selling quilts

Christmas is coming! Quilted Art Makes Wonderful Presents

Posted on by Betty Jo's Blog / Posted in My business, selling quilts, Uncategorized

Night on the Bayou $2080 59″ x 31″ Just back from Houston IQA 2019!

Hi everyone!  I have a few quilts for which I have recently reduced the prices until 20 January 2020.  I am going to California in late January to visit my brother and his family and to attend the Road to California quilt show.  I’m so excited, but I would really love to have some spending money for this trip and to pay a few bills.  Also, my walls are full.  LOL.  I rotate them, but really, it would be lovely to have some people who like them to have them to enjoy on their walls.  Yes, they are kind of pricey, but we can arrange some kind of payment schedule with half up front and all payments are to be made through PayPal.  Contact me through my email [email protected]  if  you are interested I can arrange to send you some additional photographs or descriptions if you’d like.  These quilts have all been in national/international quilt shows in the United States.  They are totally original designs, except that Night on the Bayou is based on a painting by Disney Artist Joel Christopher Payne (I purchased the rights for one quilt) but I did some changes to accommodate the very textural quilted art. All quilts have a rod pocket and label on the back.

Summer Melody A 2016 Hoffman Challenge Quilt $220 33.5″ x 29″

 

Drawing Nigh $2080 39.5 x 44.5

And this little quilt

The Storyteller
A Hoffman Challenge 2013 quilt
$325
35.5″ x 37.5″

I have others for purchase.  You can see them here:  Gallery

Sew happy everyone!  There are some wonderful fabric art adventures you can make out  there.  Watch this space for ideas, techniques, and other related news.  Merry Christmas!

 

 

 

Finished “Leather” Coat, What Is Next, and a Quilt for Sale

Posted on by Betty Jo's Blog / Posted in Classes, Fabrics, Machines, Making Clothes, Panel quilts, selling quilts / 3 Comments

I am struck by how much my readership dwindled during this past month as I worked on the “leather” coat for my youngest son.  I think it is informative to me that most of my readers are most interested in quilting, which doesn’t surprise me.  Well, nevermind.  I have finished the “leather” coat and I am going to do some quilting next before I do anymore clothing.  I do want to make a couple of pairs of slacks for me before I go to Road to California in late January.  But I am going to quilt, make a few small Christmas momentos in my embroidery hoop, and maybe a new bag to calm my sewing nerves after this tough project before I resume my clothing efforts sometime early in January.  LOL

The coat.

Well, it was time consuming and tough.  Why was it tough?  Not really because of the “leather” but more because I was tailoring a man’s coat for which I did not have a commercial pattern that fit.

One of the welted flap pockets

I was rusty in my tailoring methodology.  And yes, the “leather” does take more care and time, but it is still relatively easy to sew on.

Detail of collar

My new Bernina 880 plus, Odette, and the feet designed for use with the leather were marvelous.  I had no problems at all with that.  All the problems were mine.  LOL  Did I enjoy this project?  Well, yes.  I felt very happy to re-aquire my tailoring skills and enjoyed the sewing, which was amazingly easier than my decades ago work with leather.  I was only frustrated with my mistakes that cost me time and “leather” and with the time it was taking me.

Lapel detail

Now I have to dig out my studio and put away the scraps and so forth.  Then I have a workshop coming up “Embellish This! that I am teaching at G Street Fabrics in Rockville, Maryland on Friday the 13th (!) at 11 am to 3 pm.  It is largely filled, but I think there is another one or two places if you want to come and have a lot of fun. But I am all prepared for that one, so it won’t cost me any more time.

Finally, I put one of my quilts on special sale because need some spending money for my trip to R2CA.  I have reduced the price of this fun quilt to $899 from $1250.  I love this quilt that is centered around an Alfred Shaheen Vintage panel and I quilted on my Bernina Q20 pulling from Bethanne Nemesh’s book Quilted Textures from A to Zen for the textured quilting patterns.  I can provide more detailed photos if you are interested.

Tropical Garden, June 2017 36″ x 51.5″. I hand painted the border.

So contact me at [email protected] to buy this quilt.  We can arrange payments through PayPal.

Sew happy everyone!  Have some fun in your studio this week!

