Sew Embellished! Give-A-Way

To celebrate the publication of Sew Embellished!, we are having a blog tour.  Eleven bloggers are involved and you will have the opportunity to visit each of their blogs over the next 11 weeks to win a copy of Sew Embellished!  However, if you cannot wait, you can always go to your local quilt shop or Amazon to buy a copy now.  Or if you want a signed copy from me, head to my etsy shop.

In the book I have shared many of the techniques that I use to personalize my quilts.  I feel like I have said so much of this before, so without further ado, leave a comment and let me know if you have done any embellishing before or if this will be your maiden voyage.  REMEMBER that your comment must have an address where I can reach you.  Sometimes the address is a no reply blogger address.  You can have 2 chances to win if you are one of my Followers or if you sign on as a new follower.  I will be picking the winner next Sunday, May 6th.

Here is the list of blogs that are participating in the tour.  There are a variety of quilters and artists and I think you will enjoy the blogs if you haven't already visited.  You can enter to win a book at each stop.

May 7 Kelly Meanix www.pinkadotquilts.blogspot.com

May 14 Bea Lee www.beaquilter.blogspot.com

May 21 Lisa Quintana www.michigoose-life-quilts.blogspot.com

May 28 Margarita www.margascrafts.blogspot.com

June 4 That Patchwork Place http://blog.shopmartingale.com/

June 11 Debbie www.debbiesfiberwork.blogspot.com

June 18 Diane www.yarngoddess.wordpress.com

June 25 Kathy Loomis www.artwithaneedle.blogspot.com/

July 5 Darlene www.sewcalgal.blogspot.com

July 9 Karen Musgrave www.connectionsbyKaren.blogspot.com

July 16 Cheryl Sleboda www.muppin.com

Wednesday's Wanderings #18 - Sew Embellished!

If you have been anywhere near me, my quilt guild or my blog within the last month or so, you know that this is the day that I have been waiting for.  My book has arrived!!!

 

In it I share the techniques I use to personalize my quilts.  It also has directions for some small projects that I call "embellished beauties". 

WW's topic has to be the arrival of my books, even though travel is my usual theme.  It needs to be in the finished quilt as one of the milestones of 2012.   I have hesitated putting a person with a face on a block.  Faces are not easy, especially when they are neckless!  But I wanted to share my jubilation.

Please let me know if you have found Sew Embellished! useful, informative and fun. I hope it is everything I wrote it to be.

Quilt Shop Stop

 Road trip:  Endless Mountains Quiltworks

 

This is a great shop in the Scranton, PA area.  After spending a couple of days soaking in the tranquility of our little lake in the mountains, I was getting a little restless.  The shop is not around the corner, but now I know it definitely is worth the drive to Tunkhannock.

 

The owner, Jeannette is so friendly and warm.  We had emailed and spoken several times since she wanted some samples from Sew Embellished! for a Shop Hop. 

 

 

She also has copies of !Quilt Fiesta! (which I was thrilled to sign) and the new Martingale calendar with one of my quilts in it.  She sold out of Sew Embellished!!!

 

Behind us are tons of bolts of batiks.  The shop also has lots of clear bright colored fabric, reproductions and any other type of fabric you could want. Go to the website to check it out.  I was so enthralled that I forgot to take photos.

 

The shop also is a sponsor of the "Airing of the Quilts".  This is what the website says:

 

"Imagine a scenic town known as the gateway to the Endless Mountains on a crisp autumn day with hundreds of quilts hanging from buildings, homes, storefronts, and porches all along the street. Yes! That's our 'Airing of the Quilts' in Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania on the first Saturday in October." 

 

It looks like we may have our own Sisters Quilt Show right here in PA. 

Here is the website if you want to read more.

Airing of the Quilts

On the drive home, we came across the most amazing Victorian house that I have ever seen.  I do not know the name of the town, but it is very close to the quilt shop. You could tell that lots of love was put into it:

 

 

Here's a close-up of the upstairs circular room:

 

 

I would love to see the inside of that house.

 

Wednesday"s Wanderings #47 - Frosty Flakes

"Frosty Flakes"

That's the name of my pattern in the December issue of The Quilt Life.

This is the best issue ever.  I know I am a bit biased.  Really more than a bit.  LOL

Ask for the magazine at your local quilt shop.

This is my picture in the section with the contributors' bios.  Yay for Bailey.

They are also doing a giveaway of my book, Sew Embellished!

Here's the project:

It measures 34"W x 47"H .

I couched a 12 wt metallic thread to create the wintery background. 

 My favorite thread for this technique is from Wonderfil. 

 I couch with a layer of batting so that I quilt the block

at the same time as I am couching the thread.

