Daily Blog

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Pantone began its "Color of the Year" program in 2000.  This year, for the first time, two colors were chosen, and here they are: Serenity and Rose Quartz.

What is the Pantone "Color the Year?"  Here is what Pantone has to say,

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Michael James was our TQS Quilting Legend in 2013. Michael serves as Chair and Ardis James Professor of Textiles, Merchandising, and Fashion Design at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (which is also home to the International Quilt Study Center and Museum). In this show (1313)  members are  treated to insights on the collections from Michael and Carolyn Ducey, Curator of Collections. Michael reveals how he transitioned from painter to textile artist, and the evolution of his work in the process. In addition, he shares a technique for enhancing a wholecloth quilt, and welcomes us to his home for a tour of his studio, a peek at his fabric collection, and a preview of the newest piece on his design wall.

Now his latest work is on display at the museum.

 

 

Click here to see the exhibit.

Ambiguity & Enigma: Recent Quilts by Michael James, runs through February 20, 2016.  According to the Catalog's Foreword by Curator Carolyn Ducey, the exhibit:

 

"includes what may be this artist’s most cohesive and introspective work to date. Somber, dark, and mysterious, they play bold strokes off ethereal sky spaces, and stabbed marks against lyrical, though interrupted, linear networks. Leaves, branches, grasses and water remind us of the inexorable cycling of the seasons, death and rot leading to new life leading to death yet again. While the broad vistas of the Plains can seem hopeful, they can be lonely and can seem oppressive too, especially when the sky lowers and bears down ominously. The presence of the landscape can be as discomfiting as comforting. Its expanse can as easily fill one with despair as with optimism.

James’s newest quilts have grown out of a very personal experience of loss and mourning, yet they aspire to universal resonance. His sorrow and pain are familiar to each of us, and have no less impact for that ubiquity. Our human destiny is to live, to love, to lose, to mourn. These quilts embody one artist’s reflections on that destiny."

(Photo: Elegy (flatland) 2015 from the International Quilt Study Center & Museum)

 

Ambiguity and Enigma: Recent Quilts by Michael James

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When you have a damaged quilt, what do you do?  Do you try to fix it? Do you throw it out, keep it as an heirloom, or do you "up-cycle?" Look what they did at www.heirloom-couture.com.  What do you think?  Awesome or sacrilege?  And what do you think of the price?

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Click here for an interview with Leah Day about her quilt, "Release Your Light." What inspired this quilt? What does Release Your Light mean? What parts are fabric and what is painted? (Is a bed sheet involved?)

Do you know about Quilters' S.O.S, created by the Quilt Alliance?

Here's their definition:

Quilters' S.O.S. - Save Our Stories (Q.S.O.S.) creates, through recorded interviews, a broadly accessible body of information concerning quiltmaking, both present-day and in living memory, for scholarship and exhibition. This grassroots project continually captures the voices and stories of quiltmakers and posts the transcribed interviews here. Our downloadable how-to Manual has everything you need to conduct your own Q.S.O.S. interviews. Our archive for the original audio recordings and photographs is the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.

Star Members can also learn more about Leah in Show 1712: Free Motion Practice Makes Perfect.

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At WeAllSew.com, Annie Smith of simplearts.com shares some free-motion warm-up exercise tips.  She uses these warm-ups to test batting, thread and presser foot options.

Star Members can watch Annie in Show 209: Fabric Detective.

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During our Stash Buster series, we shared a tip for making fabric twine using your scrap fabric.  Go retro this Holiday Season and keep things simple.  Make your own Candy Cane Twine that will bust your scrap stash (which leaves room for more fabric shopping!) AND looks great on presents wrapped in brown paper.  MyPoppetMakes has all the details to get you going.

Love the idea and have more scraps to use up? Brighten up the floor in your space here.

Add a fabric collage card (from Sue Bleiweiss on our Projects Page) to the gift
and you are really chipping away at that stash, while creating a unique and personal touch.

Watch Sue Bleiweiss' show (1608)

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Leah Day began free-motion quilting a decade ago, and has spent a lot of hours making it look easy.  Her ease and fluidity did not come naturally, but she certainly makes it look as if she was born to quilt!  Leah shares her journey from novice quilter to the stunning patterns she produces today.  Her online teaching via her blog outlines how to get started with simple designs, how to move to more complicated patterns, and when to set aside a design that isn’t working.  She discusses the process start to finish, from sketching ideas on paper to hiding threads at the end. 

Then it's Laura Gaskin's turn to demonstrate her amazing and intricate embroidery pieces, many of which are inspired by nature.  Laura does all her embroidery by hand, then finishes many pieces with a fabric border.

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This is a quilting bee in Douglas County, MO. Watching this video will make you appreciate the community that is involved in making a quilt, and looking at some of the handwork on the quilts will demonstrate this Ozark community's dedication to its work.

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I love how the pieces interlock.  Do you know what this block is called?  Bet it would look great next to other similar blocks.

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A TQS Member shared this recipe from Sue Spargo's newsletter.  "Angel" chicken seems just right for the holidays, but you might have a devil of time fitting into your clothes after you eat it.