MQX Quilt Festival

What a wonderful time I had teaching at MQX Quilt Festival! Everyone was so happy to be back in Manchester NH. Not that Providence RI wasn't nice, but Manchester just feels like our quilting home-away-from-home! I wish I had taken more pictures of the smiling faces on the students, teachers, vendors, and volunteers that all band together to make MQX Quilt Festival such a wonderful event. 

I was blessed with a full teaching schedule of six classes. My students were all fabulous! Not a grumpy face in the bunch ....okay one grumpy face but out of  about 150 students that's not so bad.

My classes were a combination of "hands-on" where each student has their own sewing machine to work on. Lecture/Demo - they get to listen to me and watch me quilt out the patterns. And Drawing - 4 hours of drawing fun that can be applied to quilting!

Here are some hands on students!  Some students were very new to frame quilting and others were accustomed to working with computerized machines and were trying out freemotion quilting! Here they are....concentrating! They all did a fabulous job!

And they had fun too - here's what one student said "Loved it! Had no idea going into class what to expect, but I am leaving truly inspired. Elaine is calm, fun and relaxed. Great learning experience!" Okay ... I'm blushing....but aren't my students fabulous! I just love them!

I also had the chance to introduce Zentangle as it applies to quilting. We start each class by making a traditional Zentangle tile - here's and example of some student work.

We then go on with drawing and quilting demo's to teach the student how to add "tangle" patterns to their quilting. Here are a couple of examples of Zentangle inspired quilting that I show the students.

A great time! I'll tell you about the other classes later! I'm already looking forward to teaching at MQX Quilt Festival in 2014!

Tangled Calendar

Here are a few of the pages from my Tangle a Day calendar. This awesome little calendar was created by Carol Ohl and can be ordered here . More calendar art can been seen on Carol's blog.

This page is black Micron and Gold Gelly Roll pen 

This page is blue Micron and blue Inktense pencil

 This page is black Micron - you can see the bleed through from the other side

This page is black Micron and blue Copic - the Copic bled through :(

I'm a few days behind. Oh well - I'll just enjoy the process!

Sunrise Series

Lately I have been enjoying working in series. My latest series is inspired by the sunrises over Nantasket Beach in Hull Massachusetts. The pieces are 5" square (8" with matting).  They are composed of fabric which I lay down improvisationally and secure with fusible products. I then layer with batting and muslin and quilt on a domestic (sit down) sewing machine. The quilting designs are inspired by Zentangle® patterns and I use several thread colors.  

They are available for  purchase click here.

Sold

Sold

Sold

 Sold

 Sold

Hull Artist Studio Tour

On July 7th and 8th I participated in the Hull Artists Studio Tour. This was a great event that featured 22 artists opening their studios to the public. I had a fabulous time showing my art quilts, Zentangle (TM) inspired art, and my original designed fabric pocketbooks and totes. This event occurs twice a summer and I'll be participating again on August 25th. Here are pictures of my "front room" all prettied up to show my work.

 Wholecloth quilt - this is inspired by the sea. It is one piece of fabric with intricate stitching. All of the stitching is done freehand by machine without any computer assistance.

Staccato Sunrise (Sold) Pieced, machine quilted and beaded. The machine quilting is detailed showing the motion of the grasses as well as the ocean and the sky. The sun is represented by a mariners compass block that was bisected to show motion.

The seascape series below was constructed and quilted in a similar manner. On a smaller scale, these pieces are stretched over a deep 1 1/2" canvas frame.

 10" x 10" seascape 1

 10" x 10" seascape 2

10" x 10" seascape 3

 detail - seascape

 detail - seascape

Detail - seascape

This is a small (5") quilted piece.

Below is the tree series. Zentangle (TM) inspired art from pen, ink and pencil. Each piece measures 3 1/2" square.

And let's not forget the kitchen ladies quilts -

 quilted, beaded and mounted on 1 1/2" deep canvas stretchers.

And the purple sunset! Machine quilted and fibers.

More pics of the front room turned studio for the weekend!

That's all .....see you in August!

Tangled iPad cover

This weeks Diva Challenge is to use the new tangle Pea-nuckle. I decided to use it on one of my ready-to-tangle iPad cases! This was so much fun. I used Identipen markers in black, Fabrico marker in 181 cool gray, and Copic markers BG15 and BG10. I decided to fill the entire space with tangles but to work really big. On the first side I did three tangles - Mooka, Pea-nucke, and Tipple. A really nice thing happened at the transition between Mooka and Pea-nuckle - one of those happy accidents!
If you haven't tangled on fabric yet you should give it a try! The way that the pen works with the weave of the fabric adds a texture and richness that's really fun to play with.

 On the fip-side I used to black Identipen marker and gray Fabrico marker. I used several tangles and again filled the entire space.

The ready to tangle and decorate canvas iPad cover is availabe on my website. I make each one individually from canvas with a zippered closure and two inside pockets for your stylus and small accessories. Each is lined with beautiful batik fabric.Click here to order! If you email me a picture of your decorated iPad cover I'll mail you a handmade Pen-holder for your sketch book!

Or - you can order a Pen-holder here!

Feeling Groovy

The Diva challenge this week is to use the tangle pattern "Groovy" created by Eden Hunt. This pattern really brought out my dyslexia and it took some time to learn the pattern. I do like how it can create a woven effect if the wavy lines are touching. For the Zendala I altered the printed string somewhat to make three designs do a kind-of yin-yang thing in the center.I really like how the designs swirl in the center. I used Graphitint pencils in green and purple.

For this square tile I tried to keep it simple and to have the Groovy pattern look woven.