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Fabric designed with baby rice cereal, by Lisa Kerpoe. I just love to design my own fabric. Sometimes, I love it so much, I get all mushy. That's when you'll find me whipping up resists in the kitchen using mashed potato flakes, oatmeal, or even rice cereal for babies. I learned these resist...
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Detail of a quilt by Jo Fitsell using her layered marbling surface design technique. Reports from Fashion Week earlier this year (how many of us knew the term "fashion week" before "Project Runway" came on the scene?) showed that color, graphic design, spots, and fabric that seems...
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I confess, if I didn't love Quilting Arts so much, I'd throw in the towel and spend all of my time painting and dyeing fabric . You see, some day when I finally grow up, I want to be Jane Dunnewold (or Kerr Grabowski). I save any kind of surface design work for the summer when I can work outside...
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WEEKEND PLANS and a GIVE AWAY! Ready for the long weekend? I am excited for two main reasons: the sun is supposed to be out in Boston and I have set aside some much needed craft time. I can’t tell you how relaxing it is to just think about sitting on my back porch with nothing to do but craft....
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I was pulling laundry out of the dryer the other day when I spied something among the folds that looked black, fuzzy, and about the size of a quarter. I dropped the laundry basket and jumped back, convinced I had just seen a giant spider. Then I noticed the fuzzy blob wasn't moving. Gingerly, I stepped...
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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? C'mon, admit it. You know this has happened to you. It...
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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...
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Aren't we all craving signs of spring right about now? I know I am. Heck, I'd be happy to go right to summer! Back at Quilting Arts headquarters in Massachusetts, spring is slow to arrive. In fact, we can have snow as late as May. But everyone on the staff knows that once we get that first warm...
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Every time I come back to our editorial offices back east I'm greeting with more Quilting Arts @10 anniversary postcards. I love it! We'll be featuring some in the next issue of the magazine, so watch for them. Each postcard reminds me of the techniques we've shared with you over the years...
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Do you have hours of uninterrupted studio time? Me neither. I would say that unless you work full time in a dedicated studio, finding time to create is one of hardest things about being an artist. For most people, especially women, art has to get made in between "real jobs," kids, pets, and...
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As I write this, the snow is coming down, I'm wearing extra warm socks and a scarf, and I'm wondering if I remembered to put the ice scraper in my trunk. The very thought of a being outside in a silk slip dress makes me shiver. But oh, if only I had a ticket to Australia, where it's summer...
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If I could sum up the way the world looks to me during the holiday season in one word, it would be "sparkle." Sparkle is everywhere, from the moonlit snow that twinkles like diamond dust to the strings of Christmas lights up on the rooftops, to the flickering candles lit for Hanukkah and Advent...
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I'll bet that if you've been a fiber or mixed-media artist for a while, then you've accumulated a rather large array of tools, gadgets, how-to books and the like. And I'm also willing to bet that, like me, you use only a handful of those items over and over again. In fact, I'd have...
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Congratulations to Barb Forrister on being this week’s Facebook blogger of the week! When Pippa and I were going through all of the blogs that were entered this past week we were amazed by how awesome they all were – it was a tough to choose just one. In the end we chose Barb Forrister’s...
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Kathy York’s quilt, "Fifty and Female and Fearless", graced the cover of Quilting Arts for the October/ November 2010 issue. At Quilt Festival a few weeks ago I had the pleasure of meeting Kathy, and I learned that she is not only a talented art quilter but also a fabric designer! I took...