Tuesday, June 26, 2012

NQA quilts part 2

The Group quilt category is one of my favorites and this year there were many outstanding examples.

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The method to do this is easy but the effect is quite interesting. First you take a photo and cut it into pieces. Each member gets one piece and then quilts it to represent their portion. All the finished pieces are then put together, or finished separately and hung side by side to recreate the original photo.

It’s all explained in detail in my book, Quilting Party!:Group Quilting for Celebration, Commemoration & Charity sold on my website. It’s on SALE too!

Quilting Party! book cover

Comment below to win a copy. Have you done a group quilt? Would you like to? What do you think?

Sunday, June 24, 2012

EXTRAORDINARY BLOG TOUR & GIVEAWAYS GALORE!

 

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To celebrate the new book, Patchwork Sassaman Style by Jane Sassaman, we have a blog tour for the month of July!

If you’ve never been on a blog tour before, this will be fun and exciting!  Here is the schedule below.  Just start on July 2 at Laura Wasilowski’s Art Fabrik blog.  There you will read about the new book and some insight into Jane and her techniques and then you can comment for a chance to win a copy of her book (US addresses only please!).

Then the next day follow the next blog and comment for another chance to win. Each day will be something new and different. On the way there will be prizes of Jane’s fabrics and patterns, along with more copies of the book, to win…but you won’t know unless you follow the tour!

While you are on these extraordinary quilting sites, take time to look around and see what these artists have to offer and if you like, sign up for their blogs.  This tour should be fun and informative and inspirational to all!  The links are live so you just need to click on them.  Happy Summer!

JULY     name                blog

2   Laura Wasilowski  http://artfabrik.blogspot.com/

3   Jessica Sloan  http://remnantsfiberculture.blogspot.com/

5   Judy Coates Perez  http://judyperez.blogspot.com/

6   Jane Sassaman  http://sassaman.blogspot.com/

7   Linda Teufel  http://dragonthreadsopenbook.blogspot.com/

8   Gloria Hansen  http://www.gloriahansen.com/weblog/

9   Melissa Peda  http://100billionstars.com/blog/

10  Susan B Knapp  http://wwwbluemoonriver.blogspot.com/

11  Jacquie Gering  http://tallgrassprairiestudio.blogspot.com/

12  Weeks Ringle  http://craftnectar.com/

13  SewCalGal  http://www.sewcalgal.blogspot.com/

14  Jessica Kovach  http://twinfibers.blogspot.com/

15  Pam Matthews  www.delrayfabrics.com/blog

16  Frieda Anderson  http://friestyle.blogspot.com/

17  Pat Sloan  http://blog.patsloan.com/

18  Jan Krentz  http://www.jankrentz.com/weblog/

19  Anita Grossman Solomon  http://makeitsimpler.blogspot.com/

20  Lyric Kinard  http://lyrickinard.blogspot.com/

21 The Quilt Show  http://www.thequiltshow.com/os/blog.php

22  Jane La Fazio  http://janeville.blogspot.com/

23  Free Spirit  http://www.freespiritfabric.blogspot.com/

24  Nancy Zieman  http://www.nancyzieman.com/blog/

Friday, June 15, 2012

National Quilting show 2012

 

It’s June in Columbus, OH and that means quilting season has begun. Yesterday the NQA show opened and I went with a friend. This is the first year that NQA is providing some free lectures and films for all.  We went to this very interesting lecture on the batik process and life in Java by Michael Mrowka from Lunn Studios. Debra Lunn and Michael are in charge of all the beautiful batiks produced for Kaufman fabrics which means approx 600 new batiks a year!

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His slides showed the entire process from designing batik patterns on paper to making the copper stamp(called ‘chop’), stamping on the wax, to the dyeing/printing and finishing of the fabric.  It is so elaborate, has many steps and is all done by hand by the local people, OUTSIDE in the sun.  Batik is so effected by weather and we discussed how they cannot work if it rains and during the 2-3 month monsoon season.

It was fascinating to see the artisans working on the ground for hours, in what must be incredible heat and with such precision. It makes you appreciate each yard of batik as a little piece of hand-crafted ‘art’ and I wondered why it didn’t cost more than $13 a yard!

Here are some of the quilts he showed us:

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These quilts are made of their striped batiks for Robert Kaufman called Elementals. I love these stripes and was able to find some in the vendor mall and bought every color for some future project.

If you want to see some of the batik process there are photos on the Kaufman site.

WINNING QUILTS BY FRIENDS!

It’s always fun to go to the show and see quilts by friends with ribbons on them! this Japanese wave quilt was made by Teri Henderson Tope, friend and neighbor. Also owner and designer of Material Girl patterns. Teri went to Japan on a “Sister City” visit years before the tsunami but was deeply affected by it and this quilt is a result.

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Below is Pat Holly’s creation (apologies for blurriness). It is just spectacular with all the miniature details and the great color combinations!  I’m a big fan and you know, own a small one of her pieces. She is a fellow Bernina Artisan and lives in Michigan. She actually won for two quilts in this show! She recently took a trip to Turkey…wonder what fantastic quilts will come out of that experience!

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Below is a quilt by Sharon Vitt. It is large and drew my attention from across the room! I’ve shown you Sharon’s work before but normally it has been silk but I think this one is cottons. Her use of color is what first attracted me to her quilts hanging in our local store, Quilt Trends. I’ve taken a class from her and it was wonderful. This sure was an impressive beauty!

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And a good friend, Beth Schillig won yet another award for Mint Julep. Since she retired a few years ago and threw herself into competition quilting full time, she’s just been racking up the awards!  We tell her we are tired of opening up every magazine and seeing her work in them but we’re just jealous!  She deserves them!  You need to see her free-motion stitching up close to appreciate it. Free-motion that is regular and flowing is something I aspire too!

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GIVEAWAYS—I’m having trouble getting in contact with the last two winners. I guess I’ll give them another week and if I don’t hear from them ,then I’ll offer the items in the next blog post.

STAY TUNED FOR THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE PATCHWORK SASSAMAN STYLE BLOG TOUR SOON! Lots of giveaways there!

Friday, June 1, 2012

The Sassaman books have arrived!

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And here they are! All 4 pallets of them! You may think this is the end of this book publishing journey but it isn’t. Now, comes the important part…selling the books!  Here, we’ll see if all the marketing, freebies to reviewers, blog posts, facebook ads, email newsletters, magazine ads and the like worked!

All you smart people who bought during the pre-sale will be getting your copies first! The envelopes are labeled, autographed bookplates inserted and ready for the book and to be mailed.

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This time we produced a silk scarf of one of Jane’s quilts instead of a totebag or something like it and it has sold very well!  I think when you see it, or better yet, FEEL it in person, you are hooked. The silk satin is so sumptuous and the colors are so vibrant that it is hard to resist. We will certainly produce more scarves with authors’ work on them in the future.

BLOG TOUR—Starting July 2, we will be having a blog tour of the new book. Not only will there be reviews by leading people in the quilting industry but you’ll also learn more about Jane from their interview questions. PLUS every tour will have a giveaway of the book and some other prizes too! It lasts for three weeks and we’ll post the schedule soon so be sure to stop back and look for it.  You will see some interesting fiber sites on the tour!

 

GIVEAWAY!

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This week we’re giving away a lovely Sassaman purse pattern…comment below…What do you think of blog tours? Ever followed one?

The winner of the last giveaway is Martha!

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