adventures of a quilting diva

It’s true, I’ve been taking a vacation from blogging, but that doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten about my blog. I’ve been busy collecting new inspirations and ideas to share with you!

Here’s a peek at one of the most exciting things I’ve been doing recently: taping some episodes for the Creative Living with Sheryl Borden Show.

I thought it would be a breeze, since I’m used to teaching quilting and crafting techniques, but there are a few significant differences between TV and the live classroom. For one, your time limit is minutes, not hours. And two, if you mess up, you have to start all over from the very beginning. But Sheryl made the taping easy and fun, so I wasn’t stressed at all. I’m so excited to share my fabric cover-button techniques in hi-def!

dressing your coffee cup in style

blooming button jewelry to embellish clothes & quilts

vintage fabric fabric cover-button crafts

fun fabric appliques for card making & scrapbooking

These segments will air on Creative Living in 2011, but I’ll give you a YouTube preview soon!

More CHA fun! … Without further ado, here’s #1-5 of my top ten cool stuff at CHA 2010:

#5. Grungepaper Coat: Great patchwork coat made from scrapbooking Grungepaper. Check out the fab flowers on the detail photo!

#4. Petaloo Color Me Crazy: Fun paper, cotton, velvet and mulberry flowers to color and decorate for all your creative projects!

Take a closer look at some of what you can do with these flowers. I’d love to embellish some wearable art with Color Me Crazy flowers. What would you do with them?

#3. C&T Publishing’s Liquitex Soft Body Acrylic & Canvas Books: These are the terrific paints I did my CHA demo projects with. (Get the tutorials here: fabric painting | fabric ribbon rosettes.)

Lots of pigment, brilliant colors, and permanent with no heat setting required. Can be used for many different techniques.

Want a fun surface to paint on? Try these nifty canvas books! They’re ready for your creative touch.

#2. Rabinowitz Design Workshop’s Waxmelter Electric Batik Pen: How fun is this? Melt crayon bits or batik wax to make fabulous fiber art or scrapbook pages.

Drum roll, please … The most wonderful thing I found at CHA, the best thing ever for applique-quilters since fusible web …

hands and scissor free applique!

#1. Making Memories‘ Slice Craft Cutter: Why should scrapbookers have all the fun? Now the fantastic Slice craft cutter can cut fusible fabric appliques!

Place fusible-backed fabric and the Slice cutter onto the magnetic board, select your design, size, press the button and …

Voila! Fusible applique piece ready to be ironed to your background fabric. (Note: The Slice cutter does not dye your appliques and change their color for you. Two different fabrics are shown in these two photos.)And here’s a tea towel to show off the quick and easy Slice applique project. Want to see the Slice in action? (you know you do!) Check out this video from the Making Memories blog.)

That’s all for CHA 2010! Thanks for joining me! ^_^

What’s more fun than Disneyland and crafty too? The CHA (Craft & Hobby Association) Craft SuperShow and Winter Convention & Trade Show at the Anaheim Convention Center.

Quilters know quilt shows, but in case you’ve never been to a CHA show, here’s my Top Ten List of Cool Stuff you’ll find at CHA:

#10. Lyra Rembrandt Polycolor Pencils: Fabulous oil-based colored pencils: Strong, smooth, sharp, gorgeous colors, great for blending, plus no fading or waxy buildup. Need I say more?

#9. Soft Flex’s Trios: Love color? Love to make jewelry? Soft Flex colored beading wire now comes in fabulous variety packs. Here are two of my favorites from the new 2010 collection: Egg Hunt and Be My Valentine.

#8. Halina Tepper, Button Sculptor: Halina make amazing sculptures from buttons and recycled materials.

20,000 buttons are sewn onto this lion!

The cute mouse pincushion has slightly fewer buttons than the lion, but would make a fun addition to any sewing room.

These little kangaroos give you a peek at how the button sculptures are made. The buttons on the finished kangaroo are made from the same used glue bottles that form the base.

#7. Provo Craft’s Cricut Cake: Use scrapbooking Cricut cartridges in the Cricut Cake machine (specially made to be food-safe, don’t try this at home with your Cricut Expression!) to make sugar gum paste cutouts to decorate cakes with. These super cute animals look like “cake appliques” to me. Peel and stick. How cool is that? Now anybody can be a cake decorator! (Available April 2010)

#6. Epiphany Crafts‘ Button Studio & Shape Studio: As easy and fun as paper punches, make paper- or photo-backed epoxy scrapbooking charms and buttons. (Available April 2010)

Come back tomorrow to find out #1-5!

Today I demonstrated fabric painting and fabric ribbon rosettes at the CHA Winter Trade Show. For those of you who couldn’t make it, here’s an online tutorial for fabric ribbon rosettes just for you. (Click here for my CHA fabric painting tutorial)

To make a really special rosette, add a beaded fabric cover-button (button-beading techniques can be found in my book, Fast, Fun & Easy Fabric Cover-Button Jewelry, by C&T Publishing.)

