Author Archives: jwolfrom

More Amazing 2012 IQA Quilts

Posted on by

Hi Everybody!

It’s a blustery, cold, rainy, windy day in the Pacific Northwest and soon we will be into the business of the Thanksgiving weekend. This is a good time to celebrate the creativity and talent of quilters who are in our midst. While at Quilt Market I was able to view the IQA exhibit. I showed a few other quilts in an earlier post on this blog. Below is a handful of  more amazing 2012 IQA quilts in a wide array of styles, and colorations. Enjoy!

 

Synergy   by Nancy Sterett Martin and Karen Sistek      Owensboro, Kentucky

 

Nancy and Karen took a close-up photo of a poppy, which inspired this quilt.  This poppy quilt  was hand painted on silk by Karen and machine quilted by Nancy. The materials used were Habotai silk with Red Label dyes.  I thought you might like to see a close-up of this quilt, as it’s so beautifully created.

The colors of the petals are glorious with the harmony of analogous colors. Look at how the quilting adds such dimension to the design. Looking at this quilt in the exhibit, it shone so exquisitely.

 

                          Flower of Light by Janet Fogg,             

 This was a fascinating quilt to observe. There was so much to observe with all of the subtle nuances within the design. This quilt was inspired by the Fleur de Lis symbol.  As Janet Fogg explained, it represents the lily, purity, and the Queen of Heaven. The images of the lily and maiden appear through the 20 six-pointed stars—–like a vision on a mosaic stone wall.  This is an original design using six-pointed Divided Star blocks. Janet is from Milwaukee, Oregon.

This quilt was machine pieced and quilted.  Janet used hand-dyed fabrics by Jeanette Viviano, metallic painted fabrics, commercial batiks, Warm and White batting, Permacore thread, buttons and crystals.

 

Belles Fleurs by Mary Arnold, Vancouver, Washington

This quilt was inspired by a painting Mary painted when she was younger with her talented artistic mother’s help.  I thought the flowers were so charming and I loved the lighting and shading on the table. Belles Fleurs is hand appliquéd and machine quilting.  Mary used hand-painted fabric, batiks, and hand-dyed fabric.  I thought you would enjoy the beautiful hand appliqued flowers, so I have included this detail image (below).

Can you imagine creating all of those little petals? Wow!  I just loved this quilt. It was so realistic.

 

Balancing Act

Created by Sherri McCauley, Frances Holliday Alford, Barb Forrister, Connie Hudson, Leslie Tucker Jenison, Susan Lewis Story, and Kathy York—-all from Lakeway, Texas

This group of friends and quilters (listed above) had a mutual fascination with cairns and balanced rock sculptures. Hence, the idea for this quilt. Independently, each created her own rocks and then they worked on the rock placement together. As a group, they were able to form the balanced stacks and create balance.

I loved this quilt. It was so much fun to observe. It was fascinating. Here are some detail images, so that you can see how wonderful this quilt is.

 What fun!  Balancing Act  was created with a variety of techniques: machine pieced, machine and hand quilted, hand embroidered, fusible appliqué; background pieces are individually machine quilted and joined with zig-zag stitching; shadows are hand painted

Materials included hand-dyed cottons, felts, velvet, silk organza, batiks; metallic foils, fabric paint, ink, commercial fabrics, embroidery floss, batting, and fusible web.

 

The Beauty of Wild Nature by Aiko Miyata and 15 Friends    

Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan

Aiko and her friends from their quilt class visited Hawaii.  Every single plant they saw in the tropical gardens stimulated them with their beautiful appearances.  In this quilt, the group of friends tried to express the beauty of wild nature by combining these fabrics.  The quilt was hand appliquéd and hand quilting.  This quilt was designed by Kathy Nakajima.

This was an interesting quilt to view. It was soothing, eye-catching in a quiet way, and filled with lots of details.  I liked the clever originality of this quilt.

 

My Journey to Baltimore by Lois Podolny, Tucson, Arizona

This beautiful quilt is Lois’s first Baltimore Album quilt. The blocks for this quilt are from a pattern by one of my dear friends, Mary Sorensen. The quilt setting and border are Lois’s design. It took three years for Lois to complete this quilt.

