New Class! Alternatively Bound and Stitched

I'm really excited to tell you about my new class, Alternatively Bound and Stitched, that I will be teaching in Long Beach at International Quilt Festival, Thursday, July 26th.

The focus of this class is not only learning 3 alternative binding techniques that work great with art quilts but also developing strategies for free-motion quilting designs, making a quilt sandwich, discussing; batting, basting, threads and needles, transferring designs to fabric and marking quilts for stitching more complex designs.

Along with making quilted and bound samples in class, there will also be a powerpoint with examples of different ways to think about what kind of stitching motifs to use for quilting.

As I began writing the handout for the class last fall, I found that I had so much information that I wanted to include, that it became a 17 page ebook! that each student will get on a disk in class.

The ebook is a pdf and can be uploaded to a tablet and opened in either kindle, ibooks or other apps for reading pdfs.

I emailed myself the pdf and opened it on my ipad and it worked beautifully.

I have already been asked about selling the ebook, which I will probably do when I have a chance to figure out the best way to do it. Right now I have A LOT on my plate to deal with, so please bear with me. Hopefully in the fall after I've moved and resettled I can get to it. In the meantime come take my class! ;-)

Does color intimidate you?

Do you find yourself choosing the same 'tried and true' color combinations over and over? Do you want to consistently dye bright saturated colors and muted colors when you want to? Can you recognize the difference between warm and cool colors and understand why you would choose one over the other to mix exactly the color you want? 

Join me Friday, July 27 to learn the answers to these and many more questions about Color Theory in sunny Long Beach at International Quilt Festival.

Reading about color is valuable and arranging swatches of fabric into color combinations is helpful, but it doesn't show the different hues that make up a specific color and explain why one swatch combination will look so much better than another that is only slightly different. 

I believe the best way to really understand color is by mixing paint and witnessing what happens as the two colors interact. This is the process it takes to train your eye so choosing color ultimately becomes second nature.

This is a fun, relaxing and informative day, guaranteed to give you more confidence working with color.

I hope to see you in sunny Long beach!

Get Inked in Long Beach!

Wow! It's four weeks until International Quilt Festival, Long Beach. Would you like to immerse yourself in color by learning how to paint fabric with acrylic inks?

Saturday I'm teaching a fun new class 10 Techniques with Acrylic Inks.

Spend a day filled with fun and relaxed exploration, beginning with creating colorful textured backgrounds

exploring mark making with different kinds of stamps 

and drawing with inks using quill type calligraphy and ruling pens.














We'll explore layering imagery with color and marks

cutting masks with freezer paper.

And painting in a transparent watercolor style.

This class is going to packed with lots of tips and ideas of ways you can work with these versatile inks on fabric. I'd love to see you there!  

Click here to see student work from the first inks class.

To see two art quilts painted with acrylic inks check out these step by step blog posts about making 8 of Cups and Black and Bloom All Over.