Right before the Baltimore Craft Show last weekend, I had a brainstorm for a new quilt. This frequently happens when I’m in deadline mode before a show for some reason–maybe that’…

I love these ladies — wonderful exotic ladies! I have been hand stitching on this batik panel by Mahyar for quite awhile now, using Tulip needles (chenille) and the luscious Eleganza pearl cotton by WonderFil Specialty Threads. This was my take along travel project, and the girls did a lot of traveling! The majority of my embroidering was simple straight stitches and French knots. One of the classes I am teaching at Art & Soul Virginia Beach is Create a Batik Panel Art Quilt, and I wanted to share this example with you. FYI, Art & Soul has released its 2018 event dates: Portland, OR – Feb 11-18 (registration is open now), Minneapolis, MN – May 2-9, and back again to Virginia Beach, VA - Oct 1-6, 2018. Plan your creative retreat experience now! For the longest time I could not figure out how to finish these Mahyar beauties... they were not telling me! Asking the advice of Chris Vinh of StitchesnQuilts, we finally decided they should be “dressed in Silks.” Part of my inspiration came from the crazy quilt table runner I was working on using beautiful silk fabrics I had purchased from Pamela Armas (a.k.a. Gypsy Pamela), the owner of Treasures of the Gypsy. Pamela sells exotic fabrics, trims, beads, ribbon, and more, imported from India and Europe, via booths at most of the major sewing and quilting shows (she is in Houston each year for Quilt Festival. Treasures of the Gypsy doesn’t have a web site, but does have a Facebook page. These silk fabrics are very tricky to quilt with — I definitely had trouble with the Dupioni silk unraveling. Lesson learned! I would recommend that if you are working with these fabrics, stablilize them with a lightweight fusible or interfacing before cutting and sewing them. I will do that next time! (Of course this time did not want to stop my progess, so I just kept going.) Using Spotlite™ by Wonderfil, a 40 wt metallic thread, I stitched on the Dupioni in a straight line. There is so much hand stitching on the panel, and the fabric is so exotic I felt simplified quilting on the borders was called for. I plan to bind with the dark Turquoise Silk Dupioni after I have used Mistyfuse to prevent unraveling.

One of my latest projects is a fun modern quilt that is just back from suZquilts and ready for binding (pictured above). suZquilts owner Susan Bentley did an amazing job with the longarm quilting! I often profess my love for black and white print fabrics. I love them as is, and I love to overdye them too — you’ll find swatches in my Inspiration Packs, which also include hand-dyed found textiles and fibers for art quilts and other fiber projects. For this quilt I left my graphic black and white prints alone and added color with long strips that were pieced from coloful fabric scraps (above) from my stash. I began by freehand cutting strips (including some of my black and whites) and sewing them together randomly to create larger pieces of fabric. I embraced the wonkiness and worked without rulers or stitching perfectly straight lines. You can see at the bottom of the photo above that I was able to use strips that weren’t all the same length — nothing goes to waste. My cuts from the pieced fabrics were also free-hand and random, resulting in different widths. You can see the variety of fabric used, but I did focus on my modern cottons stash versus the batiks and Australian Aborigine-designed fabric I often gravitate to. Working improvisationally, I sliced my black and white fabric blocks (not perfectly square and again, different sizes and widths) and sewed my colorful strips in. I don’t think any two blocks are the same — some have one strip, some two or more, some strips intersect — and there’s a wide variety of angles involved. As you can see in the photo above, I also didn’t worry about having each block the same height. I played around with the blocks until I had a layout I liked. As I finalized the layout, I started making the adjustments to “smoosh” the blocks together, stitching vertical rows. (FYI, the lighting in my studio shows the colors unevenly here.) I had so many scraps pieced into strips that I was able to inset vertical rows of them too. Most of my work are small art quilts or medium wall hangings, so working large for bed-size quilts is still somewhat rare for me. I love how this came together! The striped fabric worked perfectly for the border — it continued the look of the colorful inset strips without the time necessary to piece them. This closeup also lets you see the beautiful quilting by suZquilts. This freeform, improv method of construction was a lot of fun and I love my final result. Give it a try!

