The Hot Summer Blog Giveaway Continues

with a downloadable copy of my DVD Design, Paint & Stitch from Interweave and a free spot in my online Color Theory class!

My DVD is about making painted whole cloth art quilts, it covers: 

The design stage, how I use photo-editing software to manipulate and size the original design.  
The painting stage, the tools needed for painting; an in-depth review of the types and properties of paints, strategies for painting, using freezer-paper masks and painting backgrounds. 
Machine quilting a wholecloth quilt; from planning and marking to batting, basting, and free-motion quilting. 
Then several non-traditional binding options for art quilts are covered.

For a chance to win, please leave a comment, between now and the end of the giveaway: midnight Friday, August 19th, telling me what technique or class you would be most interested in learning from me. I'll announce the winner, chosen by random generator on Saturday August 20th, remember to stop back to see if you're a winner.

If you would like to take Painting Fabric for Wholecloth Quilts with me, there are still a few spots in my class at Create in Lisle, IL, next week, Wednesday, August 24th.

Now, so that no one feels like they are going away empty handed, I'm posting a tutorial on one of the binding techniques included in my dvd.


Making a couched binding.

Besides doing a faced binding, another way I like to finish artquilts is to couch twisted cords around the outside edge.  It's a simple, clean, but a little fancy, edge treatment.

After blocking and trimming the quilt, I lay out several yarns to audition them, choosing yarns that have similar colors to the painting.

The first thing I do to prevent any cut quilted threads from unraveling is do a straight stitch very close to the trimmed edge around the whole quilt. 

To add more of a gilded look befitting the renaissance theme of this quilt, I used a metallic gold thread and zig zag stitched around the edge of the quilt twice with a fairly tight stitch but not quite a satin stitch. Sometimes a dense satin stitch around the edge of a quilt can stretch it and make it ripple. I was not too concerned with making a solid gold edge around the quilt, just add some extra sparkle next to the couched cording. 

I attach the cords by holding them under the quilt and sew a few straight stitches to secure the yarns to the back side of the quilt. Using an open toe foot and monofilament in the top, and a coordinating thread in the bobbin, I hold the clockwise twisted yarns up against the outside edge of the quilt and zig zag over the twisted yarns and the edge of the quilt.

This is a slow process, because the yarns tend to get very twisted and tangled if you are not careful. I usually put a couple of the yarns in separate little baggies to try and keep them from rolling away and really making a mess. I start twisting the yarn clockwise down the first side of the quilt, working a few inches at a time, when I reach the corner, I twist the cords counter clockwise for the length of that side of the quilt. Then I twist them clockwise again on the next. Switching directions of the twist on each side, helps manage all the yarns and keep them from tangling up too much.

When I reach the beginning, I pull the yarns to the back and do some straight stitching over all the yarns to lock them in place and trim away the ends.

Ta da, a simple clean finish.

Next, head over to Kelli, Lyric and Melly's to see what they have in store for you!

Wed August 17 Kelli Nina Perkins 

Thurs August 18 Lyric Kinard 

Fri August 19 Melanie Testa 

PS If you haven't yet, you should also stop by

 Carla Sonhiem

 Diana Trout  

 Gloria Hansen 

 Tracie Lyn Huskamp 

 Jane LaFazio 

 Jill Berry 

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Hot! End of Summer Giveaway

Fiery Chicago summer sunset

 My fabulously fiery friends are simply too hot to handle this summer!

Be inspired and feed the fire of your creativity with some of the most creative publications and DVD workshops out there.

Visit each blog on the scheduled day for that person (!!!) and leave comments for chances to win in this hottest of summer giveaways!

Wed August 10 Carla Sonhiem

Thurs August 11 Diana Trout  

Fri August 12 Gloria Hansen 

Sat August 13 Tracie Lyn Huskamp 

Sun August 14 Jane LaFazio 

Mon August 15 Jill Berry 

Tues August 16 Judy Coates Perez  

Wed August 17 Kelli Nina Perkins 

Thurs August 18 Lyric Kinard 

Fri August 19 Melanie Testa 

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Laura models my tree skirt

Today was the PAQA (Professional Art Quilters Association) meeting where art quilters from all over the midwest meet to share info on exhibition opportunities, classes, accomplishments and their latest work. During our show and tell portion of the meeting Laura Wasilowski, ever the comedienne, modeled the Christmas tree skirt I designed for this years Quilting Arts Gifts magazine, who knew it could double as a wearable garment.