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Sewing Machine and Design Software Fan

Posted on by Betty Jo's Blog / Posted in Design Work, Exhibits, Food for Thought, High-Tech Studio, Machines, My micro-business, My Studio, selling quilts, Tools / 4 Comments

Gibbs at work.

Make no mistake, I love my machines and enjoy using my various pieces of design software to help me create art quilts, or just to sew, or just draw, paint, and design digitally.  It’s more than a hobby.  It’s my fun and my full time occupation, though I hardly make much money from it.  Indeed, I spend more than I make at this point.  It would be great to turn that around, especially since I periodically do things to update, add to, or improve my fleet of machines and suite of software because I think it is the right thing to do,

Oh, did I tell you?  They have a new pin point laser light attachment for Fritz that shows exactly where the needle will enter the fabric to help with precision quilting and free motion thread work.  Awesome!  I ordered one (they had a 25 percent off offer).  LOL  I need all the help I can get making my quilting sing.  Last week, I also updated my Electric Quilt to EQ8 (they had a great offer).

Sew now that we have clearly established that I spend too much on my super hobby and I make too little with it,  I keep thinking how I can turn this situation around and start making at least enough to support my quilt-making habit, and even have some for trips to places like Houston or Paducah for the big shows.  For example, I just updated my website gallery last week so you can see my quilts better and see what the sizes and prices are for those that are on sale.  By the way, the exhibit of my quilts is still going on at G Street Fabrics in Rockville, Maryland, where most, not all, of my quilts are on display through Thanksgiving if you have a chance to go.

Most of you probably know I am a Bernina girl.  I love Berninas.  I have four of them right now, but I am selling my Bernina 1230 to my student/apprentice,  Anita is one of my best friends, a true beginning quilter, and I am teaching her to quilt and improve her sewing, and to use the 1230 all just for fun.   I also have a Baby Lock Serger (yes, really!!!). Now I reluctantly admit that Baby Lock is also a very good brand, and they make wonderful sergers.  If I had to choose a machine other than Bernina, it would probably be Baby Lock.

My Bernina Q20 named Fritz.

Anyway, when Anita takes home the 1230 once she gets her sewing space set up and completes her initial classes on the machine, this will allow me to have all my machines in their own cabinet (except the serger), which makes my playground just plain wonderful.  It’s wonderful already, in fact, though it needs a little reorganizing and cleaning.  It’s a magical space even if it isn’t all slick and spacious.  I have Gibbs, my Bernina 830 LE in Studio Gibbs (meant to be a small bedroom), where I store the bulk of my quilting stash and have a small kitchen island for cutting and painting and the like.  Gibbs has a very large custom cabinet that can be a nice big work table if I simply move Gibbs.  I also have Studio Fritz, another small bedroom, where Fritz, my Bernina Q20 and, my ironing station, and my computers live.  Then there is Studio Betsy, well, actually that’s part of my bedroom, where I have my original Koala cabinet.  That’s where the Bernina 1230, named Betsy (for Betsy Ross) is currently residing, but I will be putting E.Claire (named for Edith Claire Head), my little Bernina 350 that is now on the floor in the cabinet.  Wilcox, my serger, hides under one end of that cabinet.  Plus the bulk of my sewing books are also housed in my still rather nice bedroom.  So nearly my whole upper floor in my modest townhome is pretty much dedicated to my studio.  I even briefly considered working out a way to sleep under a longarm frame when I bought Fritz, but decided the sit down setup for him would be the better option.  😉

My grandson a couple or years ago at  E, Claire, my Berinina 350

I have really neat plans for 2018.  I have several quilts already started or close to being started, and I am writing a couple of books on art quilting and I hope Anita will be my beginner beta tester of the projects in the book once I get her started.  My daughter in law Beth, who is an advanced quilter with a fabulous studio, will be my advanced beta tester.  Additionally, I am working out a few workshops for local teaching, but I seldom really make any money to speak of on those because it takes so much time for me to get them pulled together.  Maybe eventually those will make money too.  I really do them to learn what people want to know and am putting that in my books.  So they are still valuable to me.

