Every designer brings something new and different to my toolbox. I've been highlighting my favorites in no particular order of wonderfulness, but rather, as I encounter them. Last month Karen K. Stone visited the Kaw Valley Quilters Guild. Wow, what a program!
My introduction to Karen came many (10?) years ago when I took a class at Quilter's Haven in Olathe. The class was Karen's Cinco de Mayo - a fantastic, somewhat chaotic New York Beauty. This class fueled my search and collection of wild, colorful fabrics. These fabrics are part of my daily round now, but back then they were way outside of my comfort zone.
Cinco de Mayo is made of a series of blocks using the New York Beauty block - all of them varied in terms of the number of points and bands. This is not mine - I only have the first two rows done (yeah, I know I started it 10 years ago). But isn't it beautiful! I love the variation in the size and number of points.
My next close encounter with the force of nature that is Karen, was a class at the first Kansas City Regional Quilt Festival. I am an EPP fan and she was teaching EPP by machine. It was a challenging technique for me because I balk at a lot of prep work - and this technique took a lot of prep. It's a good tool to have in my kit, but I haven't used it yet.
This brings us to the present - well, last month, when Karen came to our guild. She is a dynamo of a speaker - I've love to get a little of her energy. The story of her quilts was mostly about color and value. It made me think about not being so matchy-matchy with my color schemes.
For the workshop after the talk and trunk show, Karen choose "Wild Women Don't Get the Blues" as the pattern. I choose Tula Pink's Raccoons for my focus fabric. I thought those little guys would be so cute surrounded by the colorful star points. After I took this pic, I added a black and white striped flange between the raccoon and the star points. I really liked it but i was a lot of work. So now I'm looking for something similar but easier. Or maybe I'll just leave it as is. Hmmmm Dilemma!
Curious about Karen? Look for her workshops and programs. She is a bundle of positive, quilting energy.
Tula Pink rocks her name! She rocks fabric, quilts and color too!
I have lots of favorite designers, but I decided to start with Tula since she was just here visiting the Kaw Valley Quilters Guild. We were lucky to have her here, but unlucky in that the Tuesday morning group missed out due to an ice storm.
Tula described her process of designing fabric. I am in awe of her creative talent. She draws all her precious creatures by hand on paper and then translates them into fabric with colors. I loved her statement that God used an aweful lot of brown in His designs, so she decided not to use brown, but rather to color the precious creatures of her fabrics in pinks, oranges, teals, purples, and greens.
I also appreciate her design thoughtfulness and purposefulness in that she ensures her previous designs work well with current designs, which will play well with future designs. I am really looking forward to getting my hands on her 25th collection which should be in shops any day now. Tula's All Star line includes the special creatures from previous lines (recolored), dots, and stripes.
I imagine Tula must not sleep much. In addition to working on 5 lines simultaneously (in-head, drawing, production, selling to shops, selling in shops), she makes 40 or so quilts a year, designs books and patterns, speaks and teaches internationally, designs hardware (scissors, rotary cutters, and seam rippers), and quilting software. I was exhausted just thinking about everything she does and does expertly!
OK, so Tula is a gifted and prolific fabric and quilt designer, but what is she like? Funny, imaginative, colorful, and personable. I had the good fortune of taking a class with Tula a few years ago at the Sisters Oregon Quilters' Affair. The class project was Moxie. I used Tula's fabric line Elizabeth. It was fun laying the fabrics out and working on curved piecing. I just need to add some borders and get her quilted.
At about the same time, I facilitated a group within the KVQG of members wanting to work on Tula's City Sampler - 100 Modern Quilt Blocks. Several members got theirs done and as a group we made one in black and white with turquoise sashing for the guild's opportunity quilt. I thought it was absolutely stunning. I'm sorry to say that I am still working on my 100 blocks. I'm using PB&J line in a blue/red/mustard color palate, with some other fabrics thrown in.
My next Tula adventure is going to be some fussy cutting for English Paper Piecing. I'm either going to make Tula Nova or Lucy Kingwell's (Jen Kingwell's daughter) Smitten using Tula's new All Stars. So look for an update!
You just have to be curious about Tula Pink! Check her out, you'll love her.
I am still in overwhelm mode. It was AWESOME!
I just got back from 10 days of everything quilt related in Sisters Oregon - the 40th Anniversary of the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show and Quilter's Affair.
I flew into Seattle and BFF Bobbie and I packed up her car (full!) and headed south to Sisters. Of course we had to stop at a few fantastic quilt shops along the way to collect the Row By Row patterns and buy a scrap or two of fabric. I started collecting gray fat quarters for a new quilt called Gray Matter.
The scenery on the trip was breathtaking - especially as we crossed Mount Hood National Forest. The air smelled fresh and clean - like the pine trees that lined the mountain roads.
Our condo was at Eagle Crest Resort near Redmon Oregon. This 2 bedroom unit would give the four of us plenty of room to sleep, eat and sew during the week. Deer wandered in and out of sight of our back deck and the hot tub was heavenly.
The 3 classes I took were outstanding. I learned so much from talented teachers Barbara Shapel, Tula Pink, and Hilde Morin. More detail about my classes in a later post.
