Road To California 2011 - Day Three

O. M. G....if you ever get a chance to take a class from David Taylor..DO IT!!! He is one of the best quilt teachers I have ever had...he is totally funny.. has figured out how to make award winning, very expensive quilts...and he is not afraid of sharing his techniques..

In the morning, we learned how he makes his patterns, prepared a tracing of the pattern we chose to do (either his penguin or hummingbird - I chose the hummingbird...) and made a freezer paper tracing of the pattern..cut those apart and ironed to the fabric (provided in the kit, thank goodness!) Then we learned how he 'buries' the points so that he does not need to make sharp points (except if they are on the outside edge like the point of the hummingbird's beak..)..and learned how he does the starching

During lunch..he was demo'ing the HandiQuilter Sweet 16...its the sit-down table model that HandiQuilter makes..I sat and watched him quilt for around half an hour!

After lunch, he broke us up into small groups and we gathered around his table to learn how he does applique..its a pretty neat technique..very close to how Ami Simms does her applique..only his pieces are prepared vs Ami's where the pattern is drawn on both pieces. He explained how he does the quilting using Sulky's Blendables threads..and how he changes colors...and buries the knots as he goes..and how he does binding..with a layer of polyester twill tape that keeps the edge from ever stretching!

I don't really have anything to 'show' for today as I only got 3 pieces of a 50 piece pattern sewed down!! So I will leave you with the teacher's version of the pattern:

Road To California 2011 - Day Two

Just went around the vendor mall today..bought a few things..
a fat quarter of a rock wall... the littlest kit of Wheel of Mystery (Laser cut batiks - finished size is 16x20) and the Texas Star pattern (Lone Star with 5 points instead of 8) from John Flynn's booth, 1/4 inch hexie papers for English Paper Piecing....package of John James sharps..

Did not buy a lot..but it was interesting...We went out for barbecue ribs and yam fries after shopping.. yummmmm

Class in the morning from David Taylor..really am looking forward to that!!

Road To California 2011 - Day One

Just got back from my Scavenger Art Quilt class...it was really enjoyable and the teacher (Terry Waldron) was great.

My scavenged pieces for this quilt are the green ribbon on the left, the crocheted doily behind the cup of tea and the doily in the saucer (which was a plastic-y paper that was wrapped around one of the pots of flowers that I got in the hospital)..I used decorator fabric that I got free from the Fullerton Civic Light Opera (they had huge bundles of fabric scraps in plastic bags in front of their office - I was fortunate that one of the guys in my office mentioned the bags were there) to make the sunflowers, a piece of trim is the tea bag label and the teacher handed out a baggie of trims that had the green stems for the sunflowers..

There is an inspirational quote on the quilt as well - reads:
"We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out." Ray Bradbury

The pot for the flowers is a wee bit dark in the photo..its really much brighter in real life..but I may have to change out the brown behind it.. The cup I added last and its not quite really done yet..but you get the idea..

I only went into the vendor mall for a few minutes..got a couple of sample pieces of wool batting...and a couple of green fat quarters that I thought might make good leaves but ended up not using..but since they are batiks..they will get used somewhere!! There is this lady selling trims and buttons that I want to investigate a bit more tomorrow..She's selling hanks of stuff - $18 for a dozen hanks...

Got to see the quilts last night when I picked up my badge..some really wonderful quilts..the best of show was won by one of my teachers at Road 2010. best pictorial was won by the teacher I will have on Saturday..best painted surface was won by one of my teachers from Road 2010.. a lot of this year's quilts are definitely art pieces as they are quilted to 'board stiff'..but they are beautiful..

It's warm and clear and a bit windy...wearing short sleeves for most of the day!

Road to California - Days 3 and 4

The third class I took was 'Front to Back Pictoral Quilting' by Kathy McNeil..she was also one of the judges for the show. I love how detailed her quilts are..this is a link to her patterns. The default one for this class was 'Feathered Lady'..the swan..and a couple of people did do that pattern.. She covered so many topics in this class - my head is still spinning..we learned how to draft patterns, how to prepare the appliques, how to use a varieity of mediums to modify the fabric such as paint, ink, crayon and tulle..how to use the patterns on fabric as something other than what it was printed for and to look at both sides of the fabric for design opportunities...I have a different perspective on picking fabrics for landscapes now..
I chose to do my own design for this one - the Cape Blanco Light..and I wanted to do it at dusk, after the light is turned on...
For this class, I 'posterized' the picture that I used so it would print out over 4 sheets of paper..that comes out to about the size of a fat quarter (posterizing was WAY easier than tracing...)..I also made a black and white version of the picture so that I could tell where the shadows and highlights were..
This class we used a different method of applique prep than some of the others - we used Magic Sizing...you spray your piece and iron it dry to get the fabic quite crispy..then turn the edges with a steam iron..the steam makes the Magic Sizing hold the crease..in place where the turn under was a bit ornery, we used a light smear of glue stick.On some of the smaller pieces, I did do the full glue stick prep I learned in Martha Nordstrand's classes...

