March Issue of Machine Quilting Unlimited

It's always fun to receive the writer's copy of a magazine when I have an article in it. It usually arrives a few days earlier than a subscription, making me feel a little bit like one of the cool kids. I just received the March issue of Machine Quilting Unlimited and it's beautiful. Here's a peek at my article, the second in a series of six on machine quilted fillers:

I know I say this every time, but this is a really great issue. If you're interested in using colored pencils on quilts, curved crosshatching, integrating machine quilting with machine needle felting, or learning more about straight of grain and stitch regulators, it's all there! Be sure and check it out.
 

May Issue of Machine Quilting Unlimited

I'm thrilled to have been a part of the last two issues of Machine Quilting Unlimited. In March my quilt "Last Dance" was featured as the "Jaw Dropper" (what a great name!).

For the May issue I wrote an article on creating unique quilting motifs. If you've ever wanted or needed to come up with a unique quilting design to fit a block or border, this article has loads of tips on design sources and techniques.


I really love this magazine (and not just because I've been in it). It's a wonderful source of information on all aspects of machine quilting, both domestic and long arm. It also features great articles on wonderful artists who quilt by machine. In the May issue alone there are articles by Carol Ann Sinnreich, Gloria Hansen, Jenny Bowker, Eileen Doughty and more. Suffice to say I really look forward to each new issue!

Snow Dyes - Rounds 1 & 2

I've done three rounds of snow dyeing so far (with *plenty* of snow left to work with). Here are some results from rounds one and two. All of the pictures can be made bigger by clicking on them.

Snow Dyed, then snowverdyed ;)

Bottom fabric was dyed in the drip pan below other fabrics, so technically it was low water immersion dyed

Center fabric was snow dyed twice - once with chocolate brown, then again with grape
The bottom piece was another "drip catcher"

I confess that for my work I prefer little to no white space on a piece of hand dyed fabric. This has led me to usually dye with fabric that has been soaked in soda ash solution then dried before dyeing, or use a drip dyeing method like Robbi Eklow explains in her book Free Expression. For the snow dyed pieces I either redyed ones that came out with more white space than I wanted, or squirted a little extra dye on areas that I could see were really pale. I have a couple of more pieces I'll post a little later.

I finished up an article for the May issue of Machine Quilting Unlimited this week. It's about designing your own quilting motifs, and it was fun to think of lots of ways you can go about that.

I'm also super excited that once again this year I'll have a quilt in Martingale's calendar of IQA award winning quilts. It will be interesting to see what month they decide to use for Last Dance.

Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival

This morning I was delighted to find out that The Gathering (pictured in my last post) won Best Use of Color in the wallhanging category at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival. Last month it was photographed for the 2010 Martingale calendar of quilts from the fall IQA show, so it's been traveling quite a bit. The calendar will be coming out later this year, and I can't wait to see it.

I've been working on an article for Quilting Arts, and submitted some potential ideas for the Quilting Arts Gifts issues, so we'll see how that goes. I wrote an article for the Winter 2008 issue of Machine Quilting Unlimited, and Sarah did a great job of blogging about that issue here.

Verizon came through our neighborhood a few weeks ago to lay cable for FiOS. There was ice on the ground, and they marked where they needed to dig with a brilliant orange paint. I took some pictures of the paint on the ice, as it created an other worldly effect (IMHO). This photo was not manipulated at all, other than to change the size.