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An Expert Machine Quilter’ Blog
Seems recently I keep running across beautiful blogs of machine quilting experts who specialize in feathers. Feathers appear simple and elegant. Most things that look simple to do are in fact challenging. Making complicated things appear easy is what the pros do.
Sally Bramald’s blog has a beautiful header which immediately draws you into her site, Feather on a Wire. Notice, though that the smaller purple lettering on a scarlet background does not show well on monitor screens. The same for blue on green, as in the feather spine. (watch for an upcoming post on effective use of colors for monitors) It’s a small but important detail for the viewer’s interest in this site.
Sally’s archive of posts is grouped by month and year. If you browse around past posts you may find some of the patterns and drawings she shares.
 Feather on a Wire blog banner
Sally excels in making and quilting whole cloth quilts.
She graciously gives permission for bloggers to link to her site and/or to a link on her site, and asks to be given appropriate credit for the content.
Here are photos of two of Sally’s prize winning quilts .
Sally gives visual tutorials (and another) on her Bump and Bounce method (and another) for machine quilting feathers.
 -For your Inspiration - beautiful feathers created by Sally 
Jewel tones
Crisp edges
Bold Contrast
Geometrical Shapes
Surprise
These are the qualities that describe most of my art quilts. These are the design elements I frequently post about on “Your Inspiration Zone” blog. You can see how I make them on my website, Quilts4u.com.
I find visual inspiration everywhere. I don’t feel the need to make Statement Quilts, and expressing a mood or pictorials doesn’t interest me. Bright and spontaneous is what what appeals to me. My goal for this blog is bringing my readers fresh inspirational material to excite their creative energy in unexpected ways.
These Flickr photos credit the photographers and all are labeled “some rights reserved”. Photo shown above is Casino, by craftology See photo copyright © restrictions. and photos in the public domain. See also Quilt this, an almost quilt lawsuit situation.
 fussy lights, eole  o'hare, tanakawho  pretty flamingo, Thomas Hawk  zug station, swisscan  reflected light, duane schoon  neon rainbow, anne oeldorfhirsch  red, yellow, blue, miuenski  aquarius, jdnx  dots, Planet Hollywood, purplewtinkle 
New AQS Show in Lancaster, PA
 The American Quilter’s Society has added the Lancaster County Convention Center in Lancaster PA as the location for a fourth show and contest in 2010, (others being in Des Moines, IA, Knoxville, TN and Paducah KY). Approximately 200 quilts will be judged in various categories with more than $42,000 in total prize money being awarded. The Best of Show will receive $10,000.
The Show and Contest runs from March 24 to 27, 2010. If you can be there, you’ll be among an estimated 20,000 avid quilt enthusiasts from a locale that is already famous for its quilting culture and heritage.
The Festival Gallery of Quilt Art: Wonders of the World – call for entries
W onders of the World, man-made or natural, is the exhibition theme for a new contest and exhibition from International Quilt Festival located in Houston TX. Entries are to be art quilts that interpret this theme. Mixed media quilts are permitted provided the art quilt consists of 3 layers and is flexible in nature.
Exhibition of the art quilts selected by the judges will extend for 3 years, from August 2010 to August 2013. Quilts must be made specifically for the contest and must not have been published in any media format prior to November 2010. Size of entries must be at least 48″ but no larger than 92″ on each side, (122 x 234 cm). Entries may be the work of more than one person. Download the 2010QuiltArt PDF entry form for full details about the show and contest theme.
Signature Style in Art Quilts – Part 1
Now here I go out on a limb…
For commercial reasons, I am changing to a new signature look in the art quilts I make for sale. There are 3 reasons, and the first is that the art quilts in my “new” series are SELLING!! from my website, Quilts4U.com.
Another reason is that at this period in my life (stressful) I find it soothing to stitch stitch stitch away, arrange the chunks on my design wall, do some hand applique and then have fun developing and building up big circular and diagonal quilting lines. It’s valid and important to have these periods of reflection. Another reason for this change is the challenge of developing different color palettes that in turn make reasons 1 and 2 effective and pleasurable.
Shown above are Aerial View, Circus and 3 ring circus. These quilts are from the new series I am developing. All are fairly big, on average 60″, (150 cm) wide. (Circus doesn’t have those black patches, it’s a filler in the photo file.)
