One of the delights of teaching is seeing what your students come up with when you present them with a new technique. Today’s Power Stripping class was no exception. I was especially impressed by teenage Kareena’s adventurous spirit as she tackled her very first quilt (upper right below):
      
 
I will next be teaching this workshop at The Cottage Quiltworks on Wednesday, 29 October. I hope you can join me.

I’ve finished my illumination quilt so the countdown begins for the Twelve by Twelve “reveal” on 1 August (California time). I can’t show you the quilt but I can report that it features lots of hand stitching with this thread:

I have a penchant for variagated quilting threads and King Tut by Superior Threads is my favourite brand. I buy my thread from Julie’s Superior Threads and see that Julie is offering an “Open Thread Bar” at Chatswood Sewing Centre (Tel: 9417 5454) in Sydney on 9 August. I can’t make it (I’ll be at the Canberra Quilters Exhibition) but it looks like an informative workshop. Here’s the outline from Julie:

I am looking forward to being able to share my knowledge with you, so that you will have the confidence to use a broard range of threads for your quilting at the completion of your class.

During the first part of the workshop we will be talking about thread quality, weights, needles, tensions and how you can use speciality threads. I will bring along some of my quilts showing the quilting using different threads.

During the rest of the workshop you will be able to help yourself to the “Open Thread Bar” where you will the opportunity to try a large selection of Superior Threads. You can created a panel where you can use the decorative threads while making tension changes to your machine and seeing the differences in the look of the stitches, and noting the tension changes on your panel next to your work. You may continue to work on this for the remainder of the day, thread-play on a floral panel which I will have in class or you may wish to make a small whole cloth quilt. I will provide a few stencils available to mark your project and will be happy to answer any of your questions regarding threads, needles, tensions etc.

The quilting world, like the wider community, is full of tales of people overcoming adversity to do remarkable things. Today I draw your attention to the beautiful quilts of textile artist Esther Aliu. Esther specialises in stencils and is an accomplished domestic machine quilter. Her work is extraordinary and all the more so when you consider that she has experienced serious vision impairments. I am delighted to see that Esther has been selected as guest artist at this year’s Victorian Quilters’ Showcase at the Craft & Quilt Fair from 24th July 2007 at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre. If you can’t get to see her special exhibition of 24 selected quilts, take a look at Esther’s blog to track the journey of her latest masterpiece that she completed in just 3 weeks.

Disclaimer: I freely admit that I warmed to Esther from the moment I first met her and she uttered the words to gladden any blogger’s heart “I read your blog every day and am so inspired…”

A pleasant diversion while I was in New Zealand was a trip to The Ribbon Rose in Ellerslie. Their fabric selection is not very extensive but I rarely buy fabric these days anyway. By contrast, their selection of embroidery and stitching threads is stupendous. I couldn’t resist this overdyed Perle 8 thread by Threadworx:

This diagram is for the benefit of Chantel and anyone else who couldn’t work out the blobs from the other day:

As Lola correctly noted, it is the silhouette of a woman looking down. The illuminated outline of her features can be discerned on the right hand side of the blobs.

The theme for this year’s Guild challenge is Coast and Country. Members are permitted to focus on either theme element or both. (See the Guild website for more details.) Quilts are due on 28 September but, since I will be away, I am delivering mine this week. I can’t show the entire 50×70cm quilt but here is a detail shot of Allagai Bay (a companion piece to Tudibaring):

The sleeve is on. Now I just have to do the label and you will recall from a previous post how much I don’t enjoy this particular step…

In You Can’t Go Home Again, fellow “Twelve” Karen has written about returning, as an adult, to the home you grew up in. Somehow you see things differently. With recent events, I have been recalling visits to my grandmother’s house. In my lifetime, she lived in a four locations but the modest decor rarely changed. Amongst her wall ornaments was a simple black and gold cut-out stencil - a kind of optical illusion that I remember squinting at as a child. I transferred the image to fabric using Shiva paintstiks with a freezer paper stencil. What do you see?
  
And yes, I did consider using this as the basis of my “illumination” 12×12 quilt which is due on 1 August (US time). After trying out some quilting (click on the first version above) I decided against it. I quilted around the “blobs” (which is all the Laundry King can see) and experimented with some “grid” quilting but the remaining puffiness bugs me. Besides, plain black fabric catches lint and dust and is a pain to photograph…

Here’s a sneak preview of a project coming up in the September issue of Down Under Quilts. You can see the entire quilt if you join me for my next Power Stripping workshop on Friday, 25 July at Horsley Patch.

Be quick, the class is nearly full!

My favourite play thing from yesterday’s “play day” was a rubber mesh pot mat that Erica picked up from a $2 shop. It worked well both as a stamp and for rubbing: