Author! Author!

Today is a special day!

There's going to be a book signing party at Quilters Market celebrating Jean Biddick and the Tucson contributors to her new book, Blended Quilt Backgrounds. My quilt, Stretching Tradition, is one of the quilts featured in the book.

Two years ago I took a class from Jean on doing blended quilt backgrounds. I brought my laptop to the first class and used Electric Quilt to design the quilt. The reason this is named Stretching Tradition is that the quilt design comes from a single traditional block. To date, no one has been able to guess what block was used! It is, of course, named in the book.

This quilt was completely different from any I had designed previously. I'm not sure if it was the beginning of my path change toward doing art quilts but it does highlight what has become my style: doing things differently with color.

The book contains complete instructions and templates, written by Jean, for recreating the quilt. (So go buy the book!)

I wanted to do something special for the party so decided to create a fiber and bead necklace to wear with one of my pins. It's been many years since I did any jewelry so I had to do some improvisation. I do like the result. It allows me to easily change the focal point medallion.

I love the jewel tone colors and will be making more pins. This is a good way to develop my beading skills. Another advantage is that the projects are small. I can tuck them into a small case and take it with me.

-- Joanna