I am happy to have Cindy Needham, as our June FMQ Expert, for the 2012 Free Motion Quilting challenge. You may recall a previou...

I am happy to have Cindy Needham, as our June FMQ Expert, for the 2012 Free Motion Quilting challenge. You may recall a previou...

Pat Ferguson, CZT, dropped by yesterday with her mom to pick up some Zentangle supplies. She also brought some small quilts. As soon as we saw them we asked if we could share them in our blog and she agreed. These Zentangle quilts were about eight or nine inches on a side. On the square ones (and since a classic Zentangle has no obvious orientation) Pat had sewn a diagonal pocket in each corner on the back so they could hang in any direction with the aid of an inserted dowel. Nice touch, Pat! Here's a closer view of the above quilt's reverse side. You can see more of Pat's quilting at her website. Thanks again, Pat, for bringing those wonderful quilts and letting us share them with our readers. Click images for larger view.

I am happy to have Cindy Needham, as our June FMQ Expert, for the 2012 Free Motion Quilting challenge. You may recall a previou...

I am happy to have Cindy Needham, as our June FMQ Expert, for the 2012 Free Motion Quilting challenge. You may recall a previou...

I am happy to have Cindy Needham, as our June FMQ Expert, for the 2012 Free Motion Quilting challenge. You may recall a previou...

I am happy to have Cindy Needham, as our June FMQ Expert, for the 2012 Free Motion Quilting challenge. You may recall a previou...

I am happy to have Cindy Needham, as our June FMQ Expert, for the 2012 Free Motion Quilting challenge. You may recall a previou...

I am happy to have Cindy Needham, as our June FMQ Expert, for the 2012 Free Motion Quilting challenge. You may recall a previou...

I am happy to have Cindy Needham, as our June FMQ Expert, for the 2012 Free Motion Quilting challenge. You may recall a previou...

I am happy to have Cindy Needham, as our June FMQ Expert, for the 2012 Free Motion Quilting challenge. You may recall a previou...

I am happy to have Cindy Needham, as our June FMQ Expert, for the 2012 Free Motion Quilting challenge. You may recall a previou...

I am happy to have Cindy Needham, as our June FMQ Expert, for the 2012 Free Motion Quilting challenge. You may recall a previou...

Welcome to the 2012 Free-Motion Quilting Challenge Tutorial for February. First, I want to clarify that this blog is copyright protect...

I am happy to have Cindy Needham, as our June FMQ Expert, for the 2012 Free Motion Quilting challenge. You may recall a previou...

The last few weeks have been full with maximizing my time in the studio getting ready for show season. I received some constructive feedback from Quiltcon and am looking forward to implementing some of the suggestions I received from my students. I really value my students opinions and am extremely appreciative for the feedback I receive. I know it takes a little extra time to fill out those worksheets, but it really helps teachers/educators to see what is working and what can use some improvement. One of the things that was mentioned to me in class and appeared on my evaluation was a suggestion to include in my handouts, a visual of where the class was headed. The student suggested that this would make sense of all of the "parts" from the get go. I took this to heart and have drawn out a full page handout of the "end product" for all of my classes. This has turned out to be a great tool for me in structuring my classes and creating a timeline and class outline to follow. Just this simple page has helped me to make sure I can fit everything I need into the time slot without missing any important parts. This was a wonderful suggestion and very constructive, thank you, anonymous one!! I'm teaching my Broken Wreath class as a 2 hour lecture/demo in a week. (What?! How is MQX already almost here??) I've taught this previously as a hands on class, so the format will be quite different for me. This drawing (pictured below) has been a great tool for me and I hope my students will find it inspiring and useful as well. Find all of my MQX classes here. Broken Wreath Handout You can see my class sample adheres quite closely to the handout. In addition, I have started using contrast thread (gasp!) to show the stitching on my samples. I will be using a high contrast for my demo/lectures as well, (also a bit of feedback I am honoring :) so I figured it would be good to get comfortable with. And, who doesn't love lime green? Broken Wreath class sample Ghost Shapes class samples below: Ghost Shapes class sample More ghost shapes: Ghost Shapes class sample Ghost Shapes class sample Ghost Shapes Compositional Quilting-The Path: The Path That is about all I have time to share for today. Really looking forward to meeting some of you in class at MQX, New Hampshire next week. If I miss you there, maybe you'll be in Springfield, MQX Midwest, OR maybe at Machine Quilters Showcase in Cedar Rapids?? If none of the above follow me here, once I return from the East Coast I'll share what I anticipate to be an amazing show. On the tail end of my New Hampshire trip, I am visiting my brother in PA, who lives close to Lancaster, if you are a quilter you know what that means.... Amish country here I come!! Have a wonderful week. And as always, thank you for taking the time to read. xo

Welcome to my blog where you will find many different aspects of my artwork. Please feel free to look around at all the exciting things happening here at Aartvark Cre8tions.

