Quilting Arts Gifts 2009-2010

On Friday I received my preview copies of Quilting Arts Gifts Holiday 2009-2010, and it's packed with great projects. It was really wonderful to see the wide variety of techniques this year.

Here's a sneak peak at the some of the samples I made for my two articles:

These are bookmarks that wrap around the book. They're really fast and easy, especially if you've made fiber postcards or ATCs before. Both of my samples were made from odds and ends I had in my studio.



These are the samples I made for a junior legal pad folio. There are pockets inside - one to hold the legal pad in, the other for receipts etc. The red one is my favorite. I was really tickled that in the photo in the magazine they included an open shot of the peach folio, and it had my handwritten mockup menu in it - actually a good representation of what we often have for holiday dinners.

Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens

Yesterday morning I sneaked out of the house early, and went to Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens on a little photo excursion.

I've passed the signs to the gardens countless times on the way to visit my family, yet never got a chance to check it out. I'm so glad that now I have!

These photos are just the tip of the iceberg of what you can see there.

Just one of the large ponds of lotuses.

There are not just lotuses, but water lilies, other marsh flowers, and a boardwalk through a swamp. As I walked along the boardwalk numerous birds and butterflies flew through the air and landed on the plants - difficult to capture in a photograph, but just beautiful.

There was not a tremendous variety of water lilies blooming in the large ponds at this time, but if you go be sure to look behind the park office. There's a little sign that says "more flowers", and there you'll find three small ponds filled with a variety of beautiful lilies.

If you live in the Baltimore/Washington area I highly recommend a visit. The park is open from 7am to 4pm, partly because the flowers eventually close in the heat of the late afternoon, so plan accordingly.

Devotion to One's Art

I was so pleased to receive an acceptance for this year's IQA show in Houston for Last Dance (blogged about here). I'd really wanted to make a "big", new quilt to enter, but life conspired against me. I love this little quilt so I'm happy it will have a chance to travel again.



Recently I've read some interesting posts on QuiltArt about whether folks prefer to read just about the art (quilting), or if it's better to throw in some personal goings on. Sometimes, for me, all I have time for is family life with three busy boys, so my quilting posts are few and far between. In the past year we shared our home for 7 months with a relative displaced by damage caused by Hurricane Ike, and this too impacted my quilt making. I somehow managed to write 4 magazine articles in that time, but couldn't spare the time or concentration to create a major new piece. Having Last Dance in my back pocket as a potential entry for Houston helped me to let go and relax a little this spring instead of going 100 miles an hour to finish a quilt in time. It's funny how things manage to work out.

When I'm strongly focused on finishing a quilt for a deadline it's hard to want to stop working on it. To my amusement I can see this trait in my youngest son, age 6. He LOVES to draw. He loves it so much that the elementary school principal called me to commend him on his creativity (that was a little surprising). Anyway, we were doing errands the other day and that did not stop his drawing. He carried an 11"x18" piece of paper and a pencil with him to Target, the pediatrician's office, and Radio Shack. As we walked through Target each time we stopped to look at something he'd squat on the floor, put his drawing on an available empty shelf, and draw. He also drew at the doctor's office and Radio Shack. I'd call that devotion to one's art!

A penguin, with an ice sword and ice helmet, riding on the back of a baby polar bear while fighting a sea lion. The back of the paper has a shark (or perhaps killer whale?) on it.

I hope that you're finding time for both your art, and some relaxation, this summer.

Spoonflower Fabrics

Back in March, following Sue Reno's lead, I decided to take the plunge and order some fabric from Spoonflower. These are the two fabric designs I ordered:

This is derived from the background of my quilt The Gathering.

This is derived from the background of a quilt design I'm still working on.

Overall I'm very pleased with the fabrics - the quality is good, and there's an impressive amount of detail. There was some banding, particularly on the top fabric, that probably only I would notice. I'm fairly certain this was a hiccup in the printing process, because there was no banding on other areas of the fabric with the same design elements and colors. For my purposes this wasn't a showstopper.

I ordered the fabrics on a whim, so did not order swatches to make sure the colors would be exactly as expected. I was OK knowing that this would result in some serendipity, but if you want your colors to match something you really should order a swatch.

Does this mean I'll stop printing fabric for my quilts on my own printer? No, but it's a nice alternative if I want yardage of a special design.

Miss May!

