Announcement!

I Have A Notion blog and store have moved to:


the store can be found at


There is a much easier to navigate store, with new items. The blog has its own page as well... new content too.

The blog is now at www.ihaveanotion.com/blog

Please come and visit!

Friday, November 18, 2011

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!!

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Increase Your E-Notion IQ - Wash-Away Applique Sheets


Ok, Wednesdays post on Thursday....I don't think any satellites will fall out of the sky do you?
Beth Ferrier, Apple Wood Farm Publications, was doing a demo at Quilt Market in Houston for her Wash-Away Applique Sheets.   More Hand Applique by Machine, is a great technique and applique pattern book that Beth wrote and it was published a few years ago.   (Not much for Carol Merrill's but I don't recall there ever being a Carol Merrill in the world of quilting...do you?)

Beth makes me laugh...she says she is a recovering perfectionist.  I'm not sure I've even entered the first phase of recovery so she is further ahead than I am!  Did you know you, even though she is in recovery you can still eat off her kitchen  floor?  That's because there is plenty of food on it....that's recovery for ya!   (Beth's words...not mine...but I also can eat off my floor :)

Having projects that are  portable  are appealing to Beth.  She has come up with some very manageable ways to do applique without getting poked with pins, loosing your pieces or fraying your small pieces of fabric.

This is an example of Beth's work and because it has not been washed, the fruit looks three dimensional doesn't it?
This one has been washed and the Wash-Away Applique Sheet has dissolved...so no three dimensional appearance.
Beth has been working on this applique border....good thing she is doing it...because I'd be the rest of my life attempting to keep all those pieces in one place.
This is the other end....isn't it beautiful?  I just love the layers and how neat and nice they lay.
We noticed some little black things on her flowers...I thought it was part of the design.  Silly me...nope....those are micro basting tags.  Yep, that's how Beth keeps all her pieces in place on her back ground fabric.  She uses Avery Dennison's Micro Tack Basting Gun.  It makes great sense to use the black Micro Tacks because they make it easier to see on bright fabrics. 
Look how tiny they are.  Beth said she has tried several basting guns and the Avery Dennison Micro Tack has the smallest needle and it doesn't leave holes in her fabric. 

If you decide to use the Micro Tack Gun, you need to put the needle through the fabric and back up again...like you would a pin...and it will hold your pieces of fabric tightly.  The best part is...you don't get picked by the end of the pins you would have used otherwise :)
To transfer your design, you can put the Wash-Away Applique Sheet into your ink-jet printer and the design transfers beautifully to the Applique Sheet.  You cut it out on the line and fuse it to your fabric...yep...you heard me correctly...it is also fusible.  Oh yeah baby :)  Cut 1/4 inch around your paper template that you have just fused to your fabric. 
Here, Beth is demonstrating how she uses a glue stick around the edge of the template.
She then uses her thumb to press the fabric around the template.  I should probably tell you the Wash-Away Applique Sheets have some body to them so they aren't real flimsy....I think that is important...I wouldn't want the fabric to be so flimsy that I would have a hard time tacking the fabric around the template.


After she gets the fabric around the template, Beth goes back and smooths out the fabric around the template with her "magic wand."  For those of you without a "magic wand" you can use your Applique Pressing Tool or a cuticle stick from the beauty supply store. 

Another tool Beth recommends is this portable light box.  It is a Light Box Globox and you put your pattern on top of the box so you can get perfect placement for your applique pieces.

It is just 5 x 9 and it is lightweight so it is handy while working on airplanes, sewcials, workshops and classes.  The light box I use is gigantic so there is no way I could sit on the sofa or take it anywhere....so this was a great lesson for me too.
 You can see it here..you lay your pattern on top and turn on the box and you can see where to put your applique pieces.  (Can you see me sitting in a plane trying to use the window?  That is just like me to do something like that....and then drop my damxx applique piece on the floor and have to bother the person sitting behind me to find it for me...LOL)

Since there was no electricity at the booth, she improvised....and it worked.  You can see how she laid the applique pieces on the pattern.
Being a visual learner, I wanted to stay and watch her do more pieces.  Here she had finished a part of the pear and then was adding the next piece.
Beth has numbered her pieces and many patterns have the pieces numbered so you can just print them onto the Wash-Away Applique Sheet and be able to find where each one goes in the pattern.
Then she joined one piece to the top of the next piece...as you can see here...that is how she gets them to lay so nicely and they appear perfect from the front side.  Then Beth puts it under her machine and stitches around each piece. 

Afterwards, I was thinking about wall hangings.  I don't wash mine, I just shake the dust out.  If I wanted to do a wall hanging and have parts of it look dimensional without doing trapunto...but flat dimensional....I could just wash the background pieces and after it dries, I could sew another layer and keep the Wash-Away Applique Sheet in the fabric so it would look like the pieces were popping.  Either way...I really like Beth's method...it is right up my alley.

Here you can see Beth has printed some hexagons on the Wash-Away Applique Sheet and has fused them to fabric and she is using the sheets for paper piecing.  No need to remove the paper...it just washes away :)

I found it interesting that Beth had to samples of paper piecing.  She did a whip stitch on the first one and the second one she did a running stitch.  The running stitched one looked so much nicer from the front.  (e-mail me if you need pix for proof :)
Check out what else Beth has done....
Foundation paper Piecing too!
I'm sure there will be more uses for the Wash-Away Applique Sheets.   There are always new uses for products that we don't think of until we are in the middle of a project wondering how we can accomplish something and we need just the right tool.

