I love people who show me their quilt sketches. They have plans. They draw them out and then they execute them. It’s a great theory. I wish it worked for me. It never has. I can plan all I want. Things shift and change under me, and the thing I’ve planned changes too. Quilt pieces […]
If you’re making nature quilts, you’re likely to need to answer the leaf question. Leaves ripple and rumple and almost never lie flat. And they fold. How do we make that happen on the quilt surface? Here some approaches. defined by stitch I tend to use a free motion zigzag stitch mostly to apply leaves. […]
Some things are an experiment. Some things are a quest. Some things are like the holy grail and you keep searching for them interminably. White is one of those things. When you’re working with thread painting, the easy answer is many shades of grey and then white, or many shades of beige and then white. […]
Commissions force us to do many things. I don’t do realism well. Realism is why God made cameras. Art isn’t limited to realism. But there are people who love it. And need it. Truth to be told, l’m not good at it. So my birds have purple and blue in them, and so do my […]
I’ve written a lot about color because I think a lot about color. I It fascinates me, from dye, to fabric to thread. I’ve been working on a batch of mushrooms for some new quilts and I decided to look at the colors through the color wheel just to codify what I was choosing.’ I’m […]
Last week I was balling up the #10 pearl cottons I dyed. This week I pulled out a bunch of frog drawings and put them to the test. Why frogs? I wish I could answer. I have some pat answers that really don’t cover it all. Mostly because they’re images that resonate for me. I […]
Don’t be afraid to work upside down! You’ll find all kinds of threads that have been fiends are now your best friends.
For those of us who use a lot of embroidery, there are really two go-to stitches: straight stitch and zigzag. There are fancy embroidery stitches, but those two hold up the bulk of my work. The other stitches just don’t maneuver as well. You either want exactly what it can do or it won’t do […]
If all fails, add lime green.