As I build a quilt on the design wall I try to see through  the viewer’s eye – is my work engaging or is it boring? The palette is important, yet, for my personal way of working with color, I must stray away from the palette to avoid uniformity, to add some pop and maybe some sizzle too. If it’s possible to judge by the quilt sales of the three art quilts shown above, buyers are captured by the choppy, pieced style with black accents.
I forage, fish and ferret around my daily life for inspiring palettes. Here is a snippet from a Christmas card I received. I may use this group of colors in a future quilt. I like the muted olive and teal tones with the suggestions of deep purples and lime. Tiches of lemon, black and white will add zest.
I believe my work remains fresh. I repeat the technique and each quilt develops its character. My new style is reworked through my choice of fabrics. I use about 6-10% commercially printed cotton and the rest are my own hand dyed cottons and silks. My style is reworked with value and contrast. My style finds variety in the size, width, length, irregularity, etc. of the individual shapes/patches of fabric.
What do you think about series quilts? Must/should a series be predictable? Should each quilt say something big-different, or little-different? What’s typical anyway.
I’d love to hear your input because this topic is in everyone’s mind, somewhere, I think it is, maybe not.
I’ll be writing a future post about the Commercial, Museum and Gallery displays and representations of professional quilt artists and their Series Quilts. 
Building a richer public domain
 quoted excerpts from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, topic reference – The Creative Commons Network, The Creative Commons.org and Flickr Creative Commons
Please Note, the copyright information posted here is subject to unforseen changes being made by the major sharing sites on the WWW. This post has been modified twice already. * see end of post
From Wikipedia:
“Creative Commons.org (CC) has been described as being at the forefront of the copyleft movement, which seeks to support the building of a richer public domain by providing an alternative to the automatic “all rights reserved” copyright, dubbed “some rights reserved.”
“David Berry and Giles Moss have credited Creative Commons.org with generating interest in the issue of intellectual property and contributing to the re-thinking of the role of the “commons” in the “information age”. Beyond that, CC has provided “institutional, practical and legal support for individuals and groups wishing to experiment and communicate with culture more freely.”
“CC works to counter what the organization considers to be a dominant and increasingly restrictive permission culture. According to Lawrence Lessig, founder of CC, it is “a permission culture in which creators get to create only with the permission of the powerful, or of creators from the past”. Lessig maintains that modern culture is dominated by traditional content distributors in order to maintain and strengthen their monopolies on cultural products such as popular music and popular cinema, and that CC can provide alternatives to these restrictions.
 Creative Commons license buttons The format of Creative Commons has changed recently. CC now has prominently displayed a description of what it offers, essentially a portal to a number of photo search engines. Continue reading Copyright vs Copyleft
Gary W. Priester’s 3D Stereogram Gallery
In this post you will see 4 stereograms created by Gary W. Priester, c0-author of several Magic Eye books of stereograms. Gary also has a lot of information on stereogram creation on his Eyetricks.com website. While next to impossible, I think, to create a true stereogram with fabric, these stereogram images certainly could inspire an idea for an art quilt, perhaps a series of art quilts.
Here’s a trick I use when I cannot quickly “see” the hidden image in a stereogram, whether in a book or on the computer screen. With the book or computer screen in a normal viewing position, stare at an object in the room that is further away, or hold something, eg. coffee mug about a foot to the side and further away from the book or computer screen. Focus your eyesight on this object “beyond” the stereogram for about 7 seconds, then slide your focal point in behind the stereogram, keeping your focus on the deeper object. Almost immediately, the hidden object comes into view.
If it doesn’t work, give it a rest. If you walk away from the computer screen and view it from 12 feet or so, you will see how the stereograms project a quilt-like effect. I hope these stereograms will spark an idea for an art quilt.
Gary Priester’s Magic Eye books may be purchased at Amazon and you can check his Magic Eye books through the Amazon widget on the right sidebar of this blog.
Here they are:
 sphere-o-thon Continue reading Stereograms to Inspire Your Quilt Art
Stitching together an artistic vision
BY ROBERT L. PINCUS, UNION-TRIBUNE ART CRITIC – SUNDAY, JANUARY 3, 2010
Gallery director Beth Smith harnesses a passion for textile-related media: ‘It’s really rewarding to see artists change and surprise you’.
