Quiltfest Jacksonville--

--or who I saw at the quilt show. I drove up with my friend Gail on Wednesday so we could be there when the doors opened on Thursday morning. At the hotel I ran into Carol Holsopple in the lobby and later at dinner. As we were eating she said, "there's Marlene Glickman". A name from the Quilt Art list! I want to meet her.

As fate would have it, Marlene's booth was one of the first ones I came to. I introduced myself. She was demo-ing silk dying and let me try one of the scarves she had for us to play with. She had the nicest kits put together with everything needed to begin silk dyeing; I had to have one.  She was assisted by her big, handsome, hunk of a son who couldn't have been nicer. He offered to take one of the shots below so I could get a better shot of Marlene and her customers. She was very busy!

The shot below shows all of her dyes and materials for her demos. Her customers actually get to take something home. I was so glad I got to meet her, she's delightful. Here is a link to Marlene's website--http://www.silkdyes.com/

As I mentioned, I ran into Carol Holsopple. Carol is a member of Art Quilter's Unlimited, a very talented group, on the west coast of Florida. Her booth featured quilt kits designed for children to make. You can see the samples behind Carol in the photos. They are whimsical and very colorful. I think it's  wonderful idea.

Carol's website is http://www.carolholsopple.com/. Click on Kids Can Quilt too! to see her children's kits.

The third person I wanted to blog about is my friend Debbie Jones. I first met her when I was program chair for Ocean Waves Guild here in Miami. She came over from the west coast of Florida for the weekend to teach. She is the hardest working teacher I have ever met. She brought a small quilt shop's worth of fabric for us to use in her class, talk about generous! We worked on her collage technique, Fabric Decollage, but she also teaches fabric painting and sun printing. Her booth has some of her fabulous painted fabrics for sale.

Here is another shot of Debbie's booth. You can see her fabrics and her Decollage class samples behind her. Here is the link to her site: http://www.debbiejones.com/

I hope that you will visit my friends, new and old, on their websites. They all have something unique to offer. 

My Facing Technique

I put this together a couple of years ago when I began teaching art quilting. I really liked the look of a faced quilt so finished many of mine this way. Naturally my students wanted to know how to finish theirs the same way. There are many tutorials on the internet explaining this method, google "facing a quilt" to see what's out there.

Here's what I put together--

Facing Technique

Judy Momenzadeh

1. Cut strips the length and width of piece and 2 1/2”  wide. Press under ¼” on one long side of each strip and stitch down.  Lay strips right sides together matching raw edges on top and bottom edge and then on either side. The side strips can be slightly shorter (1/2") than the full width thereby eliminating some bulk at the corners
2. Sew all the way around using a 1/4" seam allowance. See photo below. Notice the corners are stitched across diagonally with 2 stitches rather than sharp, square corners. Clip corners and along seam allowance for about an inch to remove bulk.

3.  Press facing open and stitch with the quilt facing up along seam, on the facing side,through all thicknesses (facing and all three layers of the quilt). Turn facing to back and press with steam, making sure it’s not showing from right side.
4. Hand stitch around the entire facing making sure it is pulled tightly to the back but not rolling the front to the back. If you want to add a sleeve, tuck it under the facing before hand stitching.

judy MOmenzadeh designs 2011

Poinsettia Pop

I have been very busy in the last couple of months. My partner, MIKE, (Michaele Shapiro) and I (MO) decided to start a line of patterns featuring a photo printed on fabric as part of the pattern. I had some designs completed already including "Winter Garden" which I blogged about previously. While Michaele worked on the website, I completed new patterns. We now have a total of 7 for sale on our site, www.moandmike.com. Click on the link to the right of the page.

I needed two samples of our Christmas pattern, "Poinsetia Pop" so I decided to quilt the second version differently.  I used a complimentary thread color to quilt the background in both but different quilting designs.

Here is the first version following the outlines of the petals in a kind of echo style.

 The second version with a complimentary thread color and using a repeat of the quilting lines that followed the veining in the petals in the photo. My favorite is the second version.

I taught this piece in a class yesterday at Sunshine Sewing in Margate, FL. yesterday. The class really worked hard, lots of cutting, but they hung in and everyone completed a fabulous version to take home. You can see my class schedule on our website, just click on the link on the top right of the page. Poinsettia Pop was also featured on the EQ Printables Blog. We love using and have started using EQ Printables to print all of our photos for our patterns from MO and MIKE.

