Susan Brubaker Knapp in Houston for Fall Quilt Market 2011

Quilt Market Houston 2011

Susan Brubaker Knapp, Blue Moon River, gave an incredible School House presentation this year.  She shared her new book, Point Click Quilt! with us and talked about thread painting and using photos as her inspiration. 

I feel like a photographer when I'm at Market.  I do my best to get folks to look at the camera so I can bring back photos to share with IHAN blog readers.  So Susan's smile...is just for you (and I got to enjoy it too!)

Susan's School House Presentation was very well attended and you know I loved every minute of it...especially at the end when we got to look and touch her beautiful art work.

This is what you would not have been able to see in the photo above....Susan had painted and stitched on her shoes ...you can't enjoy them with her behind that table....see...I'm taking good care of you...you get all the skinny here...LOL.

 Susan's work was passed around and I took the opportunity to take photos and I also took some close-ups so you can see the thread painting in detail.

If you click on any of these photos they will enlarge....and the thread work is so beautiful you'll definitely be clicking away today.

As you can see above, Susan has taken a photo of a simple fence with a shadow in the back ground and transformed the ordinary into something extraordinary.   Many of these pieces are also included in her book, Point, Click, Quilt!

 I would have probably walked right past that fence and thought nothing of it....and then when I see how beautifully it has been translated....I just marvel.

The quilts were on tables or chairs when the photos were taken.....I hope I have captured the sense of awe I felt that day... in these photos...especially when you look up close and see how Susan has outlined with thread or sketched with thread over fabric to make the bird appear dimensional...really awesome.

 Check out the photo below....don't you feel like you are right there looking down at these pumpkins?

 Below in the close-up...you can see Susan has done some fabric painting as well as thread painting.

It just blows me away.  I so badly want to take a class with Susan but so far the closest I've come is to watching her DVD's.

These cars are very cool....look at the texture in the road...and the depth of the brown on the car...from here it looks to me like an oil painting doesn't it?   

Until....

When you look close-up, you see the thread has created what can't be captured with paint on canvas...for those of us who love textiles....this type of art just knocks your socks off.  

 In the first photo of the butterfly...you see a butterfly and it jumps with color...then in the close up...I see a character in the butterfly...a friendly intelligent look...do you see it too?  Or am I just projecting?

A few days later, Susan was autographing Point, Click, Quilt and the line was wrapped around the corner...

 All of the books were spoken for when I arrived....and I arrived early...so I wasn't going to walk away empty handed....I took this photo :)

I know by now it seems like I was stalking Susan....but honestly I wasn't.  There is a schedule of events and when I'm interested in learning more about a persons work...I circle it and try to make it to their events.  Between events I have a list of must see people to learn about new notions or to test new notions (I'm sort of known as the person who wants to see if she can actually get the notion to work or see if I can break it...before I buy it...lol)

Armed with at least 2 cameras at all times I take photos of everything and anything that interests me. 
This peacock grabbed my attention...so I took a photo and then I zoomed in on the name of the artist...surprise  surprise...it was Susan's.  I had seen "Psychedelic Peacock"kon the Blue Moon River blog, but for some reason I had not put 2 and 2 together.  So when I caught up with her again...I asked her to stand with it so I could take a photo.

Susan told me she used 30 spools of thread ...yes...30...that is THIRTY spools of thread to make this beauty. (I bet she is wishes she lived here now...with all this thread...she'd be in heaven :)

When you see these close-up photos....you can see how she used 30 spools of thread to turn a peacock into a symphony of color and texture.

I love the swirls and curves...they really move....this Peacock is Alive!

Do you know how very glad I am that Susan didn't ask my advise on thread colors...and which thread to put where? EXTREMELY GLAD :)

Do you want to learn more about Susan's process?  You can check out her schedule by clicking here and take a class with Susan, follow her blog here .  If you want to explore more while at home...you can find Point, Click, Quilt here...and if you like DVD's (my favorites) you can find them here!

I just clicked over to get the link and you know what I saw?  A Giveaway....SewCalGal has reviewed Susan's latest DVD, Dynamic Quilt Design: Paint Meets Stitch.  Talk about serendipity...the universe is aligning today...( this was not planned...honest truth...I don't decide until I sit down at the computer what I'm going to blog about)

Might I suggest you hop over to SewCalGal's Blog and leave a comment for your chance to win....you may notice I've only invited you after I've already visited and left my comment!!!  LOL...at least I told ya about it :)

Selfish Smiles,
Kelly
PS:
Good Luck in winning Dynamic Quilt Design....sort of!!