Check out this mixing gradations of paint tutorial Cloth Paper Scissors editor Jenn Mason put together based on one of my paint mixing techniques from my new dvd Design Paint & Stitich.

My first DVD review!

Wow, I just got my first review of my new DVD and I haven't even seen it yet!

Relentless Toil said... 

 The DVD arrived last night. WELL DONE! You sounded and looked fabulous, confident, and well at ease.
And oh, how I wish I could see more of your quilts in person.   I have some questions, if you're willing to share:    

1. Where do you get your titanium needles? What a good idea.    

2. What's your favorite wool batting?    

3. I've only ever found my Jacquard and Setacolor paints in small jars, maybe 2-4 ounces. I have this inkling that getting the paint out of those small jars and into squeeze bottles would in and of itself be excessively wasteful - there's just not that much there to begin with. Am I barking up the wrong tree? Are you starting out with bigger jars of paint? 

First off, I want to say thanks for the great review!!!!!!! I think I am my own worst critic. These are  great questions, that I know others will want to know the answers to as well.

1. The titanium needles are made by a Japanese manufacturer named Organ. They can be found online with a google search or sometimes you can find a vendor at Quilt Festival or Superior Threads. Superior has made a deal with Organ to sell their titanium needles under their brand name.

2. My favorite batting is Hobbs heirloom. If you buy it in a bag, the batt can get pressed into flattened wrinkles, to get the fibers to relax, fluff up and regain their loft, you will need to lay it out flat and spritz it with water or if you have a hand held steamer you can run over the top of the batt a few inches above the surface and it will fluff right up. The other option is to buy it by the yard off the bolt from a quilt shop that carries it or directly from Harriet Hargraves shop it is wrinkle free if you do that.

3. I go through a lot of paint, so it doesn't always make sense for me to buy little jars. I like to buy the basic colors in larger sizes from either Blick or Dharma Trading and transfer them to boston round plastic bottles with screw tops.

When you have paint leftover paint in the jars after pouring all you can into plastic bottles, you can add a little water to the jars, shake them up and pour several complimentary colors on a peice of fabric, scrunch it up a little on top of plastic sheet and let it dry. For added effects throw some rock salt on a piece of wet painted fabric and let it dry. The next day iron it with a press cloth on top and enjoy!

Design, Paint & Stitch DVD Preview

Interweave has just posted a preview of my new DVD Design, Paint & Stitch. You have no idea how hard it is to watch yourself on these things, lol!





Here's the promo info:

Add paint to your quilt with an array of painting techniques!

After providing a brief overview of the materials she uses, award-winning fiber artist Judy Coates Perez covers:

The design stage including how she uses photo-editing software to manipulate and size her original designs

The painting stage with a look at the tools needed for painting; an in-depth review of the types and properties of paints is included

How to machine quilt your wholecloth quilt, from planning and marking to layering, basting, and free-motion quilting

Non-traditional binding options for art quilts

Learn the various steps that Judy takes to create an art quilt—from working on the initial design, to painting and quilting, through the finishing techniques.

Can't wait? Also available in download!

Coming Soon!

Really, I always feel a little shy when it comes to promoting stuff like this, it's so hard to toot your own horn, but I taped a new DVD with Interweave when I was in Cleveland last month. It is due to hit the store shelves in a couple weeks. Below is the outside cover of the dvd, if you click on the photo you should be able to see all the details.

This DVD is filled with as much information and demonstrations as I could squeeze into an hour. I cover a lot of the tips, tricks and products that I have found work best for me when I make art quilts. Later in the month I will do a few blog posts to supplement some of the info on the DVD. You can pre-order Design, Paint & Stitch here.