Monday, October 29, 2018

Embroidery designs and supplies

I have done a little bit of hand embroidery over the years.  My skills are pretty basic, I have to admit.  I can do daisy chains, back-stitch, French knots and a few other combinations of those.  So, in order to come up with some new ideas, I turned to Pinterest.  I really like being able to quickly find ideas on that site, don't you?

Some of my quilting friends are avid embroiderers and have taken classes from Sue Spargo, who is well known for her wool applique.  And others have taken classes at Crab Apple Hill from the owner Meg Hawkey, who is well known for her colored and embroidered patterns.  My friends own expensive and beautiful embroidery supplies such as hand dyed pearl cotton, embroidery threads, ribbons and beads.  Nice hoops, white color crayons, and a whole bunch of stuff I don't even know about.  Don't you find that each hobby comes along with its own set of supplies and once you get into it, you are blown away by how much stuff there is to tempt you?

I just use my old-fashioned DMC embroidery floss.   You can buy it just about anywhere and it comes in tons of colors.  I have an old metal spring hoop.  It seems to be working for me.  Here's what my set up looks like:



I hope you have a few basic skills in embroidery too.  It's a skill that used to be in every young woman's repertoire a couple of generations ago.  Back then most women also had to know how to can fruit and vegetables, make butter, milk the cows, feed the chickens, take care of 10 kids, cook 3 meals a day, bake bread, make soap, do laundry by hand, sew clothes, darn socks... you get the picture.   So glad life has gotten easier for all of us.  Aren't you?

Friday, October 26, 2018

Passion Unfolded - The Quilts of Joanne Adams Roth

Passion Unfolded was the name of my solo show held in October 2018.  This show was sponsored by Clark County Quilters, and is such a wonderful event for a member who has made at least 100 quilts (or a group of quilters that have made that many).  I was honored and excited to be the selected artist for this show.


Granddaughters

Nancy Tubbs introducing me

Jack and Dottie Cox

Dee and Vern Brunner

Steve and Dessie Carptener, Bill McCabe

Granddaughters

final day in casual clothes

Sisters Jeanne Lematta and Colleen Wilson

Brother Bob Adams and son Bill DeJarlais

Sister Colleen Wilson, son Bill DeJarlais and me

Al Roth, Joanne Roth, Bill DeJarlais, Jeanne Lematta, Colleen Wilson,
Bob Adams, Beverly Adams, Becky Adams

Judy Mezen, lifelong friend

I exhibited 114 quilts spanning 50 years of quilt making.   Most of my early quilts were bed sized and hand quilted.  There were quilts made for high school graduation presents, anniversary quilts, quilts made for classes that I taught, lap quilts, wall quilts, and many of my recent art quilts.

It was so much fun to collect all of these quilts back from the owners.  It gave me a chance to see a lot of people and reminisce about the making of the quilts.   I also was able to get some of them washed to nearly new condition again, add hanging sleeves, and in some cases, add a signature label.

During the show, I was really thrilled to see all of the people turn up and to see so many of my quilts exhibited in one place at the same time.

A huge thanks goes out to Clark County Quilters for sponsoring this event; to Nancy Tubbs who organized the show and the helpers; to all of my friends and family for loaning back their quilts; and to my husband, Al Roth, for putting up with all the interruption in our lives and home while gearing up for the show, during the show, and its aftermath.


Thursday, October 25, 2018

On Going Projects: Passion Unfolded--Joanne Adams Roth Quilts

On Going Projects: Passion Unfolded--Joanne Adams Roth Quilts: One quilt in her power line series On Sunday, a friend and I went to the Clark County Quilters Featured artist's show. The title of ...

Monday, October 22, 2018

Shadow Selfie #7 - Pump It

This is the 7th quilt in the Shadow Selfie series.  I wrote blogs about quilts 1-6 previously.

I got the idea for this quilt from a picture taken on a bike ride.  The background and the shadow are hand painted with fabric acrylic paints onto PFD (Prepared For Dying) fabric.  It was heat set after the paint dried.  I learned this technique from Susan Brubaker Knapp, an excellent teacher.