One of my latest projects is a fun modern quilt that is just back from suZquilts and ready for binding (pictured above). suZquilts owner Susan Bentley did an amazing job with the longarm quilting! I often profess my love for black and white print fabrics. I love them as is, and I love to overdye them too — you’ll find swatches in my Inspiration Packs, which also include hand-dyed found textiles and fibers for art quilts and other fiber projects. For this quilt I left my graphic black and white prints alone and added color with long strips that were pieced from coloful fabric scraps (above) from my stash. I began by freehand cutting strips (including some of my black and whites) and sewing them together randomly to create larger pieces of fabric. I embraced the wonkiness and worked without rulers or stitching perfectly straight lines. You can see at the bottom of the photo above that I was able to use strips that weren’t all the same length — nothing goes to waste. My cuts from the pieced fabrics were also free-hand and random, resulting in different widths. You can see the variety of fabric used, but I did focus on my modern cottons stash versus the batiks and Australian Aborigine-designed fabric I often gravitate to. Working improvisationally, I sliced my black and white fabric blocks (not perfectly square and again, different sizes and widths) and sewed my colorful strips in. I don’t think any two blocks are the same — some have one strip, some two or more, some strips intersect — and there’s a wide variety of angles involved. As you can see in the photo above, I also didn’t worry about having each block the same height. I played around with the blocks until I had a layout I liked. As I finalized the layout, I started making the adjustments to “smoosh” the blocks together, stitching vertical rows. (FYI, the lighting in my studio shows the colors unevenly here.) I had so many scraps pieced into strips that I was able to inset vertical rows of them too. Most of my work are small art quilts or medium wall hangings, so working large for bed-size quilts is still somewhat rare for me. I love how this came together! The striped fabric worked perfectly for the border — it continued the look of the colorful inset strips without the time necessary to piece them. This closeup also lets you see the beautiful quilting by suZquilts. This freeform, improv method of construction was a lot of fun and I love my final result. Give it a try!

Palette Solids by Marcia Derse Fabric designer Marcia Derse has become known for her popular Palette, a collection of tonal solids that was inspired ...

Judy Gula has always been creative which led her to creating and now president of Artistic Artifacts, traveling the world to find inspiration.

I went back over to my Guilds show today, Quilter's Unlimited 40th Anniversary show! I had coffee and a chat with one of the "In the Beginning" fabric designers and President of the DC Modern Quilt guild, Jessie Aller! I am hoping Jessie posts the photo SHE took of us as I was a slacker and didn't get one. I have SO MANY photos from the show, that I thought I'd just share a few of my favs.. then I'll share more another day.. ok? OK! I stopped into That Thread Shop that carries all the Aurifil thread.. I spotted...

National Sewing Month is coming to a close... visit our Tutorials page for free Artistic Artifacts quilt designs, or our Patterns and Kits section for...

