I am so excited about this!

Join me for an Acrylic Ink Adventure at Quilt Camp in La Grange, Texas next June 7-9, 2013!!! organized by the wonderful folks at Quilts Inc.

Spend a weekend filled with surface design exploration! Begin with creating colorful textured backgrounds, explore mark making with different kinds of stamps, draw with inks using quill type calligraphy and ruling pens.

Paint imagery opaquely and with a transparent watercolor look. Layer washes of color with simple imagery by creating masks with freezer paper and create textured patterning with simple resists from common items found in the office supply store.

Each portion of the class will add another level of complexity to the image making process, with the last day culminating in a 1/2 yard painted whole cloth piece incorporating many of the techniques learned over the previous two days.

This weekend is packed with tips and ideas of different ways to work with these versatile inks on fabric.

The workshop, meals and accommodations will be at Karey Bresenhan's beautiful Great Expectations Creativity Center just outside La Grange.

Click here for a pdf with all the details.

Aloha! Grab your grass skirt and let's paint all the way to Hawaii!

This is so exciting, I want to invite you to come along with me for a surface design painting adventure on an island hopping Quilt n' Cruise to Hawaii. Linda Poole, Joan Shay and Lisa Erlandson will also be teaching on the cruise.

The ship leaves port from San Francisco October 4th. The next 4 days at sea offer a great line up of classes, then the ship stops each day in Kauai, Honolulu, Lahaina and Hilo, then 4 more days for classes before stopping for a day in Ensenada and docking back in San Francisco the next morning, October 19th.

We are going to have a blast, all skill levels welcome. Look at what we're going to do:

Surface Design 101

Learn about different textile paints while creating unique, textured fabrics to use for art quilting or as a base for other mixed media techniques. A few of the methods we’ll explore are shibori and scrunching, working with sea sponges, layering translucent washes, creating texture by relief and working with a variety of brushes.

Make your Mark

Begin the class by designing and carving your own rubber stamp and foam stamp.  Then explore mark making by printing with your new stamps, wood block stamps, stamps from home, thermofax screens and quill pens to create beautiful stamped and painted fabrics. 

Heavy Metal Play Day

Spend a day working with craft metal and discover a variety of ways you can add flash to your mixed media projects.  

Each student receives a metal tool kit courtesy of Walnut Hollow, and learn multiple embossing techniques to create beautiful designs with dimension and texture on aluminum and copper metal.  Several methods for enhancing metal with color using alcohol inks and markers will also be explored in this fun and relaxed class. 

Painting Hawaiian Flora with Textile Paints

Using native Hawaiian floral imagery, learn how to paint fabric with textile paints, using an original design of your own or one provided in class. Students learn techniques for creating smooth gradations of color, glazing paint with textile mediums to create more visual depth, covering large areas with even color and avoiding blotchiness, control paint bleeding, working with freezer paper masks, and painting smooth lines and fine details.  

We will also discuss how different paints affect the hand of the fabric, and how to baste painted textiles for quilting. This is an information packed class geared to help students gain confidence painting fabric for art quilting. Students will have a variety of images to choose from or may work from their own designs.

How Can You Resist?

Explore the art of using resists to create beautifully textured painted fabric, while working with a variety of inexpensive items commonly found around the house or the local office supply.

Painting Hawaiian Fauna with Textile Paints

Using birds, insect or animal imagery native to Hawaii, learn how to paint fabric with textile paints, using an original design of your own or one provided in class. Students will learn techniques for creating smooth gradations of color, glazing paint with textile mediums to create more visual depth, covering large areas with even color and avoiding blotchiness, control paint bleeding, working with freezer paper masks, and painting smooth lines and fine details.  

So grab your partner (or not), and come spend two fun filled creative weeks immersed in color, texture and fabric. Check out all the details so we can go try some Spam sushi!

Wow, it's already time to sign up for classes at IQF Houston!

International Quilt Festival info here.
For all of you Tsukineko ink enthusiasts, due to popular demand, I am teaching two classes again this fall! 

Tuesday, Oct 30
Tsukineko All Purpose Inks (6 hours)

The benefit to taking my class is, I teach two different methods for working with the inks. One uses the Fantastix tool with a dry brush method that feels more like traditional drawing, and the other method is working wet with paintbrushes that give a more painterly quality. This is a techniques class where you will master blending and shading, mixing colors, creating light and dark colors, learn how to control bleeding on fabric and creating fine lines and details.


Then take a break from class on Tuesday and let me entertain you from noon-2pm, for lunch and a lecture on Inspiration 

How about learning some new tricks for applying paint to fabric, Wednesday, Oct 31 in 
Painting Imagery for Art Quilts with Textile Paints (6 hours)

I love to teach this class not only because I love to paint, but also because I love seeing my students amazement when they are able to do things they never thought possible in just 6 hours. Together we can work magic! 

I know people are hesitant to try painting, because they have this misguided notion that it's a special "talent or gift". Don't believe it! Painting is a skill and you can learn at any age and besides that it's relaxing and fun.

Thursday, Nov 1
Tsukineko All Purpose Inks (6 hours)

Friday, Nov 2
Ornamental Fiesta (6 hours)

Making these ornaments are so fun because they incorporate a sampling of techniques; painting, stitching and embossing metal. And for those of you who like to leave class with a finished project, I guarantee you will go home with at least one beautiful ornament, maybe two if you're a fast worker. 

