Teaching at the Milwaukee Machine Quilting Show this Fall

I am very thrilled to say I was chosen to teach 3 classes at the MMQS in Milwaukee this August. I will be teaching 2 art quilt hands on longarm classes, and 1 art quilting demo and trunk show. The dates for the show are August 9-13, 2011. There is a link for the show on my blog header. Please check it out. Teachers and classes will be listed soon.

This is a great opportunity for those that have liked my fiber layered quilt art to take a class with me or watch the demo. I'll post more about the classes at a later blog date.

Winter Post Cards

Today I made 4 quilted post cards for a winter challenge exchange with a fiber art group I joined a couple of months ago. The cards are called "Winter Storm".

I made the cards with piece of batik that was marbled light gray to dark blue. I sectioned off my card spaces with a blue marker. I layered a poly trim, fun fur yarn, angelina, gold organza, silver lace material, crystals, white netting, and foiled stars.






After layering, I quilted it on the longarm with mctavishing, and pebbling. I fused white fabric on the back, and edge stitched it in white thread with a small zig-zag. I then wrote the address on the back, and listed the materials used.


I'm very happy with how these cards turned out.






I hope the 4 ladies that are receiving them like them as much as I do. They are going out in the mail to Indiana, Australia, Scotland, and the United Kingdom.

The Sketchbook Challenge Begins with January

You will see on the left side of my blog page a big gray link for the Sketchbook Challenge. Click it and check out the challenge. The challenge begins this month, January and the 1st challenge for the month is "highly prized". I'll have to mull that one over for a bit and take my sketchbook with me to work on while ice fishing this week. Right now, time, is the most prized thing I seek.

Bookmarks and Sketchbook

This morning before my grandson Mikia had to go home, we made some bookmarks. He misplaced the last one I made for him, so this time we stitched some of my fiber layered art left over from previous projects to patterned scrapbooking card stock. They are awesome. And Mikia went home with 2 bookmarks that he stitched on the machine by himself. Great job for a 9 yr old.

I also filled in 5 pages in my new sketchbook. Now it's marred and I don't have to be afraid of filling it.

Last Fiber Journals before the New Year

Christmas is finished for this year, and here a couple of pictures of the last 2 journals I put together. The lovely orange one was given to a great friend that is a non-quilter/crafter. She immigrated to the US from Germany when she was in her early 20's. She is a great friend and so deserving of this.

The fab purple is a sketchbook....FOR ME!
I'm planning on defacing the inside starting today with some of my scribbles
and other notes that are in other odd journal books.

Doesn't it feel sinful to mar the pristine pages? I have the pristine phobia, and today I'm going to try and break through it, once and for all!

Had a great day with a couple of friends that came over for a couple hours. One was quilting on my longarm and the other made a journal cover. Of course if I make some fiber art, it's like eating chips....I can't eat just one. So here are four that I made today along with the orange journal I made a couple of days ago.

Tomorrow, I have to finish a customer quilt that is 2/3rds quilted.

Journal Covers

Last week I had 3 friends over for a little fun time. We made layered fabric for journal covers. They were made using batiks, snippets, and solvy.






Here are instructions for the journal covers.

1. 5 x 6 piece of orange batik
2. put on a few snippets of contrasting fabric
3. couple of thin strips of organza, fun fur yarn, and fish tail mylar
4. add a little angelina
5. place a piece of solvy on top and pin
6. stitch circles all over in a complimentary thread
7. Dissolve solvy in a tub of water, blot, and iron dry between wash cloths
8. Hand embellish with beads, and jewejry findings
9. Place face down on table and trace the cover of a small journal
10. Trim and apply tacky fabric glue to the journal, place collage on journal
11. press collage to journal and work it till it stays in place.



This was a very fun project and I'm going to take time to make more for Christmas presents.

I'm going to Duluth MN tomorrow (90 mls), and will be going to the Michaels store. Of course there will be some Christmas shopping taking place.