We have had the Stacked Squares Quilt Pattern, designed by Sarah Gustason, in the shop for some time, but had hesitated to add it to our online store. It calls for beautiful fabrics from Frond Design Studios that we no longer carry. (While we love ALL of the beautiful designs Frond comes up with, in order to be able to add new lines by them —or any other fabric manufacturer —we have to retire other favorites to make room.) We decided to make up a sample using other striped fabric to show how well the pattern works with different fabric choices, and put Christine Vinh, StitchesnQuilts on the job. While Chris has an amazing talent for seeing a fabric’s potential and in mixing fabric lines, for this project she didn’t need to look far, deciding to experiment with the strong linear lines of the Barnboard line by Frond. The pattern calls for one yard each of four fabrics to piece the top (plus additional for binding and backing) to create a 48 inch x 60 inch. quilt. Chris chose ½ yard of the following Barnboard colors: Afternoon, Autumn, Summer and Sunlight. Chris posted the above photo on Facebook, writing “Shop sample for Artistic Artifacts under the needle. Perfect combination: Bernina machine, WonderFil Mirage thread, and Frond Design Studio Fabrics fabric and pattern. Add a little music, and this girl is happy!” And she was even happier with the final result — above, her completed top, waiting for binding.The Barnboard is showcased beautifully with this pattern! Chris arranged her stacked squares to create a 30 inch square wall quilt or table topper. And from the 2 yards of fabric she began with, she had enough to piece a beautiful backing, making it reversible! To match and complement the various colors, Chris selected Mirage™ Color #27, Green/Honey/Red. Mirage is a 2-ply, 30wt rayon that’s randomly space dyed in variegated colors so that every spool unique. “The Mirage was perfect for this project,” Chris said, noting how far a spool will go...she “barely made a dent in her wound bobbin after free motion quilting.” Chris has been on something of a “line” kick lately. It started when she wanted to give paper piecing a try. She selected the Sew and Fold on a Roll, Flying Geese & Braids and, while initially daunted by the concept, quickly realized how easy these gridded products are to use, giving you precise results. She had some left over Australian Aborigine-Designed fabrics in her stash and put the above beauty together. It was such a perfect result that she decided to turn it into her entry for her quilt guild's challenge. Chris is a member of the Arlington Chapter of Quilter's Unlimited (QU), a large local guild that has 11 chapters throughout the Northern Virginia region. Arlington QU often issues group challenges to its members, and this year members randomly drew a letter of the alphabet and are making an 18 in. x 18 in. quilt inspired by that letter. Chris drew the letter L, and realized this quilt was perfect: L is for Lines! (Pictured right, Chris' quilt label. The Alphabet Challenge quilts will hang together at QU's 44th Annual Show, which takes place June 2-4, 2017 at the Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly, VA. The QU Quilt Show is always well worth the trip! Chris is also enjoying using her new paper piecing skills on her latest work in progress. As mentioned above, she is a whiz at pulling together beautifully coordinating or contrasting fabrics. There are quilters who stick to a particular fabric collection for inspiration, and then others who look for colors and designs that, as she puts it “plays well with others.” Pictured above, a paper pieced braid that uses several fabrics from the new Figment line designed by Pam Goecke Dinndorf. This piece also has some choices from the Marks collection by Valori Wells, also available in our Modern Cottons section, and complementary Australian Aboriginal Designs. We also wanted to shared these, perfect for this post’s theme of lines and patterns! Recently one of our customers, Laura Geiser, brought the two beautiful quilt tops (pictured above and below) by the shop. She told us she had been really inspired by the Australian Aboriginal design fabrics we carry and our Paper Pieced Aussie Blocks quilt on display, as well as our variety of black and white prints. She was shopping for additional fabrics to create a third quilt in this series!

