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

The Buttons That Became Pins

I've continued to work with my beading, following the receipt of the second of Robin Atkin's books, One Bead at a Time. I believe that may have been the first book that she wrote. It's given a name to what I do: improvisational bead embroidery.

I'm trying to make more buttons, larger this time. I didn't do a good job of sizing to the button form. Simply didn't look right so I turned these two "buttons" into pins. The larger one, on top, is 2" in diameter. The smaller one is 1 7/8". I chose to cover the back with Ultrasuede and held the pin back on using Robin's technique.

Tonight I'm going out for dinner with friends so I'll choose one to wear and see if anyone comments!

This has been an odd day as my eyes are at war with each other. I'm going to be having cataract surgery in my right eye in July. I've always considered that my good eye even though my left eye really went from best to worst after cataract surgery a decade ago. Being extremely nearsighted does have advantages. It's like having an 8x magnifying glass when I hold items about 4" from my face. I'll lose that and I'm already mourning the loss.

I've worn contacts for decades to bring me to about 20/30 vision. So that the measurements can be done properly, my contact has to be off the eye for a week. I did negotiate with my doctor to be able to wear the contact for driving. Other than that ... well, let's just say my eyes are very unbalanced without a contact in my right eye. Fortunately I can still bead but trying to use my machines for quilting may not be a good idea. And I think I'd better stay away from the rotary cutter!

Short term pain = long term gain. When I saw my surgeon I showed him a beading project and said, "I'm an artist. I need to be able to do this after surgery."

"You need to see," he replied.

"Yes. I need to see."

-- Joanna

My First Buttons

My adventures with beading continue!

Friday I received Amy C. Clarke and Robin Atkins book Beaded Embellishment. This joins Larkin Van Horn's book Beading on Fabric as my beading library. I had followed links on Larkin's site and found Robin just as she was announcing the 2007 Bead Journal Project. So I joined and made a commitment to one journal page a month for a year ... and it must include beading!

Then, I volunteered to start a Yahoo group for the project. (Don't bother looking for it if you're not in the project. It's a private group for the participants only.)

Being inspired by these wonderful books, I'm venturing into the world of buttons. They are a great way to try stitches and color combinations. Great "carry along" projects too!

What do you think of this first effort?

The background is a barrel cactus in my garden. I thought it would be interesting, a bit different and allow me to shoot in the sunlight.

-- Joanna

Never Say Never!

For the past nine months I have been participating in a closed Yahoo group "Fast Friday Fabric Challenge". This is a group of fiber artists and art quilters who are issued a challenge once a month to create a quilt in a little over a week. Different techniques/themes are chosen to allow members to stretch their artistic talents. Although the group is currently closed to new members, you can see some of the projects in the public blog:

http://fastfridayquilts.blogspot.com/

This little quiltlet (9" x 12") was for the May 2007 challenge. We were tasked to use only one fabric!

Before this challenge was issued I was reading Lesley Riley's book Quilted Memories. She covers a number of techniques including subtracting color with bleach. I read and mentally thought "Nah, not for me."

Then came the challenge. I read about black being a mixture of colors. The result can be "surprising" according to Leslie. So when I was at Quilters Market and saw a black batik that looked solid except for some barely discernable brown I decided to buy some yardage. Still hadn't decided what to to but when I saw "Bab-O Gel with Bleach" at the dollar store I figured, "why not?"

Leslie said the bleaching process would take 2-8 minutes. Per her instructions, I clipped about an inch square to test. No results. Hm. I experimented further and put a length in a cookie pan. Covered with gel. It took about two hours, but the result was a lovely tan batik.

I decided my piece would be a process piece. One of my goals for this year is to really learn to do machine quilting. Earlier this month I took a class from Robbi Joy Elkow where she recommended practicing on two pieces of felt. I grabbed a couple pieces of felt, tore off a section of fabric, used small squares of fusible to secure the fabric to the felt, threaded some varigated thread, and started quilting.