Lois created this quilt with hand appliqué and machine quilting.  She used cotton fabric, wool batting, and silk thread.  Blocks are from a pattern designed by Mary Sorensen.

I love Mary’s block designs. They work so well together. They are wonderfully balanced, which is not always the way it is with many Baltimore Album quilts.  Great job, Lois!  Oh, another detail treat:

  Oh so beautiful!

Well, it’s time to take a break.  I will post more quilts in a day or two on my Playing with Color blog at JWD Publishing’s website. So check it out sometime  during this Thanksgiving weekend.

Talk to you later!

Joen

2012 Houston Quilt Show Hails Again

Posted on by

Greetings!

While at Quilt Market in Houston I was able to take a fast tour around a good share of the outstanding 2012 IQA quilt show.  My, what absolutely amazing quilts. I took pictures of several quilts that really caught my eye. In the next few posts I’ll share some of these quilts with you, as I’m sure you’ll be as dazzled as I was.  My little non-professional Nikon point & shoot did the best it could among the poles, lights, markers, and stands. Please ignore all of these little obstacles. Here’s my first group of photo images: Enjoy this glimpse of extraordinary quilts by talented, imaginative quilters.

 

Georgia on My Mind by Nancy Brown, Oakland, California

 One of my favorite talented quilters is Nancy Brown. She has given us yet one more great quilt to love. In this heartwarming quilt, penguins on the island of South Georgia carefully walk through the resting elephant seals to get to their nesting grounds.  Nancy machine pieced, hand appliquéd, and hand quilted this quilt.  Naturally, it is an original design.  Love this quilt, Nancy.  It reminds me of my night watching hundreds (or perhaps thousands) of Little Penguins come ashore for the night in Australia.

 

Hot Africa by Janneke de Vries-Bodzinga Kollumerzwaag, Friesland, The Netherlands

While in Kenya during the dry season, Janneke took a photograph of this scene, which she then memorialized by creating this quilt. This quilt is extraordinarily  emotive in person. Here’s a close-up of Janneke’s quilt:

A glimpse up close of this very moving quilt. Great job, Janneke! Love your quilt.

 

Ocean Blue by Noriko Sato,  Chigasaki, Kanagawa, Japan

Here’s a beauty by Noriko Sato.  She created Ocean Blue to commemorate her son’s graduation from college.  The pattern expresses raging waves of the ocean. She hopes the Mariner’s Compass will help her son to navigate his life safely even in the face of rough waves.  Noriko created this quilt by hand piecing, hand embroidery, and hand quilting.  This quilt was inspired by a workshop with Noriko Masui.

 

 Vitamin C  by Helena Scheffer and Marion Perrault, Beaconsfield, Quebec, Canada

You can almost smell the juice of the orange, this orange looks so real.  Countless oranges were sacrificed in Helena’s and Marion’s quest for the perfect subject. For the orange, innumerable fabrics were collaged onto flannel. The pith is manipulated cotton batting. Yards of fabric were dyed to achieve the deeply saturated background, which was free-motion quilted using 100 weight silk thread.  Naturally, this was an original design.  So rich—almost good enough to eat!  

 

 BBK  (Bookcase Before Kindles) by Margaret Kessler, Huntsville, Texas

How clever is this!  I love the details and imagination. Here’s Margaret’s version of a family entertainment center—something for everyone. The fabrics came from her stash and her husband’s ties. The labels came from their clothes, hats, shoes, sleeping bag, quilt friends, selvage edges of fabric, a thrift center (items were re-donated after labels were removed), and Boy Scout badges.  Naturally, this is Margaret’s own design.  Fun quilt.  

Check out the next post for more beautiful and innovative quilts by many talented quilters.

