QSOS Comes to Houston!

We Need YOU!

Have you heard of Quilters:  Save Our Stories?  This is a major endeavor by the Alliance For American Quilts.  The purpose is to document the stories of quilts and the people who make them.  Our goal is to document as many stories as possible.  To commemorate the launch of the new book by Karey Bresenhan and Nancy Bryant Puentes, "Lone Stars III", the Alliance will be capturing as many of the stories that feature the quiltmakers in the book as possible during the course of the International Quilt Festival.

If you are planning to be in Houston for the festival, please consider a donation of your time.  This rewarding project will be well worth the time spent!

This is an all-star team already, but we will need many more volunteers! Depending on how many morning and afternoon sessions each volunteer takes on we will need between 22-48 volunteers per day. So I need your help with recruiting! Please help us by circulating this call for volunteers to any websites, blogs, lists, newsletters, FB pages, cork boards or refrigerator doors you manage or contribute to. 

The "I'm Volunteering" logo can be used on your own website, blog, FB page that tells everyone you are volunteering. Please direct all potential volunteers to this page on our website, which contains a link to our volunteer registration survey:

http://www.allianceforamericanquilts.org/qsos/2011IQFinfo.php

The Space Between: Houston-bound (Part 2)

Here are three more of the lovely quilts that will grace the George R Brown convention center during the International Quilt Festival, November 3-6, 2011.

"Forest of Blues"

Desiree Habicht

"Blue Towers"

Kathy York

"Breathing Space"

Jayne Larson

"Schooling Through The Jellies"

Susan Fletcher King

The Space Between - Houston Bound!

40 artists interpret the theme "The Space Between" to create this amazing exhibit.  All of the quilts are the same size 36W x 48H vertical format.  The exhibit will be shown at the International Quilt Market Oct 29-31, and Festival in Houston - Nov 2-6; If you would like to read the artists profiles from this exhibit, they are here.  Three bright and vibrant art quilts from the exhibit!

"Black and Bloom All Over" by Judy Coates Perez

"Storybook" by Yvonne Porcella

"Meadow Gold" by Terry Waldron

Artist Houses, Part Two!

In the Artist Houses workshop at CREATE mixed media retreat, Chicago, the day was divided into two sections:  morning was devoted to creating layered patterns onto the surface of Hoffman fabric, as well as a variety of paper, using gelatin monoprinting and handmade stamps.  During the second half of the day, students selected from their printed surfaces and color laser images of doors and windows and began to assemble their house designs, which were fused together with Mistyfuse and stitched to window screen.
Take a look:

 Students cut backgrounds for the houses, then used the smaller pieces to create accents
 behind doors and windows

decisions, decisions!

color laser copies of doors and windows were cut 

and glued to the surface with matte medium

houses were stitched to window screen on the beautiful 

Bernina B350 sewing machines

Each student used her beautifully textured cloth and paper to 

create a series of amazing houses!

Yay!

Part 1 of Folding Artists Houses at Create

Using a variety of unconventional tools, students created
wonderful textured backgrounds on Hoffman fabric
as well as a variety of paper to use in their Artist Houses

Morning portion of our class "Folding Artists Houses" at Create in Chicago; gel printing with Gelli Arts printing plates onto Hoffman Fabrics hand-dyed fabrics

Sample Artists Folding Houses

class room set up with Bernina B350 sewing machines

the building of layers of paint, pattern and design using acrylic paint and gel plates

Later, these background monoprints were layered with students' handmade stamps!

stay tuned for this afternoon!

CREATE mixed media retreat class: "Aprons As Personal Armor"

This student from another class drops in to try on my sample apron

The Aprons As Personal Armor class at CREATE Chicago was small, but mighty!  Our students worked hard throughout the day to create wearable constructions from cloth and trim.  The classroom was an explosion of color and texture!  We brought many types of trim and ephemera for students to choose from to add to what they brought from home.  I brought a bag of bits and pieces of cloth from previous projects that had Mistyfuse added.  Using Mistyfuse and stitch to assist with their creations, each student left with a great start on her apron.  We can't wait to see the end-results!

 Our students got a great start on their designs and embellishments

There was a great deal of laughter and banter throughout the day.  What fun!