Fixing White Poinsette Pattern

I turned my red poinsettia quilt into a white poinsettia about 2 years ago, I love the red, but it is too intense for my all-blue house and Christmas tree. But the white is perfect. The problem is, where did I put that darn quilt?  So the hunting began, and when I found it, it was a wrinkled mess with pieces falling off, the Steam-A-Seam was hard and crunchy. yuck!  Has this ever happened to you?  

Well, all is not lost, and in this video, I show how I fixed this quilt.  Steam-A-Seam2 loves steam.  

As I was working on repairing the fusible flower, I had an idea! My granddaughter, who is 4, says this all the time," I have idea."  We squeal with excitement because she has an idea.  Well, so did Mimi and nobody squealed but me. You can always add to your flower quilt. try adding another flower or a decorative design to the background. I did a polka dot background on one quilt. These elements make it yours and add a lot. But they have to be added before you start to quilt. 

So who cares if the quilt is 3-5 years old and you haven't finished it yet? Get out your iron and steam. You can always say you were waiting for an Idea!

 Enjoy.

New Studio Space

 It is so important to have yet so hard to figure out the perfect studio space. I started quilting professionally in 2005, and my sewing/studio room was 11' X 11'.  Surprisingly, I made my first 3 award-winning quilts in that space. That same house was locally notorious as The Yellow House in our town of El Dorado Hills. Later, when Matt went to college, I took over the bonus room above the three-car garage, about 550 square feet with 2 design walls and a trundle bed for guests. Even though the space was big I still had to organize the space wisely, but it was a dream space. We lived there for over 20 years. I used that space for about 14 of the 20 years.

The Yellow House studio

The next studio was in our Paradise house. It was a vaulted-ceiling loft room, again above our 3-car garage with no straight walls - they all vaulted after 4 feet. It was going to be tricky to decide where to put the design wall BUT this space had views from every window AND perfect light. I started out designing the space to get maximum use out of the area. Sadly, I never got to implement that design because 13 months after we moved in, on November 11, 2018, the Camp Fire destroyed 95% of the town of Paradise, including our home. 

View from the Paradise studio

 For the last 3 years, I haven't had time to think about the luxury of studio space, I needed a house and everything that goes into running one - stuff like beds, pots, and pans.  I have been very busy buying stuff, which you would think would be so much fun. It is not. I'm buying utilitarian items like paper clips, soap dispensers, and extension cords. All the little things I used to take for granted. but every once in a while, I threw in a fabric pack and dreamed of my next quilt - the one I could start when I got done buying picture wire and screwdrivers.

                                                                     

 When we first moved into the new Bakersfield house

Now to the new space in this new house that we call my studio. I started with just the basics. A folding table and chair. I was getting over the loss of my house and all my belongings, and I was very scared to make a new space. It was a fear of losing it all again.  That fear can paralyze you if you let it. I soon learned this is not what God wants for my life, so we are moving on.  What a gift it is to be able to have a room just for creating and making things. Then to be able to call it MY studio. I realized I'm living the dream that I had as a little girl.  - don't let a fire take your light. 

I have spent hours looking at Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest for studio inspirations. Most of the rooms are designed stylishly with wallpaper and painted in beautiful colors like no one has ever worked on a project in that room, EVER.  We all know those images are not true studios. So, I read most of the studio design books by quilters and even non-quilters. Well, really, I mostly looked at the pictures. They were all saying, when it comes down to it, you need to start with a measuring tape, ruler, pencil, and graph paper, and consider what the purpose of the space is right now. 

New studio layout

My new space is 16 ' x 18'. Not that big for a pattern design business and an art studio. Yes, I am also taking over another adjoining room, but I am very happy with how this is working out. Plus, because of the fire, I have pared down, a lot!  Maybe a little too much. 

And now I can shop for just me, which is fun. Joe made a comment the other day about how I get all the deliveries.  So, I let him have one that had just arrived - it was our new broom and mop. See, I'm a giver.Here are some fun pictures of what I/we have done so far in the studio and some cool storage finds I wanted to share with you. And, like all wonderful things, your studio design is always in the process of development. New tools, and new ideas, can change the shape of your space over time. Who knows, I might find a great wallpaper out there that I can't live without.  You do not want to see Joe's face when I ask him to help me move those bookcases again.  studio supplies I purchased on Amazon.  https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/1KRR3GJIU2T9J?ref_=wl_share

Dos and Don’ts When Choosing Fabrics for Your Flower Art Quilt

I’m writing this blog because I know many new-be quilters out there may need some guidance when choosing fabrics for a specific project. Specifically, one of my flower patterns or a landscaped, something that you want to give a realist/painterly look. It matters what kind of fabric you use. I’m going to speak specifically about my technique and using my flower patterns, but the concept works across the board. You can’t use any run-of-the-mill quilters stash for making these art quilts. So, what is my technique? I’m painting a painting using use fabrics. So, when you buy my patterns, you are to?

