Painting on Fabric

There was an article in Quilting Arts #50 by Judy Coates Perez who visited NZ in 2010. Rose City Quilters brought her out as our Tote & Gloat speaker last May. She was a lovely speaker and tutor and her works are amazing. The article was about using Daler Rowney FW Acrylic paints on fabric. As I can get hold of these paints I decided to check it out and ordered some in. Like Judy I loved these paints. They go on smoothly and can be watered down heaps for a lighter and softer effect. I played around on a piece of white fabric and made notes as I went. I used 2 shades of green, a yellow, a red, a blue and pearlescent white. I then washed the piece and had no colour loss from all of the colours, except the pearlescent white which washed straight out. So, thank you Judy for passing this info on. I would use the pearlescent white only if not washing or I would use a textile white as I used a black tectile paint for highlighting. My sample piece is here

I now have some of these paints in stock for NZ$12.50 each and can order more colours if required. They are a neat little bottle which has an eyedropper at the top.Why not have a play yourself. Even if you are not an artist you can trace designs and paint over them to great effect. Have fun, have a playday.

Dianne

Wonderful new fabrics

What a lovely day it was today, sunshine and a little warmth, 17 degress is not bad for winter.
Some lovely new fabrics have arrived in store. Check these out

This lovely deep dark green is from Jinny Beyer's palette range and is very useful NZ$26.50 per metre

These next fabrics are from UK manufacturers Fabric Freedom who produce some gorgeous fabrics. This range is A Red Rose. I have had this range before in the grey roses (I still have 3 of this range left in stock) and now I have it in this beautiful rich red colour. NZ$26.60 per metre. Check out their website for great ideas and quilt designs.

I currently have some of the large allover rose still in grey and some of the stem roses in grey plus a smaller allover red & grey rose fabric, all of which could be combined to make a gorgeous quilt, wall hanging, bags etc.
This new batik has lots of movement and has lovely paua shell colours  in soft greens and blues, although the picture I am seeing looks more blue. It really is a lovely soft shading. NZ$28.10 per metre

Call in and check them out or order by phone/fax/ email or post. Looking forward to seeing you.

Dianne

Sue Wademan Landscape Class

Hi everyone,
Just updating you with more details about our feature tutor for this year Sue Wademan. Sue has graciously consented to teach for me in August, I am lucky here as Sue isn't teaching much anymore and may be moving overseas so this is a fantastic opportunity to take a fabulous class.
Have you been wanting to try something a little different using textiles. This class explores the many ways you can manipulate fabrics - in particular sheers (silk organza, georgette, chiffon etc) and synthetic fabrics - to create an individual fabric colage landscape. You only need to see some of Sue's artworks to see what possibilities you would have to create very individual and stunning pieces of art using textiles.
Whilst students of all levels can attend a knowledge of free motion stitching is a help.
The class is a 2 day design focussed workshop to create wonderful landscapes using a variety of synthetic and sheer fabrics to manipulate and texture your finished piece. Sue will teach the 5 elements of design - line, shape, tone, texture and glorious colour. Sue will start you off with a sample piece to learn her 'linear collage' technique then you will move onto creating your individual landscape using those elements and many fabric manipulation techniques that Sue will share with you.
The class is designed to develop your intuitive use of a variety of textiles and to allow you to gain confidence in using fabric like paint.
Why not step out of your comfort zone and try a class with a difference from a very well qualified tutor who has taught overseas and at NZ national quilt symposia. There are limited spaces available so be in quick.
Contact Dianne now for your place in class.
Check out Sue's website for more examples of her wonderful art http://www.suewademan.com/
Dianne

Craft Classes May - August 2011

Here is a list of the craft classes I will be running from May to August 2011

Tote Bag Sunday June 12th 9:30am - 2pm  #28
Dianne designed this fabric tote bag to carry all those things you need to 'tote' around. You can make it shorter than hers, it can be made from various fabrics. Make it for a child or yourself. Easy construction.
Has pockets at each end which can be zippered or open.

Accidental Landscapes Saturday 11 June 1:30pm - 4:30pm $25 + pattern $10
Karen Eckmeier has given me permission to teach her classes. This wonderfully easy method of layered topstitch means you can create a fabulous landscape in a short period of time. Choose from Beaches, Farms and Fields, Ski Slopes, Meadows & Mountains, Lakes and Coastlines. This one is beaches.

Fun With Citra-Solv & National Geographic pages Tuesday 14 June 2011 7-9pm $15 + $5 materials fee
Overseas they have Citra-Solv, in NZ we have D-Limonene, it is the main ingredient in Citra - Solv. What can you do with it - have fun, of course. Using old National Geographic magazine pages we apply the D-Limonene and wait for the magic to happen. The cirtus based solvent dissolves the inks in the magazine and makes them  create wonderful patterns. You can use the pages then for collage and creative mixed media work, card making and scrap booking. See the wonderful page below - doesn't it look stunning.

Why not come along and have fun playing with this to see what you can create.

Circle Quilt Sunday 19th June 2011 9:30 - 4pm NZ$45
Dianne will show you how to applique these circles by hand or machine and how to sew inset circles so quick and easy that you won't believe you didn't think of it before. Lots of varations on how to layout these blocks once you have sewn them as well.

Happy Villages Quilt Thursdays 16th & 23rd June 2011 7-9pm NZ$28
Dianne has Karen Eckmeier's permission to teach her classes. The Happy Villages is a fun class that uses squares that you cut and place to make these wonderful villages, complete with windows, doors and stairs - whether they be realistic or fantasy you'll have fun creating them

Harvest Quilt Sunday July 10th 2011 9:30-4pm  $40
Dianne designed this quilt using 2 1/2" strips and squares so you can use a Jelly Roll to make this. A single colour at the end of each strip makes it less scrappy but still very effective. The applique creates the harvest feel along with the autumn colours. You, of course, can use nay colour combination you like, could be brights, children, oriental etc. We can adapt the applique to suit your fabrics.

Collage Landscapes with Sue Wademan Tuesday 2nd and Wednesday 3rd August 2011
Sue Wademan is a well known contemporary fibre artist in New Zealand. She will be coming to Palmerston North early August to teach fabric collage landscapes - a design class with textiles. Enjoy the fun of leaving the raw edges out. Can be taken by beginners through to advanced, although having a knowledge of free motion stitching would be an advantage. This is a design focused workshop in which you will create a fabulous collage landscape from a variety of fabrics including lots of sheers (silk organza, georgette, chiffon etc). Wanting to try something different with fabric then this is the class for you!
It is a class designed to develop intuitive use of a variety of textiles.
You will learn 3 techniques of collage - lines, layering and scrunching, working on a sample piece to learn Sue's "linear collage' technique. Whilst making this sample you will learn about the 5 elements of design - line, shape, tone, texture and glorious colour.
On the second day you'll bring a landscape picture and learn how to interpret it in textiles, incorporating lots of sheers for layering and scrunching. You will be encouraged to work on your own individual landscape and to extend your creative processes with lots of help from the tutor. The 5 elements of design will once again be discussed relating it to your indicidual landscapes including many different fabric manipulation techniques to achieve your landscape design.
The goal for this class is for each student to gain confidence in "using fabric like paint" to create your own fabulous and individual landscape colage.

Limited spaces available, book in quick. I am very lucky to have Sue come to teach as she doesn't teach  much now and may be moving overseas. Contact me now regarding your place in this wonderful class!!
Contact me for any further information you require, to book in or call in and see the samples in the 'flesh' so to speak.
Dianne

New Quilting Books

Post Symposium Rose City Quilters in Palmerston North invited UK tutor Yvonne Brown to be their guest speaker at Tote & Gloat and teach 2 classes. Yvonne was a wonderful sharing tutor and speaker who entertained us all at Tote & Gloat, despite being drowned out a couple of times by extremely heavy rain. Yvonne taught her Creative Machine Trapunto on the Sunday after T&G and Celtic Cutwork on the Monday.
I have Yvonne's latest book for sale "Tex-tiles and other Treasures", Using Medieval tiles and stonework NZ$23 a very good price
Yvonne creates beautiful fabric art inspired by the arts and crafts of the medieval period. This is the first in a series describing just how she produces the fabric art and embroideries that have made her well-known around the world.
This book teaches you about transfer painting onto Kunin felt, stitching your design and cutting back using a soldering iron and how to create the stonework effect with Kunin felt, gesso and heat guns.

The next book is Lunchbags NZ$32.50
This book features 25 bags, totes and wraps which are quick and easy with basic sewing techniques. Full colour photos and easy to follow instructions on how to create your own fun totes and bags.

Quilting with Precuts and Shortcuts NZ$50.50
With simple sewing methods, bright fabrics & terrific tips, this intriguing collection ofers something for everyone - even beginners. Use tried and true techniques in creative ways for strip piecing, fusible applique and sewing with precut fabrics.

Whilst readin Mark Lipinski's Fabric Trends magazine (sorry it has sold out) the other day I discovered that the hottest colour trend for this year is white on white on white, for home decorating and patchwork. It certainly does make your work look frresh and clear. Here are 2 new fabrics, one white on cream on the left and the other white on white on the right, but it doesn't look like that on my computer. It is a white on white fern type pattern. Both are NZ$23.90 per metre

Come in and see me or contact me for orders.
Dianne

Quilt magazines

I have once again been very remiss in writing regularly, I must learn to do this more often, I am just so not used to doing this :).
Anyway we have had some lovely new quilt magazines in store - check them out.
The latest Quilt Life magazine June 2011 is out NZ$17.50
This always has very interesting articles to read and think about, along with a recipe from both Alex and Ricky.