A number of months ago I was very honored to find out that "The Gathering" is going to be included in Martingale's 2010 Award Winning Quilts Calendar. I peeked over at their website the other day, and they have some preview images up. I do believe I'm going to be Miss May! I don't know how long that link will stay good, but it sure was fun to see the layout they've put together. I can't wait to see the final product.

(Edited to add: You need to click on the right arrow by View Gallery - my quilt is the first one after the cover image.)

Quilting Arts Article

I'm delighted to have an article in the latest (June/July 2009) issue of Quilting Arts. It's called "Digital Playtime" and discusses some of the steps I use to create the fabric for my quilts. I hope you like it!

I'm also looking forward to the next issue of Quilting Arts Gifts, where I'll have two projects.

Bog Lilies

Last year I was invited to make a small quilt for the "New Focus" exhibit, curated by Kim Ritter and Judy Dales. The exhibit was held from December to February at the Coos Art Museum in Coos Bay, Oregon. Here's the quilt I made, called "Bog Lilies", a digital collage printed on silk.


I have a larger quilt nearly ready to print, but am waiting for a new supply of fabric. In the meantime I was delighted to receive an acceptance for "The Gathering" into the AQS show in Paducah.

The maple trees are starting to bloom here in Maryland and the birds are singing more and more every day. Spring is on the way!

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.

Back From Houston

I had a wonderful trip to the Houston International Quilt Festival last week. It was great to meet some new folks and catch up with others I'd met last year. Here's a picture of me by my quilt on Wednesday at the Preview Night. Lisa Ellis of www.ellisquilts.com was generous enough to take the photo and send it to me stat!

If it were not for the generosity of my friend Dianne Smith I don't know if I would've made it to the show - she very kindly shared her room at the Hilton with me for two nights.

The quilt show was just the beginning of a lovely week. I flew back home Thursday night in order to not miss Halloween with the kiddos, and I'm so glad I did because it was the best Halloween ever. We went to parties on either end of trick or treating, the weather was perfect, and the boys were so happy. I volunteered in third grade for the big partay, and I can honestly say that I've never heard them so happily loud as they were during the toilet paper mummy relay. The week was the perfect balance between quilting and family.

Last Dance

As always, autumn is spookily busy for me. I have manged to work on a few small pieces in the last few weeks, and made it through 3 of the 4 fall family birthdays!

This piece was just completed in time for the Piedmont Arts Association Invitational exhibit. I named it "Last Dance" because the photos used to make this quilt were taken in October and I was amazed that this butterfly was still around at that late date.



I detailed how I made the digital imagery in this post. I wrote another post about adding the appliqued leaves are here.


This detail image shows some of the quilting in the border. My intent was to add quilting that looked like fungi or leaf litter. As always, the free motion quilting is the most enjoyable part of quilt making for me and it feels like dancing.

The leaves are really starting to turn around here, and it's just beautiful. Tomorrow I'm heading to Houston for a brief sojourn at the Houston International Quilt Festival. I'm sure I'll spend some time hanging out by my quilt. If you see me be sure and say "Hi".

IQA Houston - "The Call"

OK, as per usual, it's been a tremendously hectic few weeks!

My biggest new news is that I received "The Call" from IQA in Houston this afternoon letting me know that I won a cash award in this year's show. I feel very honored. Here's a picture of my entry, "The Gathering".

(Click for bigger)

It's entered in the Digital Imagery category. The central panel is comprised of three strips printed on my Epson 2200 with pigment inks, then the borders were hand dyed to go with it.

I've just completed writing an article for Machine Quilting Unlimited, so hopefully soon I'll share some photos of another small quilt I've been working on.

Thanks for stopping by!

Summer's End

Well, summer's over and it's been mighty busy.

My newest quilt, The Gathering, was accepted for the Houston IQA show. Under the Rainbow is already in Pennsylvania awaiting the Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza. I'm writing a magazine article on Machine quilting, and have begun working on two small quilts for invitational exhibits.

Two of my quilts are in an exhibit hanging in the International Terminal at Baltimore/Washington Thurgood Marshall Airport. I'm going to try and head over there sometime in the next week or two and share some photos with you.

Somehow this summer has ended up being super busy despite no day camps for kids! I personally spent three fun filled (but sweltering) days and nights at a Cub Scout camp in Haymarket, Virginia with my middle son, the oldest went to a week long Boy Scout camp, and we all had a lovely respite in Lewes, Delaware. We also have some *major* (re)construction going on around here that's been keeping us hopping. I haven't gotten much quilting or dyeing done, but with school starting tomorrow hopefully that will soon change.

