Missing In Action

Happy Friday, and greetings from a remote island in the middle of quilting! Well, this may not be an entirely accurate statement, it just feels this way every now and then. The last few months have been a wild, fun time. When I wasn't traveling and meeting a lot of quilters I was home working, on an incredible commission. In between all this my mind has been working double-time on many 1sts for  me. A couple of these include my first ever how-to YouTube video, and Mid-May I will be in Kansas City -- sharing my quilt patterns and self in a booth at Quilt Market.

There are so many great things happening that I promise to do a better job of sharing them here. I thought it might be fun to share with you here a few pictures of the commission installed. Many of you may have followed along with this project from the initial drawing and patterning stage and I would love to hear what you think!

and the Winners ARE!

Pat &Jeannie
are the winners,

 and each will receive a bag of the scraps
from the making of the commission pieces.

Sorry about the announcement delay, but techie issues, combined with my desire and need to keep stitching caused a bit of delay.  Happy Weekend All...wishing all a creatively fun weekend!

~Rose

Commission Update & Scrapbag Give-Away

Picture what you can do with these scraps.

The commission is moving along. I left you all with just pictures of the patterns all blown up. They are now pretty far along. The picture here shows the three tops ready for couching -- then they're off for embellishing.

I also have hinted that the size of the bag of scraps these pieces have produced is pretty large indeed. So large I think I'll split it in two and we can have a contest to determine who will win one of the scrap bags. I took a quick picture of the bunch, but keep in mind they these are almost all silk scraps and a lot of them are small, small pieces.

Now if you'd like to have a chance in winning one of the scrap bags you need to:

• Be a follower of my blog and leave a comment here -- and please note a favorite color that you see in the quilts.
• If you share the post you'll get your name in for extra chances.

Next Wed. I'll randomly pick two lucky winners and send them off a bag of these fun scraps.

Are you ready? Set? GO!

Today in the Studio -

My mind-mapping aside and my admin branch under-construction I am happily able to give you an update on the commission piece coming together in the studio. The piece is really three pieces that when measured as a whole will be 9ft wide and 6ft long. Good thing I have a open wall space in the back studio.

This month and next will continue to be busy and while I work on these pieces I will also be running off to teach and prepping for my two-week teaching cruise to Hawaii. BUSY... but loads of fun.

I have also heard from so many of you that have taken a class, or learned Fast-Piece Applique from my books that I am working on feature for the blog - Friday-Fast-Piece Applique Spotlight. First up, this Friday, will be Melanie Wilson who has used the FPA methods to stitch her McCall's Quilt Design Star 2011 winner, and others winning quilts, too!

In the meantime you've been patient with me as I have been moving along on the commission works so to catch you up I'm giving you a pictorial overview starting at the beginning.

The patterns are drawn -- and await all that comes next.

Bins and stacks - fabric everywhere is pulled for selection.

ok, students -- here is my set(s) of numbers to help keep me sane during in the selection process.

After all the sorting and auditioning these are the selected fabrics.

On to cutting the pattern(s) apart -- do you know what comes next?

Quilts & Open Studio

This week has been crazy busy. I have been working on all sorts of fun things for my upcoming Open Studio. Not only will there be fun art to see, food & drinks to enjoy, but a fun way to show someone how much you appreciate them... How? Well, I always love to have a little hands on project during my open studio and this year we'll be creating postcards... OK, why a postcard?

Thru my recent Twitter-rompings I befriended a woman in Ireland-Roisin is the creator of an event called The Global Gratitude Postcard Project. You can read about by clicking on the project title, and you can be part of it by making a postcard at my open studio! We'll make them, snap a photo and give you a stamp so you can send your words of gratitude out there into the world!

The other part of the crazy-busy's this week for me have been working on two large pieces. One is a commission piece, and I am happy to say that it is done... the last of the bead were added, binding stitched just in time to have it's picture taken to show you all here. The second of the larger pieces is being made for a Kaufman Fabric invitational. Right now this quilt has been couched and machine quilted and is awaiting stitching and beading. Beading in this instance may not really cover it, for I'll be creating some specialized leaves from air-dry clay that will be stitched in place as well, BUT that is for another day!

I hope you enjoy seeing the quilts done & in progress, and if you're around I hope you stop by for my Open Studio next weekend. Dec 11-13.

See you soon!
~Rose

Some Design Time

It has been over a week since my return from the wilds of Yosemite and I have finally gotten through most of my paperwork and have gotten quilts in from one exhibit in Colorado and have packed up another exhibit which is happily on it's way to PA where it will be part of the Mancuso quilt festival, Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza XVI, Sept 17 thru 20. The exhibit is named Backroads Journey and has 15 pieces representing some of my favorite landscapes. Below is a group of quilts that is part of the exhibit and were made this past year after I had traveled through Arizona. I love the saguaros that are only found in that part of the country and these quilts depict the viewer being drawn in, moving toward that closer look.


I am working today on the sample drawings for a commission piece based on the view from someone's home in Arkansas. The view of the trees and rolling country side into the mountain foothills is spectacular and the drawings are pretty exciting. I always feel I'm on the right track with a drawing when the colors, shapes and textures seem to swim together and perculate up in my mind as I am designing. I am looking forward to getting into fabric with this one soon.

Other projects are finding some time now as well, and some of the images from recent journeys are screaming out to be stitched up. One of those images is below. It is one of a group taken on the early morning drive from Merced into Yosemite. The sun glistened off the waves of tall golden grasses. They truly seem like waves, for even the rocks appear transparently as if submerged underwater. Should be fun to work with.


Off to the studio! Happily stitchin' again. ~Rose

Quilt Art Commission

This week I finally began to see a light... be it small, and way down the a seemingly endless tunnel... Yeah, there is light!

During my Tuesday play group we had the opportunity to open close to 200 packages, sent in by quilt artists all around the world to participate in the SAQA@20 Trunk Show. Boy, there were moments when each of us held up a piece that just could not be missed. It was like Christmas all over again. After this was done, I was able to pull out a wonderful commission piece that I have been working on. It is being designed for a public space in the Seattle area. Pictures of the Cascades were provided and they also wanted to have the piece include roses... big, bold roses.

It was great to finally get to sewing on this project, for it is so much fun to stitch all those bright colored pieces of fabrics together and watch as they begin to take shape. The photos here are of the rose section of the quilt top, and I actually got the top done!

On Friday I headed off to The Quilters Studio ( http://www.quiltersstudio.com/ ) to teach a brand new workshop called My Summer Vacation. It's a workshop designed so everyone can pull together photos and memorabilia from that special trip. Will tell you more about it later.

~Rose