1. Choose two contrasting fabrics and a coordinating button.
2. Cut the fabric 18″ wide by as long as you wish. You can use one painted fabric piece and one paint-free, or two paint-free pieces. I don’t recommend using two painted fabrics back-to-back unless you plan to use glue to secure the rosette. It’s a little tough getting the needle through two layers of painted fabric. (I bent a very hefty needle trying.)
3. Fuse a sheet of Wonder Under to the reverse side of one of your chosen fabrics. (Wonder Under is 17″ wide so it will fit nicely on a piece of fabric 18″ wide.) Trim off the excess fabric with a rotary cutter and ruler.
4. Peel off the paper backing and fuse the reverse side of the other fabric to the first piece of fabric. Trim off the excess fabric. You now have a double-sided piece of fabric.
5. Use a decorative blade rotary cutter to cut fabric ribbon strips 1/2″ – 5/8″ wide x 17″ long.
6. Sew two lines of contrasting thread down the center of the fabric ribbon if desired. Use a different color in the bobbin for the fabric on the reverse side. (This stitching is more decorative than functional. The Wonder Under and fabric paint do a really good job of discouraging fraying.)
7. Thread a large needle with strong thread and make a big knot near the end. (Big needles make big holes and you don’t want the knot pulling completely through.)
8. Find the center of the ribbon’s length and pinch to mark the center.
9. Make a loop at one end to form the first petal. With a 17″ long fabric ribbon you can make six 1-1/4″ petals.
10. This is the view from underneath your petal. Fold the ribbon at an angle to start the second petal and show the contrasting fabric.
11. This is the view from the top again. Fold the ribbon back to the top to make the second petal.
12. Fold the fabric ribbon on top to start the third petal and bring the ribbon to the back again to complete the third petal. Look for the center crease you made in step #6. If the crease is part of the third petal then your first three petals are too large for the length of your fabric ribbon. You won’t have enough ribbon left for three more petals. If the crease is at or beyond the fold of the third petal, then you will have enough fabric ribbon for three more petals.
13. Continue folding the fabric ribbon from front to back and back to front until you’ve completed all six petals.
14. Pick up the needle and thread and make several hand stitches through the center to secure all the petals. Make sure the stitches are close enough to the center to be hidden by the button. If you have a large button you can spread your stitches out further where there are fewer layers of fabric.
15. Finally stitch the button on the side you want to call front.

Voila! Now all that’s left is to decide what to do with your fabric ribbon rosette. Sew a pin back on, glue to a round magnet, or embellish a quilt or purse.

More CHA  fun to come!

I’ve been doing a lot of bead embroidery these days so here are some tips for those of you who’d like to do more bead embellishment on your quilts but might be intimidated by all those pesky supplies you have to go out and buy.

Conventional beader’s wisdom say that you should always match your beading thread to your beads. That’s nice in theory and works well when you’re stitching down a lot of beads that are the same color.

However, if you’re anything like me, you can’t resist those yummy bead soup mixes. How do you match your thread to that? Are you really supposed to buy thread to match all the hues in your bead box? Even worse, imagine switching your needle and thread with each and every bead you stitch down!

Smile, beading is supposed to be a stress-reducer, not a stress-inducer. Here are some easy things you can do to save both your sanity and your wallet:

• Buy your beading thread in a few versatile neutrals such as gray for medium to dark beads and cream for light beads.
• If you’re a hand quilter (or even if you’re not), hand quilting thread is strong and works great for sewing beads onto quilts.



• Try matching (or blending, it doesn’t have to be exact) your thread to the background fabric instead.
• Go wild and use contrasting thread as a design element.

Whatever you do, have fun and just bead it!

More bead embellishment tips here ~ Tip Tuesday: Just Bead It! Sep. 22, 2009

Gill from the UK asks what kurumi buttons are. Great question! Kurumi buttons are a kind of fabric cover button that you use for embellishment, not as actual working buttons. They’re rounded plastic discs that you gather fabric around (like making a yo-yo). You can then hand applique the covered kurumi button onto your quilt or even make fabric jewelry out of them.

See my Pocket Full of Posies post for step-by-step directions on how to cover a kurumi button. Want to see kurumi buttons on some quilts? Check out the Pocket Full of Posies block on my Pocket Full of Posies post and my Bling Your Bindings! sample quilt on the Muse Monday: Bubbles! post.

These are my all-time favorite earrings, the ball & chain kurumi earrings, made with kurumi buttons and some fab vintage fabric I recycled from a thrift shop house dress. They’re super light, super fun to wear, and go with just about everything.

See my book, Fast, Fun & Easy Fabric Cover-Button Jewelry for more about making jewelry from kurumi buttons. {You can find my book and kurumi buttons in my online shop.}

Happy dance! I’m featured in Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks from Today’s Top Designers. Want a peek at some of the fabulous quilt blocks inside? Follow the 100 Blocks Blog Tour daily Nov. 9-13 at quiltmaker.com/quiltypleasures for inspiration, ideas and giveaways galore!