Sew maybe 2018 will be my year…I’ll go through a whole year without updating any software or buying any new machines, start selling more quilts, win more and better cash award ribbons, and finish my two books which will, of course, each be a major hit and sell, sell, sell.  Ha-ha-ha-ha,,,,,,,,In the meantime, however, I plan on continuing to thoroughly enjoy my fleet of machines and suite of drawing and design software and endeavor to rein in my desire to have the very latest machines, attachments, and software.  We just won’t mention “adjustments” to my stash of fabrics, threads, yarns, beads, and paints here.  But they are necessary, right?

Sew happy everyone.  I hope you have a play space you enjoy.

 

A Discussion About Wall Art Quilt Sizes

Posted on by Betty Jo's Blog / Posted in Ancient manuscripts, Design Work, Food for Thought, My micro-business, quilt shows, selling quilts / 3 Comments

I make art quilts now primarily  to first show them and then sell them (or give them away).  I think that these two goals slightly conflict with each other.  I believe most people would find wall quilts wider than about 50 inches just simply too big for most homes or offices today.  Normally, smaller is better for sale items.  Shows, however, seem to not see it that way, and I kind of understand that, since when they are in the show the impact is increased by the size for the most part.  I have been quite surprised, however, when I have made a quilt that is around 50 inches wide, which seems fairly large at home in my studio, and then go to the show to see it in place where it seems really small hanging there.  Nevertheless, I think the sizes I end up with are right for the styles and may make them more possible to sell later.  So you see, I have a bit of an argument with myself about sizes.   Just so you can see, I usually size my quilts to fit within the American Quilting Society’s guidelines because, truly, they are the least flexible.  Here are next year’s categories with sizes.

Another consideration is the physical challenge of dealing with large quilts. The older and creakier I get the more difficult I find large bed-sized quilts to make, but it helps that I have a large table for my main machine (Bernina 830LE) and my sit-down longarm (Bernina Q20) with a large table.  So I really can work up to about 60 x 60 with no problems.  Currently, I am working on my Bayou quilt, which is 60 inches wide and 30 inches long.  The original art work I am working with is 30 x 15, so when I enlarged it to a size that would be a good show quilt, I had no choice other than 60 x 30 if I were to keep the aspect ratio the same and meet AQS specifications.  Why is that?  Well, I want to enter it into AQS Virginia Beach 2018.  As you can see, if it is any wider than 60 inches it moves to the large quilts category that has a minimum of 60 inches long.  If it is any narrower than 60 inches the length would becomes shorter than the required 30 inches.

Normally, I get the design worked out and decide how I am going to approach making it and then enlarge the design to a showable and saleable size.  I kind of aim at 40 to 50 inches wide, which is really a small quilt for most shows,  but it also is a nice size for most walls.  I might try making a few of the AQS Fiber Art wall quilt sizes this year (24 to 40 inches wide by 24 to 60 inches long).  As a matter of fact, most of my Ancient Manuscript series fit within this size, but as you see, not all their shows support this size.

And finally, some consideration must be given to the cost of fabric.  If I am making a quilt all in silks, I want to use high quality silk fabric and that is expensive.  So smaller is more affordable.

I would love to start a discussion about wall quilt sizes.  What sizes do you think are the best, in general, and do you think the shows should set their sizes by specified width and length groups or by either perimeter inches or square inches, which would allow an ancient manuscript that is 27 x 37 into the wall quilt categories that would not be allowed now?  Or maybe it doesn’t really matter to you, just so you can make your quilt like you want it.  What do you think are the ideal parameters for wall art quilts for home or office?

Canterbury Silk. This all-silk quilt is the first in my Ancient Manuscript inspired series. It is 35 x 44 inches.

Sew happy everyone.  Make yourself a beautiful piece of fabric art for your wall, or make them for gifts.  They make wonderful presents if you know they would fit in the lives of the people you give them to (give that some serious consideration before giving them a quilt).  Also, check out my quilts on my website (link at top of this blog).  I have revamped my site slightly so you can really see the quilts better.  The prices and sizes can also be found there.

 

My Uncle and What’s Happening in My Studio

Posted on by Betty Jo's Blog / Posted in Art Quilt Techniques, Church banners, My Family, selling quilts / 2 Comments

I’ve taken too long to write a new post.  This past month has had its lows and highs.

