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!

Prepping for Open Studios

I'm very excited to be participating in Open Studios this year at the International Quilt Festival in Houston!  Here's a sneak peek at what I'll be working on:

Join me in Open Studios on both Saturday and Sunday, November 2nd and 3rd, from Noon to 2:00 PM. I'll be sharing lots of info on layering imagery and stitches.

I'll also be in the SAQA booth on Saturday from 2:30 to 4:30. If you're in Houston please stop by and see me at either locale. I can't wait to get there!

Back From Houston

Still getting back in the swing of things after returning from the Houston Quilt Festival. There's been lots of real life happening, including the third family birthday in 15 days!

I had a wonderful time and met lots of talented artists. One of the highlights of the trip was spending time in the Machine Quilting Unlimited booth with Kit Robinson (managing editor) and Vicki Anderson (owner and publisher). We were so busy that I completely forgot to take any pictures! However, Vicki did interview me about my column, and here it is:



There's an MQUMag channel on youtube with lots of other interviews from the quilt festival, including one with Best of Show winner Sue McCarty - be sure and check those out.

Houston Quilt Festival 2011

I can't believe that in just two days I'll be heading to Houston for the International Quilt Festival. I don't have an hour by hour schedule, but I will absolutely be spending time in the Machine Quilting Unlimited booth, #204. I'm also hoping to attend the SAQA meet up at 5:30 on Thursday. I'll be at the show on Thursday, Friday, and most of Saturday, so if you see me be sure and say hello!

This year I have a smallish quilt in the IQA show. It's a little more abstract than most of my recent pieces, and I had a great time making it. I was much freer with my construction techniques this time around, and added some paint to emphasize some of the vertical elements.And I really love those blues.

Jamestown, 2011

November/December Machine Quilting Unlimited

Last week I received my preview copy of the November/December issue of Machine Quilting Unlimited. Wow! Look at this cover -

The cover image is just a taste of the wonderful photography inside. They always have lots of beautiful quilts, but this issue has even more than usual.

In addition to my Filler Finesse column, I also wrote an article about using decorative stitches for quilting. In it there are photos of quilts by Carol Ann Waugh, Cathy Jeffrey, Jane Sassaman, Karen Linduska, and Mary Vaneecke. They are all lovely quilts, and really helped to show the many effects that can be produced by various styles of decorative stitches - thanks ladies!

And speaking of MQU, I better go get my next filler article done before I leave for Houston later this week!

DVD Blog Hop - On to Deborah Boschert

Can you believe it - we're already on Day 5 of my blog hop to celebrate the release of my DVD, Digital Collage for Quilt Design!

Today's hostess is someone whose blog I've followed for years. First she lived in Maine, then Texas. When I learned she was moving to Maryland I immediately contacted her to let her know about some local art quilt groups with the hopes that she'd join them. And she did! I'm so happy today to include my friend Deborah Boschert in our celebration.

Deborah's work has a unique and instantly recognizable style that I love. She is well known for the many articles she's written and publications her work has appeared in, and also for being a part of the 12 By 12 International Art Quilt Challenge. Here's her work "In Light Of"  from their colorplay challenge.

 

 

 

 

"In Light Of" by Deborah Boschert

The 12x12 Collection will be in a special exhibit at the Houston International Quilt Festival, November 3-6. Most of the members of the 12x12 group will be there too, so be sure to check out their exhibit, and say hi to them if you see them.

So know that you know a little more about Deborah, hop on over to her blog for a chance to win!

Some of the other ladies are still accepting comments for chances to win on their blogs:

 Debra Gabel  is picking a winner on or before Oct. 31 (post date Oct. 13)

 Candy Glendening is picking a winner Oct. 21 (post dated Oct 17)

Be sure to hop back here on October 21 for a chance to win a DVD from me.

Quilting Arts at 10

Can you believe that Quilting Arts is celebrating their 10th birthday?! I remember how exciting it was to have a new kid on the quilting block, and to this day look forward to every issue.

I'm happy to have an article called "Serendipitous Screen Printing" in the 10th Anniversary Issue. The article details a fun and easy technique for you to add to your screen printing bag of tricks. Here are two examples (that aren't in the magazine) I made with this technique:

My obsession with locust leaves continues ;)

This reminds me of the woods in springtime, when the maples are starting to bloom.

The contributing artists were asked to make commemorative postcards, and here's mine.

This was fun to make, as I combined a variety of techniques - digital imagery, screen printing, and sponge painting.

So what else is new? I'm honored to have won 3rd place at the Houston IQA show with my grackle. So many people who saw this quilt in Houston have reached out to me with many kind words, and I really appreciate it - thank you all!

November was just a mess. My mother in law has been quite ill, so my husband was gone most of the time starting October 29, including four weekends in a row. Thankfully she is doing much better now!

I've been working on several more articles. I'm really excited about a series of six articles I'm writing for Machine Quilting Unlimited on fill designs. The first one will debut in the January issue. And right now I better dash back to the studio to finish working on a project for Quilting Arts' 101 Patchwork Projects - hmmm, I wonder what the other 100 are?

