Fine art to funky traditional: life and quilting
My baby bro's home
My younger brother, Michael, had his home profiled in Sunday’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution. His wife is pregnant with their second, and she looks so calm and relaxed in the photos accompanying the story. We get to see them on Sunday at their son’s second-year birthday party. We live a good distance north in the mountains, and it’s always a treat to venture into Hotlanta . . . and even better when we return to the lush, green, cool mountain air.
Here’s the full story:
Mind mapping my future
I’ve always thought Disney had it right in calling their employees Imagineers. What a cool job title - getting paid to bring imagination to life. I do my own imagineering in my journals, using two techniques I talked about in my podcast: mind-mapping and 100 Questions.
Mindmeister is a great online resource for mind-mapping, but I must confess I enjoy the old colored pencil and paper method best. A wonderful book on both techniques is How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day 
.
This book really transformed how I approached ideas, and I must say I now delightfully imagineer far more ideas than I’ll ever be able to do. But a girl can dream, can’t she?
As I continued to keep journals, I started adding my own ideas, designs, and dreams to them. I would still sometimes cut and paste from magazines and newspapers, referring to color schemes or styles of art I liked.
Here I liked the African women repeated across the page. Simple design, yet effective.
Images as inspiration
I also like to cut swatches and selvedges from fabrics I buy when I travel:
Who needs travel photos?
My first self-portrait.
I promised in my podcast I would post an early sketch I did before I was keeping any kind of a journal. I did this sketch over nine years ago, and it’s imperfect, but I love it. It’s from a childhood photo of me wearing my dad’s sport coat and hat (when men still wore that stuff). The drawing represents a new beginning in my art - getting back to drawing. I did this sketch in a spiral notebook and I’m so glad I did, or else I’m sure I wouldn’t have kept up with it.
Abstract drawing from my journal
Keeping a journal has transformed my art. It’s hard to believe initially I resisted keeping a journal of any kind, as writing is my profession and I didn’t want to do more of it at home. Surely I keep visual journals and sketchbooks as well, but I started by keeping a simple journal of things I was grateful for every day.
I tried to list 100 things to be grateful for in my life - went well over!
I got this idea from Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy 
by Sarah Ban Breathnach, and also the idea of a Discovery Journal. From these humble beginnings came my sketchbooks and quilting journals I’ll be sharing with you later.
It’s here! My podcast is here! I’m excited to share with you the first Quilts and Creativity Podcast: Episode 1: Keeping a Journal. I’m new to podcasting, so it’s just me, no background music or other fancy additions. Just great content. The Keeping a Journal podcast talks about how to keep a journal, different types, and the progression I’ve seen in my art since dedicating myself to journal keeping. I’ll be posting photos and links that I discuss in the podcast, so tune it and enjoy!
Color Studies in My Journal
We’ve returned from a week-long vacation in Jekyll Island, GA - a sleepy, pristine barrier island that hasn’t been overdeveloped - yet. I took a lot of photos and tried to sketch everyday in my journal. Not necessarily to document every phase of the trip, as a source for my art, or any otherwise lofty goal.
Ultimately, I sketched to capture my impression of the moment. My memory, my recollection, which no camera can ever offer. That’s the beauty of a sketch or even a quilt that doesn’t have perfect perspective, or color, or shape. It really doesn’t matter. What is more important is what you remember, what was important enough to you to want to capture that moment in time.
I’ll be posting this week about journaling, how I use it, the different types of journals I keep, and offer some ideas for you. I’ll also be offering a podcast - yes a podcast!! - for an even greater discussion of the topic. Stay tuned!
Whipup has a link to a great tutorial for anyone who does a lot of sewing - quilter or not. Here’s the link:
Thread Catcher Tutorial « mellebugandme
I intend to try this out whenever I’m in a quilting/binding frenzy. I went to the chiropractor yesterday about the soreness in my hands. He did some rather noisy and startling adjustments to my hands and neck, but you know what: they feel better!
Thanks to Alyson over at ArtBizBlog for the heads up on this great NPR story on Aging Artists. I was intrigued enough to read the more detailed summary of the study, and was delighted at the attitude of these artists, who struggled financially but were elated with life and their art.
“Art is what makes me live.”
—93-year-old visual artist
I have always been involved with the aging in some way. In college, I was involved in the now-famous study of centenarians when I worked in the Gerontology office. I transcribed interviews with people ages 100 years and over, and found them to be persistent when life threw them curveballs. They simply didn’t let obstacles stop them. One woman had lived to see Halley’s Comet twice, outlived three husbands and all of her children, and was still vibrant.
When I homeschooled my boys, we volunteered with Meals on Wheels in our community. And I live in a community where we are by far the younger generation. I’m often referred to as a “young mom.” Yahoo - I’ll take it.
How do you see yourself and your art as you age?
I’ve got an article in the upcoming issue of Professional Quilter magazine called Developing Your Blog as a Marketing Tool. I love blogging. I get to write daily posts that let readers know a little about me and my work and connect with people not only in my own community, but across the globe. However, developing a blog can be frustrating. There is no how-to manual on how to do it, and help is often scattered.
