Quilting Arts In Stitch emag

I am excited to announce that I have an article in the premier edition of the new sewing sensation, an emag from Quilting Arts called In Stitch. You can download it and have immediate access to the cool articles. Not only that, but they also feature slide shows and videos! The videos are awesome and show artists hard at work, demonstrating and teaching their techniques. It's really cool! My video is on the satin stitch and I have a short interview.
They have two editions, one for PC's and one for Mac's. If you click on the links it will take you to the appropriate edition for you! Be sure to scroll down once you hit the link. You will be able to see what my page looks like!

Urban Landscapes arrives: Cat gets first peak!
At last Urban Landscapes arrives! So much hard work, so beautiful! I was crying when I opened the box. Feeling a bit silly didn't stop the tears either.

My first time through this process, I am in awe of how beautiful and vibrant the colors are and how wonderful the fabric FEELS!!

So if your local quilt store doesn't have any yet, do not despair! It will be arriving shortly.
And if your local quilt store hasn't purchased Urban Landscapes, it's not too late. Ask them to get this fabulous line at Clothworks!

If you live in Austin, you can find Urban Landscapes at two local shops of which I know have purchased the line: The Quilt Store and Honey Bee's.
And if you are in Lakeway, you can find it at the Cotton Cupboard.
Have fun shopping! Have more fun sewing!

And I have news I can't wait to share, but I will have to, so keep checking back!

Opening tomorrow!
Quilt National (collection C) will be at the National Quilt Museum located at 215 Jefferson Street in historic downtown Paducah, Kentucky.
6/17/10 - 8/10/10

Stop by and see my quilt, Little Fish in a Big City.

Coloring Outside the Blocks: Artists Do Lunch
77.5" x 51"
Leslie Jenison, Frances Holliday Alford, Sherri McCauley, Barb Forrister, Connie Hudson, Kathy York

On a roll! Our art quilt bee has made two quilts to enter into Houston IQA this year! This one is the result of what happens when you ask artists over for lunch, which is exactly what Frances Holliday Alford did! After lunch she brought out the fabric markers, and told us to play on the tablecloth. So, we all sat around, mindlessly drawing and playing.
Then, each time we got together we would draw or paint on a different section. Eventually, Frances tore up the tablecloth into six pieces, gave each of us a piece. The instructions were to finishing painting and then quilt your section. In about a month, we met again and joined our sections, then cut them apart and then joined them again. Last, we quilted some sections of black and white and then the border was overlapped with the edges of the quilt to create the curvy boundary, which were then joined together. It looks super fabulous! And really, really fun!
You can see more details on Leslie's blog, here.

Rainbow Pixel Project
60.5" x 39"

by Kathy York, Connie Hudson, Sherri McCauley, Leslie Jenison, Frances Holiday Alford, and Barb Forrister

Well, here's the full view of our entry for Houston this year. It went together so easily, and we had fun making it. When asked about techniques on the entry form, I just wanted to list, "everything". Obviously, it is impossible for it to have EVERY technique, but it sure felt like it!
We tried something new with the joining of the quilted blocks that I wanted to tell you about. We usually trim the quilted blocks, butt the edges together, zig-zag with invisible thread. Then we turn it over and fuse fabric strips over the joined edges, flip the quilt back over and satin stitch over the invisible zig-zag.
This time, after joining all the pieces with invisible thread, we decided that the satin stitch would be distracting because our blocks were so small (just 2" x 2"). We liked the way that the invisible thread looked, but were concerned about the overall strength of the piece. So, Leslie dyed a gorgeous piece of red organza (which I have not taken a photo of yet, sorry!!), and we fused the entire thing to the back. The photo below is what the back looked like before the organza. I thought that looked pretty awesome too!
After fusing the organza, we went back and zig-zagged all the seams through all the layers for reinforcement. Then we decided to add some satin stitching lines, keeping them consistent with the overall work but not overwhelming the work that was all ready there. It was hard to decide what these lines would be, but we eventually settled on these somewhat concentric lines. The thread was chosen to be similar to the background to keep the effect subtle, and some hand stitching with embroidery floss was added to both soften and emphasize our new lines. The work is just incredible! It is rich with the individual artist's voices and the group process sings!
Last, this was an easy group project that has so many possibilities! I am curious to see if we will try it again and get a totally different quilt.....or if any of you will give it a try! Be sure to let me know!