Saturday: Make it U, friends, Surviving the Runway and Pokey's Surprise Birthday Party

Saturday I taught a Make it University workshop using DeColorourant, a product used to discharge color from fabric using an iron. I have an article on DeColorourant in Quilting Arts magazine after the new year. 

Hanging with Friends

Melly, Rice and I ran into Jamie and Leslie on their way to open studios and had to stop for a photo

In the afternoon, I had my first real down time of the week and spent some time with Melly Testa and Rice Freeman-Zachery.



Surviving the Runway

Click on photo!

Saturday night was the last Surviving the Runway and Melly was the star of the show, so happy to be back with all her friends and cancer free and we were so thrilled to celebrate with her.

The theme was creating a fascinator/ hat out of a cheap black flocked plastic bowler hat with a variety of supplies like craft foam, duct tape, paint, glue, ribbons, feathers and pipe cleaners in less than an hour. Music is playing and there are challenges such as doing a curtsy or dance to get extra supplies for your hat.

Cheryl Sleboda

Melly and I getting our groove on

Catherine Redford, the winner

Now the fun really begins
Following Surviving the Runway, we walked over to the park for Gala on the Green where we ate BBQ brisket and danced some more and after an hour, much to Pokey's disappointment, several of us made excuses to leave early.

We then gathered for a surprise birthday party for Pokey. This was a pretty elaborate party that we began planning several months ago. We had the QA crew in on it to make sure we got Pokey over to the party.

As many of you know Jamie Fingal is a mad Barbie collector and she and Leslie have been using a couple Barbie alter egos in their travels over the last year.

This spurred the idea of planning a special calendar for Pokey with each of us creating a scene for each month with a Barbie alter ego and some way that Quilting Arts has been part of our life, whether it was reading the magazine, incorporating a project from an article or teaching a workshop at MIU. There is even a page with the whole Quilting Arts/ Cloth Paper Scissors staff as Barbies.

Jamie and Leslie set a beautiful table with all the Barbies in the center in various poses and Barbie party favors.

It was a fabulous party, celebrating friendship, Pokey's 40th birthday and our years working with her as the editor of Quilting Arts.



Farewell Houston, it was a fantastic week, looking forward to next year!

Head over to Melly Testa's blog to see her zipper pouch mania tutorial.

Come play with Decolourant at Festival in Long Beach

I'm flying south to meet up with my good friends Leslie Jenison and Jamie Fingal today! Then we're off to Long Beach for Festival on Wednesday!

Thursday night July 28th, at 7pm, at International Quilt Festival, I am doing a Make it University workshop using DeColourant.

 DeColourant Discharge & Color Sampler

We'll make freezer paper templates and foam stamps to discharge fabric and add color all in one step without toxic fumes.

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ATC's for MIU

The other day Pokey posted photos of ATC's (artist trading cards) on Facebook, that she made for MIU (Make It University).  I love her fly ATC and would love to make a trade with her for one, so I made a bunch for the Trading Post wall in Long Beach at International Quilt Festival.

Leslie Jenisen, Me, Pokey and Jamie Fingal

My ATC's were made from left over portions of my Black and Bloom quilt that will be hanging in the special exhibit Between the Spaces.

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Kits, kits, kits....

I keep thinking that I am almost ready for International Quilt Festival in Houston, when I realize there is so much more to do. It would be nice to have some time for art making, but right now it is all about putting kits together, and getting organized for Open Studios.

I am doing something new this year in Houston, I am participating in the Mixed Media Miscellany on Thursday, Nov. 4 from 2-4 pm. I will be demonstrating several of the techniques I used working with tea bags as a medium for collage, like I used in this piece.

There will evidently be 240 people going about the room to watch the demos during this event. I know many people have become interested in this process, so I decided to put some kits together that people can buy, since I know not everyone is as fool hardy as me and willing to stick strange stuff in their printers, lol. The kits have 2 tea bags printed with imagery, various (6) light weight decorative papers, a piece of printed dress pattern tissue, a page from an old book, a reproduction from an 1800's Montgomery Ward catalog,

4 tea stained empty tea bags, 2 pages of copyright free imagery that can be traced onto teabags and a postcard with an image of my quilt for inspiration.

This week, I also put together kits for my Make It University workshop on Saturday, Nov. 6 at 2:45 making the Origami Pop Up Book.

I brought the book sample home with me from the Long Beach show and of course, lost it and had to make another one yesterday.  Luckily, they are pretty quick to make, especially if all the pieces are cut to size and ready to go.

I hope to see you in Houston.

International Quilt Festival Long Beach: Day 2 Open Studios

Friday morning started with a couple hours in Open Studios at Make it University.

My daughter Nina participated in Open Studios for the first time. She displayed one of her Asian ball jointed dolls and the clothes and wigs she designs and makes for them, as well as her sculpted hearts and skulls and a portfolio of her other work.

I was so thrilled to finally meet my online friend Alisa Burke, she is a creative dynamo! 

Here's my good friend Jane LaFazio demoing how she makes her gorgeous felted and stitched fiber work on a needle felting machine.

This is so Jane! You know you are gonna have fun when you're with her.

Pokey, Alisa and I between activities.

My friends Leslie Tucker Jenison and Jamie Fingal who curated the fabulous Beneath the Surface exhibit premiering at the Long Beach show, it will also be exhibited at IQF Houston in November.

In the afternoon I taught a workshop at Make it University making the embossed metal origami pop up book.

Make it University Long Beach, not to be missed!

Workshops  

Classes are by lottery, so be there 30 minutes ahead, $10/each cash

Friday:
12–1pm - Fly Your Own Colors - Jamie Fingal and Leslie Tucker Jenison

1:30–2:30pm- Recycling Remix - Alisa Burke
3–4pm - Embossed Metal Origami Pop Up Book - Judy Coates Perez

Saturday:
11:45-12:45- Fantastic Fabric Flowers -  Alisa Burke
1:15– 2:15pm - Mixed Media Box to Go - Jamie Fingal and Leslie Tucker Jenison; 
5:30–7:00pm - Surviving the Runway: Life’s a Beach; Wonderful assortment of prizes to those who survive the runway!   -Pokey Bolton and the crew!

Open Studios

Friday:
10am-Noon -  Judy Coates Perez and Nina Perez;  
2:30- 4:30 - Jane LaFazio and Pokey Bolton

Saturday:  
3-5pm Leslie Jenison and Jamie Fingal

Sunday:
10am-Noon Jamie Fingal and Leslie Jenison

See you there!

MIU Workshop

Here I am trying not to tower over petite Pokey.

In the afternoon I taught an MIU workshop embossing and coloring metal, that we used to make book covers for an expanding pages book using a basic origami fold for its construction. It was a lot of fun, its a great little introduction to working with metal.

Next up Surviving the Runway...