So, I read lots of other blogs and learn from them. I especially enjoy educator blogs. Teachers are angels who devote their time to our precious babes, and teachers’ blogs are fantastic. I used to homeschool my kids and I would have loved to have known about the blogging world back then.
Here are two of my favorite teacher blogs, not only for their subject matter, but because of how much they have taught me about blogging:
Cool Cat Teacher is a middle school teacher in the tiny town of Camilla, GA. She is a techno wiz and explains a lot of the blogging world and the web. If you have kids, don’t miss her post on 11 Steps for Online Supervision of Your Child. I have learned enormously from her blog and look forward to her posts.
Cogs for Blogs is a brand new blog but beautiful in its simplicity. I wish it had been around when I began blogging, because in one place, Lenva has collected instructions for many of the tools I offer on my blog that took me months of searching for how to do them right. What kinds of stuff? Linking to my email, doing a Slideshare, changing your blog header, along with others. It’s a site targeted toward teachers, but don’t let that stop you. You can learn from it as well.
So, watch for my article, and in the meantime, trick out your own blog.
Art in the garden is such a poetic idea. One of my favorite events used to be Barnsley Garden’s Quilts in the Garden, but since they renovated and become large I don’t think they hold the event anymore. I’ve longed to go to Sisters out in Oregon someday, but I decided to hold my little event.
Painting on the screened porch. Georgia’s summer has been unseasonably mild so far, and we have taken full advantage and practically lived on our screened porches. I spent two days creating a painting with Fredrix Watercolor Canvas and Neocolor II Water Soluble Crayons. So much fun!
Beth at Sew Mama Sew! has an interesting interview with Westminster Fabrics about their decision to offer home decorator-weight cotton fabric. Their response is pure marketing spin, and while not necessarily untrue, here’s the real reason they’re offering home dec fabric:
They make more money.
Which requires more yardage: a quilt, or window treatments? A quilt, or a skirt? Quilters buy small amounts of fabric (surely in a greater variety), making it difficult for fabric manufacturers and quilt shops to stay in business. You could easily lose money on fat quarters when you figure in the labor it takes to cut and package them all.
But window treatments? Slipcovers? We’re talking oceans of fabric: 5, 10, or even 20 yards at a time.
Westminster Fabrics is a wise company: they have designers who appeal to home sewers, and now they’re offering fabrics that yield them a bigger profit and offer sewers more options.
What do you think?
So what does an artist do to her generic VBS t-shirt? She adds her personal touch, of course. I painted the flowers and surfboard during a family painting session on Sunday. My older son painted a sample surfboard craft for Arts & Crafts while my younger painted his own shirt.
This is VBS week at our chapel, and I’m always involved in some way. I used to be a Director of a VBS program at our previous church that enrolled over 300 children and 80+ volunteers. Now I enjoy just getting to be a regular person and enjoy volunteering. I chaired Arts & Crafts for a couple of years, and now I’m just helping. I’m a big believer in letting talented individuals take their time at the helm.
My husband was just promoted to permanent Scoutmaster of our son’s boy scout troop last night. I’m proud of him, but wary of the time it takes to really serve that role well. Only halfway jokingly, I told him I would refuse to sew on his Scoutmaster patch in protest.
I feel like I’ve arrived. Mary Lou Weidman has added me to her blogroll. Wow. I’m so honored. Mary Lou is one of my all-time favorite quilters, not only for her courageous use of bold colors, but also for her gracious and optimistic attitude.
I have all of Mary Lou’s books, and I’ll be adding her newest to my library as soon as it comes out. Mary Lou has a fabulous website with all kinds of eye candy, and her blog is as inspirational and cheery as she is.
Mary Lou is visiting my guild, the East Cobb Quilter’s Guild, in August, and you can be sure I’ll be in her class. Who would want to miss just being around someone so fun who creates such original and whimsical quilts?
This is the ultimate stitch sampler. First, let me make clear this is not my quilt. I took this photograph over 10 years ago at a local quilt show when photography was not nearly as far along as it is now. This isn’t a great photo, but it will serve the purpose for this post.
This is a fantastic utility quilt, made by a wise woman. The quiltmaker had just bought a new machine with a myriad of stitches she had no idea how to use. So she set out to learn how to use them by making a crazy quilt. She used up her scraps, and used every stitch on that machine over, and over, and over again.
You can be sure after making this quilt, she knew how to make her machine purrr. I haven’t looked back at this photo since I stored it, but I remember this quilt and how impressed I was at the investment this quiltmaker made in learning how to master her sewing machine. I was also a new mom who was rather envious of the time this woman had to devote to her quilting.
My how the days fly by. I now have two children, who are not so little anymore.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this series on getting the most out of your sewing machine. Make a date with your machine to get to know it better. Your quilts will improve, I promise.
Once you’ve created your general mini-stitch samplers, you should be well-prepared for any type of quilting you want to do with your machine. I still, however, create a small sampler before I quilt on a project. I need to see how those stitches will look on the fabric I’m using.