I picked green and shades of yellow green for the background because, if you've been reading my blogs, you know that lime green is my favorite color.  And I love to ride bicycles.  The shadow selfie series is becoming a bit of a visual journal about my activities.

So here it is:

Shadow Selfie #7, Pump It, by Joanne Adams Roth 2018


I hope you like it.

Monday, October 15, 2018

Sister's quilt - Part Two

This is a continuation of the blog I wrote about the design and idea for a blue and light quilt for my sister, Colleen Wilson.

I dove right in and cut all the background pieces as 13" squares.  Over-sizing the background allowed me to applique the paisley pieces or do trapunto quilting and then trim the squares to the hexagon shapes.  I like to do the trimming after I do the applique, just to make sure the blocks haven't shrunk during all of the stitching (which always happens for me).  For this hexagon quilt especially, I want to preserve the edges that are on the bias until just before I sew them together.

I've appliqued 6 navy blue paisley pieces onto the background, using my machine applique method with the dissolving foundation.  I pulled out all my embroidery supplies, which had been pining away for attention, and got to work.  I've usd blues and tans and whites, plus some embellishment supplies.  I even snuck in a little bit of purple, and plan to sneak in a tiny bit of lime green.  It wouldn't be a quilt from me if it didn't have a little of my personality showing through.

Here are they are:








I hope you are like where this quilt is heading. I know that I do.  Just not that sure I'm totally on board with making a queen-sized quilt after all my fun small ones.   Nevertheless, it feels really good to make something that someone special in your life wants.  And a fellow quilter and sister is just the best combination.

I hope you have friends and relatives that like your quilts too!

Monday, October 8, 2018

Sleeves, sleeves, sleeves

Well, the quilts have been coming into the house from all of the owners.  It's been fun to see all of my old quilts again.  But...... I was very remiss in the old days about not signing all of my quilts (which I was SURE that I had always done).  And, as I found out earlier, I did not put sleeves on a lot of the quilts.

Needless to say, I have been sewing sleeves like a crazy woman.  I am using up all the muslin that I had previously purchased from Mood.  Maybe this is one of those serendipitous things that happen.  You do something, or buy something, then the real purpose pops up in your life sometime later.  Yippee!

The sleeves that I've been making are plain old muslin cut into 9" strips.  I sew the seam at 3/8".  I don't measure the quilt and then the sleeve.  I just place the long sleeve strip on the back of the quilt and trim it so that it's even with the outside edges.   Then I turn in 1/2" twice on each end; stitch those down; then press the sleeve so that there is 1/2" extra on the outside.  The last step is to slip stitch this to the back of the quilt; top and bottom and both sides of the sleeve.



I am so thankful that my small quilt group is helping me sew these sleeves onto the quilts.  I would be so backed up (and bored), if I had to stitch these on all by myself.

So, note to you all:  MAKE SURE TO PUT YOUR SIGNATURE OR LABEL ON YOUR QUILTS, AND EVEN IF YOU DON'T THINK YOUR QUILTS WILL BE DISPLAYED, ADD THE SLEEVE TOO.


Monday, October 1, 2018

Shadow Selfie #6 - Painterly wave

This is the 6th quilt in the Shadow Selfie series.  I wrote blogs about quilts 1-5 previously.

I got the idea for this quilt from a picture taken on a walk.  The background is made of muslin covered with tissue paper, then painted while it was wet.  It was the perfect background for a shadow made of tulle, so that you could see the painted fabric through the shadow.

I pinned 2 layers of black tulle onto the background, then placed the paper with the shadow printed on it on top.  Then I sewed over the outline twice with black thread.  This both pierced the paper pattern and gave a nice heavy line as an outline for the shadow.  The final steps were to tear away the paper, then cut away the excess tulle.  And voile, there's the shadow selfie on the painted background.

Shadow Selfie #6, The Painterly Wave" by Joanne Adams Roth




I hope you like it.