AQS Lancaster

Road tripping is always a delight.  Road tripping with 3 friends is priceless.  Our first stop: Ladyfingers Sewing in Oley PA.  Well our first “stop” was Wegmans for provisions, ie chocolate and fruit.  I just missed Gail, however I did not miss one of my very favorite fabric lines, Robert Kaufmans Radiance.  I picked up these beautiful gray pieces.  I have plans, plans I say.  I may pair them with the cheddar orange dupioni silk and I may not.  We’ll just have to see what happens.  The color choices may seem odd for this quilter however I’m planning thread play on each one of the pieces of gray that I have.  I’m not sure of size yet, that will come later.

Arriving at the quilt show I was delighted to see Jan Magee, the Editor of  The Quilt Life.  The Quilt Life is quite refreshing for a quilt magazine and, I think, is leading the way in encouraging quilters to really grow their skills as quilt makers.  I’ve written a couple of times for them and plan to submit again soon.  Unfortunately I didn’t get a photo with Jan.

I did get a photo with Alex Anderson.

Alex has been part of my quilting  journey nearly from the beginning.  Now that she and Ricky have The Quilt Show.  We get to see more of her joy and exuberance in personality.  I really love how different The Quilt Show is compared to SQ.

One of the gals brought home a new Bernina 350 Special Edition with the cool skin on the front.  Alex signed it.  How cool is that?

Before heading over to the show on Saturday we stopped at Kitchen Kettle Village to shop at The Olde Country Store, Zooks and the Village Shops.  My first stop: the Lancaster Yarn Shop.  Oh my!!  This shop is delightful, friendly staff and lots of beautiful yarn.  First of all how can you go wrong when the shopping bags are lime green with metallic purple writing?  So stinkin’ cute!  And then I picked up this lime green and gray kettle dyed yarn.  And this time I have a plan.  A friend showed me a herringbone infinity scarf.  I can’t wait to start stitching this.  I want to finish a couple of other projects first though.

When I saw this quilt the first time I stopped in my tracks and had to take a photo.

Then saw the artist, Sue Reno.

Sue and I have been friends on facebook for a few years and the last couple of AQS shows we stand on line and chat while waiting to pick up our quilts.  This year was, delightfully, a bit different.  We talked for a bit, went to see her quilt and Sue shared the process a bit with a family admiring her quilt.  The silk used comes from a particular town in India where Sue studied in the 1970′s and again on a recent visit.  The ornamental ginger leaf is dyed using a cyanotype process (a type of  light reactive dye – left in the sun for a period of time for the desired effect).  The family asked great questions about how Sue put the quilt together.

Sue and I talked a bit more about her quilt after the family left.  I really love the groundedness and freedom of this quilt.  It speaks to roots and growth.  At least in my mind.

I am once again grateful to see Tilde hanging in a show.  I have a few more shows to enter Tilde into before shipping her off to Keith as he has a couple of shows to enter into.  Thank you John Anderson for taking this photo.   John also took the photo of Alex & me.

I was able to share with quilters about the making of this quilt a few different times, which is always a pleasure.

Tilde is one of my favorite quilts to date.

Jeanie Sumrall-Ajero and I did the great quilt hand off with a long conversation at the Superior Threads booth.  I can share that the quilt Jeanie pieces is off the hook gorgeous uses Radiance as well as some commercial batiks.  I know roughly how many hours she has invested in the quilt so far and know I’ll probably meet her in hours quilting.   We won’t know until later when we’ll be able to share the quilt, it just depends on when I get it finished and which show we decide to enter first.   A very special thank you to Gina Reddin who spent a good 20 minutes with us offering a few great suggestions.

Happy Quilting!

Teri

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meeting Stephanie and more

It seems lately it’s either I have nothing to say or everything to say.  I am truly grateful that my blog readers bear with me.  As promised in my October Free Motion Quilting Challenge on the SewCalGal site the December Bonus Tutorial is up.  It’s primarily based on the Kaleidoscope Collections Feather Template pack that Jeanie designed “Feather Zone“.  As I machine quilted “Feather Zone” I learned how to stitch feathers in several new ways which I show in the tutorial.  I’ve struggled with stitching out feathers where I get a thinner spine for quite a while and quilting this quilt and for the tutorial gave me the opportunity to learn how to do that in a variety of ways.  I hope you enjoy.

As I mentioned yesterday I met Stephanie of The Fiber Nation.  I have long enjoyed Stephanie’s artwork and her thought process as she shares on The Fiber Nation.  Stephanie interviewed a number of artists in 2010 – you can read the article here.  I remember a couple of my answers being kind of short and flip however I was serious – one of the benefits of working at home as an artist is that I can be flexible it’s also one of the biggest draw backs as sometimes I’ll do other things rather than taking care of my work.  This has been something on my mind and I’m working on figuring it out.  Stephanie had the opportunity to create art with Melanie Testa, check it out.

So back to the lovely Stephanie…she’s a lot of fun.  At the City Quilter we enjoyed the art quilts currently hanging in the gallery, the current artist being Judy Blaydon.  Many of Judy’s quilts remind me of looking at farmland viewed from a plane.  Stephanie and I talked machines and I enjoyed watching Stephanie choose fabric.  There is one I’m going to have to purchase next time I go there.  I’m kinda kicking myself for not getting it yesterday because you know it’ll be gone later.  I purchased Cherrywood 8-step gray.  It’s really pretty and I have a quilt in mind for it that I may actually piece.

in front of the window at Tinsel Trading

We visited Tinsel Trading on 37th street in Manhattan.

Talk about shiny things.

a reminder of my dmil

I staged the photo on the right and hope to get back to the City and get these for two reasons.  They remind me of my dmil who passed away nearly 2 years ago and I think it’s a good reminder of how to live…with JOY in your heart.  I recognize that living with JOY is not always easy I am finding more and more JOY in the new quilts I’m working on and in the fact that I love what I do as a quilter, I love what I’m privileged to participate in as a quilter.

This truly was a cabinet of curiosities.  I must have been here for 15 or 20 minutes touching things.  I want a cabinet like this, just full of things to touch and feel and enjoy and let others have the same pleasure.  I think if I ever have my very own out of the house studio I will work on a cabinet of curiosities for quilters to enjoy.

I found my marbles

 

 

 

 

This “Thread-Keeper” caught my attention for sure.  Sewists for years have wanted to keep their thread neat and tidy for generations, it’s an on going chore that many of the thread companies are helping us out with on their end caps.

Happy Quilting!

 

Teri

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kaleidoscope Collections work

Jeanie gave me some of this years projects to quilt at the AQS Show in Lancaster.  We had a while before the projects needed to be finished which gave us time to think through what these kaleidoscopes would become.  Jeanie and I decided to change things up a bit and make quilted items along with a quilt or two for this years booth.

These pieces give Jeanie the opportunity to develop new techniques with the Kaleidoscope Creator and the new ideas rambling around in her head.  Leaving the quilting to me means that she can work on the main items without worrying about the finished product.  Our first item is this quilted tote bag.

We used:

1 embroidered kaleidoscope

2 fat quarters

1/2 yard suede for the back and handle

fat quarter of batting – I used bamboo

I used the suede as it’s durable and washable and I had it on hand.

 

Then we chose to create 2 pillows.

The kaleidoscopes give a great basis for the quilting and to highlight the kaleidoscopes I chose to let the quilting go to the background.  Each one of the kal’s has been quilted along with the surrounding fabric.

I chose the very simple overlapping method – involving no zippers, buttons or closures of any type – just a finished stitched edge.  These are stitched up pretty quickly.

 

And finally we chose two small quilted pieces.  These can answer that plea “make a quilt for me” on fairly short notice.  Ok there needs to be a little planning and design work, once the kal is printed and embroidered the quilting can go fairly quickly.  Using cross-grain binding makes it even simpler.

 

 

 

The loveliest thing about these projects is that they can be made up quickly, simply and with the colors that complement your kaleidoscope.

I had the opportunity to watch Jeanie demonstrate the Kaleidoscope Creator to a customer at her booth.  With a little practice it’s easy to use and the options are limitless!  Oh my can we have fun with this!

I’ll share too that the embroidery (which Jeanie will explain because I’m clueless!) really complements the kaleidoscopes and add such rich detail to the items!  I’ve given Jeanie the quilting tips and once she gets the projects up on her site feel free to ask me questions about the quilting on the embroidered kaleidoscopes.

I have a three big projects that I’ll start working on as of next week.  Two of the projects will be published so I’ll not be able to share anything until later on.  I have ideas galore rumbling through my head and it’ll be difficult to choose.  I’m headed to the Courthouse Quilters this weekend and am looking forward to two days of teaching.

Happy Quilting!

Teri

 

 

Quilt Festival

I feel so blessed to have made it to Houston this week.  Because of my sweetie’s schedule I ended up at the airport at 5:30 AM and managed to get on the very next flight out of town – the first flight out of Newark since the beginning of the storm.  Thinking I would not make it to Houston I didn’t pack the supplies necessary for my time in Open Studio however I did bring the samples I made.

This and a couple of others were finished.  I gave one to Cheryl who works in Jeanie’s booth, it said ‘Bang Head Here” and had 3 layers of batting.  Two others were put up for the mug rug swap including the one on the right here.  I gave “homework” to my Teachers Pets Maggie and Frances – for them to finish at their leisure.  These are a great way to practice machine quilting, they’re fun and can be done in a short amount of time.  I’ll be making more samples and posting them over time.

On a side note: I really wanted to have Tilde with me in Houston.  I mean who wouldn’t want to share the quilt that just won them a first place ribbon?  Keith and I were discussing getting the quilt to Houston in time for the show.  It became apparent that I wasn’t sure when I’d get there, if I’d get there with all three of the major airports closed.  I’m closest to LaGuardia and they weren’t going to open until late Thursday and that being the case, well you get the picture.  I didn’t want to have Tilde sent and place the responsibility of the quilt and  for getting the quilt back to me on any other person in the event that I didn’t get to Houston.  I very much appreciate everyone’s understanding.  I am going to pick up Tilde this morning on my way to work and will have it for my upcoming visit to the Courthouse Quilters.

 

Jeanie had this beautiful smile on her face in spite of being wicked tired.  We had a bit of fun and thanks to the lovely quilter who offered to take our picture.

Texas is a big state, they do quilt shows on a grand scale.  Tomorrow I will show just a few of the quilts I was able to see and take photos of.  Weirdly my camera didn’t make it out very much.  I know right, I take pictures of everything.  Let’s just say my level of awe over the sheer enormity, my excitement for just being there, the sense of relief for getting there and the love of quilters just overwhelmed me.  A couple of times I headed over to the Brother Sewing room and just chatted with Paula Reid when she wasn’t helping students.

This trip along with the Portland trip confirmed for me that I need to focus on some serious writing and work toward getting the book that I’ve been muddling around in my head and on my computer written and published.  Part of me has been fearful that it wouldn’t be successful  and I need to let that go and just make the commitment to get it done.

More coming soon!

Teri

 

Quilt Festival Houston!

I’m impressed with the students in Houston.  Both of my classes ended up full.  My teachers pets, Maggie and Frances were such a great help!

Really, truly impressed.  These quilters worked and worked.  In my Beginner Free Motion Machine Quilting class all of the quilters stitched out feathers by the end of class.  Every single one of them. A huge thank you to Janome for providing the machines and educator for our classroom!  Terry did a great job meeting the needs of the students throughout the day.  I mentioned to my students that as a quilter I’m an amalgamation of all of the quilting teachers I’ve come in contact with whether that be national, local or guild friends.  I take what works for me and apply that to my quilting.  Feel free to take what works, what makes sense and use that in your quilting.

As you know this week started out a little rough and I made it to Houston a day later than anticipated.  I missed the Open Studio, sadly.  Seeing the whole set up for the studio the whole experience would have been amazing.  Pokey and Craftsy did a great job setting that up.

I was so happy to be there.  Of course time with friends takes precedence over sleep so by the time Jeanie and I went to take pics of our quilt together we were both pretty punchy so a little silliness ensued.  Quite frankly I couldn’t help be silly happy – this is my first trip to Houston, I taught the most amazing students and I had a quilt in the show!   I need to check with Jeanie and see what pics I can post.

I also got to see (no pics yet) the quilt Jeanie and I will be competing with some time next year.  Bob from Superior let me borrow a few cones of thread to take over to the Kaleidoscope Collections booth.  Thank You! Thank You!  A few spools cones of thread came home with me for this new quilt.  A quick trip to the Sew Batik booth found the perfect backing and of course the perfect batik for the front of the next quilt floating around Jeanies creative bean!  Diane and Bruce are the sweetest people ever, Bruce loved the pic of Diane & I from MQX.  I’m going to use silk and wool for the batting.  Alas my dear quilterly friends no pics until we get this puppy quilted.

My roomie this time was the delightful Cathy Franks.  This photo was taken last night as we waited for the gal to call us for dinner at the restaurant.  Our waitress very kindly figured out a way to make  our evening by finding us one last piece of flourless chocolate cake.  Oh! My!  Thank you!!

I loved the vibe of Houston.  As tired as I was getting there, the long hours, meeting the quilters and visiting vendor booths and all that goes into the experience of teaching.  I love what I’m privileged to be part of the quilting community.  I’m looking forward to this next year and will definitely be applying to teach there again!

Happy quilting,

Teri

PS there is more, much more I want to share it’ll take a few days.

 

Friends and Teacher Ribbon

Saturday afternoon I sat down to check email and facebook Angela Walters sat with me to enjoy her bagel and some witty banter.  She’s quite funny.  Angela sat at a table with some very happy quilters the evening before and I told her the truth.  As they were taking pictures I very nearly raced over to the table and did the whole rabbit ears thing over her head.  I resisted.  I can’t for the life of me figure out why I resisted but I did.

Part of our conversation involved our teacher ribbons and how challenging it was to award them and our individual criteria.  First, it needed to be a quilt without a ribbon already including other teacher ribbons and second, I wanted to award a domestic machine quilter as that is what I’m remaining committed to doing.  This isn’t as easy as it sounds because there are so many amazing quilts in this show and most of the teachers had awarded their ribbons.

I perused the aisles with great care and nearly took my shoes off to think.  The quality of the quilts is amazing.  Every quilt had a quality or 5 that said give me the ribbon, give me the ribbon.   It came down to a couple of quilts and then I rounded the corner and saw this quilt (which I’d spent time ogling over) titled “Bursting with Joy”  by Terry Knott and I knew that this was the one.  The quilt that I would give my ribbon.  It’s a whole cloth quilt, stitched out on her Bernina.  This is something so right!  Terry it’s an honor to give you this ribbon.

Back to Angela, another quilter joined us for a little while and as we sat there Andy Brunhammer walked by and whoopsie!  I would have said blond moment but Angela was sitting right there.  Truth be told she would have loved the comment as we’d already established a mutual love for sarcasm – hers being the giggly style and mine being rather dry.  It works tho.  Andy wanted to talk about Tilde and I said I’d be there after class.  Yep, promptly forgot.  This wasn’t the first time this week I’d forgotten an appointment!  I wanted to sit down with the Janome folks and go over the machine  I made it just in time then too.

I got a mango smoothie because I needed a bit of brain freeze (not really) and walked over to Tilde where Andy & I discussed the quilt for a while.  As an aside, the binding on Tilde is Robert Kaufman’s Radiance and after last night I understand Keith’s comment about it being very challenging to hand stitch down.  It’s so right for the binding on the quilt though.

I must share that I love being “just the quilter” on the quilts I work with other people on.  I know that the quilting if its right will make the quilt and if it’s wrong seriously detract from the quilt.  Next year there will be at  least 4 quilts that will hit the public view.  One will be Staten Island Sunset, one will be with Jeanie Sumrall-Ajero of Kaleidoscope Collections, Keith will be sending another quilt soon and there will be 1 or two more.  Thankfully they are spaced out enough that I’m not freaking out. Yet.

The quilt on the left is Stella Luminosa by Karen Marchetti.  Oh my!

There are more quilts that I’ll post in the next day or two.

 

Happy Quilting!

Teri

 

I like the back

I like the back.

And for a little while longer I can share the backs of several things.    A good bit of what I’m working on will be in the Kaleidoscope Collections booth at Houston for Market and Festival.  Once Market starts the beauty of the front will be revealed.  I can say with absolute certainty that Jeanie is amazing and I’m enchanted.

If you know the Kaleidoscope Kreator you know the possibilities are unlimited and the color choices are well worth exploring.  If you can see the symmetrical motifs in the blocks those are the kaleidoscopes.  Each one allows for some amazing quilting.

 

I’ve given a few sneak peaks of “Tilde” the quilt I’ve been working on with Keith Dommer.  It’s now in Portland and will soon be in the hands of the judges and hung for all to see.

In a sense it’s kind of freeing to send one of my quilts out into the world to see the joy (or not) that it brings to quilters.

Like most quilters frequently I see what I consider to be the flaws.  I know where they are cause I made them.  Maybe they aren’t flaws as much as character builders and learning experiences.

Sometimes

every now and again

there comes a moment of breath taking perspective

A moment when the character gives way to something that even I can appreciate.

Sometimes it’s not quite what I expected either.

When I started quilting “Tilde” my intention was to use one particular color of MasterPiece on the back.  I still have bobbins wound from this exercise in futility in my world.  This quilt reinforced what I new already, using cotton in the bobbin with certain specialty threads is not a good plan.  Cotton by it’s very nature is kinda grabby so while my tension should have been balanced and I was using the right size needle and made sure the room wasn’t very humid etc, etc. frogging becomes an important part of the process.

I do have a reputation for frogging quilts and I know that is something that will carry forward.  It’s something I teach my students.  If I don’t like something I prefer to change it color, texture, fiber type.

Tilde will be in Portland.  Ribbon or not, I am happy with this quilt.  Keith is working on the next one.

Happy Quilting!