My uncle Betterton passed a week and a half ago.  He was 91 and was two years younger than my mom.  I had five aunts and six uncles on my mom’s side and one aunt on my Dad’s side and all are gone now, as well as my parents.   Uncle Betterton was one of my favorite uncles.  He was always close with my mom and someone everyone could rely on for help.  He had various tough illnesses the last several years, mild dementia, and is now no longer suffering.  He was a strong Christian.  Like my father, he was a civil engineer, both served in WWII, and he and Dad enjoyed a strong friendship.  My memories of him are sweet and dear and the pain of losing him is softened by his wonderful long giving life and his final release from the difficulties of his last few years.

Sew what’s going on in my studio these days?  My “apprentice” Anita and I finished the church banner celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.  The church members apparently love it, and I was really pleased with how it looks.  I have still not gotten a good photo of it, but I will share as soon as I do.  The big community celebration is next Sunday.  I guess this tells you that I attend a Lutheran church.  I do.  It’s five minutes drive from my house and the it’s a lovely church with services not far in liturgical style from the Episcopal church.  I grew up an Episcopalian.  For many years I drove down to Georgetown to go to the historic St John’s Episcopal in Georgetown where Marvin and I both were very active and sang in the choir.  After Marvin passed, I moved to Ashburn, Virginia, and the drive to Georgetown got even longer, so I looked for somewhere closer.  Our Savior’s Way Lutheran Church is in my neighborhood…now that’s a luxury I had not had for decades.

I have gotten a start on my next show quilt.  I’m not sure I would call them “show quilts” any longer, except that’s a term many understand.  I like to show them, but my primary goal for these quilts is to make wonderful art, and hopefully sell most of them in the long run.  Everything I make I hope to meet show quilt level, but sometimes show judges don’t seem to understand why the techniques I choose are done the way they are, or how difficult they really are.  Sometimes they seem to see things and remark on them that I simply cannot see, and sometimes I think they don’t see something about my quilts that I think is especially unique and interesting.  Maybe I need new glasses, a flashlight, and a better magnifying glass.  Or maybe I need a microscope.  LOL  So I have found a lot of freedom in reaching for creating beautiful art the best way I can make it and not worrying too much about what a judge might see or not see.  Competition can be rough on one’s ego.  He-he-he

Anyway, back to my latest project.  It’s based on the art piece I bought the rights for one art quilt from the Disney artist Joel Christopher Payne.  It’s set in the Bayou and has interesting trees, and two rather rundown homes with light peaking out through the cracks in the boards.  One is a houseboat, and the other is a shack built on stilts on a platform.  The scene is at night and there is a little pale light filtering through the trees in a way that suggests a heart shape, and there are fireflies.  This is a huge challenge for me, but really, I am enjoying myself so far.

I have the houseboat “built” and the shack about half done.  Yesterday I did a little low and high lighting with Neocolor II pigment crayons.  When you use them with fabric, you can just color it on and then brush it with water to blend it onto the fabric and then heat set it for a permanent color.  Sometimes when I heat set it, it gets lighter so I have to go back and add more color, but it’s a wonderful way to over color an existing fabric pattern to add shadows and lights where you need them or “correct” colors.  In this case, I have three different wood print fabrics that I have backed with Steam-a-Seam II light and cut into board shapes.  I am using these to “build” the shack and the houseboat.

The picture has really big trees that also have some Spanish moss hanging from them.  I have five different tree bark prints that I will use to make the tree appliqués.  They, too will need to be overpainted to get the right look and color,  I am planning on thread painting the Spanish moss on, and probably it will be more than Joel put in his picture because this is a fabric and threads interpretation of his wonderful art piece.

I have obtained some glow in the dark paints and threads to make the fireflies with, and the paint has some additional pigment so it will look good in light too.  I may add crystals to the fireflies for added dimension.

The biggest challenge as I see it is the light that is getting the back light that is coming through the trees and reflecting across the water right.  I am thinking this will have to be done with paint, but I’m still thinking about it.