A quick recap for ya...Wash-Away Applique Sheets
  • Can be used with an ink-jet printer for applique templates or foundation piecing patterns
  • Transparent enough to trace your applique designs onto
  • Washes out for a soft end result or can be left in and it gives a dimensional look (it does soften over time)
  • Can be used in paper piecing-you just fuse the first piece on and then you don't have to rip the paper off...just wash it away :)
  • It gives a crisp clean edge for applique stitching

Now you know why it takes me so long to get all my posts up!!  I download all the pix...organizing them...watermarking them...uploading them...and then writing the post...spell checking...a tiny bit of editing etc.....so I'd appreciate it if you'd not talk behind my back about how I claim to do a Wednesday post and then post it on Thursday....:)

Giggling and Smiles,
Kelly 
Now it's back to all that Floriani thread!!!  Oh yeah....Don't forget the Pre-Holiday Beam N Read Light Giveaway going on now...leave your comment Here for your chance to win :)

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

I'm Alive...But Buried in Floriani :)

I know ya' all think I've left the country to hide away with all the new thread, designs and stabilizers that arrived here at IHAN....but I didn't.
A big ole semi pulled up yesterday  and I just about passed out.  I thought to myself...oh dear God...where am I going to put all that?  Then the fella only unloaded this one pallet....instant relief :)
Yes, Floriani...Floriani Thread, Floriani Stabilizers, and Floriani Software galore....where is the army who is going to inventory all this?
 I have almost finished checking in the order and then I'll have the joy of arranging it in a fashion I can easily see and find the threads to fill orders.
Just look at all those colors....YES I have every single one of them...and not just one spool of each either....nope...I have at least 5 of each one...the world is looking so colorful right now :)

While I'm buried in thread..... I had to speed clean the house because I had invited some friends for lunch and the guest of honor was Lyn Gladwin, the gal from Australia who visited our guild meeting last month. 

I've not hosted a lunch in I don't know how long....really...it has been years and I have no idea why I don't do it more often because it was such a treat.  There were 7 of us and some of the gals brought some quilts to show.  I'm only going to post Lyn's quilts because I need to get back to all that thread!!

 This is a quilt that Lyn made for her son and she "pinched" it off his bed before she came over.
 I really liked the way she cut her fabrics...and the bead is fun too.
I thought the quilting was interesting...the border and how she lined up each of the stars...I just know it would not be that straight had I been in charge...yikes.
This is a quilt Lyn made for her new daughter in law.  It is different than the one I posted about previously.  Unfortunately, the light from the window takes away from the beauty of this quilt.
 This is the view from Lyn's house in AU.  She can see the ocean...oh I can only dream of living somewhere so beautiful.  My camera and laptop are having an argument so I can't post the rest of the photos right now....but suffice to say there were lots of beautiful quilts and great women right here in my house....that was very cool indeed.

I know it is Wednesday and I am working on an E-Notion IQ post....that will be coming soon ....I'm roller skating as fast as I possibly can...I promise :)

Smiles,
Kelly

Monday, November 14, 2011

Beam N Read Pre-Holiday Gift Giveaway Nov. 14-21, 2011

Who is on your gift list this holiday season....I really do want to know.  Who would you want to receive the gift of a fantastic portable light?
That portable light just so happens to be a Beam N Read 6 LED Light
(the older I get the more light I need)
I don't know what I did before I had my Beam N Read 6 LED Light (the IHAN clan now has four in our emergency bag)  Who would have ever thought that a portable light would come in handy for so many things.  Certainly not me....but all of that has changed.
The Beam N Read Lights are indispensable during bad weather.  Our electricity went out and I grabbed our emergency bag and took out our Beam N Read Lights and each one of us put one on.  Our hands were free because the lights are on an adjustable strap around our necks.  It is tough to use your hands while holding a flash light...our Beam N Read Lights just hang around our necks.
Ok...on to the much more fun ways to use a Beam N Read Light......
They are wonderful for counting all that money you just stole from your local bank (where else are we going to get the money we need for all the fabric we desire?).  You're gonna be hiding under that bed for a very long time ya know.
And ya can't exactly use a lighter while hiding under a bed in the dark now can ya? 

(Me disguised as a man hiding in my closet....I'm getting ready to increase my stash big time :)

I know many of you are not prepared for robbing banks so I thought I'd let you know the Beam N Read Lights are  perfect for all hand needle work, sewing, reading, taking evening walks, and camping.  I use mine while we travel too. 
Now you have some great ideas for using a Beam N Read Light....
Who would you give one to this holiday season?  Leave a comment on this post  telling me who  you want to give a Beam N Read Light to to enter the giveaway.  You don't need to leave a person's name...My Dad, Sister, Quilting Buddy....etc. will do just fine.  You do need to be an IHAN blog follower to qualify and leave your comment before Nov. 21, 2011.

Can't wait?  Order your Beam N Read Lights NOW at I Have A Notion (IHAN)  and I'll pay your shipping...yep...Free Shipping in the US only ...hurry because I'm only feeling generous until midnight Nov. 21, 2011  :)  Coupon Code for Free Shipping on Beam N Read Lights Only is:
Free BNR Shipping
AND
If you have not checked out Patsy Thompson's blog post about how she uses her Beam N Read, you better head over and check out how she uses her light.

Smiles,
Kelly

 

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