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Each time we gear up for another International Quilt Festival Make It University! TM with Cloth Paper Scissors® event, we try to balance keeping popular components with adding new features. As our staff brainstormed ideas for IQF/Chicago April 16-18, one thing we made sure to include was an art trade...
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I knew I had a difficult task ahead of me when my undergraduate thesis advisor informed me that my research on the history of the art quilting movement should focus on only a few innovative quilt artists. There were so many to choose from and narrowing my focus wasn’t easy, but selecting M. Joan...
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I was supposed to spend this past weekend at a friend’s wedding in Baltimore, but thanks to some bad weather forecasts, my flights were canceled and I found myself with an unexpectedly free Saturday afternoon. Naturally, I decided there was no better way to take advantage of the situation than...
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There isn’t normally a great deal of crossover between acting and art quilting , but textile artist Lalla Ward has crossed this unusual divide. Well-known for her role as alien Romana in the BBC television series Dr. Who, Lalla now devotes the majority of her time to fiber rather than film. And...
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We're introducing a new feature to the Quilting Arts Community... Every month I will be cruising the site, noting what people are posting in the galleries and forums, and essentially looking to see how you--our cherished members--are utilizing our community. I will feature some of notable finds the...
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When I think of 3-D movies, I think of the old sci-fi horror flicks my parents used to tell me about where people would wear those funny 3-D glasses. Back then, apparently, they didn’t really work that well and it seemed the glasses were more entertaining than the 3-D effects. Today 3-D is back...
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This January, I’m all about soup. You see, I ate a little too much of this kind of thing while on vacation in Mexico: (the best chicken and mole I’ve ever had in my life) I received a glorious Le Creuset ® French oven for Christmas (basically, a big cast iron sauce pan)... a nd it’s...
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Want to make a unique imprint on your handmade quilts? Learn how to create your own fabric with our latest FREE eBook, Fabric Painting: 5 Surface Design, Paint, and Monoprint Techniques from Quilting Arts . You'll learn how to paint fabric with textile paints, fabric paints, and oil sticks. Plus...
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Of all the elements of design--line, color, texture, shape, form, value, and size--I think the most difficult one to grasp is value. Not only understanding what it is, but how to use it when you're in the process of designing a fiber art piece. How can you use value to your advantage? How do you...
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I love the variety of novelty yarns and fibers available today: thick, thin, sparkly, variegated, fuzzy, sumptuous-and they come in every color you can imagine. They are a feast for the eyes and whenever I see a ball, skein, or even snippets of these yarns, I want to plunge my hands into them and get...
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My college motto, which got me through many tough exam seasons, was ‘work hard, party hard.’ And apparently these words of wisdom still apply. You see, even though we’ve been rather busy at the Quilting Arts office, we managed to find the time this week for a hands-on, artsy evening...
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As the holiday season approaches and everyone gets so busy, I have to remind myself to keep it simple. Simple gifts, simple decorations, simple fabric art projects. For example, instead of doing all the baking and cooking for Thanksgiving plus making all the decorations and crafting personalized napkin...
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One of my favorite holidays is Halloween, and because International Quilt Festival/Houston was early this year, I'm excited to report that I will be at home and giving out candy to costumed witches, vampires, and assorted Jedi this Saturday. This weekend also marks the beginning of El Dia de los...
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Brace yourselves! I think I'm about to set a world record in the Blogosphere for the number of photos in a single blog entry. I took nearly 250 shots at International Quilt Festival/Houston, but I cut the lot down to 49. (The ones I don’t post in this blog entry, I’ll put in the photo...
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Who's joining me in making 35 ATCs (artist trading cards) to celebrate the 35th anniversary of International Quilt Festival/ Houston next week ? Last night I packed all of my Open Studios supplies and discovered I had gotten just a tad carried away in making ATCs recently... Don't they look like...