Monday, November 07, 2016

Houston International Quilt Festival 2016

For quite some time now I've been devoting all my blogging energy to the Machine Quilting Unlimited blog. I've posted lots of tips, video tutorials, and loads of eye candy, so be sure to check it out! I also posted on the BERNINA WeAllSew blog about double needle free motion quilting. It's a fun technique, so be sure to hop over there at some point as well.

That said, I'm still here! I just returned from a fabulous trip to the Houston International Quilt Festival. I had three quilts there, two in the International Quilt Association judged show, and one in the Dinner at Eight special exhibit "Patterns". Without further ado, photos!

I'm very pleased and honored that I won two ribbons in the Digital Imagery catalog. Below you can see me with my quilt "Paint the Town Red", which won second place. I'm delighted that my quilt was hanging right next to that of my friend, Suzan Cloud Engler, who won first place with her wonderful quilt "GMO?". My quilt is the same size as hers, but the space available to stand in led to a little bit of a skewed perspective here. Thanks to Lisa Brehm Ellis who took the photo despite her very busy schedule. Lisa also had two wonderful quilts in the show that she made using a special technique she developed to make cathedral windows.
Me with "Paint the Town Red", Suzan Cloud Engler with her first place winner "GMO?" photo credit Lisa Brehm Ellis

I also won an honorable mention with "Winter's Tarnish". Yeah!

As always, the best part of Quilt Festival is seeing friends and meeting new people. My lovely friend Sarah Anne Smith was kind enough to take this photo of me doing my best Vanna White impression by "Blossoming", my Dinner at Eight quilt. Sarah had a quilt in the judged show as well as one in the Dinner at Eight exhibit, and both are stunning.
"Blossoming" by Diane Rusin Doran, photo credit Sarah Anne Smith

All three of these quilts, as well as every other quilt I've made, were sewn on domestic BERNINA machines. "Blossoming" is the first quilt I've completed on my new 770 QE and I loved using it!

All in all it was a wonderful adventure. I'm not sure how many photos from the show I'll post here, but I'll definitely posting some on the Machine Quilting Unlimited blog later this week. Thanks for stopping by!



Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Poison!

My creative friend Misty Cole has designed an unusual and intriguing block of the month - poison bottles! She asked me to interpret two of them, so here they are.

The first bottle looks a lot like Misty's sample. I chose a brown background, and because of the word "poison" I couldn't stop thinking about poison ivy, so I added some. I thought it looked sort of like an old bottle you might find tucked in the back of a barn, and wouldn't it be ironic for it to be sitting in some poison ivy?

Pre-stitching

The background and bottle were created from fabrics I designed in photoshop, while the leaves are hand dyed.


I think it's kind of fun.

The next bottle Misty calls a "coffin" bottle. Well, it looked kind of like a vase to me, so I went with that. I went a little wild and carefree with this one, screen printing the flowers and using some fabric I designed for the vase.

Pre-stitching

After quilting.

I was going for sort of a retro cut glass look on the bottle.

I like the flowers, but feel that the white ones still need something - maybe a few lazy daisies in the centers and some French knots?

If you'd like to join in the fun head over to Misty's blog and download these free patterns.

Thanks for inviting me to play, Misty!


Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Happy "B" Day to Me!

I have some really big news that I've been remiss in not sharing earlier. To get right to the point, I'm a BERNINA Ambassador!!! What does this mean? I get the privilege of sewing on a fabulous new BERNINA 770 QE, and in return I'll be sharing some of my quilting and sewing expertise in a variety of ways for BERNINA. Here's a photo of my beautiful machine:


We've all read gushy blog posts using terms like "over the moon" and "beyond excited", but in this case those terms genuinely apply. I've been a "BERNINA girl" since about 1987, and never looked back. I truly feel at one with both my workhorse 1130 and this beauty due to the amazing responsiveness of the foot pedal. The electronics of their foot pedals give me perfect control when free motion quilting, which makes all the difference.

So, in order to get acquainted with my 770 QE I was given lessons at Bear's Paw Fabrics in Towson, Maryland. The staff was so kind, welcoming, and knowledgeable! Here's Judy Munro, the owner, and Noreen, one of my teachers, on the day I got my first lesson.
Judy Munro of Bear's Paw Fabrics in Towson, MD

My amazing teacher Noreen. She really knows her stuff, and her enthusiasm is contagious!
I'm working on a "top secret" project right now (shown folded to the left of the machine in the photo above), and it's going great. Some of the things I already love about the 770 QE include:

- The light, look at all of that light!
- The large harp.
- Can't live without a knee lift.
- The thread cutter and needle threader.
- The machine is sophisticated, yet quite user friendly.
- The touch screen provides loads of information about the settings with just the touch of a button.
- The huge bobbin.
- As always, the phenomenal stitch quality.

In short, I love it, and am honored to have this opportunity to use it.

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In other news, as an extension of my editorial duties for Machine Quilting Unlimited I've been blogging for the magazine twice a week. Look for posts on Tuesdays and Thursdays at http://machinequilting.mqumag.com/category/blog/ . In my latest post (yesterday's) I share 10 of my best tips for free motion quilting success, so why not go check it out?

Thanks for stopping by!

Friday, April 01, 2016

Dinner at Eight - Affinity

Last year I once again had the pleasure of being juried into the invitational exhibit for the Dinner at Eight Artists. The theme was "Affinity", and I chose to represent my affinity for color (see blog name). I never really posted much about my quilt, but better late than never!
Paint the Town Red ©2015 Diane Rusin Doran


Detail Paint the Town Red ©2015 Diane Rusin Doran


Here's a link to a youtube video where I discuss the quilt for the Quilt Alliance Go Tell it at the Quilt Show! project.

As usual, I created a digital collage for my 40 x 40 inch piece. I began with a photo I took on my first iPhone about five years ago. It was a chance snapshot of a very bright door in Fort Worth, Texas. We were visiting my sister-in-law and had just finished eating breakfast at a local eatery. I took an antsy child to the car, and saw this beautiful doorway across the street. Here's the original photo with it's inspirational bright red door framed by an amazing tree:
And if you look very closely, my reflection is in the window pane to the left of the door. (I hadn't even noticed that reflection until today!)