Museum Director: Beth Smith
Institution: Quilt Visions
Previous institution: Oceanside Museum of Art (director of development)
Current show: “Interpretations,” featuring 37 quilt artists
Upcoming show: “California Fibers: Liminal Spaces” (Feb. 5-April 25, 2010)
Web site
Quote: “This is my dream job.”
Beth Smith has been on the job for only about a month, as director of Quilt Visions, but it’s as if she was practically destined for the position. She is a passionate quiltmaker herself — not in the traditional mold, but in the eclectic, contemporary vein that this nonprofit gallery and organization has championed for nearly 25 years. And in her several roles at the Oceanside Museum of Art — where Smith served since 1997 — volunteers were crucial to its success. And volunteers are also the lifeblood of Quilt Visions.
To underscore this point, she conveys the story of how the handsome space that Quilt Visions now occupies, in Point Loma’s Liberty Station complex (the former Naval Training Center), Continue reading Beth Smith, new gallery director for Quilt Visions
The National Quilt Museum announces 18 winning quilts from the 2010 An Old Favorite Contest.
on exhibit Mar. 19 – June 15, 2010 and traveling through Dec. 2011.
 Gypsy Caravans by Claudia Clark Myers The Paducah Sun, Jan. 1, 2010
The National Quilt Museum has announced the 18 winning quilts of the 2010 Sunflower-themed New Quilts from an Old Favorite contest.
These quilts represent quilters from 11 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces.
Sponsored by Clover Needlecraft Inc., Fairfield Processing Corp. and Janome America Inc., this contest challenges quilt makers to create original quilts based on a specific quilt pattern.
The traditional Sunflower pattern is one of the many flowers interpreted by 19th century quilt makers. Some of today’s brightest art quilters have modified the design in imaginative ways, providing a wonderful look at the skills, techniques and creativity of today’s quilt makers.
An asymmetrical design flowing beyond the bottom border is the foundation of the first place quilt, “Gypsy Caravans” by Claudia Clark Myers of Duluth, Minn., and Marilyn Badger of St. George, Utah. The rich palette of teal, turquoise and cheddar is offset by taupe and black with sequins and faux “jewels” adding a touch of the exotic.
Second place went to Continue reading Sunflower Theme Winning Quilts
a website review of The Quilt Index – quiltindex.org
The Quilt Index is a growing research and reference tool designed to provide unprecedented access to information and images about quilts held in private and public hands.
It is a joint project of The Alliance for American Quilts and several several entities of Michigan State University. It has received major grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and several other important research services.
Therefore you can imagine that when this comprehensive online resource is more fully developed, it will likely be the mother of all quilt resources.
The site is designed with “user simplicity” as a primary goal. The depth of the content value is just as impressive. Eventually this website will be the central resource incorporating a wide variety of sources and information on quilts, quiltmakers and quiltmaking.
As an example of the simplicity and depth of the entries, this screen snapshot of “Browse by Category” shows part of the layout for browsing the collection depending on search criteria.
This next screen snapshot Continue reading The Quilt Index-mother of all quilting resources
 in the CQA Quilting News -Unique Quilt Shows in 2010, in the United States – Ohio, South Dakota, California, and Paducah Kentucky
 quilts inspired by President Obama
Journey of Hope in America: Quilts Inspired by President Barack Obama- Dec 15, 2009 -Dec 15, 2010 at the Afro American Museum and Cultural Center, Wilberforce, Ohio
 detail of Precious Water
“Imagine Hope,” Hollis Chatelain’s first art exhibit, includes “Precious Water” and 11 other quilts created by Chatelain, as well as 20 photographs from prominent international photographers. It will begin a world tour April 10, 2010, in Paducah, Ky, at the National Quilt Museum. Chatelain and her husband Reynald are starting a foundation using art to promote awareness of world issues including economic refugees, wetlands, peace, genocide, and hope for migrants and resident aliens. The foundation, yet to be named, is creating lesson plans and materials that will accompany its art exhibits and help viewers learn to take actions that can make a difference. Continue reading Quilt Exhibits in 2010, USA
in the CQA Quilting News
from the Lansing City Pulse
MSU Museum Shows Off Quilt Scholar’s Collection through Sept. 5, 2010,
by Eric Gallippo
‘Unpacking Collections’
The Legacy of Cuesta Benberry, African- American Quilt Scholar
Visitors to Michigan State University Museum’s “Unpacking Collections” exhibit will get a peek into the vast research and materials accumulated by pioneering quilt scholar Cuesta Benberry, but where the exhibit’s title really seems apt is down in the subterranean storage rooms of MSU’s Central Services Building.
