Show 913 - TQS Quilting Legend 2011

Posts On: December 19, 2011

In our Series 900 finale, beloved quilter, teacher, author/publisher (of over 100 books!), longtime PBS television personality, and 2011 TQS Quilting Legend, the irrepressible Quilt-in-a-Day Lady, Eleanor Burns opens her wonderful log home and spacious studio to Alex, Ricky, and the TQS gang. After Eleanor shares her quilting history and a generous sampling of quilts, we peek in on students at work on a quick-and-easy quilt using Eleanor's Fabric Frenzy pattern. Along the way, Eleanor demonstrates her technique for sewing partial seams, and takes Alex and Ricky on a horse-drawn carriage ride through the quaint town of Julian, CA, where they sample a slice of the famous local apple pie. All in all, a "delicious" experience you won't want to miss!

Show 912 - Doubleheader Today: Landscapes and Longarm

Posts On: December 5, 2011

You can't beat this: Two great teachers hit it "out of the park" in a single episode! First up is certified longarm-quilting instructor Pam Clarke, who uses a Gammill Vision to demonstrate her simple techniques for creating complex-looking quilting designs. Then designer, author, and teacher Joyce Becker steps up to the plate to show some of her wonderful landscape-inspired quilts, and to demonstrate how she "builds" a mini-landscape, adds texture with variegated thread, and finishes with a frame. It's a home run in any league!

Show 911 - May All Your Quilts "Be Colourful!"

Posts On: November 21, 2011

US Air Force Academy Chapel - We return to the United States Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel in Colorado Springs to catch up with Dutch quilt and pattern designer Jacqueline de Jonge, who shares a dazzling collection of her "colourful" quilts, discusses some of her techniques for creating flow through color, and gives us the scoop about what quilting is like in the Netherlands today. She also demonstrates her techniques for paper piecing precise points and curves. As icing on the cake, Ricky shows how to create improvisational, overlapping feathers for machine quilting.

Show 910 - At-ten-tion! Art Deco Quilts, Front and Center!

Posts On: November 7, 2011

Admittedly "drug to a show of blankets" by his wife, Don Linn discovered a whole new world in quilting. The quilt artist, teacher, and author - now known as Mr. Quilt among friends and fellow quilters - describes how he began by quilting for others on a longarm machine, and soon moved to designing his own work. He shares his current passion for Art Deco with a show and tell of his quilts, and demos the "how-I-did-its" of his quilt, Flying High, inspired by this episode's location, the United States Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel in Colorado Springs. Alex adds to the learning with a lesson on how to make "chicklette sticks" (you'll need to watch to understand!), and Alex and Ricky view the Academy's weekly parade formation of 4,300 cadets and enjoy a Chapel tour with Cadet Teddy Reicks.

Show 909 - Techniques, Tips...and Turning "Trash" into "Treasure"

Posts On: October 24, 2011

The work of quilt artist and author Gyleen Fitzgerald may be rooted in tradition, but she never fails to add her own contemporary spin. In this episode, Gyleen shares her method for stitching the "Grandmother's Flower Garden" block by machine using the "butterfly seam," shows how the same technique can be used for sewing a typical Y-seam, and demonstrates how to make a colorful "Trash to Treasure" Pineapple block using her pineapple ruler and lots of fabric scraps. Then, Brett Maddox (Executive Director of Red Crags Estate) introduces the "permanent residents" (AKA ghosts) of our location: the picturesque, circa-1912 Onaledge B&B, in Manitou Springs, CO. (PS - The place REALLY was haunted!)

Show 908 - Wedgies, Danglers, and Funkies...Oh, My!

Posts On: October 10, 2011

An early career in couture clothing gave way to the quilting life for fiber artist, quiltmaker, innovative designer, and colorist Dianne S. Hire...and she's never looked back. Dianne brings along a fantastic show and tell of her unique and colorful quilts, gives us the scoop on how she makes "wedgies" and "danglers" to enhance her work, and partakes in an informative Q&A exchange with our studio audience. Also on tap: Alex shares some of her best sewing tips for when things "go funky!" and we head off to the Katy, TX, home of quilt artist Tom Russell to take a look at his work and reap the benefits of his best techniques and tips.