The latest Down Under Textiles Issue #4 NZ$11.95
I love this magazine, it always has some very interesting techniques in it to try out. From felting to stamping and painting, using tyvek or Lutradur, there are lots of mixed media projects to play with.

I am now getting the Quilter's World magazine from the USA. The latest issue out is April 2011 NZ$16.50
I also have a couple of back issues at NZ$8 if you'd like to have a look at them. This has more traditional style quilt patterns and various articles about quilting.

Also the latest American Quilter magazine is out March 2011 NZ$15
This is the official magazine of the American Quilt Society and has lots of very interesting articles and some patterns

The next blog will have some of the latest books in store.
Dianne

Symposium Quilts

What a busy few weeks it has been. Sorry no time to post a new blog and as I am just back from Queenstown where I went to be a merchant at the Remarkable Quilt Symposium I thought I had better let you know what has been going on. Getting things ready for my stall in the merchant mall took quite a while, preparing kits, packs of fabrics and patterns. My wonderful friend Sheryl was helping me at the Symposium so I went to stay at her place on Friday night and then we drove down to Wellington to catch the ferry on Saturday 16th April. Just outside of Wellington at Paekakariki we came across a bus broadside onto the road, it had obviously stopped suddenly and slid around to block the road. Luckily there was a little gap that the cars could pass around it so we weren't late for the ferry. A very calm sailing, thank goodness. Neither of us like sailing. It was very full tho' with 1600 passengers. Embarking at Picton we stopped for lunch and a look around, unfortunately there was very fine drizzle the whole time. Headed off and just outside Blenheim on a winding hill stretch we came across another bus in trouble, this one had gone over the shoulder of the road, luckily on the hill side and was tilted at a strange angle. We drove carefully past this and headed for Kaikoura, all the time there was this fine drizzly rain. Outside of Kaikoura, headed up the Hunderlea hills we saw a camper van on the opposite side of the road stop and put its hazzard lights on and the occupants run back along the road, so I asked if there was trouble. They said a car had just gone down the bank so we pulled over to help. Luckily no injuries but I had trouble telling the 111 service where we were as it was all new area to us, then some more cars stopped and we were able to give them a better idea of where they were needed. After 3 accidents we travelled very carefully, thinking we should get a Lotto ticket. We were heading for Christchurch and arrived there after the 5.1 earthquake they had Saturday night, so someone was looking over us. There was a 3.5 shock whilst we were there but it wasn't much. Driving across Christchurch we saw many instances of peoples homes damaged and roads which were no longer straight and even. One house had a corner wall fallen down and a bed on the second floor was hanging over this edge. We feel very sorry for the residents.Slept reasonably okay and then got up early to drive to Queenstown. We came across no more accidents thankfully so a much better day for driving. The colours passing through the area were striking with many trees having turned golden yellow or red. We arrived safely in Queenstown mid afternoon and went to the school to set up. We got most of the stand set up and then left for the night, arriving again at 8am Monday morning to finish as we opened the merchant mall at 1pm. It had snowed on the ranges overnight and it was a lovely sight to see, just a little on the cold side though.There were some very eager quilters in Queenstown for the week who couldn't wait to check out what was on offer in the mall. There were about 30 shops in a very 'cosy' area. We had a lovely and busy week and thank all the quilters who visited us.A big thank you to the girls who looked after us in the merchant mall, it was much appreciated.
I had entered 2 quilts which I can now share with you.
This first one was using up my scraps. I hate throwing anything out so I keep all usable sizes in a basket and delved into this for the New York Beauty blocks and the border triangles. I used a white fabric as my background which I think gives the fabrics a fresh look. (Somehow the photo looks blue but it is fresh white with bright colours) The whole quilt is 50cm square and each NYB block is 10cm. I was really pleased with my quilting too, quite traditional for me. I called this quilt Fiesta. I foundation pieced this on lightweight sew-in vilene.

The next quilt was inspired by the works of Alphonse Mucha. I love his work and was so pleased to see that it came out of copyright January of this year. I used raw edge applique and fancy stitches to apply the appliques. The face was hand painted by me first and then appliqued into place. The shot for the face detail is below. I am really pleased with the way the face came out, using textile paint, Prismacolour pencils and Pigma pens. The daisies are broderie perse style flowers printed on fabric and then I painted them to change the colour to suit as they were too white.

Here is the face detail on flesh coloured fabric. After painting/drawing I appliqued this onto the quilt background then added hair etc.

Unfortunately I did not win anything in the exhibition but I am pleased my quilts were accepted and that they looked good in the exhibition.
Thanks for visiting,
Dianne