Houston IQA

I'm so delighted that for the fourth year in a row I've been fortunate enough to receive "the call" from Houston. My newest quilt, which I must say I poured my heart and soul into, has won a cash award in the IQA World of Beauty (Houston quilt show). Here's a sneak peek:



It's a digital collage that I created in Photoshop using a number of my photographs and a painting. I printed it on five panels of silk using my Epson 2200 pigment ink printer, then seamed them to create the quilt top. It's very heavily free motion machine quilted using a variety of threads - rayon, silk, cotton, and maybe even a little polyester .

It's a red letter day, as my oldest son is officially a teenager today. I better run and make his cake!

Miss October!

I now have a copy of the Martingale 2011 Calendar of IQA Award Winning Quilts, and I'm proud to say that I am Miss October (well, actually Last Dance is).


I had so much fun making this little quilt, and I'm just delighted to be in the calendar again this year.

I happened to be at a Metrothreads meeting on Saturday, and someone made an interesting remark. They admired how I made the left wing look transparent, so that the leaf beneath it showed through. Truth by told, I didn't do that. When I took the original picture, which you can see here, the butterfly was resting on dried oak leaves. As I manipulated the photo, including increasing the saturation, the colors on the oak leaf and the butterfly wing became more similar, producing the illusion of transparency. You can see an explanation of how I created the central image here, and see what a difference upping the contrast made.

I was very lucky to be in the right time and place to catch this somewhat unusual moment - a butterfly resting on autumn leaves. Keep your eyes open, and maybe you'll catch a magical moment too.

Houston Quilt Festival 2009

Well, I once again took a fun but *quick* trip to Houston for the International Quilt Festival. Here's the lowdown.

I took a super early flight on Tuesday and had lunch with my good friends Jill and Bill. Back in the day Jill and I were both engineers at McDonnell Douglas and were known as "the bookends" - we did just about everything together except quilt. It's always a highlight of my trip to get to see them again.

Tuesday night was the exciting awards ceremony - I was delighted to receive third place in the miniature art category. I of course saw Pokey (who presented my award), and fellow award winners including Sarah Ann Smith, Judy Coates Perez, and Candace West.

Wednesday morning I had breakfast with my good friend Debra Gabel of Zebra Patterns. Debra is both an amazing quilt artist as well as an incredible pattern designer. She'd been to quilt market and also had a booth at festival. Her CityStamp, StateStamp, and NationStamp designs were a really big hit - very unique and clever. I also had the pleasure of meeting her friends (and booth staff) Peggy, Dee and Sandy.

This year the luncheon where the top eight award winners speak was thankfully moved to Wednesday (instead of Saturday). I'd never been able to hang around until Saturday, so it was wonderful to be able to attend the luncheon this year. The tables were quite large so I didn't get to chat with everyone, but did sit next to Barbara Lies and Candace.

One side of festival that I've never experienced before is vending. I had the opportunity to help Debra and company with some last minute booth preparations and it was both fun and educational.

Wednesday night - preview night! For the third year in a row the delightful Lisa Ellis did me the favor of taking my picture next to my quilt. I think the next time I go I'll have to plan a little better and actually eat dinner with her or something.

I did my best to see as much of the show as possible. After wards Debra, Peggy, Dee and I headed out to get a bite to eat. We ended up at the House of Blues, and after all was said and done we now have the recipe for the Best Margarita Ever.

I met many other nice folks, and was happy to reconnect with others I've met at previous shows. My flight home was Thursday afternoon, so I soaked in as much atmosphere as possible before then and took one last look at all the great exhibits and show quilts. Once again a fabulous show and of course lots of friendly and creative quilters!

Eye of the Quilter

Once again the Houston International Quilt Festival folks came up with a great idea for a special exhibit - The Eye of the Quilter. Instead of quilts, it's photographs taken by quilters that they find inspirational.

While perusing thousands of photos on my computer in search of some entries, I realized that there are a number of things (besides my children) that I photograph over and over:
- I think I'm in contention for having taken the most macro photographs of flowers in the nation, if not the world
- reflections - in bodies of water, windows, and on cars
- water droplets and condensation on *anything*
- bare branches
- the Japanese maple in our yard in its autumn glory
- anything natural in our yard, whether flora or fauna - it's amazing to me the variety of things I've photographed on our property

I did enter three photos and have my fingers crossed, but instead of showing them I'll show several that were in contention that I didn't send. All of them can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Waterlilies at Brookside Gardens

The red maple mentioned above - this is part of the view outside my dining room window

A different view of the red maple

My youngest son's eyelashes a few years ago

I also noticed that sometimes weeks or months go by when I don't take very many photographs, but once I get on a roll watch out.

On another note, yesterday I got "the call" from the IQA that Last Dance won a cash award in the Houston show. That call really made my day!

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.

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".