Shipshewana Dreamin’ – Part 3

Posted on June 30, 2015 by edges

Don’t worry, this is my last post about Shipshewana. I’m not a travel brochure. But it was a peaceful getaway not far at all from home and so I just wanted to share.

I had the opportunity to meet an Amish woman who sells hand-quilted Amish quilts from her basement — some of them she works on herself, some of them she contracts out from others, and some she sells on consignment.

(An aside: the stark contrast between an Amish basement and my own is embarrassing. Hers was empty, with a few things on shelves, not a dust bunny or piece of anything unnecessary in sight. Mine is filled with boxes from outdated electronics, old toys, old furniture, old books, old pictures. What a cluttered, junk-filled life we live. )

Here are a few of the quilts she showed me. This is just a sampling as she had many more. Make sure you scroll to the bottom, because at the end is an absolute masterpiece.

While she gave me permission to take the pictures and put them on a blog, she did not want her name given. “What if someone sees a quilt and cannot live without it?” I asked, in my total blundering non-Amish way.

She smiled and gave me a card.

So if you cannot live without one, leave a comment and I will privately give you her info. The prices are very reasonable for the amount of work.

While I did purchase a piece from her smaller-sized collection, everyday I think about driving back out to get the whole cloth quilt. And who knows? Maybe she already sold it.

But we can all still appreciate it.

This is one she did herself. She pieces by machine and quilts by hand.

SHe chose the colors for this, but asked others to do the piecing and quilting. She said she's not good at curves.

She chose the colors for this, but asked other Amish women to do the piecing and quilting. She said she doesn’t like curves.

Hand appliqued and hand quilted. A beauty.

Hand appliqued and hand quilted. A true beauty.

This one is a masterpiece. She told me an Amish woman in Pennsylvania gave it to her to sell on consignment. It is a whole-cloth quilt, and the hand quilting is so perfect it almost made me cry.

THe whole quilt was for queen size but with overhang, so very large. the entire edging was in scallops with these lovely feathers.

The edging was in large scallops with these lovely feathers.

Shipshewana Dreamin’ – Part 2

Posted on June 27, 2015 by edges

My first stop of the the day was Yoder’s Department Store which opens at 8 am. Honestly, they have a TON of fabric, and every book, (including modern quilting books) imaginable. I love this place.

I had vowed to myself during this whole trip that I would only purchase items unique to the area. I love Moda fabric, but I can get that at home. So I began hunting for “local” goods.

First thing I ran into was this display of reproduction toweling. I could purchase by the yard and got myself a vintage-looking design. They had some very cute tablecloths in carriers that looked like handbags and I’d really like to use the toweling to make a handbag…add a little ricrac and I’m good to go! Also in the display was a special edition “Yoder’s 70th Anniversary” hand towel. While waiting in line to check out, another woman told me she was going to use hers to create a quilt around it. What a great idea!

Of course, I purchased a little bit of anything that had some local charm.

Do you collect Row by Row? Get your Shipshewana version at Yoder’s.

Next stop is the Davis Mercantile where you can find many stores, but I just had to see the famous Lolly’s Quilt Shop.

Lolly’s is another wonderful place with everything you could want or need — current fabric lines, reproductions, batiks galore, and plenty of solids, books, patterns. Found a wall of Kaffe Fassett florals, with an opposite wall of all his colorful stripes. Really the largest selection of Kaffe I’ve ever seen.

Lolly’s has a “sister” store downstairs at the mercantile, called Cuddle Corner.

Don’t miss it.

I was amazed at the wonderful things being done with minky!

Fresh textures, colors and patterns…all in minky! If you have a baby in your life, you need to stop here. You won’t believe how soft and cuddly this stuff is. If you’re like me, you’ll want one for your own home for winter snuggling.

Special tip from the gal at the counter: a stretch needle works best with minky. We have this discussion at work from time to time…what needle for minky? This gal says stretch is best and I believe her, but I will try for myself as soon as I sew up my quilt.

