Innholdsfortegnelse for Summer 2024 i Quilting Arts Magazine

SOME OF MY VERY BEST MEMORIES of summer have been sitting on a rock by a lake or atop a cliff overlooking an incredible valley. These moments are often deep in the wilderness at the end of a high mountain trail. Stepping into nature rescues me in the same way that my creative practice does. It calms my mind like an athlete getting in the zone, and everything just flows. Warm summer days have also led me to outdoor adventures in surface design, such as fabric dyeing, painting, and sun printing in the yard. Welcome to our summer issue—a celebration of the bounty of nature and the joy of new beginnings. As I step into this new role, I’m feeling excited about what’s to come. Collaborating with talented contributors, exploring…

Equal parts human rainbow and transformative educator, Cindy Lohbeck is 100% dye-hard! Her colorful contributions to the quilting community include an extensive line of fabric dyeing kits and innovative techniques. She shares a deep knowledge of color, dye, and textiles along with an array of unique tools, tips, and tricks with her students. Cindy has worked in textiles and fabric dyeing for over 40 years. dyehardsstudio.com Rose Legge’s love for mixed media and textiles has inspired a lifelong journey of creating work for shows, writing articles and a book, Art, Fabric and Stitch. She is most drawn to birds and the natural world, and has an endless fascination with faces. @stitchartrose Born and raised in Denver, Diana S. Fox is a studio fiber artist and quilter with a passion for textiles…

There are many options for paint that can be used on fabric. Some impact the hand of the fabric more than others, some are easier to blend—but, for me, the main consideration is the color selection. I enjoy using Createx Transparent Airbrush paints as they have a large selection of vivid colors that are readily available at a reasonable price. Pēbēo Setacolor/Setasilk and Jacquard® Textile Color paints are also excellent to work with and I encourage you to experiment with diluting other acrylic paints to see the results. Check the paint manufacturer’s instructions on how to set the color and make the fabric colorfast.…

presented by the Modern Quilt Guild, QuiltCon 2024 was held in Raleigh, North Carolina, this past February and featured a treasure trove of modern quilts by MQG members. The quilts on the following pages—all award winners—represent some of the best examples of modern quilt art. Their innovative designs, craftsmanship, and artistic expressions continue to improve and excel as QuiltCon grows into a more and more impressive exhibition of its members’ incredible talents. QuiltCon 2025 will be held in Phoenix, Arizona, and planning is already underway for this popular annual event. For more information, visit quiltcon.com. BEST IN SHOW 2024 What We Will Use as Weapons: A List of School Supplies GINNY ROBINSON • INDIVIDUAL MEMBER • 35" × 79" “Gargoyle bookends.” “Pencils.” “Erlenmeyer flasks.” “Jugs of paint.” “Cello cases.” “Building…

• Freezer paper piecing can be a bit of a puzzle when you’re starting out. I suggest beginners use a cross weave cotton like Windham Artisan or a solid dyed fabric. It’s easier to learn the paper piecing technique this way because the front and back of these fabrics are the same and you can’t get confused about right-side up or wrong-side up when stitching—a common dilemma.• To make the 12" × 15" LOVE quilt shown here: Cut 4 gray background strips 3" × 6". Cut 4 strips in each letter color (fuchsia, mustard, green, and blue) 3" × 6". The leftover fabric will be used for improv play and to complete the quilt as shown.• A ¼ yard or fat quarter of each letter color and ¾ yard of…

The benefits of working with felt as a base are numerous and it has lovely body for a project such as this where we are not adding batting or stabilizer—the felt does it all! Basically, felt on a bolt is either acrylic, 100% wool, or a wool-rayon blend. Craft felt is significantly less expensive than wool felt and I use it strategically in my work to cut costs. If you will be using your piece as a table topper, follow the tips here to felt/pre-wash the wool or wool-blend felt so you can machine wash the completed piece later if it ever gets dirty. Craft felt • Craft felt—aka acrylic or polyester felt—is a very budget-friendly purchase and usually comes 72"-wide on the bolt. You can wash it and dry…

FOR ONLY THE SECOND TIME in QUILTING ARTS history, we invited a select group of past Reader Challenge participants to submit their best work for a special gallery. We were so impressed and moved by the entries we received, we decided to feature our readers’ work in TWO separate galleries. In the Spring 2024 issue, we presented Part 1, comprising half of the selected quilts. We are pleased to present the rest of the quilts here for your enjoyment. Double Hexies 13" × 13" • SUE HUNT • SEATTLE, WASHINGTON This quilt represents a lot of my favorite quilt-related things to do—shibori, natural dyeing, and hand stitching—all with hexagons. The background is indigo dyed using a new-to-me shibori technique. The English paper-pieced, hand-appliquéd hexagons were hand dyed with combinations of only…