It’s there that rows of acid-free storage boxes are stacked floor-to-ceiling with Benberry’s letters, notes, book collections, patterns and other quilt-related research.
 from the Cuesta Benberry Collection
At one end of the room, a makeshift photo studio, where each quilt in Benberry’s collection has been or will be photographed to add to the museum’s Quilt Index, an online library of images and information shared with museums and other groups across the country.
Benberry was an African-American librarian from St. Louis who began studying quilts in the 1950s after a trip to Tennessee. There, she encountered a rich tradition of quilting like she had never seen before, and it spurred her to travel the country studying quilts, primarily those made by African-American women.
In the 1970s she began publishing her findings, leading the way for future quilt scholarship. When Benberry died in 2007, her family donated her collection of African-American and African quilts to MSU Museum’s Great Lakes Quilt Center. Earlier this year, the American Folk Art Museum in New York transferred its Benberry collection to the MSU Museum, so it could be in the same place. Continue reading Michigan State U showcases Cuesta Benberry Collection
 Quilts and Copyright law: what happened and what could have happened
This article is posted for your information with permission from the author, Paul Rapp of PaulRapp.com
Paul specializes in intellectual property law including copyright, trademark, Internet, and art and entertainment matters. Paul is adjunct professor of copyright and art & entertainment law, Albany Law School
Future posts will follow about American intellectual property law and creating art, written by Paul Rapp.
And, if you think you know all this copyright stuff, skip to the last paragraph. Something to think about. (US Law)
Paul Rapp writes: Here is “Jane’s” story about a quilt she made that was published in a national quilting magazine:
A couple of years ago, I was contacted by a highly agitated quilter, who I’ll call Jane. Jane believed that she was about to be sued by another quilter from the Midwest over the appropriation of a quilt design. “This is a hot topic among quilters,” Jane said. Continue reading Quilt This, a synopsis of an almost “quilt law suit”
 why not join a quilt retreat Quilting Retreats come in endless shapes and sizes.
An Internet Search for Quilters Retreats brings up the sites listed below. There are many others not listed.
These lists were compiled in Oct, 2009. The information is provided for your convenience. Please copy and paste any URL into your browser. These listings are not active links. (too much work for me, I’d rather be quilting.)
Comprehensive listings of retreats
http://www.quiltqua.com/travel/ in many states, and in Italy and Costa Rica
http://www.quiltvisionusa.com/ thumbnail photos of retreat resorts in WI, GA, CA and DE
http://creabunda.typepad.com/ retreats in many states and Canada
Retreats outside the USA
http://www.dayspringbb.com/ in Victoria, Vancouver Island, BC Canada
http://www.patchwork-and-quilting.com/ in Fiji, Australia and USA
http://www.sunflowerfabrics.com/retreat.htm in Bedford, England
http://www.quilt-lovers-guide.com/ in British Columbia, Canada
http://www.lavendercottage.ca/ in Ontario, Canada
http://www.quiltworks.co.uk/ in Cumbria, England
http://www.costaricaquilts.com/ in Costa Rica
Inns, B&B’s and Resort Retreats in the United States
Continue reading How About a Quilting Retreat
Two Books to Consult if you’re thinking of Accelerating your Quilting Career
 Insider's Guide to Quilting Careers Insider’s Guide to Quilting Careers - This excellent guide produced by Linda Hahn and Merry May introduces the reader to the incredibly wide variety of careers available in today’s quilting world. The book offers practical advice and detailed instructions on how to start up a career in quilting. It also gives quite a few doses of reality check. This book is especially valuable for any quilter with dreams of pursuing a professional career in the quilting industry. It has valuable insight for professional quilters for growing and improving existing quilting related businesses with the goal of opening new avenues for oppportunities and achieving better profits. Insider’s Guide to Quilting Careers is published by Quiltwoman.com, 2009, 168 pages
 Publish Your Patterns! First you put your design ideas to paper. How do you determine whether a pattern will sell well. Publish Your Patterns! by Nancy Restuccia, (McKenna Linn) provides nearly everything you haven’t thought of – what to consider and what to do when writing great instructions, creating an effective cover and getting your patterns printed. How about pricing for profit, advertising and promoting your patterns, doing trade shows and staying within budget. Having your products available on the web, hosting your own site, protecting your legal interests, copyrights, trademarks, licensing your designs- it’s a potential mine field out there. Publish Your Patterns! includes comprehensive contact information for editors, publishers, distributors, suppliers, trade and consumer shows, networking opportunities and much more. You get a lot in 144 pages of advice in Publish Your Patterns!