This is my "naked" snowflake with the couched background

 for this week's Wednesday's Wandering block:

 It measures 6 1/2" x 8 1/2"

The article includes directions for creating your own unique snowflakes out of felted wool.

Here it is embellished.

The fabric I used for the project in The Quilt Life was designed by Karen Combs for Troy Corp.

They were kind enough to send me samples of some of their Midnight Blue collection to use for the project in the magazine.  From the moment I saw it I knew it would be perfect

 (and I am very partial to blue and white.)

So I thought I would share my joy and good fortune.

BIG GIVE-A-WAY

I will send the winner a copy of

*The Quilt Life

*10 Fat Quarters

and

* 3 yds of iridescent rick rack

all to one of my faithful (or new) readers

To be eligible to win this great stuff you must leave a comment and let me know that you are a Follower.  If you do not receive a confirmation e-mail from me, it means that you are a No Reply Comment Blogger.  This means I cannot contact you if you win, because there is no e-mail address.

Please, please, check the logo on the right side bar of my blog.  

The winner will be chosen this Sunday and will be posted here.

Congratulations to Barbara Sarnofsky, the winner.

It's Here

It's here.  The best package came in the mail. 

 An advance copy of MY NEW BOOK! 

The name?

Sew Embellished! 

artistic little quilts, personalized with easy techniques

Click Here To Order

It's beautiful.  Martingale did a wonderful job with the photography. 

The focus of this book is the type of quilting I have been doing since 2004, when I made my first art quilt. It 's about infusing your personality into your pieces with words and photographs and embellishments.  Half of the book details the techniques that I have used to add whimsy and heartfelt sentiments to my quilts. The other half of the book provides small projects that can be used as a jumping off point to make your quilts unique.  Most of the pieces are small and can be finished in a day.  You can stitch by hand or stitch by machine or use a combination of both.

This is the perfect book to learn how to:

•  Add embellishments to your quilts
• print photos on fabric
• put words on your quilts
• create your own embellishments from polymer clay
• create small personalized art quilts
• recycle orphan quilt blocks
• add excitement to your projects by creating unusual edge treatments

If you are new to embellishing, you'll find encouragement to take the first steps.  If you have experience with embellishing, you'll find some new techniques.

The book will be available  April 17th. You can be one of the first people to own the book. Pre-order your copy by clicking below the photo of the cover of the book.  I will sign it and either hand deliver it to you (if you are a local guild member) or ship it to you free of charge in the U.S..  (Contact me for international shipping costs.)  I can't wait to share it.

New Friend/New Shop

My morning started with my annual mammogram.  Arghhh!

But my afternoon was wonderful. I drove to The Round Bobbin with my friend Linda to meet a new friend that I met on-line.  Now I know that sounds kind of creepy, but here's the story.

Back on September 6th, the theme of my Wednesday's Wanderings was my birthday.  Since I love cake, I made myself this whimsical cake.

I made one for my WW and one to give away on  to celebrate. 

 Judi won the giveaway and I was so happy that she did. 

 She told me that it would be wonderful to win and it would cheer her up

because she lost her son on 9/11. 

 So I was so thrilled when she was chosen using a random number generator, but here's the rub.

I couldn't get in touch with her because she was a NO REPLY COMMENT BLOGGER!!!

I then pinned the piece to my design wall to enjoy myself. 

Then a few weeks ago Judi's name surfaced as she left a comment on one of the computer lists to which I subscribe., and it said Judi from PA.  Hey, I'm from PA! I e-mailed Judi and it turns out she lives not far from me. I was so excited and knew I had to get this piece to her.

What's better then to meet a new friend at a new quilt shop that is located halfway between us.

That's the story behind my meeting a stranger that I connected with on the internet.

Now that stranger is my friend.  We have so much in common and couldn't stop talking.

Some projects from Sew Embellished!

A wall of fabric!

On the far wall are bolts of batiks.

View when you enter

This section of the store is all about wool with lots of patterns by Gretchen Gibbons.
If you like her book, Pennies From Heaven, you would have a field day here.

One of her wool projects that is available as a kit.

Yay for quilting and beautiful fabric and new friends.

Nothing could be better - especially after a mammogram.

I Love Blue

Blue is my favorite color. I love everything blue. I try to control myself and not make every room in my house blue. Sometimes blue is a popular color for decorating and sometimes it is not. It seems to go in and out of favor. It is the same with quilting fabric. So I try to keep a nice assortment in my studio stash so that I can always find some. I have even filled a big plastic bag with lots of my blue and white fabric with the intention of making a few scrap quilts.

When I saw the newest Karen Combs' fabric collection called Midnight Blue, Riverwoods, I knew I had to have some. I loved every single fabric. And they were perfect for the winter themed project for the The Quilt Life that I had been asked to design.