• Make sure the tea bags have room for air to circulate between them when you are drying them, otherwise they could get moldy.• Some tea bag papers have a polyester content which melts when you iron them, so test them first. I tend to avoid those—but they can shrink in interesting ways if you iron them between sheets of parchment paper. Play with them a bit to see how they respond to heat, etc. and then decide whether you wish to use them or not.• Khadi paper is a type of rag paper that I love to work with; mine was made in India. It has a lovely texture and weight and I use it often.…

• I eyeball the cutting of the rings. I move the fabric toward the rotary cutter as I’m cutting. If you are not comfortable using a rotary cutter in this manner, scissors work too. Safety first!• Once I cut the first outer ring, I often continue cutting smaller and smaller rings from the same fabric, ending with a circle for the center. I save these for use in creating other tree rings.• I don’t use fusible web or pins to attach the rings to the base before sewing. I tried that but found it didn’t help enough to warrant the extra time and expense. Instead, when I’m at the sewing machine, I press down on the rings with my fingers as I’m sewing, ‘wrangling’ them under the needle. If there…

I hear several people lament how awful it is finding a quilt in a thrift shop or second-hand store—or, worse, the garbage. They wail about the fact that someone took time, energy, and money to make this for a certain person and here it is. Did the person not appreciate it? Did they die and this is the best their family could do with it? Someone put a lot of love into this and look where it landed! I, too, have thought these thoughts. I’ve even been the recipient of two very old and worn-out quilts that my brother found at the Salvation Army and used to haul furniture for a friend and when they were done, offered them to me—or were they so bad he should throw them on…

To create a blue sky, start with mixing up two different shades of blue. I like to use a deep blue with a few drops of ultramarine blue plus ultramarine blue with a drop of violet. To create a sunrise or sunset, you will be mixing up five or six different colors! Sunrise colors include pinks, yellows, peaches, grays, cooler blues, and violet tones while sunset color palettes hold more yellows, oranges, dark reds, and purples. TIP: As I’m mixing paint, I sometimes like to add a small amount of a second or even third color—a drop of purple into yellow or a drop of violet or turquoise into deep blue—as these combinations create richer, more interesting effects once the paint travels on damp fabric.…

The starter square will be your inspiration for creating this project. Choose a fabric that you find interesting and fun to work with. Your choice of a starter square is key. You want to love it! Here are a few tips for success: • Nature inspired fabrics are good choices, as most of us can easily draw a leaf or flower.• If you’re having trouble visualizing just a portion of the fabric, create a view finder template by cutting a 3"–4" square out of the middle of a piece of lightweight cardboard or a file folder. Place that on the fabric and move it around to find a portion of the fabric that you want for your starter square.• A starter square works best if the motifs in it are…

Now, you may be creating an entirely different vegetable or motif but if you’re working on a carrot like I did, you may want to add ‘greens’ to the top of it in step 6 on page 66, before you trim away the contrast-color craft felt—or whatever addition may enhance your preferred shape if you are not making a carrot. For the carrot top, I arranged rick rack and satin cords to resemble the stems and zigzagged them onto the craft felt with matching thread. I then snipped pieces of the fibers and placed them in V-shapes at the top of the stems to look like the tops of the greens and zigzagged these in place, too. Add thread jumbles and zigzag them down. I left some bits not completely…

I love the natural look these dried tea bags provide but they are fun to dye as well. • Experiment with either commercial or natural dyes—tea bag paper takes color well.• I use natural dye only; the yellow shown here came from weld plants that were given to me from a friend’s garden plus an alum mordant. I have also used Tasmanian blackwood leaves or native cherry bush with an iron mordant to dye them dark green, or eucalyptus leaves and iron for gray shades. Experiment with native plants in your area of the world; I live in Tasmania so my sources may be much different than yours.• Empty but do not open out the tea bags so that they will be stronger for the eco dyeing process.• Simmer but…