I'm Ready For Fall/New Pattern

I am so ready for fall. I'm ready to open the windows, let the breezes in. That also means here in S. Florida,  that hurricane season is winding down. Unfortunately we have a ways to go with one churning in the Atlantic right now. I'll hide my head in the leaves and post "Winter Garden". I took this photo in La. last Christmas, hence the name "Winter Garden." The bright red spot on the leaf caught my eye. We don't get much fall color in Louisiana so it stood out.

I love to extend the lines in my photos with free motion quilting. The leaf was a perfect candidate and I was able to go to my stash for the great fabrics I used. There are actually two photos in this piece; the second being the lined, rusted rectangle below the leaf photo. I created that in photo shop by scanning a page from an old book. I also scanned a piece of rusted fabric and through the genius of Photoshop Elements ( don't we really take technology for granted) created another "leaf". I wanted to experiment with my free motion quilting; I seem to get in a rut from time to time and repeat the same designs. I found inspiration from the design in the long, light rectangle fabric. I'm happy with the quilting on this piece. I used mostly polyester threads on this piece with a # 80 Topstitch needle and nylon invisible in the bobbin.

I think of my 8( opps, he's nine today)year old Grandson, Jack when I look  at this quilt. He was sitting in the tree these leaves fell from when I took the photo.

Winter Garden is one of our new series of patterns available at www.moandmike.com.

"In the Ditch" Walking Foot

I just received my new sole with the guide plate for my Bernina walking foot. I was working on a commission piece that has several inner borders so I decided to ditch stitch them. Oh boy, time to try my new foot. It was easy to switch over from the regular sole and I went to work. I used rayon decorative thread on top and nylon in the bobbin with a #80 sharp needle. I love how it does the job. My stitching was straight and with just a little practice and attention I was getting very good results. I found that I needed to run the "fence" right over the seam to get the stitching in close. It's much easier to ditch stitch with it than without. here's what it looks like in action. You can see the "fence" out there in front and the seam I just finished on the left.

The photo below shows a wider view of the borders and stitching. The only drawback, and it's a small one is, it's hard to see where to put the needle in when you begin to get just in the right spot. I just leaned over to the right and looked under neath. It's also difficult to see where the needle is stitching, you just trust the "fence", you really don't need to see what the needle is doing. 

I'm very happy with it's performance.

Sacred Threads Exhibit

Hi all--I just received notification that "Jars Of Clay" was juried into Vikki Pignatelli"s Sacred Threads, an art quilt show with a spiritual theme. For the first time this show will be held in the DC metro area. It is held every other year and received more entries than ever before. This will be my second time to be included in this show.
"Jars Of Clay" is a digital image printed on cotton. I tiled the image and printed it on four separate printer sheets. The green jar in the background is hand painted with acrylic on cotton fabric. Maybe I shouldn't tell secrets but it is actually one of my clean-up cloths from other paint projects. It's hard for me to wash paint down the drain so I wipe it up with fabric. I love the spontaneous results I get. I used oil sticks on the orange borders and free motion quilted the entire piece.

I'm thrilled to be accepted; this piece is one of my personal favorites; thanks Vikki for the opportunity to show my work. Approx. 36"x36".

"Generosity" by Judy Momenzadeh

Wow, was I in for a surprise. I entered three pieces in the show, one large that I hoped to win something for, and two small works that I really liked also. I won an Honorable Mention ribbon for one of the small ones, "Generosity" that I made a year or so ago. It's really interesting trying to outguess the judges; you just never know what they will like. I tied with another artist. They gave two Honorables and no third. I felt really pleased that I won in a fairly traditional show and won for a relatively small piece. The other small piece I enetered was "Orange Butterfly" which is farther down in the blog. "Generosity" measures about 12"wx18"h, can't remember exactly. It was a good show, Catherine Waltz won Best of Show for "In The Garden" which was spectacular. I'm sorry, I didn't take a photo but I did want to mention her name. They have not updated the show site with current photos. Congratulations to all the winners and to all who entered!

I used oil pastels to shade in the areas of the hibiscus that aren't in the photo itself. This is an inkjet print, 8x10", on cotton.  I stamped the oriental seals with black ink and free motion quilted.

