Month: May 2018

Spring Market – Portland recap

May 27, 2018

Wohoo! I’m celebrating! I attended Spring Quilt Market in Portland last week (industry trade show) and had my own vendor booth for the first time and WOW! So much work, such a big learning curve, but so much FUN!

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First of all, no one does this kind of thing alone and I had all kinds of great help – from product production, graphic design, long-arm quilting, hauling, set-up, booth coverage, experienced neighboring vendors, tear-down, and even pizza and ice cream consumption. Most importantly amazingly encouraging friends and family – I had all kinds of help along the way and I’m so grateful.

I hardly had a chance to leave my own booth and walk the show floor. But I’ll share what I can! Picture heavy but here are some glimpses of my week…

the view down my aisle before the show floor opened…

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click on any of the images for a closer look…

 

 

and then there was a fun open-house shopping event at EE Schenck (an industry distributor) at their facility in Portland…and look what was on their shelves!

I met so many great shop owners, industry professionals, quilt lovers all. There’s probably no better way to summarize my week than with this display from RJR Fabrics. This is what it’s all about…

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Happy stash quilting,

Tonya

Trying something new – silk!

May 7, 2018

One of the things I love about quilting is the variety and creativity in the medium. While I love my scrap quilts, it’s also fun to try new things, stretch and grow, too. I had the opportunity recently to take a silk fabric painting class with Janet Lehwalder and it was so fun! So different than anything I had tried or imagined either – and sometimes that’s the best part of taking a class!20180428_114537

So, if pressed to describe painting on silk fabric, I’d say it’s kind of like watercolor painting crossed with Easter egg dying. The process is so easy Janet even teaches elementary school students the technique – so I knew there was hope for me!

Janet’s knowledge and experience is so deep. She’s such a great example of someone finding the art form that speaks to them and making it a lifelong passion. Not only was it a class on a new technique and medium but also a great exercise in color mixing and using the true primaries – yellow, magenta, and cyan – to make all the colors we used.20180428_160508 (1)

There’re a lot of steps and I wouldn’t begin to attempt a tutorial here – more like an exploratory look 🙂 so here are some pics of the process…

 

 

Here’re some of my classmates’ works in progress and one of Janet’s completed projects with beautiful bead embellishments.

 

 

I tried a traced design with a resist medium and then adding the paint and then one free-hand all-over design on a silk fat quarter. Supposedly, you can even cut it up and quilt with it when you are done, but I can tell you I love it too much already to ever cut into this baby!

 

 

So, check out Janet’s work, take her classes if you have the opportunity and try something new! You will enjoy the process, add a new skill to your arsenal,  and leave with a beautiful piece of hand-painted silk.20180506_140047

Happy stash quilting,

Tonya