After my husband's stay in the hospital, some guild meetings and two fabulous teaching events in Daytona and Hampton, studio time returned. Quiltfest, the organizer of the Mid Atlantic Quiltshow in Hampton, not only asked me to teach again in September at the National Quilt Extravaganza in Pennsylvania, they also invited me to give my lecture about "trends in the quilting world" at this show. I have done lectures about this subject for at least 15 years but only at guilds, never at a show. I thought it would be nice to make a quilt for this first show lecture engagement and "Color Talk" is almost finished. I will use this to explain the color trends in Oaks, PA and earlier engagements as well. Here you see a picture of Color Talk before the quilting started. Quilting to me means stitching every piece of fabric down with a matching color thread. Quilting always takes a long, long time. On one hand I wish it would go faster, on the other hand, I truly enjoy this process of looking for the perfect color thread. The goal of my quilting is to enhance the color blending and it really makes a big difference.
Busy with fabric
Also "Lifelong Friendship" is done, a quilt that lacks a focus on purpose. Like friends, it doesn't matter what, where and how we are... we just like to be together. Over the years, life happens, the friendship evolves, gets older, makes winding curves, but the feeling of liking to be together stays. The quilt has colors that work well together and - I hope - you can see these colors change just by passing time. In a new time they have slightly changed but still like to be together. During Jan's sickness I cherished those friendships and I considered myself lucky to have friends in Europe as well that are available for chatting when it is bedtime in the US, but sleep wasn't coming to me.
More quilt news: "Neighborhoods" and "Growing Color" got accepted into Facade, the regional SAQA quilt show coming up in June in Petersburg,VA. This is a juried exhibition and it is always nice when work gets selected. I messed up terribly, because I told the Art in the Hospital organisation in Chicago that they could have Growing Color a little longer, not realizing that I had submitted it also for Facade. I have to become much more professional about where and when my quilts will be. Mea culpa! There is another area where I need to improve: when I call a quilt done it should have a label and a sleeve, because when it gets accepted later at a show, there needs to be a label and sleeve. Brrr...I got it done.
"My mother has Alzheimer's. These last five years" got another honor by getting accepted in Abstraction 2025, Forms, Lines and Colors. This is a publication that will go online and in art magasins with a broad audience of art lovers. Nice! Something else is going to happen with that quilt, but I will share it when it is official.....
In Pennsylvania I will teach Freestyle Color Collage and the Agamy Stripes class. In Houston I will teach only the Freestyle Color Collage class. In case you wonder why that is the case....I signed up for a booth at Festival and now there is no more time for other classes! My class is on Tuesday. Wednesday-Sunday will be for setting up a (little) booth and being at Festival. I can hardly believe it myself that I did this, but I am also so excited about it. It may be a one year event, because this year I can bring and sign my book and bring fabric for collage quilters. I may add some fabric lines to this, but my booth will not be my gigantic one from the past with an entire team. I will be all byself, enjoying meeting quilters and chatting fabric. Tiny fabrics, tiny booth :)
My studio time is divided over making quilts , kits for classes and making Builders, the packages of 20 fabrics in size 4.5" x 10". I love making these, most of them in the early morning after the first coffee. They are all highly curated and one of a kind, ideal for my freestyle color collage and other collage/applique projects. They also work great for planned scrap quilts like the new Scrappy Triangles foundation papers by Leila Gardunia.
Builders are so useful if you are looking to expand a color section. I make what I can and I have what I have, but custom requests are always welcome. One of those requests came from a student who was looking for 20 batiks in red, yellow and greens for a Melinda Bula pattern. I love that our relations are such that people ask me for what they need and can't find anywhere. Sometimes I can say yes, sometimes I have to say no, but I always love to help and connect with you. After I made these Builders for her, I posted a picture on social media. Many more requests came in. So now I'm in the middle of making Builders in all colors in batiks. They will come on my e-com website, collagefabric.com, as soon as the red and pinks are done as well. I'm waiting for fabric to arrive. Lots of work!
Earlier this week another first happened: Artistic Artifacts posted that I will come on May 31, 2025 to this Alexandria, VA shop to teach a class. Judy, the owner, and I have been longtime colleagues and I remember our yearly conversations at the quilt show in Hershey, PA, where I had to pass her booth all the time to bring my stuff to the back of the conference room. Judy would not be Judy if she doesn't have a plan for that day, so I am looking forward to this local class and book signing. Artistic Artifacts has recently been awarded the "Creative Hub Award" and the "Virginia Local Quilt Show Contest Award", so her customers and I will be spending the day in a wonderful environment. We all will have a shared passion for fabric and color!
All these classes have restricted the space for Open Studio Days a little, but I will try to schedule one for at the end of the year. If interested, please send me your name and you will be the first to hear. You can always request a personal date if you want to bring a group of friends and play with my fabrics.
I will be going to H&H Market in Chicago next month for a book signing event at Fox Chapel Publishers. This is the Spring wholesale Market, not only for quilting but generic crafting businesses as well. That should be interesting to see. I will write about it when I get back!