Joen

 

2012 Quilt Market Flew By

Posted on by

 

‘TWAS THE MOMENT BEFORE QUILT MARKET OPENED

It seemed like forever to get our booth ready for the Houston Quilt Market this year.  I don’t know why it took so long. Here we are at last—finished—–and just in time for the 2012 opening. Unbelievably, we were able to display over 21 quilts and products in our booth. We now have more than 75 patterns. We introduced two new patterns this fall: Tower One by Paula Nadelstern and On the Way to Somewhere by Teresa Fields.

We were busy the entire market.  I had a chance to leave the booth for about an hour on the last day. Then I was able to view part of the IQA show.  I didn’t have time to see it all, which was disappointing.  I have many photos of the IQA quilt exhibit, so I’ll be sharing those with you soon. Talk later.  Joen

Oh, oh, What’s Up?

Posted on by

I just tried to do a little work this morning on my computer, and SURPRISE!—-it looks like my Word files are corrupted. Boy, that’s not good.  Yikes! This is not something I want to have in my life.  Depending on what’s going on, it may be  a while before I get this figured out (actually, before someone else  gets this figured out).  Talk later.

Joen

Whew! My new online color class has launched.

Posted on by

Hi Everybody!

I am so happy to let you know that my online color class Color Play for Quilters is now available here. I am excited that it is ready for those of you who want to learn more about color. You can check out the class  by clicking on the Color Play for Quilters button (in the right margin).

I think with everyone’s busy schedule, it makes so much sense to take this class in the comforts of your own home—at your own pace. That sounds perfect to me. You can view the lessons as many times as you wish. You can bookmark (videomark) parts of lessons too and revisit them as often as you need. What an amazing concept.

The class covers tons of color information, including the color wheel, color scales, color temperature, value, visual coloring, color plans,  and three of my favorite color illusions, depth, luminosity, and luster. Also, there are many activities you may choose to do. If you have questions, I’ll be happy to answer them for you.

 

Well, I might be smiling here, but I’m probably churning inside. For me, talking in front of a camera is scary! It took me days before I realized the camera lens wouldn’t eat me up. O.K., I survived.  That’s because the camera crew was so patient. Actually, they were great! Many thanks goes to Rachel, Jared, and Adam.

Lorraine Torrence’s Great Fall Design Retreat

Posted on by

Each year Lorraine Torrence offers two design retreats for her long-term design students. It takes place at Camp Huston, nestled in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains near Stevens Pass in western Washington. This fall retreat, which just finished today,

My offering for this talented group was to play with depth, luminosity, and luster. Designers are at work here.

I was a guest instructor. This fantastic design group works on their own projects during thei retreat. Here and there, additional instructions and activities are provided.  For my mini-class, we worked on scenes and non-objective designs that incorporated depth. We also focused on luminosity,and luster. 

Little design vignettes featuring atmospheric perspective (depth).

  It would be fantastic to be a participant at this retreat:  4 days of pure bliss. I hope lots of you have your own retreats where you can work, play, focus, and expand your experiences without thinking about everyday tasks.

.  Lorraine Torrence looks totally rested even though she’s working her heart out to make this retreat a raving success—-and it always is!  At the end of this month Lorraine is moving to Madison, Wisconsin with her husband. Although she’s relocating, she’ll be continuing these workshops at Camp Huston (everyone loves them). Lorraine will be eager to meet the many quilters in the Madison area. She’s a great teacher, so guys are lucky to be getting her in your midst.

Joen

New Website!

Posted on by

September 5, 2012

Greetings!  You can’t imagine how excited I am to have a NEW WEBSITE—FINALLY!

It has taken only about 15 years for me to replace my dinosaur website with one that’s part of the 21st century. I hope you will visit often. Do take a quick tour. You’ll find the usual items plus some extras that may pique your interest. Let me know what you think.

My EXTRA items include:

  • my favorite recipes: I have included many recipes—still have more favorites to come.
  • photography galleries: Theme photo galleries are included— more to come.
  • reviews: A selection of reviews of my books and other products are included.
  • Why did I do this? Statements as to why I wrote a book or created a product are included.
  • design-critique applications: I am offering design critiques for those of you who are interested.

 Talk later. See you soon.
Joen