My generic mini-stitch samplers were on mostly solid-colored fabrics, but few of my quilts are that serene. They are alive with print and texture, and I don’t want my quilting competing with it. So I make a mini-quilt sandwich with leftover project fabric and I test my stitches.
The photo above was for a quilted purse I made - the Annabelle bag (click on the link to see the resulting bag and my post on how I made it). On the pattern photo the designer included specialty stitches, and I practiced those on my mini-sandwich. But I decided the stitches competed too much with the fabrics and I did freemotion quilting instead.
I couldn’t have made that decision without experimenting, and that resulted in a better-looking bag.
Last installment: the ultimate stitch sampler.
If you’ve created your first set of mini-stitch samplers, then I recommend you create a sampler experimenting with specialty threads and changing your stitch settings. I like using the thicker machine quilting threads from YLI and Superior, so I experimented with regular straight and zig-zag stitches to see the difference the threads would make.
Then I put in regular Mettler thread and experimented with stitch widths and lengths. I often do machine applique and and wanted to see what my favorite settings would be. Notice in these photos I meticulously labeled each line of stitching as to what stitch it was, the thread I used, and the width and length settings. Don’t leave it to memory. It doesn’t work that way, unfortunately.
Next up: Practice on your good fabric!
Being an instructor, I dutifully took the free classes offered when I bought my sewing machine years ago. Those classes didn’t even scratch the surface of what my machine could do. It came with a manual, but it didn’t really go in-depth either. I was determined to make the most of my sewing machine investment, so here’s what I did:
What a process of discovery. You know what I found?
I now had a reference that held meaning for me and my machine that went far beyond what any teacher or manual could tell me.
So put on some music, get out the chocolates, and make an evening of it. Then get one of those ring clips and put all your stitch samplers on it and store them with your machine.
You might even take them to class next time. Tell them I sent you.
Next in the series: Experimenting with stitch settings and threads.
Quilters have fabulous sewing machines that offer more stitches than we’ll ever really use. Let’s face it: most quilters use the straight stitch, zig-zag, feather stitch, buttonhole stitch, and maybe one or two others. But the remaining stitches are lonely, waiting to be remembered and at least acknowledged.
So do it. You never know what promise specialty stitches hold for use in your quilts. I use many stitches most quilters think of only as clothing stitches. I often use the three-step zig-zag stitch to sew on my bindings by machine. It’s a great stitch for baby quilts, as that binding is super secure.
Next up: Creating mini-stitch samplers.
What if I told you I could instantly make you a better machine quilter with just one simple technique? And you wouldn’t have to invest in any expensive tools, DVDs, or books. Just use what you have.
Interested?
Here it is:
Get to know your machine better. Spend some time with it. I can always tell the quilters in my class who know their machines really well, as they are instantly more successful in class because of it. They’re not necessarily better quilters, they simply know how to make their machines purrrrrrrr.
I’ll be unveiling specifics on how to get the most from your machine next week. Stay tuned!
Meet Maizy. She was so well-behaved in class. Her owner, Dolle, brought her to join us after lunch, and she was such a dear. Not even one bark.
We had so much fun at the Piecemakers’ Machine Quilting class in Cumming, Ga. We had hand-quilters, brand new quilters, and machine quilters who wanted to refresh their skills. Everyone did famously!
Here is Audrey, guild President, with her class sampler with both machine-guided and free-motion stitching on it:
I’d love to visit your guild. Check out my Workshops page to find out how to book me for a workshop to jumpstart your quilting creativity!
Ever wonder who are those trendsetters who declare what the new “hot” colors will be for the upcoming season? I found out when I attended a workshop with Michael Miller fabrics at spring Quilt Market. Turns out fashion colors start in Paris on the runway, then slowly trickle down into the marketplace and across the globe. Eventually, two to three years later, you’ll begin seeing those same colors in Target in the form of Rubbermaid and Daytimers.
So what’s the next hot color? Citron. It’s a dull, yellow-green. Think “icky” split-pea green, and you pretty much have it. I’m not kidding. That’s the new hot color. And according to the presenter at Michael Miller, after awhile you get used to seeing that color and eventually you begin liking it.
I don’t know about that.
Apologies for not having any photos with this post, but BlueHost is having technical difficulties with their File Transfer program. Once it’s resolved, we’ll be back in glorious color!
My kids missed me while I was gone, and one of their favorite ways to spend time together is drawing. I was exhausted and dragged myself into this, but as always with anything creative, I had a blast doing it.
This is a teapot pincushion in the Mary Engrelbreit Home magazine, spring issue. How cute is that?
I’ll be teaching Machine Quilting at the Piecemaker’s Guild in Cumming, GA on Tuesday, May 27. I think they have a couple spaces still available, so if you’re in the area, come join us from 10:00 to 4:00 at Christ the King Lutheran Church.
Memories of market sketched in my journal.
I’m here. Schoolhouse today. Hot in Portland today.
Welcome to award-winning author and quilt artist Maria Peagler's online studio and classroom. Relax, have some fun, and take a look around. You'll find quilts, free lessons and ebooks. Keep checking back, I've always got something new. Better yet, subscribe to my blog!
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