The result is a process piece that was a great learning experience.

-- Joanna

Concerts and Beading in the Park

Each Spring and Fall I enjoy going to the concerts in the park. In high school I played French Horn and have been involved with musical activities from time to time throughout my career.

My concert companion is Sargeant TopGun, my Miniature Pinscher (trivia: NOT a miniature Doberman ... Dr. Doberman developed that breed after deciding he wanted a big dog with MinPin personality). This photo, my favorite, shows him sunning on my patio table with that "I am the king of the house" look. No, he's not spoiled! I'm sure everyone makes homemade treats every week!

Before each concert I take Sargeant to the dog park so he can run around. At the concert he has to be well-behaved so it's great he can expend some energy. We get seated early and have our dinner. I bring him treats (and water) and if I eat anything with meat in it he's sure to get his share. Then there's time to spare. Thanks to an article by Chris Lynn Kirsch "Well-Behaved Beads" inn the Spring 2007 issue of American Quilter, I now take my beading with me ... and the beads don't spill!

Chris' tip is to put beads on the sticky side of packaging tape. The beads are held securely but can be easily removed with the needle tip. I don't get much beading done, but even an inch is an inch completed! Plus it's fun and between the beading and Sargeant it's easy for folks to start conversations with me.

At last night's Memorial Day concert, I especially appreciated conductor Laszlo Veres comment that "America the Beautifiul", a traditional end to the concert, is not "walking music". It is a prayer. He said he'd play a march first so people could pack up and leave early. Some did. None did during the beautiful tribute to our country. I wrote and said I hoped he'd continue this reminder every concert!

Now to get my concert kit prepared for tonight's concert...have a wonderful Memorial Day!

Beading to the Edge of the Mat

When I completed my first beading on fabric art, I simply cut my Timtex-backed fabric about a half inch larger than the anticipated 5" x 7" size. Of course, when I started this first project I had no idea what it would look like or what I would do with it!

After it was completed, Larkin Van Horn, the artist whose book Beading on Fabric inspired me to start the project, commented that the beading ending abruptly looked like a mistake. I took the project, by then named Beginnings, marked the edge of the mat, and spent a couple hours carefully adding more beading so that it would reach the edge. By then I had decided that I would mat it and put it into a picture frame.

I had more of the focus bead and batik background fabric so created Beginnings #2. The photo on the right shows how I mark the mat frame and then remove all trace of the markings.

I use a Clover White Marking Pen (Fine). I was introduced to this several years ago when I began working with applique. This is an unusual pen in that it does not make an immediate mark. It takes about a minute for the white line to appear. Unlike chalk or other pens, the line remains until removed with water or heat.

I didn't want to use my steam iron on the beads so used my Clover mini-iron. I snug the edge or point against the beads. In an instant the marking is gone!

You can see both Beginnings and Begainning #2 here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/shimmers411/BeadingAdventures

Please see Larkin Van Horn's gorgeous artwork here:

http://www.larkinart.com/

As always, comments most welcome!

-- Joanna Strohn

And Your Cat May Hallucinate

Gracious, you'd think a computer expert (me) would be able to figure out this Blogger! But I didn't get to the new Blogger conversion in time. I won't go into what it took to get my account active again but I finally managed.

Mary Stori gave a workshop at the Tucson Quilters Guild on beading. While I've done a bit of jewelry creating, I've never really used beads on my quilts or done beading. I decided I would practice on this piece. Of course, I'd already put the backing on!

I decided to put a beaded border on using one of the border technique taught in the workshop. A little more beading here and there to accent foiled areas. Then I found a couple fish charms and added them.

This is a fun quilt that I really enjoyed creating. It used fusing, zig zag quilting, quilted words, BoNash, foiling, glitter and beading.

You can see more photos of this quilt on my Picasa Web Album:

http://picasaweb.google.com/shimmers411/ChallengeQuilts