Sew I hope you all have a wonderful week.  Try something new and push to get it as well done as possible.  I have a lot going on in my studio besides this new quilt, so I hope I will get back to my weekly blogs for a while.  Cheers!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Down to the Last Minute, and A Thread Review

Posted on by Betty Jo's Blog / Posted in Applique, Design Work, Embroidery, Exhibits, Reviews, selling quilts, Threads / 4 Comments

I am going to take the second batch of my quilts out to G Street Fabrics in Rockville, Maryland, for the second part of the exhibit of my quilts.  This exhibit, which runs from mid July until the end of August or so, includes nearly all my show quilts except for Pendragon, Dad’s House plan, this year’s Hoffman Challenge still on tour, and a couple I have sold or given away.  They will be displayed throughout the store, including those that are already there in the Bernina department.  I also have completed one new quilt and nearly finished a second new quilt just for this exhibit.  Some of these quilts are available for purchase.  I will (really) post photos of the exhibit sometime in the latter half of July.

Sew here is where I’m at on the preparations.  I have completed the second one of my Alfred Shaheen panel quilts and named it “Tropical Garden”.  I used a lot of Superior’s new 100 weight polyester thread called Microquilter on both that quilt and the “Field of FLowers” I hope to finish by Friday to include in the exhibit.

A Review of Microquilter Thread

When I won all thirty colors of Superior’s Microquilter 100 weight polyester from Superior Threads, I was really thrilled.  I use almost more 100 weight threads than I do any other thread.  I use it for background quilting, detail thread sketching on things like flowers and line drawings, and I also love it for machine applique.  I do not use it for piecing or bobbins.

I found it a wonderful workable thread.  I tried it in my Bernina Q20 sit down longarm, my Bernina 830 LE, and my Bernina 350.  In every case I had to lower the top tension to keep it from breaking, just as I do for silk 100 wt and monopoly.  It worked beautifully without further adjustment in everything but the Q20.  For that, I had to lower the bobbin tension also (I used it with Bottom Line in the bobbin, though I did try one bobbin with the Microquilter).  I found surprisingly that the Superior top stitch needle size 80 worked better than a smaller needle that I use for monopoly and silk.  So here is how I ended up setting up my Q20 (Fritz) if you have one:

  • I have found my Q20 works better with a Magic Bobbin Genie sized for M bobbin.  I just put it in over the spring in the bobbin.  Without it, I have some thread nests on the bottom of my quilt when I get going really fast, and believe me, the Q20 can go REALLY fast.
  • I set the bobbin tension with Superior’s Bottom Line or the Microquilter itself for 180 using the tension guage that came with my machine.  If you use the Microquilter in your bobbin don’t wind it full.  It works better a little less…starting at about 3/4 full.  In the course of making two quilts, I used both Bottom Line that I wound and some prewound Superior thread bobbins that use Bottom Line.
  • I set the top tension for 125
  • I used a size 80 Superior top stitch titanium needle.
  • I used BSR1 set at 280 speed for tiny little stippling and 200 for slower tiny bubbles
  • This setup makes it work like a dream…no nests, no hangups, no tension problems

I will provide some pictures of my quilting with Microquilter as soon as I get them taken.  I am behind in getting my quilts photographed.

 

I got my little personal app quilt home that was a part of Road to California’s traveling exhibit of app quilts.  It has lost about six hot fix crystals out of hundreds, so I need to replace them by Friday.  I have one quilt that needs washing and reblocking, which I will do today.  I have several more stumpwork butterflies to make for the Field of Flowers and I have to put the rod pocket and label on it.  I think I can make the Friday deadline on this one, since the actual quilt is complete and bound. I even have the silver spider charm on the spider web part of that quilt.  Here’s the dragonfly that is ready to go onto the quilt already.  It’s in parts and needs a little additional embroidery after attachment where the wings attach to the body.  I will do turned edge applique of the body and hide the wing wires under that.  I will also probably darken the little white edges of the sheer to match the stitching.  I may even do a hand blanket stitch over the edges if I decide it needs it.  The first picture shows the pieces after stitching, and the second picture shows the dragonfly together ready to applique on.

The embroidered pieces, which I made in the hoop with my Bernina 830 LE

And I also need to ship “Pendragon” to AQS this week.  I want to do a little gold paint touch up on the border paint before I ship it.

So I have a really busy week ahead of me, but it’s an exciting time.  I am enormously pleased that G Street has asked me to show my quilts in the exhibit there.  It is a real honor.  I hope you have a chance to see it.  The whole show will be available in mid-July. I’m not sure of the exact dates, so you might want to call them before you head there.

Sew happy everyone!  Teach someone to sew or quilt…yourself, you cat, your dog…your son.  Until next time!

