Needle-felt Sweater Purse Class

Saturday we had a fun day at The Fibre Studio in Charlotte making needle-felt purses out of felted wool sweaters, everyone's turned out so cute! The girls could either bring in a felted wool sweater or use one of ours, or they could bring a purse they had knitted and felted. Even though most used the same basic pattern and layout, because of the diversity of what they started with and their choices of color and embellishments, each one turned out completely different! I love the velvet leafy border Sonja chose for her knitted/felted bag, and Christi's bag was just adorable with it's little rhinestone buttons on the back. Pam's bag was so colorful and abstract, what fun! And then we had some beautiful bags in periwinkle, purple, and charcoal gray, each of them a work of art on their own. The girls worked very hard to come close to completing their bags, most of them just need lining and to attach the straps, and did a magnificent job! Here's a group "before" shot, and then the beautiful "afters".

Art Quilt Exhibits

There are a couple of phenomenal art quilt exhibits in Cary, both inspired by the element of water. They're by PAQA-South (Professional Art Quilters Alliance), and run through the end of March. The ArtQuiltsRivers exhibit is at the Cary Arts Center, and the ArtQuiltsWater exhbit is at the Page-Walker Arts and History Center. A broad range of techniques is on display by these very talented art quilters: felting, dyeing, shibori, quilting, photo transfer, beading, and upcycling fabrics and things, just to name a few. Here are some photos of some of the quilts.

Felting at The Fibre Studio

I'm so excited to be teaching my Needle-felt Sweater Purse class at The Fibre Studio in Charlotte this Saturday, March 16! All it takes is a felted wool sweater or bag, I'm bringing lots of goodies for the "embellishment buffet" like these yummy hand-dyed silk velvets, metallic mesh in a rainbow of colors, sparkly Angelina fibers for a bit o' the old bling, hand-dyed merino fibers, yarns, and curly fibers to name a few. We'll poke and embellish to our heart's content, then turn that old wool sweater into a purse worthy of an artiste!

This will be a totally different (but equally fun!) class than the one we had this past Sunday, where we rolled up our sleeves and pulled out the elbow grease and Dawn for our Wild Wooly Flower class! The girls made some gorgeous flowers, each one turned out totally different, no 2 alike. They should be very proud of their unique creations..I know I was proud of my students!

Charlotte Quilt Show

I had such a treat this past weekend - I got to go to a quilt show and not work! The show had filled up last fall before I could get my paperwork in as I was getting ready for Houston, and so I had a break from vending and decided to go and be a "spectator". Wow, I could get used to that! As much as I do love vending the shows and visiting with people, it was nice to actually walk around and shop, see the quilts and special booths like the art doll guild's booth, and visit with folks I ran into.

The show had lots of great demos, and I was so lucky when I first arrived to find Pat Lorenz sharing how to dye her lovely silk scarves. There were several gals there I knew, and I enjoyed Pat's demo and repertoire so much. Then right across the aisle was a nice machine I'd never seen up close - a feltloom! The gal was happy to show me all it's tricks and how it worked, pretty neat...I guess us "woolies" always find each other. The quilts were lovely, the art dolls exquisite, and lots of goodies were available for purchase...all in all, it was a great show, here's a few photos of some things that caught my eye.

Water Pixie

Yesterday I visited the Charlotte Quilters Guild show as a spectator, wow! That was so different for me, such a treat to be able to look and network to my heart's content. Brought back memories of a few years ago when my daughter Maxi Clontz helped me vend this show. She was still in high school and met a friend from Charlotte there; when things slowed down toward the end of the day, she got bored and drew this lovely Water Pixie. I thought her artwork was so beautiful, too precious to waste! And so I decided to develop it into a pattern for a pillow or wall hanging. I used a blue ombre fabric for the background and added   the larger elements: the tree, clouds, island, and of course, her fairie. Then I "fussy-cut" flowers and plants to add color and visual texture to the piece, fusing some to the pillow but fusing some to another fabric and then cutting them out so they were a little dimensional. I added a bit of shading and highlighting with fabric inks, especially on the pixie and sunshine in the background. I then quilted the piece with free-motion quilting (I have all of this in the pattern including the quilting lines) and added a bit of beading for a little bling! Prairie points are my finishing touch to edage the pillow in purple batiks, who doesn't love purple? I hope you enjoy this celebration of my daughter's artwork...you can show your support by voting for this pillow in at www.quiltinggallery.com in the Quilter's Show and Tell, ours is the last quilted pillow, the Water Pixie; leave a comment to be eligible to win a free quilters' international cookbook!

Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival..the Quilts!

Can't have a quilt show without the quilts, and this year's show featured some truly amazing work, here are some of my faves. One exhibit I truly loved was very different and was called "Not Your Traditional 9-patch"..can you guess which quilts were in this one? One of my favorites in this area was a quilt of different scenes that included grommets filled with photos representative of the scenes depicted in the little quilt blocks, so clever and unique! Another thing I noticed at the show was the profusion of dimensional work, 3-D flowers and such. We also had a visit from Phyllis, who had made this adoraable owl pincushion from my #165 "What a Hoot Pincushion" pattern. And I have to give a big shout out to Carolyn, she did an amazing job of looking after the booth when I was teaching and we had a great time, couldn't have done it without her. We had such a good time reconnecting with friends there, and as always, a fun time at the Embassy every night.