The last few weeks have been full with maximizing my time in the studio getting ready for show season. I received some constructive feedback from Quiltcon and am looking forward to implementing some of the suggestions I received from my students. I really value my students opinions and am extremely appreciative for the feedback I receive. I know it takes a little extra time to fill out those worksheets, but it really helps teachers/educators to see what is working and what can use some improvement. One of the things that was mentioned to me in class and appeared on my evaluation was a suggestion to include in my handouts, a visual of where the class was headed. The student suggested that this would make sense of all of the "parts" from the get go. I took this to heart and have drawn out a full page handout of the "end product" for all of my classes. This has turned out to be a great tool for me in structuring my classes and creating a timeline and class outline to follow. Just this simple page has helped me to make sure I can fit everything I need into the time slot without missing any important parts. This was a wonderful suggestion and very constructive, thank you, anonymous one!! I'm teaching my Broken Wreath class as a 2 hour lecture/demo in a week. (What?! How is MQX already almost here??) I've taught this previously as a hands on class, so the format will be quite different for me. This drawing (pictured below) has been a great tool for me and I hope my students will find it inspiring and useful as well. Find all of my MQX classes here. Broken Wreath Handout You can see my class sample adheres quite closely to the handout. In addition, I have started using contrast thread (gasp!) to show the stitching on my samples. I will be using a high contrast for my demo/lectures as well, (also a bit of feedback I am honoring :) so I figured it would be good to get comfortable with. And, who doesn't love lime green? Broken Wreath class sample Ghost Shapes class samples below: Ghost Shapes class sample More ghost shapes: Ghost Shapes class sample Ghost Shapes class sample Ghost Shapes Compositional Quilting-The Path: The Path That is about all I have time to share for today. Really looking forward to meeting some of you in class at MQX, New Hampshire next week. If I miss you there, maybe you'll be in Springfield, MQX Midwest, OR maybe at Machine Quilters Showcase in Cedar Rapids?? If none of the above follow me here, once I return from the East Coast I'll share what I anticipate to be an amazing show. On the tail end of my New Hampshire trip, I am visiting my brother in PA, who lives close to Lancaster, if you are a quilter you know what that means.... Amish country here I come!! Have a wonderful week. And as always, thank you for taking the time to read. xo

The last few weeks have been full with maximizing my time in the studio getting ready for show season. I received some constructive feedback from Quiltcon and am looking forward to implementing some of the suggestions I received from my students. I really value my students opinions and am extremely appreciative for the feedback I receive. I know it takes a little extra time to fill out those worksheets, but it really helps teachers/educators to see what is working and what can use some improvement. One of the things that was mentioned to me in class and appeared on my evaluation was a suggestion to include in my handouts, a visual of where the class was headed. The student suggested that this would make sense of all of the "parts" from the get go. I took this to heart and have drawn out a full page handout of the "end product" for all of my classes. This has turned out to be a great tool for me in structuring my classes and creating a timeline and class outline to follow. Just this simple page has helped me to make sure I can fit everything I need into the time slot without missing any important parts. This was a wonderful suggestion and very constructive, thank you, anonymous one!! I'm teaching my Broken Wreath class as a 2 hour lecture/demo in a week. (What?! How is MQX already almost here??) I've taught this previously as a hands on class, so the format will be quite different for me. This drawing (pictured below) has been a great tool for me and I hope my students will find it inspiring and useful as well. Find all of my MQX classes here. Broken Wreath Handout You can see my class sample adheres quite closely to the handout. In addition, I have started using contrast thread (gasp!) to show the stitching on my samples. I will be using a high contrast for my demo/lectures as well, (also a bit of feedback I am honoring :) so I figured it would be good to get comfortable with. And, who doesn't love lime green? Broken Wreath class sample Ghost Shapes class samples below: Ghost Shapes class sample More ghost shapes: Ghost Shapes class sample Ghost Shapes class sample Ghost Shapes Compositional Quilting-The Path: The Path That is about all I have time to share for today. Really looking forward to meeting some of you in class at MQX, New Hampshire next week. If I miss you there, maybe you'll be in Springfield, MQX Midwest, OR maybe at Machine Quilters Showcase in Cedar Rapids?? If none of the above follow me here, once I return from the East Coast I'll share what I anticipate to be an amazing show. On the tail end of my New Hampshire trip, I am visiting my brother in PA, who lives close to Lancaster, if you are a quilter you know what that means.... Amish country here I come!! Have a wonderful week. And as always, thank you for taking the time to read. xo

I am thrilled to have Sarah Vedeler as our November FMQ Expert, for the 2012 Free Motion Quilting Challenge, and deli...