Versatile, easy pattern with a complex look! Guest post by Christine Vinh A few years ago I made a Disappearing 9 Patch quilt for the shop using a pack of 10 in. squares of Australian Aborigine-designed fabrics — and we still get asked what pattern was used. And when we answer it’s a Disappearing 9 Patch, we’re then asked the ‘How do You Do That?’ questions! So we decided it was time to make a new sample to document the process (pictured here in progress; see below for a full view of the completed quilt). We were so pleased with the results we’ve decided to make quilt kits for our customers, available while supplies last. Choose from our Australian Disappearing 9 Patch Quilt Kit or our kit that includes the colorful Kitty Litter fabrics. The original sample used the authentic Aborigine-designed fabric from M&S Textiles, so I chose to pick new designs from that collection. I opted to go with five different fabrics for the color and used half yard per color —just in case I wanted to make the quilt larger! I did some research on Pinterest and found some guides about different quilt block sizes, layouts and finished quilt size. I wanted to use 5 inch squares, and found the table (reprinted above) from The Crafty Quilter Disappearing 9-patch QAL to be the most helpful. I chose to make the center portion of the quilt 52 in. x 65 in. and, using the guide, determined that it would require a total of 20 blocks, each made up of 4 (four) squares of color, 1 (one) square of dark, and 4 (four) squares of white. Fabric requirements for the blocks plus borders: Half yard each of four different color fabric, for the blocks 1.5 yards of one color, for blocks and for outer border 1 yard of dark value fabric, for the center squares and inner border 1.5 yards of light value fabric, for the background Cutting Directions for your 9 Patch blocks: Cut 2 (two) 5 in strips from each of your chose color design fabrics and then sub-cut into 5 inch squares for a total of 16 squares For the dark blocks, cut 3 (three) 5 in. strips. Two of the strips were sub cut into 5 in. squares and 2 (two) additional 5 in. squares from the remaining strip The background fabric was cut into 10 (ten) 5 in. strips and sub cut into 5 in. blocks There are a number of layouts one can pick for the starting 9 patch, and I used the basic one — the color fabrics in outer corners, dark square in the middle, and fill in the spaces with the light background fabric. I found it easiest to sew the blocks together one at a time to keep colors in order. I string pieced (above) and then pressed to assure seams would butt up against each other (below). Once all 20 blocks were assembled and pressed, I cut each block down the center then carefully turned and cut down the center again. This gave me the 80 blocks required for the overall top. Pictured above left, a block after cutting in and turing two of the quadrants, before sewing back together. Now it’s time to play with layouts of your blocks! For this sample I chose to start with one color block in the upper left corner, adding a different color for each diagonal row. Right, Wonder Clips are handy for keeping your blocks together in rows after you've decided your layout. There are many different options to lay out your blocks — The Crafty Quilter blog I referenced has several layout diagrams, or do a web search for Disappearing 9 Patch (also Disappearing Nine Patch) — for lots of inspiration! Try different arrangements with your cut blocks until you find the layout that speaks to you! That’s the fun of this pattern! I always take a picture of what I think will be my final layout, and then walk away before preparing to stitch the rows together. In the second sample I made, this pause for a fresh look helped me to identify one block that was turned in the wrong direction — before it was sewn and preventing me from having to use the seam ripper! I like to stack all the blocks in a row and then stack the rows to sew one row at a time. I sew the rows together as I go with this pattern, again to make sure I haven’t turned a block in the process. Once the center portion was complete, I cut and pieced the border strips: 6 (six) 2.5 in. strips of the dark design for the inner border and 6 (six) 5 in. strips of the fabric for the outer border. Sew the inner border side strips first and then add the strips for top and bottom. Repeat for the outer border. Then it was off to the quilter! I chose to use 2 yards of the yellow ombre wideback fabric and had enough left over to use for the binding. (I didn’t mention backing fabric in the fabric requirements; the choice is yours depending on your preference and what size you make your Disappearing 9 Patch.) Having enjoyed making the first sample, I decided to try another one using 4 in. strips instead of the 5 in. I love the variety of colors available in the Kitty Litter blender collection from Pammie Jane (Pamela Jane Morgan) for Dear Stella. Fabric choices: 10 fat quarters of Kitty Litter colors for the blocks (I used a fat quarter bundle and ended up with more than I needed, so chose not to use two of the colors) Half yard of Kitty Litter in Drift, for center squares 1 yard of Kitty Litter in Neutral, for background squares Half yard of Kitty Litter in Laser, for inner border 2.5 yards of Charley Harper Rocky Mountain, Mountain Flowers for outer border Cut two strips, each 4 in. x 22 in. from each of the fat quarters. Then sub-cut each strip into 4 in. squares. Cut the gray and white fabrics into 4 in. strips and sub cut into 4 in. squares. Sew your nine-patch blocks and then cut them, as described above for the Australian quilt. Forthe Kitty Litter Disappearing 9 Patch layout, I chose to match color blocks throughout the top. Look closely at the two samples and you can see the difference in the layouts. Hope you enjoy making either one of the kits or fabrics of your own choice. Make sure to share your quilt with us on Artistic Artifacts Creative Minds Facebook group!