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 divine order, Crismon and Sky
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 excellence and strength, Crismon and Sky
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 seed of life, Crismon and Sky
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Imagine all the people,
living life under a quilt. You may say that I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us and the world will live as one (var. John Lennon)
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 Iraq war memorial, Santa Monica Beach, kevindooley
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 frozen Peace symbol,
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 quiet, I'm thinking, Grant MacDonald
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 2010 Olympic symbol
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 sunrise river, dandy_fs
TO MY READERS, PEACE, PERSONAL HARMONY, AND MAKING AT LEAST ONE QUILT FOR CHARITY IN 2010, from Gina
Photos of Unusual Holiday Light Inspire Shining and Exuberant Quilts
(and kindle ideas for cheerful, joyful, bubbly, bouncy and merry quilts as well)
 "stained Glass" - colored paper on doors, Amadeu Sanz  aurora borealis, Beverly Kahuna  Suceava Christmas Tree, Mauius Muscalu  balls of light, Aske Holst  Grand Canal Square at Night, infomatique  100 days to Christmas, kevindooley  moving camera, Brandy Shaul
How Green and Red Became Symbols of Christmas
 happy holidays. by World princess
© Nicole Skutelnik, in Cultural Anthropology, Oct 7, 2008 -posted here with permission of N. Skutelnik
Green and red. Together, these colors are immediately associated with Christmas. But where did that convention come from?
In fact, the convention began very long ago. There are two accepted beliefs about the origin of traditional Christmas colours, one based on historical fact and the other based on Christian faith. Continue reading Origin of Christmas Colors
Do these odd baubles appeal to your geometric instincts? I see quilts all over the place.
Round things, pointy things, the energy in these ornaments can animate your ideas and your art work. Why not bookmark this page for after the holiday season.
 box of Christmas decorations, by Tamurello
 ornament, Thom Watson Continue reading Holiday Ornaments Inspire Art Quilt Ideas
Many generous software writers are continually developing great plug ins for bloggers using WordPress open source software.
It’s as if bloggers keep adding to a virtual Wish List of Plugins and more free capabilities keep appearing, (numbering the in 1000’s).
If you want to build a site that is beyond a basic blog and you need help, need an answer, want to learn more in general on a topic, then do a WP search on those key words (on the WP website under Forums) and you will be browse a variety of discussion forums and lists for plugins that do various tasks. People review and rate plugins based on their experiences, and by reading the comments (and noting how many other people have downloaded that plugin) you can decide what plugins you need to fulfill your requirements.
12 plugins I have found practical:
AKISMET checks comments to see if they look like spam or not. Spam comments get filtered. You can review spammy looking comments and allow, edit or delete them. This is a terrific time saver. In 9 months, AKISMET has detected over 2000 spam comments and has only let 3 through. These three “looked normal” but were in fact spam. Continue reading Practical WordPress Plugins
Color Palette + Design = Impact
These Creative Commons.org photos by Crystal Writer demonstrate that traditional quilt styles combined with stellar palette choices and ingenious layouts can result in stunning artistic art quilts. Enjoy Crystal’s computer created kaleidoscopes. More photos by Crystal Writer and her personal vision.
Why not try a new direction in the new year, that is when life settles down. When I need to recharge my imagination, I often find that returning to basics and more traditional techniques is soothing. And then fresh ideas for a new project begin to emerge (sometimes). A piece of fabric stashed away will seem the very thing, I get on a roll, and, well, you get the idea.
 red flower lattice  christmassy fireworks  red and gold starbursts  yellow bursts  golden stars  geometric blues
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