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.

Nasturtium Class Video "How to Use Ombre Fabric's in A Flower Quilt."

 If you would like a pattern or a complete fabric and pattern kit, go to Etsy.com/shop/MelindaBulaDesigns

enjoy!

NEW Nasturtium Pattern and Class

It's mind-blowing to me how many businesses have been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and those of us in the quilting, sewing, and fabric industries have not escaped the pain.  Fortunately, the quilting business is made up of creative minds and that ingenuity, along with some tricky tap dancing, has kept most  folks upright and moving forward. I don’t know about you, but when I'm given a challenge, and I've faced  several big ones in my life, I need to overcome and conquer.  That does not mean I don’t have a good cry or get really mad - I do. But I eventually put the self-pity aside and find a creative solution to move forward.

My creative solution was to make some How To tutorial videos of a few of my patterns, like a recorded class, then post them to my YouTube channel. I was pleased (and a little surprised) to see how many quilters watched them, proving that even in this crazy time, you still love to be creative, too. Sales through my Etsy shop have been a genuinely nice surprise. THANK YOU. I love making videos - everything about it, from editing to lighting to adding graphics, even picking the right music, I love it all. It is just the spelling I have trouble with but thank God I married a great speller.

I also love to design NEW patterns for you to make and enjoy the creative process so, when I was asked by international quilting icon American Quilters Society to be part of a new project using a new pattern I designed, I jumped at the chance.  It's called QuiltCLASS@Home and my new teaching video will be part of their lineup.  So, while we wait for the traditional venues to come back, and they will, we can continue to support the teachers, designers, and industry we all love by taking classes and visiting quilt shows online. I think it’s a great idea.

For information about my NEW class with AQS and to sign up, click HERE.  The class will be through a private Facebook group.

Then order your pattern from my Etsy Shop. You can get a complete pattern and fabric kit or you can get a downloadable version of the same pattern and use your own fabrics. The downloadable pattern also has a color chart to help you find the right colors from your own stash.

In the class I demonstrate how I used Ombre batik fabrics in this quilt - the process is incredibly fun.

•       The Ombre fabrics I use (and sell) are from Hoffman of Californian and Robert Kauffman. The       complete kit, pattern and fabrics is $75. Background fabric is included.
•         Digital pattern is $12 - use a color printer when printing - all pages are letter size.
•         Traditional pattern through my shop is $20.

 

Hope this helps.

If you have any questions, please email me at melindabuladesigns@comcast.net.

Sticky Scissors No More by Melinda Bula

Summer Dogwood

Its been a crazy spring at my house. We are getting ready to sell our house which means packing up your item to stage your house like you don't really live there. I understand the process but when you work and run a business out of that house it get real tricky.  When I need to find all the things I just hid from the people who are on there way over to look at your home, I get a little crazy.
If we sell this house I will be surprised for sure. But we are trying.

In all the commotion I have not been blogging, so sorry for that.  I do have some new videos to show you.   The first is a video that I created is of the building process of my Dogwood flower pattern. My patterns are different than other designers.  So I like to give you more visuals to help you create or just purely entertain you for a moment.
The song is by Darius Ranker and its called Wagon Wheel. I made this video back in December. Enjoy!

Today someone emailed me that forgot to write in the pattern how to do the seeds in the center of the flower.  So here it is. I put the seeds on the flowers, last. So here is the video and the instruction for the flower seeds below.

1.  Fuse your U fabric. 
2. Trace 3-4 seed shape from the large lay out guide.
3. Fold you U fabric in half and pin the traced seed pattern onto the fabric and cut out the 4 shapes out. because the fabric is folded you will have 8 seed shapes. do this again until you have the desired amount.
4.  Now arrange like the photo shows.  
5. Press in place.