Around every corner in Shipshewana, you’ll find merchants that are selling hand-quilted quilts. Having done a bit of this, I fully understand the time, effort and work that goes into these kinds of handmade masterpieces.

In the next post, I’ll share a few Amish handmade quilts I was shown when an Amish woman showed me the quilts she sells for herself and for other Amish women from her home.

Hint: absolutely breathtaking.

Adventures in Transfer Artist Paper

Posted on May 12, 2015 by edges

I love transfer artist paper. I’ve used it a number of times with differing effects.

You can purchase this online or at craft stores, possibly your local quilt shop.

It works only with an ink jet printer, and your results will come easier to you if you have a little bit of experience in photo software, like Photoshop or Corel.

You print the image onto the paper and then iron the image onto your fabric. The BIG difference between TAP and printing directly onto fabric paper is that the transfer actually becomes a part of your fabric…any fabric. It never washes out. It’s permanent.

You can see on this image that this botanical transfer prints right over the fabric and the underlying pattern shows through. This particular print worked beautifully because it ended up looking like dew on the plant. The instructions say you can print on wood, glass, stone, basically anything, as long as you can iron on it. It takes a little practice but here are a few tips:

–Always use a hot DRY iron — no steam.

–Remove the transfer while it’s still hot.

–Illustrations tend to look more interesting than photos, but worth trying both.

–Reverse anything with lettering before you print it on TAP or it will read backward.

–Cut as close to the image as possible before you iron it on your fabric.

–Try ripping the edges of your paper before ironing. It gives a torn, aged effect.

–Experiment, experiment, experiment! If you are a photography junkie like me, this is a great way to play with your images.

Here’s an example from the upcoming Software Inspirations program I’ll be teaching next week:

I also added some embroidery to this project, which is actually a travel pillow.

The final image is from a Messenger Bag, the project I created from a previous Software Sampler lesson — a good text example of using Transfer Artist Paper to convey an emotion, a worn timelessness.

I’ll leave you with my all-time favorite quote from Macbeth:

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

Photography and Stitching on Organza, with a Touch of Needle Felting

Posted on May 8, 2015 by edges

I worked on this piece several years ago, but I recently brought it out again because of my work with Transfer Artist Paper. (I’ll show you that in my next post.)

In this example, I transferred my photography onto printable organza. You can buy sheets at an art supply store or even an office supply store…certainly online as well. They are designed for ink jet printers only.

I played with black and white photography and used a (more or less) abstract photo and began a collage. You can see from the photo that I added a number of different layers of texture — background fabric, organza photo, embroidery.

And believe it or not, the whitish fabrics floating a little ghost-like around the edges, are used-up bounce dryer sheets. They are shredded and needle felted onto the surface, with embroidery on top. (Incidentally, the photo is a detail of a wrought iron gate on the side of the road, which surrounded an old farm family tomb. It is just down the street from my house. The gate has since collapsed and been replaced with something much less ornate. But the tomb remains.)

In the detail below, you can get a good look at the needle felting used to attach the organza and the dryer sheets. On the organza, the more felting I did, the more the organza began to sort of pull apart and shred, which gave it a wonderful, antique faded look.

The embroidery over the top added a whole new level of detail and interest. This is one of those experimental pieces that gets more interesting the closer you look. I really enjoyed playing with textures other than simple quilt cotton. Our sewing machines are designed to sew through many different types of fabric and materials. While quilt cotton is easily accessible and stunningly designed these days, you just never know what fun things you can use in your “art quilting” travels.

Daffodil Delight

Posted on April 17, 2015 by edges

Because this is my first year…

I was worried whether they would turn out. Wondered if they would ever bloom. How can something so beautiful be sold at Costco in October for $4 for a pack of 25?

What a wonderful world.

Oh yeah.

The Rhythm of Life

Posted on April 5, 2015 by edges

Daffodils.