Saturday, Nov 3
Heavy Metal Play Day (6 hours)

Spend a fun and relaxing day experimenting with different embossing techniques on aluminum and copper metal, then learn how to add color and create beautiful mottled effects with alcohol inks. Every student gets a free tool kit in this class too!


I can hardly wait, IQF Houston is my favorite action packed week of teaching and inspiration. I love seeing the exhibits, having BBQ, dancing on the green, and visiting with friends old and new.

Hope to see you there!

But first I'm off to Southern California to teach at IQF Long Beach at the end of the month. There's still a few spots in each of my classes, if you want some creative fun in the sun!

New Class! Alternatively Bound and Stitched

I'm really excited to tell you about my new class, Alternatively Bound and Stitched, that I will be teaching in Long Beach at International Quilt Festival, Thursday, July 26th.

The focus of this class is not only learning 3 alternative binding techniques that work great with art quilts but also developing strategies for free-motion quilting designs, making a quilt sandwich, discussing; batting, basting, threads and needles, transferring designs to fabric and marking quilts for stitching more complex designs.

Along with making quilted and bound samples in class, there will also be a powerpoint with examples of different ways to think about what kind of stitching motifs to use for quilting.

As I began writing the handout for the class last fall, I found that I had so much information that I wanted to include, that it became a 17 page ebook! that each student will get on a disk in class.

The ebook is a pdf and can be uploaded to a tablet and opened in either kindle, ibooks or other apps for reading pdfs.

I emailed myself the pdf and opened it on my ipad and it worked beautifully.

I have already been asked about selling the ebook, which I will probably do when I have a chance to figure out the best way to do it. Right now I have A LOT on my plate to deal with, so please bear with me. Hopefully in the fall after I've moved and resettled I can get to it. In the meantime come take my class! ;-)

Does color intimidate you?

Do you find yourself choosing the same 'tried and true' color combinations over and over? Do you want to consistently dye bright saturated colors and muted colors when you want to? Can you recognize the difference between warm and cool colors and understand why you would choose one over the other to mix exactly the color you want? 

Join me Friday, July 27 to learn the answers to these and many more questions about Color Theory in sunny Long Beach at International Quilt Festival.

Reading about color is valuable and arranging swatches of fabric into color combinations is helpful, but it doesn't show the different hues that make up a specific color and explain why one swatch combination will look so much better than another that is only slightly different. 

I believe the best way to really understand color is by mixing paint and witnessing what happens as the two colors interact. This is the process it takes to train your eye so choosing color ultimately becomes second nature.

This is a fun, relaxing and informative day, guaranteed to give you more confidence working with color.

I hope to see you in sunny Long beach!

Get Inked in Long Beach!

Wow! It's four weeks until International Quilt Festival, Long Beach. Would you like to immerse yourself in color by learning how to paint fabric with acrylic inks?

Saturday I'm teaching a fun new class 10 Techniques with Acrylic Inks.

Spend a day filled with fun and relaxed exploration, beginning with creating colorful textured backgrounds

exploring mark making with different kinds of stamps 

and drawing with inks using quill type calligraphy and ruling pens.














We'll explore layering imagery with color and marks

cutting masks with freezer paper.

And painting in a transparent watercolor style.

This class is going to packed with lots of tips and ideas of ways you can work with these versatile inks on fabric. I'd love to see you there!  

Click here to see student work from the first inks class.

To see two art quilts painted with acrylic inks check out these step by step blog posts about making 8 of Cups and Black and Bloom All Over.

Are you going to Festival in Long Beach?

I can't believe it's nearly June! Time is flying by and in just a little more than a month Quilt Festival will be upon us. Here's the line up of classes I'll be teaching.

Thursday, July 26 
Alternatively Bound & Stitched NEW

Expand your free motion quilting repertoire with some creative free motion stitching exploration. Then bind your quilted samplers with several non traditional alternative binding techniques for art quilts: faced binding, couched twisted cord binding, and satin stitched binding.

Friday, July 27 
Color Theory

Did you know the color choices you make can transform an average piece of artwork into something spectacular? Be surprised and delighted by the effects and illusions you can create by understanding the mysteries of color. In this hands-on experiential class you’ll learn key color concepts with visual examples, mix new paint colors, and create helpful charts, all providing you with the tools you’ll need to see color in a whole new light.

Saturday, July 28 
10 Textile Techniques Using Acrylic Inks NEW

Explore a variety of painting techniques from textural backgrounds and surface design techniques to stamping, layering colors and more traditional painting and drawing with inks.

Here's a more involved description of this class. 

I'm looking forward to getting back to California for some fun in the sun, hanging with my fellow creative peeps and teaching a few classes, if you'd like to join me sign up now!

Magical Metal Altars at Create

Thursday I taught Magical Metal Altars to a full class with 20 students. This is a new class, kind of a larger modified version of the popular Fiesta Ornaments. What fun this was! 

I gave the students a wide range of options to create their altar; from using a template with everything predesigned by me to simple templates with various door and window shapes and imagery that could be used for reference and inspiration, to completely open ended templates allowing for total creative expression of painted imagery and embossed metal work.

I was amazed by the number of incredibly beautiful pieces that were made in this class.

Fantastic work done by everyone!

I think Create is a perfect name for this retreat, there was a lot of incredible work being done in so many class rooms. How difficult it must have been for students to decide what class to take when there were so many great options.

I want to give an extra thank you to all my wonderful students who chose to spend the day in my class.

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