Batik fabrics were designed back in the day (thank you, Hoffman, of California); I had the idea of using them like paint because they had this watercolor feel, and I thought they would look like a painting. It is dyed in such a way to give a multi-colored and value feel like you look like it was painted, and they did, and they still do. Most realistic quilt artists use batiks and hand-dyed textures, even tone-on tones, to get that look.

 

First DON’T.  Don’t use solid fabrics when you want a painterly look in your flower quilts. It doesn’t work. It gives a very flat look with no dimension. Now, if that’s what you want? Go for it. But my patterns were designed, and the pieces are layered to give a watercolor look by using the right kind of fabrics with fabrics. We want the viewer to come up close and say,” did they paint that?”

Now for all the solid fabric designers out there, I love your fabrics and the colors. I buy them. They are beautiful. But not for making my realistic flower or landscape quilt.

Use the color chart in the pattern as a color and value reference. Look at how the colors relate to each other.” Is this one darker or lighter than the one on top?

Do you have value in your fabrics? The range of lights to darks is so essential. Remember, dark colors reseed, and light colors come towards you, just like painting a still life. And my flower patterns are a “still life.” The value rules change when doing landscapes. We will talk about that at another time.

Don’t skip making the color chart in every pattern. The pattern instructed you to make the color chart in your chosen colors first. Please do it! It’s a visual reference guide to help as you build your flower. Very important.

I hope this helps you when making your flower quilts. I have been working on turning some of my patterns into digital downloads, but I worry you will use the wrong fabrics.

I use batiks and hand-dyed fabrics to make my quits look like a painting without using paint. This is my secret for achieving that look.

 When I had a student bring their own fabrics to class, only 1% understood what to bring to class. But 99% of the students brought the wrong fabrics and went home unsuccessful. Not good. When I started making kits for the classes, all were successful, and learned how to make a flower look real by using the right fabrics. They discovered that fabric is now a painting tool.

Check out my video above for more fabric information.

Remember being a quilter require us to have many kinds of fabrics.

Empty Spools Retreat 2023

I'm excited to announce that I will be teaching at Empty Spools next year. I have had a lot of inquiries for classes and retreats, so here is your chance. I'm taking this year off from traveling and teaching except for a few local quilt guilds because of COVID and family and personal health issues. So, if you're looking for classes from me, you will have to wait until 2023 (unless you're a member of one of this year's guilds).  I do have some YouTube classes, but in-person is so much better. 

Waratah: Commercial fabrics, batiks, and hand-dyes     .

If you don't know about  Empty Spools Seminars, they are 5-day quilt art retreats. They are held at Asilomar Confrence Center, an historical retreat in beautiful Pacific Grove, California, which is on the Central Coast between Monterey and Carmel. You spend the week with one noted quilt instructor and focus on that instructor's technique. I'm teaching session 5, from May 5-10, 2023 and they are taking sign-ups now. Click the link.

A Gardens Delight: Commercial fabrics and batiks

All my quilts here are made with only fabric, and no paint. Back in the early years of my art quilting, it was important to me to just use fabrics, and most of them were commercially available. I then started using batiks and my own hand-dyes, which I still use. 

...and Our Flag Was Still There: Hand-dyes and batiks 

3-years ago we experienced a devastating fire in Paradise, California, which killed 85 people.  The Camp Fire wiped out 95% of Paradise, destroyed 14,000 homes and displaced 27,000 people, many of whom lost not only their home, but their business, as well. I lost everything, including dozens of quilts and 20 years of accumulated fabric stash, along with a studio full of every tool, supply and sewing machine a quilter could ever want. 

Camellia: Photo above and quilt below - hand-dyed and batik fabrics 

I started to rebuild my stash and then COVID-19 hit and shops closed down.  Not having a fabric stash has changed how I work, think,and create. So, last week, I broke down and started using paints. I know! I'm working on a hydrangea quilt (my second try) and I just don't have the fabric stash to make it work.  I will be posting my progress on the hydrangea and, so far, it is coming along nicely thanks to the paint. And yes, it is easier with paint and I am learning a new technique to implement with my old technique. So sign up for my Empty Spools Seminar workshop and I will be sending you a new supply list that will go along with the one on the retreat website.  You can email me when any questions and I will share with you all my tips, tricks, and insights for using fabric, fusible web, and paint. You can reach me at melbula@comcast.net.