Fabric with Text: Acquired

I mentioned recently, that when I was at the Quilt Festival in Houston, I was shopping for neutral fabrics with words/text on them.  I came away with practically nothing.  So recently I was browsing the offerings on Etsy.com and came across a seller who had several pieces for sale in her shop.  Yay!  I love one-stop shopping!  I bought these six fabrics (yes, the one at the bottom-left doesn't have words printed on it, but it sort of reminds me of crossword puzzles).

I like having a large assortment of neutral fabrics with interesting prints.  I use them in my backgrounds for quilts like the following.  The printed design of the fabric looks quite interesting, and sometimes different, when painted over with a transparent paint. 

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend!

A Sketch and A Thought

Last evening I was sitting in front of the TV not really focused on much of anything.  One of my sketchbooks was laying on the table next to me, so I picked it up, turned to a new page and this is what came out of me.  I sometimes wonder what brings drawings/sketches out of us and why they look the way they do on that given day.  Was this strange character speaking to me somehow, was my subconscious self telling me to get her out? Have I seen her somewhere and now the far recesses of my memory is remembering her?  Do you think these kinds of thoughts when you create?

Happy Thanksgiving

I want to wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving. And thank you so much for your visits here to my blog. 

I want to shout out a reminder that tomorrow, Black Friday, my Etsy shop sale starts. Today I added some new items that I've had here but have never offered for sale before.   Remember to use coupon code BLACK20.

May your travels be safe and your friends and family be healthy.

Art Quilting Studio

I have an article in the upcoming issue of Art Quilting Studio.

Photo by Margaret Applin Happ

I hadn't even received my copy of this issue yet, when my friend Margaret wrote me about it.  She had pre-ordered the issue and has already received it.  I do hope my copy arrives today.  Margaret so kindly sent me a photo so I could share it with you here.  This publication is put out by Stampington & Co.   I'll probably be watching for the mail to come all day today.

Black Friday Sale

Hi all! Just wanted to let you know that I'm going to have a Black Friday sale in my Etsy Shop. The sale will run three days and starts on Friday, November 25 and ends at midnight on Sunday, November 27. All items in my shop are on sale at a 20% discount. You will need to use a coupon code when checking out in order to see the discount applied to your purchase. Simply type in BLACK20 when you see the area to apply a coupon code.

Now, back to the studio....

Funky Feathered Friends

I finished the tote bag that I shared a photo of the other day, while it was still a work in progress.  The bag was a request from my friend Martha.  She likes red colors and she wanted a bird.  I'm pleased to report that she loves her new bag.

I think I might call these fun and whimsical little birds Funky Feathered Friends.  Not totally sure on that just yet...still thinking.

Here is a peek at another Funky Feathered Friend that I'm working on.  

Hope you are having a wonderful and funky day!

Pattern Kits and 3 Creative Studios News

Today Vicki and I announced that we will be shutting down 3 Creative Studios at the end of the year. You can read all about it <click here>. I've had so much fun working with Vicki and getting to know her more.  She is a very fun and creative person.

Vicki creates the most beautiful hand dyed fabrics and my favorites are her gradients.  I used them in my Growin' Flowers quilt series, pictured below. 



Vicki is having a wonderful sale that includes the Growin' Flowers pattern and the gradient fabric for the background. Read all about the sale <click here>.

Margaret's Mini Canvas Sets

My friend, Margaret Applin-Happ, is having a great giveaway over on her blog.

Margaret recently added some new Thermofax screen mini sets to her already fabulous array of screen designs that she sells. One of these mini sets is what Margaret used to create the images shown on the left.

Oh yeah, back to the giveaway...you will find Margaret's generous giveaway offering <click here>.

Good luck! You have until the end of the day on November 29 to enter. Oh, and if you aren't lucky enough to win one of these mini sets, you can also purchase them from her Etsy shop <click here>.

Tote Making and Cooking

I have been making tote bags the last few days.  I needed a blue tote for a thank-you gift for someone and blue is their favorite color.  So I made this one in all blues.

And a friend of mine asked for a tote bag with a bird on it, so that is the one I am making now.

I had sketched some funky, whimsical birds in my sketchbook a couple months or so ago and thought it would be fun to put one on this tote bag.  I hope she likes it.

When I was in Houston, we ate at an Italian restaurant one evening, called Mia Bella.  It was very delicious and some of us actually ended up eating there two nights in a row.  On one of the nights I ate there, I tried something new to me, eggplant parmesan.  I LOVED IT!  Since returning home, I searched the Internet for some recipes and found one that seemed simple enough.  Here is my resulting meal.

I made some angel hair pasta for a side dish and I really liked how it turned out.  I will definitely be keeping this recipe.  I found the recipe by visiting Foodgawker.com (a site I love, but don't go there if you're hungry).  From that site I did a search on eggplant parmesan and after browsing some of the recipes, I decided to try this one <click here>.  Yum!

Magic Pens are a Disappointment

After posting about the wonderful iron-away pens I purchased in Houston, see yesterday's post, I received several comments from readers about how these pens are not all they are supposed to be (thank you to the readers who shared information).  Evidently the markings reappear if the fabric becomes cold.  So I performed a test with the six colors I got in the packages I purchased.  Here they are, just after scribbling on the fabric.

I took my hot iron and ironed away the pen markings through the middle of the scribbled lines.

And after the fabric had cooled, I put it in the freezer for about 10 minutes.  Here is what it looked like.

It's a little difficult to tell from this photo but some colors reappeared more so than others, but basically they all reappeared to a degree.

I'm pretty disappointed that this is how they work.  I sort of feel ripped off and it makes me wonder if the vendors at the Houston show know this about these pens and purposely neglect to tell you or if they are in the dark, like I was.  I don't want to tell anyone that they shouldn't buy these as I feel everyone should make their own decision about what or what not to purchase and perhaps the pens will work perfectly for some other type of application.  I'm glad I found out how they work before I had used them in a large project and only to find later that the project is ruined because the pen markings reappear.

It's really too bad that they don't work like I was hoping.  How perfect and magical would that have been?

In other news...

See this?

This is a beautiful (and heavy) glass plate that I received from fellow Twelve by Twelve member Karen Rips and her husband Ted.  Ted is a glass artist and Karen had him create a plate for each member of the Twelve by Twelve group.  He made a plate that matched one of the quilts we made for our challenges.  You can see the comparison of my plate to the actual quilt here <click>. And if you scroll through the posts before and after mine on the Twelve by Twelve blog, you will see some of the other plates that Ted created.

Speaking of the Twelve by Twelve group, we have made our final decisions on what our next challenge round will be.  Check out this blog post by Gerrie <click here>.

Have a lovely Sunday!

The Last of the Houston Purchases

These photos are the remaining items I purchased while at the quilt show in Houston. First up are some gel pens.  These aren't like typical gel pens, however.  These pens are thermal sensitive and if you use them to draw on fabric, you can remove the marks with heat, also known as your iron.  I bought two packs, each one had different colors and I was hoping that the pack with the pink and orange pens would work on dark fabrics.  I tested them on black fabric and they really didn't work well.  I do, however, have a white pen that does work on black or dark fabric and it is marketed by Clover.  The pens are by Pilot and are called Frixion Erasable Gel Pen.  There are times when I like to make guideline markings on my fabric and these will be handy for that purpose.  I prefer to iron away my guidelines rather than using a pen that you need to wet or dampen the fabric in order to remove the markings.

My next purchase is a set of rolling rulers.  I will use these when creating borders on drawings when I create quilt designs and any other times when I want a straight line.  I also think they may be fun when doodling or playing in my sketchbook.  You can make circles and ovals with these as well.  Abby is always curious as to what I'm doing in my studio.  She is the one cat that usually ends up in my photos because of her curiosity.

Another purchase I made are these Smooch Spritz bottles.  They have a shimmery substance in them and when you spritz them on fabric they leave a subtle shimmer and a subtle color.  I chose to get the clear shimmer, an olive green shimmer, an orange shimmer and a red violet shimmer.

I also had to get some templates.  I love layering designs on my fabrics when I am painting and these will add some great interest.  There were so many template designs to choose from and I would have loved to have more, but I called upon my willpower to help me through.

I've tried transfer papers in the past and my friend, Margaret Applin, recently told me she uses this one...TAP.  So I noticed a booth that was selling it and decided I'd give it a try and see how I like it.

And that concludes the purchasing spree in Houston.    I'll leave you with some parting shots of Abby.

Have a wonderful weekend!!!  Meow!

Twelve by Twelve Book Giveaway

How would you like a chance to win this book? Well you can have that chance. Just hop on over to Lark Crafts blog and enter to win. They are giving away three quilting books. Can't beat a deal like that! Hurry go over there now!

<CLICK HERE>

Fabric Purchases in Houston

It's difficult to go to Houston and NOT buy anything.  I do have to say though, that this year (my third) was the year that I purchased less in quantity and dollar amount.

One of the items I had on my "look for" list was neutral fabrics to add to my neutral stash.  I love a great neutral and for me they need to have some design on them.  This design can be subtle or not-so-subtle.  I particularly was keeping my eye out for neutrals with writing or text (legible or not) on them.  Sadly there was not much in that category.  Here is what I did get for neutrals. Most of these are fat quarters, and a couple or more are half yards.

My major splurge was a purchase from Wendy Richardson.  I think I've bought some fabric from her every year I've been to Houston.  These are both one-yard pieces.  She purchases commercial fabrics and over dyes them.  What you see here is just a small portion and the two fabrics have a lovely range of dyed color running throughout.

Another fabric designer that I've heard a lot about lately, and many friends were stopping by her booth, is Marcia Derse.  She creates lovely fabrics and here are the three I decided to purchase.

I also purchased a cone of Superior thread in a variegated neutral.  I use this color a lot on my neutral backgrounds.  They have another neutral that I also use that is a bit more gray in tone and after I got home, I saw (from looking at what I have left) that I should have purchased one of those too.  Oh well....there's always mail order.

In my next post I'll share more of my purchases.  Hope you are having a wonderful day!

Post Houston Exhaustion

Wow, I've been home for a couple of days now from my trip to the big quilt show in Houston. I'm still trying to get back to normal. But then it doesn't help when hubby has me outside helping get firewood cut and ready for the winter. I can't decide which is more tiring, firewood or Houston.

I've come to realize something about myself. I'm not a photography buff. In other words, I don't enjoy having my camera handy and ready for taking photos all the time. I do it when I share art stuff here on the blog, but that's about the only time I find that I can tolerate it. So needless to say I don't have a ton of photos to share here from my Houston trip. I do have these from our exhibit and our Thursday night dinner at a fabulous Mexican restaurant called Ninfa's.

The Twelve by Twelve exhibit in Houston was spectacular. Of course I may be a little biased. As you can see in the top two photos, the quilt mosaics were spaced very generously and the space we were in was rectangular in shape and the theme series of quilts all lined the draperies on the inside of the space and the color play quilt series were all hanging around the outside on the draperies. The lighting could have been better.

There was signage next to each quilt mosaic, giving information such as the name of the quilt, it's maker and an artist statement.  The signs also acknowledged the sponsor of our exhibit.  Del Thomas of the Thomas Contemporary Quilt Collection very generously sponsored us and made it possible for the quilts to be shown in Houston and other future shows.   See the Twelve by Twelve blog for future exhibit information.

There are lots of other photos that many of the other Twelves took and if you visit their blogs (see side bar links on Twelve by Twelve blog) and the Twelve by Twelve blog, you should be able to see some more, and probably better photos of the Twelve's Houston experience.

I'll share some of the purchases I made in Houston in my next post.

Getting Ready for Houston

I haven't done much of anything in the studio the last few days and I won't get to now for the next few. I fly out on Thursday to Houston for the International Quilt Festival and I can bet that there will be so much inspiration there that I'll be very anxious to get home and get working on some quilting again. I have been doing some doodling, though, in the evenings, and the next two photos are proof of that.

This first photo is of some quick, loose doodles. I deliberately held the pen much higher on the pen barrel than I normally would, which in turn lets your movements be much more loose and free....not precise and tight. I did find, though, that my hand would inch downward on the pen barrel at times without my noticing it.....old habits are hard to break.

The next doodle is one I decided to add some abstract background coloring to. Again, it was a fast and quick drawing.

I won't be blogging for a few days now, until after I get home from Houston. I've decided to leave my computer at home. I don't want to hassle with lugging it around. And besides I'm going to be busy enough that I won't miss it, right? Yes, I'm trying to convince myself that I will survive for four days without my computer. It will be a trial, and I may start having withdrawals, but I KNOW I CAN DO IT! Please wish me luck.

If you are going to Houston, the Twelves invite you to stop by the Twelve by Twelve exhibit.  The schedule below shows when each of us will be at the exhibit.

Thursday, November 3
10 am to noon: Brenda and Diane
Noon to 2 pm: Kristin and Brenda
2 pm to 4 pm: Deborah and Diane
4 pm to 6 pm: Gerrie and Karen
6 pm to 6:30 pm: Karen and Terri
6:30 pm to 7 pm: EVERYONE!

Friday, November 4 
10 am to noon: Karen and Terry
Noon to 2 pm: Nikki and Terri
2 pm to 4 pm: Gerrie and Kristin
4 pm to 6 pm: Deborah and Brenda
6 pm to 6:30 pm: Nikki and Kristin
6:30 pm to 7 pm: EVERYONE!

Saturday, November 5 
10 am to noon: Deborah and Nikki
Noon to 2 pm: Kristin and Brenda
2 pm to 4 pm: Gerrie and Terry
4 pm to 6 pm: Karen and Diane
6 pm to 6:30 pm: Kristin and Terri
6:30 pm to 7 pm: EVERYONE!

Sunday, November 6
10 am to noon: Brenda and Diane
Noon to 2 pm: Deborah and Brenda
2 pm to 4 pm: Gerrie and Brenda

Bye for now and I'll be back before we know it.