This is how far I got in the class in preparing my piece. the applique is designed to be done as a unit so that it can be moved around to find just the right spot after you create the background. I went to Joann's after class and picked up the fabric that is the glass (pearlized sheer fabric) and the light (gold lame' which I fused to a piece of muslin so it stops fraying)..there is also some shiny gold tulle to try to define the light pattern..

It needs the doors, the base of the building(which is the same red color but with some black netting over it to add a bit of shaddow, the foreground and some light rays - I bought some angelina fiber to experiment with and some gold Tsukeniko ink - maybe one of those will work..

In the evening of day 3, I went to Roundabout..which is 10 minute sessions by the teachers or vendors showing a technique or a product..there are a couple hundred rabid quilters, about 10 or so seats by each station and at the sound of the whistle, you run to another station to see what that person is demoing!

Kathy Kansier was showing some of her crazy quilt stuff - which I did not get to see in the class I took with her and one of the things she showed was a nifty beading tray -

So..I went home and made one for me! Its a piece of suede cloth spray basted to a piece of cardboard then inserted in a cheap picture frame - this one cost me $1 at the thrift store..the suede keeps the beads from rolling and the picture frame is small, rigid and easy to use on your lap..

Learned how to do freehand cutting with a tiny rotary cutter (Rob Appel), how to make a cabuchon around a mirror with beads, how to do free motion thread play (using tulle and Solvy) to make any embroidered object..will probably use this for shrubbery for the lighthouse foreground.. It was a fun 2 hours!

Road to California - Day 2

The second class I took at Road to California was 'Painting with Inks' by Patt Blair - she won one of the big money prizes for one of her quilts ($500!) - a portrait of an 18 year old Mexican folk dancer at the Padua Hills Theater..(the lady who's picture it is was in my third class!! She posed for the original picture 45 years ago!) And she won first place for a pictoral of a mountain lion..you can see those pictures on her blog

I chose to do one of Patt's designs for this class, though I could have chosen to do an original..I thought I would learn more of the techniques if I had her example to work from..and in the end, I think I chose wisely for this one. I used the pattern for the third quilt from the left - the magnolia blossom..Patt is a very interesting teacher and has load of great tips for using the Tsukeniko inks..I only had to buy a few more bottles of the inks to add to my collection.
Mine is alot pinker than hers...I like pink magnolias (they are 'Susan Magnolias'!)
You can see a bit of the design showing thru the PFD muslin where I didn't get finished with the last three leaves..I also need to add the background and probably will use a pale blue/lavendar instead of the yellow/oranges that Patt used..I am liking how this is turning out ALOT...

The day started out with a bit of excitement! I got to the parking lot and noticed there were LOTS of people standing around..turns out there was a fire alarm and they evacuated the whole building..If I had a quilt in the show, I would have been going nuts thinking about fire or water damage..fortunately it turned out to be a burned sandwich in a microwave back in the food service area..we were let in a little while later...

Road to California 2010 - Day 1

Annual Road to California Report

The first class I took was called 'Making a Grand Entrance' with Kathy Kansier - one of the judges of the 2010 show. In this class the objective was to enlarge a picture of our choice of a door, archway or gate using the Tracer Jr enlargers, transfer that enlarged design to a piece of foundation muslin and start audioning fabrics. I chose a picture of the Columbia River Gorge taken thru a stone archway on a bridge for my project.
This was how the classroom looked for the morning session...darkish! It did not quite get all the way dark because there were some spotlights that the convention center could not get to turn off. which made it harder to actually see the lines using the Tracer Jr enlargers - they really require a very dark room to see the edges.The first time we tried to turn off the lights , we ended up turning off the lights in two other classrooms! They were a bit distressed at that...finally one of the convention center guys came by and set it so we could at least turn off the overhead lights..

Here is my piece..it's pretty big for me...probably 30 x 40...I am going to make the edge of the quilt the curve and put fish tank tubing in a channel on the back to keep it arched..the pieces of fabric are just pinned to the muslin - some folks were using fusible, but I really don't care for fusible much..and it's the devil to handquilt thru...
I need to do a bit more to the bottom of the arch - it needs more definition to the ledge but I did not have much dark fabric to choose from..will have to be on the hunt for some..the greyish fabric came from another quilter (thanks!). I only had a fat quarter of the rock fabric..and ended up pasting a bunch of scraps together with OkToWashIt glue to make one of the reverse highlight pieces...I ended up with a tiny pile of very small scraps of that fabric..
I think I need something more as a focal point on the river scene..not quite sure WHAT though..and I need to do some shading on the green parts...