December is always my time to snug in and get my new quilts started, handbooks rewritten, and get ready for the new year. Fortunately for me our move went smoothly and I'm all snugged in and ready to rock and roll. My goal is to have three new linen wholecloth quilts completed by June, one small wholecloth silk quilt done by the Road to California show in January, and oodles of new class samples ready for the classroom. Two of the three linen quilts are almost designed and I finished designing the small silk wholecloth today and it's finally ready for the machine. I thought it would be a great teaching opportunity to share the journey of the small wholecloth quilt. I am always telling my students to take a design, revamp it and make it their own...that's what I do! I have lots of the Dover books with all kinds of designs and I was inspired by a design featured in a book with tile designs. I liked the design but it needed some help. I cut, pasted, threw away, recopied, redrew, etc. and finally came up with something that was pleasing to me. I love to use my mirrors to duplicate designs and see how they will work as a wholecloth. Decision made...I LOVE it! I retraced it into a four-block section and placed the paper on my light table. I have some beautiful butter yellow smooth Dupioni silk for this piece and placed it on top and have spent five evenings tracing this. Finally got it done this morning. It still needed a border so I shrunk one of my stencil border designs, copied it lots, cut it apart, and fudged to fit...I taped it together and placed it underneath the yellow silk. I traced the feather spines only as I want to do free-form feathers. Once all the marking was done I pin basted the whole piece. Because this is a wholecloth quilt it needs to be straight basted to stabilize it and this was done with my walking foot using a large stitch and Superior Threads' Vanish Lite thread. This is a water soluble thread that washes out when the quilting is complete. I straight basted in all four directions. Once the straight basting is completed I can remove the pins if I wish. I plan on using a beautiful sea foam green Kimono Silk for all of the main quilting designs as well as a matching yellow silk for the background textures. I also used a full thickness wool batting. I will take pictures of my journey as I go! I will have some blog posts coming up sharing my three linen wholecloth pieces I'm working on...I'm very excited about these and can't wait to share. Hugs, Cindy :)

The last few weeks have been full with maximizing my time in the studio getting ready for show season. I received some constructive feedback from Quiltcon and am looking forward to implementing some of the suggestions I received from my students. I really value my students opinions and am extremely appreciative for the feedback I receive. I know it takes a little extra time to fill out those worksheets, but it really helps teachers/educators to see what is working and what can use some improvement. One of the things that was mentioned to me in class and appeared on my evaluation was a suggestion to include in my handouts, a visual of where the class was headed. The student suggested that this would make sense of all of the "parts" from the get go. I took this to heart and have drawn out a full page handout of the "end product" for all of my classes. This has turned out to be a great tool for me in structuring my classes and creating a timeline and class outline to follow. Just this simple page has helped me to make sure I can fit everything I need into the time slot without missing any important parts. This was a wonderful suggestion and very constructive, thank you, anonymous one!! I'm teaching my Broken Wreath class as a 2 hour lecture/demo in a week. (What?! How is MQX already almost here??) I've taught this previously as a hands on class, so the format will be quite different for me. This drawing (pictured below) has been a great tool for me and I hope my students will find it inspiring and useful as well. Find all of my MQX classes here. Broken Wreath Handout You can see my class sample adheres quite closely to the handout. In addition, I have started using contrast thread (gasp!) to show the stitching on my samples. I will be using a high contrast for my demo/lectures as well, (also a bit of feedback I am honoring :) so I figured it would be good to get comfortable with. And, who doesn't love lime green? Broken Wreath class sample Ghost Shapes class samples below: Ghost Shapes class sample More ghost shapes: Ghost Shapes class sample Ghost Shapes class sample Ghost Shapes Compositional Quilting-The Path: The Path That is about all I have time to share for today. Really looking forward to meeting some of you in class at MQX, New Hampshire next week. If I miss you there, maybe you'll be in Springfield, MQX Midwest, OR maybe at Machine Quilters Showcase in Cedar Rapids?? If none of the above follow me here, once I return from the East Coast I'll share what I anticipate to be an amazing show. On the tail end of my New Hampshire trip, I am visiting my brother in PA, who lives close to Lancaster, if you are a quilter you know what that means.... Amish country here I come!! Have a wonderful week. And as always, thank you for taking the time to read. xo

Anything is possible, one stroke at a time.

