Quilting Arts Magazine December/January 2020

I WELCOME DECEMBER … cold and crisp afternoons and the creep of elongated shadows at dusk remind me that while one year may be ending, another is about to begin. Soon, the days will lengthen and the eternal cycle will start all over again. December marks the month when we take time to review our personal and professional goals before we set new intentions for the year to come. Every year when it comes time to evaluate, I seem to focus on the negative. In 2019 I had a number of “arty” goals—most of them good intentions—but fell short accomplishing them. Did I make time for art every day? Master free-motion quilting? Keep my studio organized? Learn how to (fill in the blank)? No … but I did try. I started…

DEAR QUILTING ARTS, “Why didn’t I start this sooner?” I am always bemoaning to my daughters. I have sewn throughout my life, but I have been quilting for only a little over three years—and I am now 82 years old! When I first saw QUILTERS NEWSLETTER magazine in a fabric shop I immediately subscribed. Then one day I got a notice that QUILTERS NEWSLETTER was closing and QUILTING ARTS would take its place. I was pretty upset … until I got my first issue. Oh my, oh my! The quilting world opened up to me. I never would have believed the possibilities of “quilt art” without QUILTING ARTS. I just didn’t know that those kinds of things could be done, and that incredible artists were willing to share their work and their…

Susan Brubaker Knapp is a fiber artist, author, teacher, and host of “Quilting Arts TV.” Most of her work is realistic and is made primarily using the techniques of wholecloth painting, thread sketching, and fusible appliqué. She lives near Charlotte, North Carolina, and teaches internationally. bluemoonriver.com Diane L. Murtha is a quilter, fiber artist, lecturer, and instructor. Her quilts are included in three published books and multiple juried exhibits and international shows traveling the country. She loves to challenge herself and others through quilting and thinking out of the box. After many years in Germany and Northern Virginia, she currently resides in Iowa. dianelmurtha.com Mel Beach is a San Jose, California-based quilt artist, teacher, and lecturer. She stretches her creativity through photography, comedy improv studies, and the completion of 70+ quilt challenges at the…

Jean Wells Sisters, Oregon it started out with a simple idea: show off a dozen or so quilts and draw attention to her new store, Stitchin’ Post. Jean Wells opened the store in 1975 in Sisters, Oregon, using the entire contents of her teacher’s retirement fund—about $3,200. “It was probably one of the first quilt shops in the country,” she says. “I felt like I might get a good return on it.” And she did. This year marked the 44th Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show, now the world’s largest outdoor quilt show venue. Set against the spectacular backdrop of the Cascades mountain range in central Oregon, the 2019 show featured about 1,300 quilts and was attended by approximately 12,000 people. The exact attendance is unknown, notes Jean, because you don’t have to purchase a…

this project was inspired by my family’s annual summer gathering on Cape Cod. Each year, I design an art project to work on during our vacation. The previous year we had great fun wrapping beach stones with waxed linen, thread, and beads. A beautiful hand-stitched pouch seemed like a perfect follow-up project to hold our beach stones. You can use the completed pouch to hold small special items or just appreciate the pouch on its own as a work of art. MATERIALS • 3½ " x 9" scrap of hand-dyed wool or wool felt for a foundation • Several 5" x 11" scraps of sheer fabric such as tulle, organza, and/or open weave cheesecloth• 3½ " x 9" lining fabric• Fabric scraps• 18"–20" sari silk ribbon• Additional scraps of yarn of varying…

aaah, the roller coaster of the juried exhibition! You sit, strapped down in your seat as the car clanks its way to the top, hopes building, anticipating the notification date. Then obsessively checking emails and within a heartbeat, there it is, the downhill of the coaster … wheeee!! You scream and shout, either in delight or dismay. It’s either the best ride ever or you’ll never ride it again. But either way, one day, that call for entry will pop up in your inbox and, once again, the ticket price will be paid for just one more ride. The fall of 2018 was particularly grueling. Quilt National, Fiberart International, Excellence in Fibers, and IQF Houston all seemed to have overlapping entry dates and exhibition timelines. If you make work on a…