The piece de resistance of the week was the outdoor quilt show on Saturday. The town of Sisters is festooned with quilts - every building, porch, store front, as well as the inside of stores were covered with quilts. I've never seen so many quilts hanging in one place. More to come.
In addition to all the great quilty stuff, The four of us - Bobbie, Cyndy, Sammie and I, had a great time together. Laughing, talking, sewing, snacking, shopping - we had so much fun.
Stay tuned for details!
Tula Pink is a fabric and pattern designer I have been following for a couple of years now. Her patterns have a simplistic, modern sensibility to them and I would describe her fabric as whimsical with juicy colors. When I saw her book 100 Modern Quilt Blocks, I knew I wanted to made them. Every. One. Of. Them.
So I asked members of my quilt guild - Kaw Valley Quilters' Guild - to participate in a sew along. Best thing ever! We started in January (see my earlier post from February 3, 2015) and have taken off like crazy. We just met last month and I am amazed at the beautiful blocks that people are making. So I though I would update everyone with some pictures and descriptions of ideas and tips folks have shared.
I think three of our group - Kathy, Sandy, and Barb, have all 100 blocks done.
The rest of us are either racing or crawling along as our schedules allow. I have to admit I am one of those who are crawling. I think I only have 13 done. But I do have my stuff organized - I've made stickers for each block and have a list to keep track of all the I have finished.
Joyce is using the blocks as a background for her original applique designs. Taking her experience one step further, she made 4 of a block and sewed them together into something totally new.
Cindy is using Asian-inspired fabrics and antique kimono fabrics.
Shari is using black, white and gray fabrics.
Kim R. has focused on blue, green and red fabrics.
Joy T. is following Tula's color choices.
It is so cool to see the blocks in such different colors and prints.
A couple of months ago, we decided to make extra black, white, and gray blocks so that we could make an opportunity quilt in the future. We are really coming along. We have 46 blocks committed to!
It is so fun to watch everyone share their blocks and see how the same block is transformed by different fabrics. Next meeting I hope to take pics of everyone's block 1 - more if I can.
So this week, I am going to get going on MY Tula blocks. I'll shoot for at least 8 of them.
Our little group has a FB page. Check out Kaw Valley Tula Pink 100 Modern Block Sew Along.
Staying Curious about Tula!
I'm about to start another BOM (shocking, right?) - Tula Pink's 100 Modern Block City Sampler. About 30 quilters from the Kaw Valley Quilter's Guild are starting a Sew Along to work through her 100 Modern Quilt Blocks book. Oh what fun this will be!
We had our organizational meeting after January's guild meeting and made a couple of decisions. Easy Peasy -we are going to do as many or as few blocks as we want, whichever blocks we want, in whatever colors we like. We'll get together before the night time meeting, and after the daytime meeting to share our blocks, and then also gather occasionally during the month to sew together. We want to make an opportunity quilt out of some extra blocks, but we postponed deciding about the details until next month. I set up a FB group for us so we can post pictures of our blocks. So we're ready to rock and roll!
A couple members - Joy T. and Sammie M. already had some blocks made. In fact Joy wowed us with her binder and organization. I think she had 6 or so blocks already made! She inspired me to get going.
I found a fabric to use as an inspiration fabric and then realized that all the colors were in PB&J by Basic Grey for Moda. I used fabric from this line for Toes in the Sand by JayBird Quilts and I just loved it. So I found a FQ packet on Etsy and I was ready to go.
Since we were getting ready to visit my Mom in Arizona for a bit, I only got one block done before we left. I loved how it turned out, although Cleo does not seem to be impressed.
As folks started posting their blocks on the FB group, I was getting a bit jealous because I didn't bring any Tula stuff with me to Arizona and I was really itching to make some more blocks. Here are some of the blocks that inspired me (CJ, Kathy, Shari, Maggie, Sandra and Tonya). They're great, aren't they?
Since I didn't bring my book or any of my fabrics, I asked some of my sewing friends to send pics of the blocks so I could make them here. A trip to a couple of quilt shops and I was set. I set up my Mom's 58 year old Singer and had the first AZ block done. Over the next couple of days I made a few more and so now I feel like I am not behind! I have made my goal of 6 blocks for January!
Here's what I have learned so far:
1) Some quilts are more fun when done as a group.
2) I could easily get fabric envy - meaning I love others' blocks so much that I want to do them again in different fabrics.
3) This could get addictive.
4) I can get a simple 6 inch block done in about 20 minutes.
5) I love the simple yet unique style that Tula captures in these blocks.
I'm looking forward to our next meeting, I can feel the excitement of my FB friends who are part of this Sew Along - every day there are new pictures of their beautiful blocks.
It's All About Tula!
For the workshop after the talk and trunk show, Karen choose "Wild Women Don't Get the Blues" as the pattern. I choose Tula Pink's Raccoons for my focus fabric. I thought those little guys would be so cute surrounded by the colorful star points. After I took this pic, I added a black and white striped flange between the raccoon and the star points. I really liked it but i was a lot of work. So now I'm looking for something similar but easier. Or maybe I'll just leave it as is. Hmmmm Dilemma!