Show 907 - Get UnRuly: Playing with Words

Posts On: September 26, 2011

Prepare for some fun, as that UnRuly Quilter, Tonya Ricucci, shows you how to get your message across with "word play" on your quilts. Tonya - an author and popular blogger - shares a sampling of her whimsical quilts, and demonstrates her fun-and-freeing techniques and tips for piecing improvisational letters, words, and phrases. Alex "gets a word in" too, demonstrating how to make easy fabric letters with the aid of an index card. Then we head off to the Rocky Mountain town of Estes Park, CO, to check in with textile artist Patty Hawkins, who treats us to a look at her beautiful quilts, inspired by the ever-changing Colorado landscape and crafted from her own luscious fabrics.

Show 906 - From Music to Masterpiece: A New Perspective on Design

Posts On: September 12, 2011

For this show, TQS returns to the beautiful Monument, CO, home of Hugh and Dee Dee Eaton with none other than the renowned art quilter, author, and teacher, Katie Pasquini Masopust. After touching on the high points of her quilting journey, and sharing some of her amazing work, she puts Alex to work on a design exercise that begins with a "no-peeking" sketch drawn to the accompaniment of classical music. (You definitely will want to try this at home!) Katie then shows how to work with the results to create an original quilt design. In addition, Ricky demonstrates the "Flip and Sew" technique on a variation of the Drunkard's Path/Fan block. (You can try this one at home, too: We'll have a pdf of the 8" Swoopty-do Block available on the TQS website.)

Show 904 - The Wonderful World of Embroidered Appliqué

Posts On: August 15, 2011

In 2002, Sarah Vedeler left a career as a software engineer to become a full-time mom - and fell in love with quilting and embroidery. Nowadays, she calls upon her software background to design outstanding embroidery and embroidered appliqué patterns, teaches, and creates beautiful quilts. She joins us to demonstrate how to use the AccuQuilt Go! Fabric Cutter and dies to create embroidered appliqué and shares some helpful hints for giving your digital embroidery "a pop" with quilting. Speaking of quilting: Alex shows how easy it is to create an original quilting design to fill a specific area of your quilt.

Show 903 - Realistic Imagery: How Does She Do It?

Posts On: August 1, 2011

For years, contemporary quilt artist, author, and teacher Velda Newman has wowed the quilt world with her amazing, up-close renderings of flowers, fruit, and other natural subjects. In this technique-and-tip-packed show, Velda demonstrates how to paint on fabric (using an apple from her quilt, Sunkissed) and how to create a realistic, dimensional leaf with pintucks. In addition, Velda discusses how to design for scale with the aid of a photograph. If you've ever wondered how she does it, this is the show that will tell you. Don't miss it!

Show 902 - When Serendipity Strikes: Portrait of a Quiltmaker

Posts On: July 18, 2011

Quilt artist and teacher Lola Jenkins came to quilting in a unique fashion - a quilting magazine literally fell at her feet in a hobby store! - and she began teaching just a few months later. You're in for a special treat as she visits TQS with a show and tell of her vibrant and personal quilts, many of which are "portraits" of people she knows or has been commissioned to interpret in fabric. Lola also demonstrates how to use the various elements in a printed fabric panel to build a fantasy collage quilt, and engages in a lively Q&A session with the audience. If that's not enough, Ricky shares his Caveman technique... and a lucky TQS member will win the demo block!

Show 901 - State-of-the-Art Quilting: Tradition Meets Innovation

Posts On: July 4, 2011

It's a true "multimedia experience" as quilt artist, teacher, and pattern designer Susan Brubaker Knapp joins the TQS gang on location at the home of Hugh and Dee Dee Eaton in Monument, CO. Susan shares some of her traditional and art pieces in a wonderful show and tell, and then - after a brief "musical interlude" (accompanied by Ricky) - she gets down to business, demonstrating her method for making consistently sized vines and her techniques for needle-turn appliqué. She also shows how she designs and creates a quilt using an original photo and her computer. We wrap up with a visit to The Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum in Golden, CO, which opened its doors in 1990 as a showcase for Colorado quilts and quilting.