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We have had the Stacked Squares Quilt Pattern, designed by Sarah Gustason, in the shop for some time, but had hesitated to add it to our online store. It calls for beautiful fabrics from Frond Design Studios that we no longer carry. (While we love ALL of the beautiful designs Frond comes up with, in order to be able to add new lines by them —or any other fabric manufacturer —we have to retire other favorites to make room.) We decided to make up a sample using other striped fabric to show how well the pattern works with different fabric choices, and put Christine Vinh, StitchesnQuilts on the job. While Chris has an amazing talent for seeing a fabric’s potential and in mixing fabric lines, for this project she didn’t need to look far, deciding to experiment with the strong linear lines of the Barnboard line by Frond. The pattern calls for one yard each of four fabrics to piece the top (plus additional for binding and backing) to create a 48 inch x 60 inch. quilt. Chris chose ½ yard of the following Barnboard colors: Afternoon, Autumn, Summer and Sunlight. Chris posted the above photo on Facebook, writing “Shop sample for Artistic Artifacts under the needle. Perfect combination: Bernina machine, WonderFil Mirage thread, and Frond Design Studio Fabrics fabric and pattern. Add a little music, and this girl is happy!” And she was even happier with the final result — above, her completed top, waiting for binding.The Barnboard is showcased beautifully with this pattern! Chris arranged her stacked squares to create a 30 inch square wall quilt or table topper. And from the 2 yards of fabric she began with, she had enough to piece a beautiful backing, making it reversible! To match and complement the various colors, Chris selected Mirage™ Color #27, Green/Honey/Red. Mirage is a 2-ply, 30wt rayon that’s randomly space dyed in variegated colors so that every spool unique. “The Mirage was perfect for this project,” Chris said, noting how far a spool will go...she “barely made a dent in her wound bobbin after free motion quilting.” Chris has been on something of a “line” kick lately. It started when she wanted to give paper piecing a try. She selected the Sew and Fold on a Roll, Flying Geese & Braids and, while initially daunted by the concept, quickly realized how easy these gridded products are to use, giving you precise results. She had some left over Australian Aborigine-Designed fabrics in her stash and put the above beauty together. It was such a perfect result that she decided to turn it into her entry for her quilt guild's challenge. Chris is a member of the Arlington Chapter of Quilter's Unlimited (QU), a large local guild that has 11 chapters throughout the Northern Virginia region. Arlington QU often issues group challenges to its members, and this year members randomly drew a letter of the alphabet and are making an 18 in. x 18 in. quilt inspired by that letter. Chris drew the letter L, and realized this quilt was perfect: L is for Lines! (Pictured right, Chris' quilt label. The Alphabet Challenge quilts will hang together at QU's 44th Annual Show, which takes place June 2-4, 2017 at the Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly, VA. The QU Quilt Show is always well worth the trip! Chris is also enjoying using her new paper piecing skills on her latest work in progress. As mentioned above, she is a whiz at pulling together beautifully coordinating or contrasting fabrics. There are quilters who stick to a particular fabric collection for inspiration, and then others who look for colors and designs that, as she puts it “plays well with others.” Pictured above, a paper pieced braid that uses several fabrics from the new Figment line designed by Pam Goecke Dinndorf. This piece also has some choices from the Marks collection by Valori Wells, also available in our Modern Cottons section, and complementary Australian Aboriginal Designs. We also wanted to shared these, perfect for this post’s theme of lines and patterns! Recently one of our customers, Laura Geiser, brought the two beautiful quilt tops (pictured above and below) by the shop. She told us she had been really inspired by the Australian Aboriginal design fabrics we carry and our Paper Pieced Aussie Blocks quilt on display, as well as our variety of black and white prints. She was shopping for additional fabrics to create a third quilt in this series!

Quilting with WonderFil Artistic Artifacts owner Judy Gula will be a guest artist in the WonderFil Specialty Threads booth #23-24 at the Quilting in ...

