I went to Asilomar to attend a 5-day class taught by Gloria Loughman.  This was the 2nd time that I'd traveled to California with some friends to stay in the beautiful Asilomar retreat facility and take a class from a well-known teacher.

What a great teacher and such a great class!  She had us all make a small quilt using her pattern so that we could learn all of her techniques. Then we worked on our individual quilts based on photos that we brought.  Since she makes her living teaching her techniques, I'm not able to tell you everything that I learned, so I'm just showing you some pictures.  If you get a chance to take a class from her - DO IT.  She is wonderful!

Here is the practice piece that I made:

And here are some of us having fun in the evening lecture.

I hope you get a chance to take classes from big name instructors too!

Testing Patterns & Garden Photos

I've been sewing and testing many patterns for Connecting Threads that I can't show you in the blog.  Darn!  It's been really fun to make up all the quilts.  Sometimes I just make the top; sometimes I do the quilting; and sometimes I add the binding.  The patterns are really fun and quite modern.

What this means is that I can't show you my work in progress as much as I used to.  But don't worry, I still have a lot in progress and am staying busy.

It's the start of the walking and gardening season and I've headed outside in between all the stormy and rainy weather.  So instead of showing you quilts, I'm going to share some of the pictures taken in my garden and on my walks.  Enjoy!

Brown Bag Challenge - Final

I'm calling this quilt, "Psychedelic Spots" in reference to the 1972 calendar that was part of the pieces in the brown bag challenge for Vagabonds.  It was really fun to use all of the weird things that I received in the bag, including the black zipper, some silver washers, rusted fabric, slippery satin, metallic thread, thread trimmings, trimming of a finished art quilt, silk ribbon, upholstery fabric, and cotton fabric.  Before I got the bag of stuff, I was certain that I would start with a landscape photo and use all the pieces in a collaged landscape.  That idea was snuffed right away!  I instead opted for a collaged background that was non-representational with circles appliqued on top.

Several previous blogs were written to describe the process.  And here is the finished quilt.  It measures 36" W x 51" H, and was finished with fa acing.

Psychedelic Spots by Joanne Adams Roth

I hope you like it!

Painted bee on flower

I made another painted quilt of a bee on a flower.  In an earlier post, I gave you some choices, and almost everyone picked the green bee on the sunflower.  I took this picture in Walla Walla in September.  The bee really was green, and I found out later that it is a native bee.

This quilt was made to be a raffle quilt to raise money for the Clark County Master Gardener foundation.  It will be raffled off in September at a music/garden party.  I hope it brings in a ton of money.  The ladies coordinating the event asked that I make the bee more apparent.  It was an interesting request, and I think that they asked because the bee had so much pollen on its legs that it was hard to tell where the bee stopped and the flower started.  Here is how I painted it to reflect their request.

After it was painted, I used a lot of different colors of thread to both highlight the piece and quilt it.

After it was quilted, I added the wings, which were made with two layers of organza and variegated silver/black thread.

I hope you like it!

If you're interested in buying a raffle ticket, just let me know and I'll get the information to you, including the date of the drawing.

Facing for art quilts - wavy edges

I wrote a previous blog about adding facings to art quilts with straight edges.  This blog is how to do it on a quilt that has wavy edges.  The quilt that I'm showing you is the (almost) completed brown bag challenge quilt.  It called out to be cut curvy and wavy on the edges enhance the curvy piecing and artsy-fartsy nature.

Most of the time, you can follow the same steps on the previous blog, cutting the facings 2-1/2" wide.   In this example, I cut the facings 3" because there was a lot of wave on the edges.  You do NOT have to cut the facing on the bias.

Press over 1/4" on the long edge.

Pin the facings right sides together with the quilt, and let the facing hang over the wavy edges.  Here is a picture showing the top of the quilt, and another one showing the back of the quilt.

Sew the seam, then trim the facing that sticks out beyond the wavy edge.

You can follow the rest of the steps as in the previous blog.  It's a bit harder to press the curvy edges to the back, but use patience and pins and you'll be rewarded by a nice finish.  Here is the facing turned to the back and pinned in place.  Believe it or not, you'll get almost a straight edge to sew onto the back side of the quilt.

Here is the finished quilt top with the facing all sewn in place.  I hope you can use these hints for your next art quilt with wavy edges.

I hope you like it!

Brown bag challenge - Making the circle pieces

This is a continuation of previous posts about the Vagabonds brown bag challenge.  My design called for circles of varying sizes.  After looking at ideas on the internet, I landed on all kinds of techniques that I wanted to use.

Painting - after painting the ugly 1972 textile, I fused it to Steam a Seam Lite II and cut out the circles.  In this picture, the top and bottom circles were made with this technique.

Washers - I painted the silver washers to match the painted textile and hand appliqued them to their background fabric pieces.

Copper - I cut it into circles and hand appliqued them to their fabric backgrounds.

Heavy and odd fabric - I fused them to Steam a Seam Lite II and cut them into varying sizes of circles.  I also sewed them to a backing fabric and turned them right side out.  The lower right circle was made this way.

Leftover threads were combined with some of my scrap threads and Angelina fibers, then sandwiched between two layers of green tulle.

Handmade paper fabric was cut into circles and appliqued to background fabrics.

I beaded and embroidered many of the circles.  After I made all of the components, I appliqued them all to the background.   Here is the quilt after the circles were appliqued:

Commission Sewing and Review

I've accepted a new challenge!

This time its not a skills challenge, but instead is an income producing challenge.  I applied to Connecting Threads to be a quilt pattern tester and they have hired me to do this for the past couple of months.

Its right up my alley, with my engineering degree and background in developing patterns and quilt classes.  Plus, I get to sew with someone else's material and supplies.  And, finally, I don't end up with more quilts stored in bins.

Unfortunately, I can't show you any of the quilts that I've made.  Secrecy is the key to working with catalog companies before they unveil their patterns and fabrics.

So far its been pretty fun and is another thing to keep me busy in retirement.

I hope you find things that are challenging and fun too!