Here's a little guy I found wandering around the coreopsis and zinnias a few weeks ago.

Summer Fun

Thank you so much to everyone for their nice comments on my quilt! I still haven't gotten around to making a better photograph - here's what I've been up to.

Dyeing fabric

Lately when I've dyed fabric it's been for a very specific purpose. My last few dyeing sessions I've instead taken a more serendipitous approach, and it's been quite enjoyable. In the top photo the middle fabric (with the most colors) has already been made into the most fun pajama pants I've ever had. Added bonus: when we go to the beach in a few weeks it'll give my siblings something to make fun of (as if they needed any help).

Mostly though I've been trying to keep up with the boys. Here they're about to "investigate" a large ant colony on the rock in our front yard.

And here they are racing towards a pavilion at Brookside Gardens after a tour of the butterfly garden.

My nephew's birthday is in June, and there's always a pool party to celebrate. There were 12 children at the party, and things had started to wind down a little - until Uncle Bobby showed up.

I hope you all have a safe and happy 4th!

Deadlines & Commitments or Mayhem

Whew! As I came up to the wire on the IQA deadline I was more than a little busy with real life. "Highlights" of the past month or so include: having 28 trees cut down in the front yard (not to worry - there are still more than 70 there), an all day 5th grade field trip to Philly (quite nice), First Communion for son #2, a colonoscopy and endoscopy for son #2 (he's fine, thankfully), pre-school graduation, Mother's Day Tea, having wood floors refinished in the living room and dining room, the Science Fair with two projects from our guys, finally getting a new sofa!, a hit and run accident when we weren't even in the car (it was parked at the grocery store) and subsequent repairs, International Night, a wonderful Cub/Boy Scout Memorial Day flag placing ceremony at a local cemetery, dental work for various people, fifth grade "graduation" and several related parties, plus the obligatory husband traveling for work. There was more, much more, but I can't remember it all.

Nonetheless, I met the deadline by the skin of my teeth.

Next year, someone please remind me that May is a busy, busy month - no wonder the word "mayhem" begins with "may". Apparently I need to start quilting by the middle of March to meet a June deadline with ease.

I'd like to take a little better picture before showing the full quilt, and am not set up to do that right now, so here are a few detail shots and a view of my quilting area.




Doesn't that seem like it should be enough thread? There's even more you can't see on the left hand table, and yet sometimes it seemed that there just weren't enough colors. One thing that's clear is that I need to buy thread in neutral colors too, not just the "pretty" colors.

I hope all of you have also found some creative time for yourselves amidst the everyday details of life!

Exciting Week

This has been such a great week (despite my seasonal allergies!). I worked hard to clear out my basement lair enough to make room for the Horn table to return to its rightful place. My last two quilts were made in the living room, amidst the pitter patter (or thunder, depending on the child) of little feet. I loved being in the midst of it all, and needed to be, but trying to do precise quilting while the table is shaking or loud Pokemon battles are occurring does increase the degree of difficulty somewhat. Now the table and machine are in a well lit space and I'm raring to go.

Here are some of the hand dyes I made about a week ago.


The horizontal fabrics are the borders for my new quilt, the vertical ones were made with leftover dye. I'm happy to say that the borders are on the quilt, and I'm hoping to baste today or tomorrow.

My *biggest* news this week is that I was awarded second place in the Small, Non-Traditional Wall Quilt Category at the AQS show in Paducah! Here's a link to the winners list, which includes links to photos of the quilts. I won't be able to make it to the show, so if anyone is going I'd sure appreciate a photo of my quilt!

I hope you all are having a great week too.

Resq'd! And a Dye-a-gram

I've been working on a new quilt. It's printed, and the borders are dyed. Last year I showed some pictures of my "dye studios", here are some pictures of this year's setup.

First off, the view:

No complaints about that!

And here's my fabu setup:
I was *very* lucky - it's been quite cool this spring, but Thursday was a super bright day in the 70's. I wasn't quite ready to dye the borders, but rushed to get it done with such perfect weather. I was especially concerned about the temperature because I was using so many blues, and some turquoise. Those attractive storm doors to the basement get very hot, so once the fabric was just damp (and not dripping) I transferred the fabric over there to "cook" it some. Three out of four borders came out just right, the fourth I redyed on Saturday.