We were going to take an August vacation from our monthly product/technique demonstrations and play-time, but due to demand we are repeating July’s popular program! Above, the July session of How Do I...Create Stitch Meditations: we had a full house! At the top of this post are the amazing pieces created by students that night. Join us Thursday evening, August 10, 2017 to create your own: using WonderFil Specialty Threads (all supplies provided), participants learn the approach originated by my dear friend Liz Kettle of Textile Evolution. Previous sewing or embroidery experience isn’t necessary, so if you are local, please plan to join us. Inspired by Liz, I have also become addicted to this practice. I have posted many on the Artistic Artifacts Facebook page, and wanted to share some of my recent creations in this post. Visit Liz’s website gallery to see her own beautiful examples. Liz has also put together a 17 minute video she hopes inspires others to begin their own stitch practice: learn more. Above, I was inspired by a bit left over from a batik panel by the artist Rusli. In our 2015 post Thoughts on the Health Benefits of Creativity, Liz shared that managing stress can be difficult for her, and that “The best medicine I have found is what I call Stitch Meditations. I tried for years to do ‘real’ meditation. It just never took and I always felt like I was doing it wrong. But, I knew I needed a stress reducer that was simple and didn’t take much time to do. I love both machine and hand stitching and I find both very relaxing. However the tactile nature of hand stitch won over and I started creating simple small collages using only hand stitch. These meditations are really important to my mental health not only because I slow down and enjoy the meditation, but they give me a sense of connection to my art on a daily basis…even when life has me otherwise occupied.” Liz creates her stitch meditations in the morning, but after experimenting, I have found that stitching in the evening after work is what best works for me. It’s a calming, restful way to end the day. I make a point of traveling with a small stash of supplies so I can create in my hotel room each evening. In addition to Liz, in terms of inspiration I also have to thank Ruth Chandler, author of Modern Hand Stitching ... she has taught so many of us how to add a creative, freeform spin on hand-stitching! I can’t count how many times I have recommended her book to my customers: it is an invaluable addition to any stitcher’s library. Above, this small corner of a hand-dyed handkerchief really spoke to me. Proof that you don’t have to work large! I’m thinking it might fill the blank corner of the long work pictured above it. Now that Artistic Artifacts is a WonderFil Specialty Threads boutique I have relished learning about the different weights and properties of their threads... perfect for hand stitching as well as using in your sewing machine! If you are one of those people find themselves saving scraps of fabric and lengths of thread because they’re just too pretty to throw away, you have the makings of the perfect stitch meditation stash! Part of the technique is not to fall into the trap of agonizing over your choices. Quickly choose a few pieces, whether color-coordinated or completely contrasting, and get to work. Below, a larger completed piece created by Suzanne Langsdorf, who just gifted it to Sharon McDonagh of Artistic Artifacts. At last month’s session, Sharon kept picking out fabrics and fibers and walking around to participants to tempt them to start another piece. Suzanne took one of her handfuls and added to it, ultimately creating this gorgeous fiber art. Below, a detail photograph. Such amazing color and texture!