Look for 100 Blocks from Today’s Top Designers in your local quilt shop, or purchase it at quiltmaker.com/100blocks. Besides having 100 fantastic quilt blocks to choose from, there are layouts for quilts in sizes from lap to king, fab free-motion quilting designs, and ideas for neat stuff you can make with just a single 12″ block.

Here’s my block,#41: Pocket Full of Posies. It’s a fun block, combining simple piecing with paper piecing, applique and button embellishment. This block would look great in many different color palettes. Here I’ve used one of my all-time favorite palettes: black & white with brights.

The centers of the flowers are 30 mm Kurumi cover buttons. If you’ve never tried Kurumi buttons, they’re great for making easy perfect dimensional circles. You could also substitute a regular circle of fusible-backed fabric or a yo-yo for the flower centers. Use your imagination and have fun!

Wondering how to use a Kurumi button? It’s easy!

1. Cut out a circle of fabric a bit larger than your button.

2. Sew a running stitch all the way around the edge as if you’re making a fabric yo-yo.

3. Gather the circle of fabric around the Kurumi button and tie a knot.

Voila! Now just hand applique your covered Kurumi button to your quilt block with matching thread.

Want a chance to win a copy of Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks from today’s top designers? Just leave a comment on this post and tell me your favorite color palette. Have too many favs to choose from? That’s OK, flip a coin, roll a pair of dice, or simply list them all in your comment. You have until the end of Thursday, November 12, 2009. I’ll draw a number and announce the winner on Friday morning, November 13.

So, here’s my latest WIP, from Marguerette Tate’s workshop last week. We started out at the very beginning making a background to decorate. Here’s mine, ready for quilting:

Marguerette has the best technique for creating art quilt backgrounds. You start out with strips and end up with two quilt tops ready for embellishing. We worked on just one in the class and saved the other for another day.

Here’s my background all quilted with the beginnings of the dimensional flower embellishments. Can you believe I finished all this before the workshop was through?

I wanted to do my own thing so I quilted one of my skull appliques to the background. I fused two layers of Kona white together to try to mask the strong background behind the white. That worked pretty well, you can barely see the background through it and it will be strong enough to support the embellishments without sagging. I decided against cutting out the background from behind it, although I might experiment with that in future quilts.

When I got home that night I added some beading and Swarovski hot-fix crystals because I had to show it off at the guild meeting the next day. It’s all in a day’s work.

Stay tuned for more beading and embellishments to come.

Priority: Alzheimer’s Quilts are mini art quilts 9″ x 12″ or less (fits inside a USPS Priority Mailer) created and sold to help make finding a cure for Alzheimer’s Disease a priority. This year 39 of my Quilt Art internet friends and I participated in a Stay-At-Home Challenge for quilters who weren’t going to Houston but didn’t want to simply sit at home and feel sorry for ourselves, so we took this opportunity to create Priority: Alzheimer’s Quilts.

Priority: Alzheimer’s Quilts are part of The Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative, founded by quilter Ami Simms to make a difference one quilt at a time. Here is my first Priority Quilt, On a good day. Artist Statement: I imagine snippets of memories floating by on a breeze. On a good day you can almost reach out and touch them.
This quilt is made from cotton and lamé fabric, with fusible machine appliqué, machine quilting and hot-fix Swarovski crystals. Fusing tissue lamé for machine appliqué is not as hard as one might expect. Just follow these simple steps:

1). Iron WonderUnder to reverse side of tissue lamé (the right side is whichever side you like best, if you can tell a difference between the two) using a medium-hot iron and a dry press cloth (I like to use a piece of cotton jersey cut out from an old T-shirt or a scrap of muslin as a press cloth for this).

2). Cut out your appliqué shapes, remove the paper backing, and iron shapes to the background fabric with your medium-hot iron and dry press cloth. Don’t hold the iron in place for longer than the recommended fusing time, instead check to see how well it is fused and then give it another 10 seconds or so if necessary, repeat ironing and checking until all the edges are securely fused. It is better to check and repeat a few times than to iron too long in one go and melt the lamé.

3). Machine appliqué around the edges with a zig zag stitch. Use a sharp new needle and sew carefully because it’s better not to rip stitches out of the fused tissue lamé if at all possible.

This is a terrific technique for art quilts and wall hangings that will not see a lot of rough handling or excessive washing. I have never tested it on a bed quilt or wearable art garment.

Here are the Swarovski crystals I used on my Priority Quilt. These are different than the usual bling bling hot fix crystals that we all know and love. It is an opaque turquoise and is perfect for those times when your quilt calls for a little embellishment, but not the sparkle. You can find them at Kandi Corp.
Stay tuned for part 2 for directions on how to make an Alzheimer’s Fidget Quilt.