Iris.

Peonies.

Peony tree.

It may be early April, and we may even still get some snow.

But in the garden, optimism reigns.

And teaches me, once again, to celebrate the rhythm of life.

Art and Art Only

Posted on March 27, 2015 by edges

“Art and art only can cause violence to be set aside.” –Leo Tolstoy

For anyone with a child in the school system within the last 15 years, you know what STEM stands for: Science, Technology, Engineering, Math.

Experts (MANY experts) tell us that’s what all our children must be trained in, in order to move the country forward, in order to get jobs, in order to be successful.

Do you agree?

As for me, I have mixed feelings. No doubt, STEM provides key strengths for our kids to make a living in the future. No doubt, we all need these skills to build infrastructure, cure diseases, and solve problems. No doubt.

Where, then, in society, do we learn more subtle skills? Things like anger management, empathy, caring for one another, caring for the planet and the rest of the world around us? Or even less subtle skills like critical thinking, decision-making, morality, justice and local and global citizenship?

In the last election, only 12% of 18-30 year-olds even bothered to vote. I wonder what percentage of them own a smart phone. My guess is somewhat more than 12%.

“Art and art only can cause violence to be set aside.”

Tolstoy had a wide vision of art: literature, paintings, music, poetry, drama. Soft skills to say the least. Don’t get me wrong. I love doctors, scientists and engineers…(I’m married to one). But STEM is only useful when it is accompanied and partnered with creative thinking, creative expression, beauty, appreciation, and acceptance of our common humanity.

My embroidered tablecloth and fabric tulip vase. I ‘ll teach it at a Software Inspirations class.

Late February

Posted on February 26, 2015 by edges

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening

by Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sounds the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Do You EQ?

Posted on February 19, 2015 by edges

If you haven’t heard of this yet, EQ (Electric Quilt) is software used for designing quilts.

And it’s very reasonably priced.

I had the opportunity, recently, to learn EQ7 and get to know EQ expert, writer and educator Barb Vlack. Within minutes, she had us designing quilts. Barb will be teaching Electric Quilt at International Quilt Festival in Houston. If you are interested, I highly recommend her class.

As you can imagine, the program gives you rotary cutting instructions, fabric yardage and templates to complete your design. Their website Electric Quilt offers training, books, downloadable fabrics and tons of other support materials. The blog, doyoueq.com offers a quilt club, challenges, and a stunning, stunning quilt gallery of customer’s designs, laid side by side with the quilts they then produced from the designs.

Did I say stunning?

After only a few minutes of playing in the software, I designed this quilt.

With another click it became this.

Now it may take a little longer to actually sew it.

Or I can choose to just enjoy it and sew it later. Or never sew it.

But it’s still fun to discover the possibilities — my unique possibilities. You can create your own appliques, and with a plug-in, you can even create your own embroidery. The ideas are endless. The program comes pre-loaded with something like 4500 blocks and designs, so if you never create a block yourself, it will still keep you busy for the rest of your life. And you can also display fabric instead of just colors. These images I’m showing? They would make great greeting cards — more ideas.

I could see myself getting lost for days in this software.

But what a terrific way to challenge ourselves, learn new techniques and explore design.

Do you EQ?

Maybe you should.

Polka Dot Finale

Posted on January 13, 2015 by edges

I am crossing the finish line.

Still sewing the binding, but the quilt label is done, the sleeve for hanging is complete and all I have left is the last bit of hand stitching to pull it all together.

The red background is twill, the tree is wool and the rest is cotton, with a wide variety of thread weights for applique.

For everyone who participated in the Polka Dot Fabric Exchange, I THANK YOU! Your fabric is lovely, especially when it’s pieced together with everyone else’s!

I really enjoyed challenging myself with this project, as it was a meaningful way of bringing together quilters from around the world.

For fun, I thought you might like to see the creative journey, step by step in images. Dedicated to quilters everywhere…we’re all on the same family tree!