We have had the Stacked Squares Quilt Pattern, designed by Sarah Gustason, in the shop for some time, but had hesitated to add it to our online store. It calls for beautiful fabrics from Frond Design Studios that we no longer carry. (While we love ALL of the beautiful designs Frond comes up with, in order to be able to add new lines by them —or any other fabric manufacturer —we have to retire other favorites to make room.) We decided to make up a sample using other striped fabric to show how well the pattern works with different fabric choices, and put Christine Vinh, StitchesnQuilts on the job. While Chris has an amazing talent for seeing a fabric’s potential and in mixing fabric lines, for this project she didn’t need to look far, deciding to experiment with the strong linear lines of the Barnboard line by Frond. The pattern calls for one yard each of four fabrics to piece the top (plus additional for binding and backing) to create a 48 inch x 60 inch. quilt. Chris chose ½ yard of the following Barnboard colors: Afternoon, Autumn, Summer and Sunlight. Chris posted the above photo on Facebook, writing “Shop sample for Artistic Artifacts under the needle. Perfect combination: Bernina machine, WonderFil Mirage thread, and Frond Design Studio Fabrics fabric and pattern. Add a little music, and this girl is happy!” And she was even happier with the final result — above, her completed top, waiting for binding.The Barnboard is showcased beautifully with this pattern! Chris arranged her stacked squares to create a 30 inch square wall quilt or table topper. And from the 2 yards of fabric she began with, she had enough to piece a beautiful backing, making it reversible! To match and complement the various colors, Chris selected Mirage™ Color #27, Green/Honey/Red. Mirage is a 2-ply, 30wt rayon that’s randomly space dyed in variegated colors so that every spool unique. “The Mirage was perfect for this project,” Chris said, noting how far a spool will go...she “barely made a dent in her wound bobbin after free motion quilting.” Chris has been on something of a “line” kick lately. It started when she wanted to give paper piecing a try. She selected the Sew and Fold on a Roll, Flying Geese & Braids and, while initially daunted by the concept, quickly realized how easy these gridded products are to use, giving you precise results. She had some left over Australian Aborigine-Designed fabrics in her stash and put the above beauty together. It was such a perfect result that she decided to turn it into her entry for her quilt guild's challenge. Chris is a member of the Arlington Chapter of Quilter's Unlimited (QU), a large local guild that has 11 chapters throughout the Northern Virginia region. Arlington QU often issues group challenges to its members, and this year members randomly drew a letter of the alphabet and are making an 18 in. x 18 in. quilt inspired by that letter. Chris drew the letter L, and realized this quilt was perfect: L is for Lines! (Pictured right, Chris' quilt label. The Alphabet Challenge quilts will hang together at QU's 44th Annual Show, which takes place June 2-4, 2017 at the Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly, VA. The QU Quilt Show is always well worth the trip! Chris is also enjoying using her new paper piecing skills on her latest work in progress. As mentioned above, she is a whiz at pulling together beautifully coordinating or contrasting fabrics. There are quilters who stick to a particular fabric collection for inspiration, and then others who look for colors and designs that, as she puts it “plays well with others.” Pictured above, a paper pieced braid that uses several fabrics from the new Figment line designed by Pam Goecke Dinndorf. This piece also has some choices from the Marks collection by Valori Wells, also available in our Modern Cottons section, and complementary Australian Aboriginal Designs. We also wanted to shared these, perfect for this post’s theme of lines and patterns! Recently one of our customers, Laura Geiser, brought the two beautiful quilt tops (pictured above and below) by the shop. She told us she had been really inspired by the Australian Aboriginal design fabrics we carry and our Paper Pieced Aussie Blocks quilt on display, as well as our variety of black and white prints. She was shopping for additional fabrics to create a third quilt in this series!

One of my latest projects is a fun modern quilt that is just back from suZquilts and ready for binding (pictured above). suZquilts owner Susan Bentley did an amazing job with the longarm quilting! I often profess my love for black and white print fabrics. I love them as is, and I love to overdye them too — you’ll find swatches in my Inspiration Packs, which also include hand-dyed found textiles and fibers for art quilts and other fiber projects. For this quilt I left my graphic black and white prints alone and added color with long strips that were pieced from coloful fabric scraps (above) from my stash. I began by freehand cutting strips (including some of my black and whites) and sewing them together randomly to create larger pieces of fabric. I embraced the wonkiness and worked without rulers or stitching perfectly straight lines. You can see at the bottom of the photo above that I was able to use strips that weren’t all the same length — nothing goes to waste. My cuts from the pieced fabrics were also free-hand and random, resulting in different widths. You can see the variety of fabric used, but I did focus on my modern cottons stash versus the batiks and Australian Aborigine-designed fabric I often gravitate to. Working improvisationally, I sliced my black and white fabric blocks (not perfectly square and again, different sizes and widths) and sewed my colorful strips in. I don’t think any two blocks are the same — some have one strip, some two or more, some strips intersect — and there’s a wide variety of angles involved. As you can see in the photo above, I also didn’t worry about having each block the same height. I played around with the blocks until I had a layout I liked. As I finalized the layout, I started making the adjustments to “smoosh” the blocks together, stitching vertical rows. (FYI, the lighting in my studio shows the colors unevenly here.) I had so many scraps pieced into strips that I was able to inset vertical rows of them too. Most of my work are small art quilts or medium wall hangings, so working large for bed-size quilts is still somewhat rare for me. I love how this came together! The striped fabric worked perfectly for the border — it continued the look of the colorful inset strips without the time necessary to piece them. This closeup also lets you see the beautiful quilting by suZquilts. This freeform, improv method of construction was a lot of fun and I love my final result. Give it a try!