[Disclaimer: I by no means claim to be the authority on the subject. I consider Diane Gaudynski to be the Absolute Master in my free-motion quilting journey. Her books are invaluable if you are ser…

Welcome to the 2012 Free-Motion Quilting Challenge Tutorial for February. First, I want to clarify that this blog is copyright protect...

Welcome to the 2012 Free-Motion Quilting Challenge Tutorial for February. First, I want to clarify that this blog is copyright protect...

Have you gotten the newest Quilting Motif Volume by Quiltmaker? I have all seven volumes, and I think the 7th volume might be my favorite, mainly because it features many motif with an allover desi…

Welcome to the 2012 Free-Motion Quilting Challenge Tutorial for February. First, I want to clarify that this blog is copyright protect...

Welcome to the 2012 Free-Motion Quilting Challenge Tutorial for February. First, I want to clarify that this blog is copyright protect...

Anything is possible, one stroke at a time.

I received the following comment on my Harrison Urn Quilt Block from Jane in Indiana on Friday — “I had just come home from the Grouseland Quilt Show because I had won a place in the ch…

Welcome to the 2012 Free-Motion Quilting Challenge Tutorial for February. First, I want to clarify that this blog is copyright protect...

Welcome to the 2012 Free-Motion Quilting Challenge Tutorial for February. First, I want to clarify that this blog is copyright protect...

Okay, I promise I won't be bugging you again about these shapes but I just HAD to share these with you too. I've finished the filler's portion of the Feathers Handbook and wanted to show a few more designs that were created with the Ultimate Stencil. Creating a perfect diamond in any size is very easy with the square Ultimate Stencil. I've shown three different ways to fill this shape with feathers. And here's melon shapes created using the circle Ultimate Stencil... Remember I'm adding designs to my Pinterest page if you need a quick inspirational fix. Hugs, Cindy :)

Hello Friends! I hope you are well. I have another free pattern to share. My Movement in Squares, designed for Benartex’s Op Art Reflections fabric collection, is quite different from my u…

Welcome to the 2012 Free-Motion Quilting Challenge Tutorial for February. First, I want to clarify that this blog is copyright protect...

Welcome to the 2012 Free-Motion Quilting Challenge Tutorial for February. First, I want to clarify that this blog is copyright protect...

I received this question among the comments… “Do you mark your quilting at all? Or is it all freehand? Do you have a plan before you start? ” I shall try to answer that by showing…

My process for setting goals for 2018 provided time to reflect. Highlights of what I've decided to do: SewCalGal was where I originally ...

We though you might be enjoy seeing Maria's original sketch pages for betweed. Now that you've "met" betweed, here are some Zentangles (some new, some previously published) that include betweed and show its beauty and versatility. It has been such a rush to read your comments on our first YouTube. Thank you all so much. And thank you for sharing and linking it so more can see it. We were so grateful reading the comments because we could tell that people really "got" what Zentangle's about. For instance: This is the first time that I really could understand the difference between zentangling and "d......." [ed. "doodling"] Now I understand that it is a structured meditation and that it is the structure or tangles which make it that much more powerful. As informative as videos can be, there's something special about a Zentangle Workshop with a Certified Zentangle Teacher. You get so many additional insights. You share your experience with others. You can ask questions in real time and enjoy seeing everyone's Zentangles arranged together. We encourage you to contact a CZT in your area to attend or arrange a Zentangle workshop. Molossus (linked on our sidebar) puts it best when she says: I think the video shows what the benefit of attending classes by a CZT would be. You can look at drawn out steps until you are blue in the face, but sometimes you just need to see someone drawing it. Thanks Molossus. Click images for larger views.

Zentangle patterns with micron on Bristol board - color added with Inktense pencils. Gloss medium added.

I received the following comment on my Harrison Urn Quilt Block from Jane in Indiana on Friday — “I had just come home from the Grouseland Quilt Show because I had won a place in the ch…

I was happy to be able to see my dear sewing Wanda a few times while she was back from Saudi Arabia. The last time we met was at Rogers Sewing Center’s Bernina Club, and she asked me how to q…