For many, fall is back-to-school and prepping-for-winter time. Fall somehow seems more serious than summer, doesn’t it? Will this change your artwork? What inspires your quilt art as fall rolls around? We’re hoping it’s a productive and enjoyable time to make or plan a quilt and that you’ll share your work, process, thoughts, and ideas about getting back to it after time off. Show us your work and share your story in an email to QAfeedback@goldenpeakmedia.com with “IYT—Get Back to It” in the subject line by June 28, 2024. Please include your name, city/town and state (plus country if not U.S.), and additional information about your quilt such as materials and techniques used, its title, and dimensions. Look for our readers’ responses in the Fall issue. We look forward to…

beautiful sky fabric can inspire new ideas for landscape quilts and by learning the basic technique to paint your own skies, you will be able to create interesting color effects and personalize your work. I paint fabric for the sky in each of my quilts and, if needed, I also paint specific fabrics to be used as water, rocks, or tree trunks. Fabric painting is a simpler process than dyeing as it doesn’t require special safety considerations. It’s easy to get started in a small space and cleans up with soap and water. Being able to create the fabrics I need has given me flexibility in my work and a way to design a unique landscape style. I first tried fabric painting after reading MICKEY LAWLER’S SKYDYES: A VISUAL GUIDE…

• Start with smooth, crease-free fabric that absorbs water drops easily. If water droplets bead on the surface, it will not work well for painting unless you pre-wash it to remove the finish.• Take your time in mixing paint colors. Wet the test fabric, test, dry, and adjust the paints to improve the end results. Patience will pay off!• For a realistic sky, painting in horizontal lines is key. Keep the brushstrokes moving across the fabric so any air bubbles caught in the piece run horizontally.• As already mentioned, paint colors appear lighter once the paint has dried. If you want to further lighten the paint color, either add more water to dilute the paint or mist more water onto the base fabric.• Work quickly so the fabric remains damp…

I use a variety of thread colors and weights in these quilts. Choose several spools of mid-weight or heavyweight thread to coordinate with the Starter Square and highlight the thread work and quilting (30wt–50wt for example). Select one spool of mid-weight or thin thread to blend with the background. (I use 50wt–100wt.) NOTE: In general, err on the side of a lighter rather than a darker-colored thread. Darker threads will be more prominent and show less-than-perfect stitching more readily.…

Now that you’ve experienced our latest issue, isn’t it time for you to become part of QUILTING ARTS? What do you want to read—how about writing it yourself! Share your inspiring work, unique techniques, and new ideas with us and our readers. If you are teaching, blogging about, or exhibiting your art quilts, we want to hear from you! To submit, send us a short summary of your idea along with three images to the email below and we’ll get back to you within 12 weeks. Visit quiltingdaily.com/quilting-arts-magazine-submission-guidelines for our submissions guidelines and tips for creating a proposal. Questions? Email QAsubmissions@goldenpeakmedia.com.…

i’m often inspired by my environment, inside and outside of the home. Marrying my observations with some of the resources I have available—from the kitchen and the sewing studio—this project emerged. I decided to make a long and skinny quilt and chose a simple, organic motif—there are so many: a leaf, a pine tree, a banana, a chili pepper… you can see where I’m going, right? The outlines of these subjects are not complicated to draw and detail can be added with fabric, quilting, and embellishments to suit your taste and skills. I have used these finished pieces both as wall art and as table runners. You decide! MATERIALS • 1 yard paper-backed fusible web (I use Pellon® 805 Wonder-Under®.)• Cotton fabrics in a color range for the motif• ½…

BETWEEN SUMMER TRAVEL AND HOLIDAY CHAOS it can be calming for the mind to set aside some time for deliberate creative play. Our latest challenge gives you a chance to do just that and it’s bite-sized and achievable even during the summer hustle. We challenge you to make an Artful Zippered Pouch to show off your art skills, try a new technique, or incorporate some handmade fabric, embellishments, or satisfying summer hand stitching. This pouch is a canvas to let your work shine. We don’t mean any ole zipper pouch, mind you. Think of this creation as a mini art quilt with a zipper. Your Artful Zippered Pouch should have a zippered opening along one edge, at least one side of the pouch must feature an art quilt-like element, and it…

AS A GROUP, THE INTERNATIONAL FIBER ARTS collective Viewpoints recently began working in a series inspired by C.P. Cavafy’s poem “Ithaka” (translated from Greek by Edmund Keeley), symbolizing the destination of a long journey. Cavafy was able to create a simply beautiful poem, inspired by Homer’s “Odyssey,” making a metaphorical interpretation of the mythical story of Ulysses as the purpose of life. In the context of the poem, Ithaka can have many meanings: it can represent the process to achieve a goal, to recover something lost, or even the act of going through life from beginning to end, to finally return to the origin. The poet speaks to us about the importance of enjoying the path to our own Ithaka, whatever it may be. The concept of Ithaka embodies wisdom—of…