 

An Exhibit of My Quilts at G Street Fabrics

Posted on by Betty Jo's Blog / Posted in Exhibits, Food for Thought, My micro-business, Quilt Journal, quilt shows, selling quilts / 8 Comments

I am enjoying a new fabric adventure into the world of exhibiting of the body of my art quilting work at G Street Fabrics in Rockville, Maryland, which is a two-part exhibit.  The first part is in the Bernina section of the store.  The second part will start in mid-July and my quilts will be displayed throughout the store.  I believe this part will run for an additional two months and I am hoping to complete several new quilts for this part.  So in effect, my quilts will be on display from now through August.

Yesterday I took eight of my quilts over to the store for part one. This part includes all three of my Ancient Manuscript quilts, four of my Hoffman Challenge quilts that demonstrate my growth as a quilter from 2008 to 2013, and Dad’s House Plan from 2013.  I had such a good time while I was there and am very excited about this two-part exhibit.  I am honored that G Street Fabrics wants to do this exhibit for me.

In June, I will be teaching a three hour workshop on quilting there at G Street…primarily free motion quilting but I am also going to briefly talk about quilting with a walking foot. Sometime while my quilts are there I will be providing a walking lecture around the store to talk about my quilts and related things in the store.

G Street is a wonderful store.  It is getting better all the time after it clearly moved to save itself from failing.  It closed two stores in Virginia to my chagrin and moved from it’s old Rockville location to its new one.  The new store is less showy and slightly smaller than the old Rockville one, but I looked over it yesterday and found it has a fine selection of fabrics and notions and seemed busy again.  It also has a kind of interesting atmosphere similar to some fabric stores I encountered in New York years ago…not flashy, but full of wonderful things for the sewist, quilter, and fabric artists of all kinds.  The Bernina section is in a setting like its own store, and it has a wonderful set of classrooms for teaching.  They have a Bernina Q24 longarm set up in the store that is available for in-store rental of time on the longarm.  And Lew is the best Bernina tech I have ever encountered over my many years of sewing on Berninas.  I encourage you to go pay it a visit if you are ever in the area, or even make a trip there if you are close enough.  You can even order from them online.

Sew happy everyone!  I hope you can make it to G Street and see my exhibits.   I better get to work…I have several new quilts in the works for the second part of the exhibit!

Making Panel Quilts: The Designs

Posted on by Betty Jo's Blog / Posted in Design Work, Panel quilts, Quilt Journal, selling quilts / 2 Comments

Design for my second Alfred Shaheen panel quilt (image using EQ7).  There will also be painted designs of flowers and possibly birds around the border.  I am currently working on those designs.

I am making as many quilts as I can to add to my upcoming exhibit of my quilts at G Street Fabrics in Rockville, Maryland, to take place sometime in the  April/May period. I figure keeping busy is a great way to ignore the news as much as possible, and quilting is such a delightful way to do that.

I had such a lot of fun making my Hawaiian Garden quilt that was focused around the Alfred Shaheen panel that I made for the MQX Exhibit in 2016 and later gifted to my brother and his wife for their special 50th wedding anniversary that I decided to make another one (see design above).  Here in this picture of Hawaiian Garden and you can see I will be using a similar border plan for the second AF panel quilt:

Hawaiian Garden…central panel is a vintage Alfred Shaheen panel.

I received permission to make the second quilt from Alfred Shaheen‘s daughter, since the first quilt had been made under MQX’s permission they got for the exhibit.  His daughter asked that I let my quilt friends know that the panels are very rare and are obviously precious to her.  I know that all of us who have made these for MQX are honoring his wonderful art work with our quilts.

I have also been working on the design for a panel quilt where I will be using a printout of the design I painted myself for the central panel.  I worked out this plan below in EQ7 using the design I painted in the center.  I still have to get the central panel printed.  I may add some additional real painting in the border…I have an idea for that, but can’t get it drawn like I “see” it in my head yet.  I might just leave it as is.

Design for my digital flower panel quilt (using EQ7 to design placement and border)

Both of these quilts will probably not take very long to make, now that I have worked out the designs and have the borders worked out in EQ7 which is very helpful in getting them cut properly.  I already have the quilt top cut out and ready to piece together for the Alfred Shaheen panel quilt design shown at the top of this post.  I plan on offering both of these new quilts for sale if they come out like I hope.