Here's a little sneak peek. I had a lot of fun doing some embellishing. I found some gorgeous rick rack in an etsy shop. I couched metallic thread to get the feel of snow. Look for the entire project this fall.

Today is also the day I am to choose the winner of Sew Embellished! I put the names in a hat and pulled out the winners name. Congratulations to:

Martina of Basil, Switzerland!!

Starting tomorrow, the book blog tour will continue. Visit Kelly at

www.pinkadotquilts.blogspot.com

It's Quilt Show Season

 

It's quilt show season and this is a great local show.  Come and be inspired by local quilters and do a little shopping with vendors.  

I am thrilled that I will be there in the afternoon for a book signing.  You can see all the projects in Sew Embellished! plus I will be doing a Curvalicious demo.

  I'll be bringing dupioni silk and lots of tools for sale.  

Bob DiCarli will be there in the morning with his latest book, that's hot off the press.

Stop by and say hi.

And don't forget to sign in for the giveaway.

The Fun Has Begun

The fun has begun. 

 Martingale has a new blog called Stitch This! 

 I love this name and I also love their new whimsical bird logo. 

 Today's post is about Sew Embellished!, my book!!!

 Jenny did such a wonderful write-up that it makes me want to start a new project.  Take a look and enter to win a free book!

Stitch This!

The Genesis of a Quilt

I am often asked two questions. One is if I sleep? The answer is "not much". The other questions is how does my brain work when it comes to my quilts. Honestly I don't even know myself. Sometimes when I have an idea, everything flows smoothly from inception to completion. That's a beautiful thing. It makes my heart sing. But sometimes it does not go so smoothly. That is the story with this quilt aka large tablerunner. It measures 25" x 54".

My goal was to use my stack of shot cottons that I purchased a few years ago. They are kind of like my iridescent silk dupioni, but not really. The warp and the weft are 2 different colors. They do have a handwoven look.

I had a bunch of fat quarters, so this size limited what I could create. I started with a tablerunner.

I used a Curvalicious based design. The colors made me think of Fall and also Craftsman colors, except for that bright yellow and maybe that pink. This just didn't do anything for me. So I took it apart and sewed it together in a different configuration.

I love the way the Curvalicious strips change color as they flow into one another. Now how to take advantage of that. And with the additions of circles, I wasn't happy.

At this point I printed a photo of the quilt without the circles. It would be easier to cut this and move sections, as opposed to ripping and stitching the actual quilt. It made me think about changing the orientation.

I liked it, but I thought another section was needed for balance. I had to scrounge for fabric, and I had just enough.

It became the first project that I quilted with my longarm. The variegated thread gave a nice look. I learned a lot about my new machine. I'm glad this entire thing was an experiment.

I added a bunch of folded triangles at each of the ends. I developed this technique for my book

Sew Embellished. They are very easy to add after the quilting is done.

And they add a nice finish. Maybe it needs a few beads for embellishment!

 

Posted with Blogsy

The Jersey Shore

 I just returned from a 2 day visit to Toms River, NJ and the Beachplum Quilters.  This is an energetic, fun-loving group of ladies with a new and fearless leader.  They have big hearts and do lots of community outreach.  It reinforces for me,  if someone needs a comfort quilt, ask some quilters!

After a well attended lecture Friday night, I retired to my hostess' house. Now I have been a bit intimidated about staying in a guild member's home.  I am a terrible sleeper and get up around 3 AM. I prefer to stay in a local hotel.  But I was wooed by the program chairperson, yes you Genny, to stay in the President's home.  She told me I would have to make time to have a cup of tea and sit and enjoy the view of the water.  Well I am a sucker for a water view.   I slept in her amazing sewing suite, complete with a bathroom , a closet full of fabric, a comfy day bed and an amazing cat collection.  This was my favorite.  I am partial to the Halloween variety.

In the early morning, I took my handwork and settled into a beautiful sunroom with wicker furniture and stitched away with my waterview.  For breakfast, her husband made blueberry pancakes from scratch.  Yum.  Thanks Ellen and Rich.

Saturday was workshop day.The ladies did a great job.

BTW, Rich makes the most gorgeous reproduction thread caddies and cabinets. This one is made from beautiful birdseye maple.  I definitely could have slid one into my overnight bag, but my Mother taught me better!  Check out his website to see a better picture.

This was my last gig until next March.  I'll be taking some time to regroup and doing some fun projects and developing some new talks and workshops for 2013 and getting ready for my next book, Sew Embellished! to come out in April.  I'll be posting my travel schedule for 2012 after the holidays.

Have a great Thanksgiving.  I have so much to be thankful for this year including all of you that take the time to read about my adventures in quilting and my crazy sense of humor.  Please keep reading.