Coming Soon: Mo & Mike

We're excited, very excited to announce we will be offering quilt patterns that include a pre-printed photo on fabric.  We will be offering printing services and will print your photo on fabric.  We will also have stock photos to choose from.  You can get a sneak peak on Flickr: of a few of our photos in our catalog
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mo_and_mike_photos

We will offer photos for artists to use in their work.  There will be textures and artistic backgrounds, all of which we can print for you.

The Mo & MIke web site will be up and running in June.

Winter Garden

This is a small piece I just finished. I've been working on extending the images in my photos into the backgrounds. I hit the jackpot with the light fabric from my stash. It was a perfect match to the beige leaf in the photo. Sometimes things just go right; this piece seemed to design itself. Almost anyway. I really enjoyed the quilting. I also scanned a page from an old book,and layered it onto a photo of some rusted fabric that I also scanned using Elements. It is the element bottom center with the vertical black lines. It 

measures about 22"x18".

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My First Thread Painting

I wanted to share this piece with you all because I had so much fun doing it and I was very pleased with the result. Liz Kettle posted a tutorial on the Havel's Sewing website that made it look so easy-and it was! I used a photo of mine of the daisy, printed in the size I wanted in B+W and then traced as she suggested. I had no problems with the sewing although it does take a while. I kept taking it out thinking it was done and then saw spaces that I had missed. I created the background out of tissue paper, heavier decorative paper, and parts of a Chinese newspaper from San Francisco. Then I painted it, stenciled and fused it to the background fabric. I used nylon invisible thread to stitch it down because I didn't want the petals to be free. I free motion quilted the background and then did a little hand embroidery in spots. The binding is some hand dyed fabric I had on hand. Here is the link to the tutorial that Liz posted--- 
http://blog.havelssewing.com/

Thanks Liz for sharing; I know I will be doing more of this.

Judy's Won a Ribbon

Congratulations, Judy!!  Judy has won a ribbon at the Broward Quilt Expo, but she won't know which of her quilts won until the winners ceremony Mar. 17.

I think her quilt shown below won.  I dropped it off for the show, and a few of the workers went crazy when they saw her quilt.  "Oooooh, the curves are gorgeous!"  "I love the photo!!!!"  "OMG, it's gorgeous!"

Go, Judy!

A Couple of My Newer Pieces

 

Here is the quilt I made after taking a class Maya Schonenberger taught last year in Miami.  Everything is glued and then stitched.  I didn't like the way the white muslin back looked when I was finished, so I mounted it on a piece of black fabric covered Timtex.  I took the photo before I mounted this piece. 

I painted Pansy on Egyptian cotton.  I took wool roving in the different pansy colors and spread it out and layered colors.  I topped it with tulle.  I thread painted shading and pansy detail.  The leaves background remained painted with quilting to emphsize the leaves.  This quilt is faced.

Reflection

Reflection was my entry in the digital category in the AQU Journey Show.  It won 2nd place.  Mind you, there were only four entries.  I took a photo at the NC Arboretum in Asheville last October.  The leaves were magnificent shades of yellow, gold, and red.  I turned my photo into a black and white and transferred it using an orange based cleaner onto cotton fabric in three different sizes.  I used water soluble colored pencils to color the three transfers.  The trees are pretty heavily thread painted in shades of brown thread.  The judge complained about the fabric I chose for the background.  Most everyone agrees it was a poor choice.  That's what happens when you don't plan or give any thought to a project.  It turned out to be a happy accident.

Whoa

This year has gotten off to a very creative start. This quilt, "Whoa," won 1st place at the Ft. Myers AQU Journey Show (art quilts only) in Jan. in the Florida Original category.

My inspiration was a photo I took of my neighbor's brilliant potted bromeliad.

I used Maya Schonenberger's glued background technique. I painted it to make lighter and darker areas. I used silk and polyester fabrics to create the leaves. They were fused to buckrum. I painted them and stitched them to give them a lot of detail. The leaves were then glued to felt and glued to the background. I stitched each leaf to the background. This gave the bromeliad a lot of dimension. I did some quilting on the background. I used black flannel as batting only to provide a third layer to meet some show requirements. The back is black Egyptian cotton, which is folded back and stitched to look like facing. The frayed edges of the background and batting give the quilt more interest. The edges are not straight.

I entered "Whoa" in the Broward Quilt Expo at the War Memorial Auditorium in downtown Ft. Lauderdale's Holiday Park Mar. 18-20.