Finally, we've had a stretch of warm, sunny days and my spring flowers are starting to bloom. Local garden centers are awash with marigolds, pansies, geraniums, and herbs. All of which has made me think about gardening and dyeing. Sunny, windless days are perfect for dyeing. But while I usually use commercial dyes on fabric, I've been thinking about natural dyeing from collected plants....

I'm going to ask you a question and I want you to give me an honest answer. When choosing among items at a grocery store, have you ever selected one over the other based solely on how you could use the packaging to create surface design?...

One thing that always surprises me is that when we require the finalists of any challenge to attach a quilt sleeve for hanging, we get numerous emails asking, "How do you make a quilt sleeve?" Or, "Exactly what kind of quilt sleeve do you want?"...

I have collected a ton of fibers in my career as a quilt artist. Everything from novelty yarns, to silk carrier rods and cocoons, to felt balls, ribbons and metallic threads, wool and silk roving. Not to mention the scraps of thousands of quilting fabrics, sheers, gauzes, saris, and the like. And don't even get me started on found papers and other non-fabric tidbits....

You might have seen this picture from my wrap up of "QATV" Season 8. Yes, I am vertically challenged and need a little boost in order to reach the pedal on the set's sewing machine. The Quilting Arts crew thinks it's funny to capture these little behind-the-scenes TV moments. And frankly, I do, too....

Have you experienced fiber art creep? You know, when you learn one fiber genre, let's say quilting, leads to dyeing your own fabric, which may lead to screen printing or felting...which may lead to spinning...or paper making...and so on?...

No matter what kind of quilts or fiber art you create, fiber and fabric scraps are a fact of life....

A few weeks ago I gave you a little tutorial on how to make a handmade holiday gift card . It was so popular, I thought I'd share some more ideas on making holiday cards, inspired by techniques and designs featured in back issues of Quilting Arts Gifts...