Here's the "dye-a-gram" I followed (click for bigger).

I measured color changes in the background of my image, then wrote notes to myself on what dye colors to use and where to change them. I don't mark the fabric, but use this as a guide. I used the same technique last year for Under the Rainbow and was happy with the results so thought I'd use it again!

So how have I been Resq'd? When I print out an image on fabric in strips, I somehow have to baste the strips before sewing in order to line up the image properly. Previously I've glue basted in the seam allowances, but I wasn't completely sold on how that worked out. I bought some Res-q Tape at Joann's, and it worked amazingly well. (My package says Dritz, not Collins, but I'm pretty sure they're the same product.) Now I have no stiffness in the seam allowance, and I can press it open if I want to.

Looking Up

First off, I've been very remiss after finding out that Jolene made a lovely Esther's Tote for Jody and not showing it - here's the picture. Great job, Jolene! If anyone else has made one I'd love to see it too.

I feel like things are looking up around here.

Standing in the center of my front yard, looking up

The enteritis that led to my appendectomy persisted for several weeks after the surgery, and it's only in the last 2 weeks or so that I've begun to feel myself again. I try to leave family health problems off the blog, but this has really been a slog for me. I've managed to make a number of stamped cards and have loved the instant gratification associated with that, but haven't yet manged to get my quilting mojo back.

Quite a few weeks ago I thought I had a quilt design finalized to print out, and had all the supplies ready to go. After printing the test image below I realized that I didn't have a design, I had a collection of competing pretty objects.

This is a small portion of my original design

When designing quilts on the computer it's easy to see the big picture, but sometimes hard to see how individual small sections will look. This makes it essential (to me) to print out test sections before making the entire quilt. From this test I could see that I needed to lose the white outline around the butterfly, trim out the white part at the bottom of the butterfly's body, the antennas needed work, and that the red leaves needed to be reconsidered.

I think I finally almost have a completed design that's very different from the original. The day before yesterday my husband looked over my shoulder and said "Wow!" while I was working on the design. Since he's never said this about any other design I have high hopes ;). Wish me luck!

I hope spring has started to come to your neck of the woods, wherever that may be!

We Have a Confirmed Sighting!

Check out Miranda's lovely version of Esther's Tote! She opted to not interface hers, and used a wonderful combination of stripes. Thanks for sharing it, Miranda!

I haven't gotten any quilting done, but I've had lots of quilty "stuff" going on. Under the Rainbow was accepted for the AQS show, and Grotto will be at Quilter's Heritage Celebration in Pennsylvania, so if you're going to either of those shows stop by and say "hi" to my quilts.

I sold Marsh Grass I to a wonderful buyer - a lovely surprise. I've also been invited to have a quilt in an invitational exhibit later this year.

We've had a mild winter, but spring has been slow in coming this year. Only one crocus has bloomed so far, but things should really start popping in the next few weeks.

Just When I Thought it Was Safe ...

to try and get my work space organized, I (literally) stumbled upon this madding crowd

As you can see, the lights are back on, but my territory has been invaded! I took one kid to cub scouts, and when I came back this scene (which is a very common one here at chez OOhPC!) had appeared. In a way I'm quite happy about this. I was concerned that once I moved my sewing machine back to the basement, the kids wouldn't hang out down there. Obviously - not a problem now that there's light! Though there have definitely been down sides to sewing in the main living area, I really loved being in the middle of everything and being available at a moment's notice. It looks like I won't be lonely in the basement either.

Hello World!

Well, a *very* big welcome to all of you stopping by due to the link on craftzine.com. Thanks for checking out the tutorial! I hope you enjoy your visit. If you're also interested in quilts please be sure to check out my website, www.dianedoran.com. Also, many thanks to Mama-E (Erin) for providing the link to Craft! (You should definitely check out Mama-E's warehouse - she dyes very beautiful yarn and fiber.)

Minty has been over here lately, and she's always so nice about my nature photos, so I thought I'd post a few just for her. We had an ice storm this week, and I very briefly ran out and took a few photos before the rain washed all the ice away.

The ice was coating this bush.

To my amazement, this ice casting was formed.

I placed it on our broken sundial.

On another happy note, the lights in my work space are back on, so I can get back to organizing my own space - yeah!