Teri

 

 

Celebrate and quilt back

Twenty years ago my sweetie and I married.  Part of me wonders where the time went and part of me is filled with memories of love, growth and love.  We celebrated with a lovely dinner at Ruths Chris Steakhouse.  I love him now more than ever and am grateful for the gift of himself.  I can not imagine my life without him and am grateful for the gift of quilting which he brought into my life.  Thank you my love!  We went to dinner with our friends last night and they gave us red roses.  Thank you so much dear friends!

These last couple of weeks I’ve been quilting with purpose on things that I can’t yet show.  All will be revealed shortly.  I can show the quilt backs.  The back on the right is rather fun.  I used Superior’s Nature Colors in a shade of pink on the back and Magnifico in a shade of a blue/purple on the front.    I’m quilting for Jeanie Sumrall-Ajero and as I’m quilting for her she’s working on our next show quilt, which will hang in her booth at Quilt Market and Quilt Festival in Houston.  So if you’re going to either please stop by her booth and see the projects I’m working on right now.  I can tell you there will be a tote bag, two pillows, a small one panel Kaleidoscope quilt and a small two panel kaleidoscope quilt made entirely with – oh – I’ll share with you later.

I can share the back with you though.  The front of this is so pretty.  Oh my, it’s pretty.

Once Quilt Market/Festival starts or Jeanie says the word I’ll have a blog post ready to go.  We have some time, I have a bunch of classes and other things going on in the meantime.  A reminder blog will happen in a few days.

In the meantime. . .

Happy Quilting!

Teri

 

 

Quilters Take Manhattan

After Dark is part of the annual fundraiser for the Quilt Alliance.  The major goal of the Quilt Alliance it to save the stories of quilts and their makers.  As a quilter I often fail to accurately document my quilts.  In a sense having this blog allows me to document my quilts in a fun and unique way because I share the process, names, have dates and know the stories of some of my quilts.  I share good points and not so good points.  The Alliance goes a bit further in that there are audio recordings kept at the Library of Congress and quilters are encouraged to add the photos and stories of their quilts on the Quilt Alliance website.  Meg Cox is the current President of the Quilt Alliance.  We know her from The Quilters Catalog, if you haven’t checked out this book it’s well worth it!  Meg is an excellent speaker and just genuinely sweet.

The evening event was held at the home of Victoria Findlay Wolfe.  Victoria is a most welcoming hostess and just an amazing quilter.  Her daughter was the official photographer and from what I heard in the elevator later on, quite good.  I can hardly wait to see her pics.  I love catching up with quilters and meeting ones I’ve admired for a long time including  Jamie Fingal, whose quilt  ”Metal Measures” graces one side of the Quilt Alliance Swag Bag.  As a side note Victoria has a new book due out in November called “15 Minutes of Play” based on one of her two blogs.

Last night was one of those moments where my natural reserved nature kicks in.  Oh I know most folks won’t quite believe how reserved I can be.  I missed the opportunity (somehow) to meet Kim , neither one of us could quite figure out how we missed each other but I got to talking with Donna from Aurifil and well…I also missed saying hello to Jodie Davis and a few other folks.  My hope is next year to go to the full day event in the City.  Oh and my camera battery died before getting to the event or I’d have a photo of this beautiful quilter who goes by Encyclopedia Brown.  I will tell you this – she gives amazing hugs!!

I’m off to quilt for the rest of the afternoon.  As soon as I can I will show you what I’m working on – right now it’s all for Jeanie and doing some tutorial prep and getting ready for classes.

Happy Quilting!

Teri

 

Teaching & traveling

I’m very grateful for the opportunities that quilting brings.  The opportunity to be on the faculty of a variety of shows and work with quilt shops and guilds is part of a dream come true.  I look forward to meeting you and as Alex Anderson says, we quilters do meet! Over the next couple of months I’ll be:

Hartsdale Fabrics One day Free Motion Quilting 10/6 (yes, I got a Saturday class!)

Olde City Quilts I’ll be there October 11 – 13.

Machine Quilters Expo West, Portland OR October 17 – 20

Quilt Festival Houston TX Oct 31 – Nov 3  On Nov 1st I’ll be working in the Open Studio for 2 hours demonstrating quilted cards

Court House Quilters November 11  I’ll be there for a quilting class and lecture.  I’ll be sending my Modern Quilt to them shortly.

Next year I’ll be at MQX East, AQS DesMoines, working on HMQS and a few other opportunities.

In the mean time I’m quilting for Jeanie Sumrall-Ajero and am eagerly awaiting our next competition quilt, and a few others and sneaking a few minutes here and there to work on a couple of my own quilts.