Sew happy everyone!  Make a panel quilt…there are some wonderful panels out there now and they are really fun to make.  You sometimes have to block them square first and steam helps too.

 

 

Happy 2017: A New Year Full of Promise and Opportunities!!!!

Posted on by Betty Jo's Blog / Posted in Design Work, My Family, Quilt Journal, selling quilts / 4 Comments

Happy New Year everyone!

I don’t know about you, but I’m very excited about the promise and opportunities this new year brings.  Right away in 2017 I have a batch of really exciting new projects all ready to start and several very interesting projects close to the finish.   My sons, daughter in law, and grandson all have made me proud and their future for this year looks really promising.  I even have begun to make some progress already on my plan to lose a lot of weight, which always seems harder for me than most.  I am grateful and thankful to my dear Lord for all He has done for me.

I am first of all finishing Ken’s quilt, and then making several fun quilts that will be simply for my spring exhibit at G Street Fabrics in Rockville, Maryland and then for sale…not necessarily for shows. One book is well along the way and two are outlined and started.  The next thing is to make a bunch of samples for these books.  And I will have to make some new clothes if I actually succeed in my weight loss program, but that will probably be in the second half of the year.

This is a preliminary design of one of my quilts for the exhibit based on the digital flowers in the middle that I have spent several weeks painting in my spare time and finished today.  I plan to have the central section printed on fabric. The borders will have a little more to them.

Sew happy everyone.  May you have a wonderfully blessed and productive 2017.  Celebrate!

Preparing for an Exhibit in the Spring

Posted on by Betty Jo's Blog / Posted in Books, Classes, Food for Thought, My micro-business, quilt shows, selling quilts / 4 Comments

I haven’t finished my blog series on quilting for domestic machine artists, but I thought I’d tell you about a coming happening. G Street Fabrics will be hosting an exhibit of my quilts in the spring of 2017.

I have taken a hard look at the quilts I will have available and have decided it would be good if I can make several new quilts for that.  I’m excited about this.  So I will be backing off from showing my quilts in quilt shows around the country.

I recently purchased a new Shaheen vintage panel and will make a second quilt along the same lines of “Hawaiian Garden” shown below and offer it for sale at the exhibit. The panel is different, but I will be adding a similar border drawing the design from that panel.

hawaiian-garden-web

Hawaiian Garden: I made this for MQX Albert Shaheen exhibit quilts this year. I recently gave this quilt to my brother Pat and his wife Carol in celebration of their 50th wedding anniversary this year. So I no longer have this quilt.  The central panel is a vintage Shaheen panel and I designed and painted the border based on the panel design.

In addition to that one, I have some ideas for additional quilts that I think I might be able to make in the time I have. Some of these involve some new techniques I want to try and I will be sharing these with you along the way. I am also going to complete my son Ken’s quilt, and I do plan to enter that one into a show or two, but I want it home for the spring exhibit.

This will be a kind of departure from the direction I have been moving–away from shows and toward other avenues for sharing my work.  I have become fairly puzzled by what is going on in the show quilting world recently.  Last week two of my best quilts were rejected from Road to California, one of which has already won a ribbon and one that has already been shown in two AQS shows.  I was encouraged by the Houston judging by what won.  I did not enter this year, but in many, maybe even most, of the other shows the winners and losers have been an absolute puzzle to me. Some of the most exquisite quilts, beautifully designed and quilted, that might remotely be considered an art quilt did not do well, and the winners also seemed surprising.

So I have decided to concentrate on making my quilts equally as well as I would if they were a show quilt, and show or sell them as I can in other avenues, and to work also on my books and teach a few workshops locally.  This decision already seems to have unlocked my creativity that felt like it was grinding to a slow halt.  I’ll keep you up to date on that in case you are in the area and can come see my quilts or take one of my workshops.  I will probably enter something in Houston for 2017, but we’ll see.  I will take a new look at this situation after the exhibit or later.

Sew I am happily working away in my studio, perhaps at an even higher level than I have up until now, and we’ll see just how much of the ideas will actually make it on time.

Sew happy everyone.  Follow your leanings in your quilting.  If you don’t you may find it hard to work.