Hand sewing the hanging sleeve

This quilt came back from the long-armer at Busy Lady Quilt Shop. It's been trimmed, a flat piped binding attached, and this week's task is to sew down the hanging sleeve (rod pocket).

Quilted top. Fabrics from M&S Textiles Australia and Northcott Fabrics.

The focal fabrics in the patchwork are from a package of 10" squares from M&S Textiles Australia, the appliquéd circles are from a fat quarter package from M&S Textiles and the background is Stonehenge from Northcott Fabrics.  

Appliquéd circles in a contrasting color.

In observance of time, I made a flat piped binding and attached it by machine. I let Jennifer at Busy Lady Quilt Shop choose the quilting pattern and I really like how the red quilting thread (her idea) accents the red piping. I also think the oval, swirly, boomerang-like quilting pattern is a great complement to the fabric prints.

Flat piped binding attached by machine.

The quilt backing is pieced. With the trimmings from squaring up the quilt, I was able to cut a hanging sleeve and align the color blocking with the pieced backing.

A pieced hanging sleeve blends in with the pieced backing.

Now, on to the hand sewing...

Hanging sleeve pinned on the back.

I think one or two TV programs will suffice for this sleeve.

Fall Quilt Market Recap, part 3: Bags, notions, techniques and new substrates

Large or small, there's a project for everyone! In addition to quilts and garments, bags in all sizes and a slew of creative stitching projects were on display at Fall Quilt Market... in booths, display cases and in Demo Alley.

Fall Quilt Market 2019, Houston, Texas.

Bags, Totes, Pouches and Duffles
At the M&S Textiles Australia booth, several bags and totes from Penny Sturges [Quilts Illustrated] were on display. This Summertime Carryall featured Dreaming in One Flame, one of M&S Textiles Australia's striped aboriginal designs.

Summertime Carryall [Penny Sturges from Quilts Illustrated] with M&S Textiles fabrics.

The Roxy Bag, made with Man & Goanna for the body and strap, was accented with a Four Seasons stripe along the curved top.

Roxy Bag [Quilts Illustrated] with M&S Textiles fabrics.

The Totably was made with a stylized floral—Summertime Rainforest in the black colorway.

Totably bag [Quilts Illustrated] with M&S Textiles fabrics.

A zippered duffle featured Brett Lewis' Stag and Thistle collection from Northcott. 

Stag and Thistle zippered duffle bag.

The FIGO booth showed off its upcoming DIY collection with a cute tote to store crafting supplies—paint brushes, crayons, scissors, washi tapes, etc.—for the active do-it-yourselfer.

Art supply tote and art smock from the DIY collection from FIGO.

A Rainbow of Bag Making Hardware
Need special hardware for bag making? If the standard gold and silver colors won't suffice, several companies have a range of colored zippers, magnetic snaps, bag feet, swivels, clasps and the like. Anything you'll need to provide an expert finish to your next bag project.

Bag making supplies from Sallie Tomato.

Colored magnetic snaps from Sassafras Lane Designs.

The Cork Fabric Craze

Although this product has been out in stores for a few years, it made a resurgence at Market. Cork sews just like fabric—and without any frayed edges to attend to. What's not to like about that? Cork comes in colors and prints and it can be embellished as desired.

Cork bag from Belagio Enterprises Inc.

Although I haven't tried this innovative substrate yet, it appears you can crochet, knit, sew or weave with it or cut and slice it to make a quick fringe or tassel. Cork seems to be "un-stoppable" with what you can make with it!

Projects made with cork fabric [Belagio Enterprises, Inc].

Patterns and Tools 
To assist quilters, sewers and makers with their projects, vendors previewed new tools, notions and patterns to facilitate accuracy, efficiency and creativity. These are just a sampling of what you'll be seeing at YLQS [your local quilt shop] soon.

Fat quarter and pre-cut friendly patterns and the Shortcut Binding tool
from The Franklin Quilt Co.

Pom Pom making tools from Clover Needlecraft.

Studio 180 Designs patterns and rulers.

Hand Stitching and Classy Accoutrements
Hand stitching is still going full force! New patterns, books, threads, needles and other notions are available for every kind of hand stitchery you can imagine.

Books, patterns and kits by super stitcher, Sue Spargo.
Hand and machine threads from WonderFil Specialty Threads.

This display featured Vicki McCarty's [Calico Patch Designs] beautiful wool appliqué, patchwork patterns and kits as well as the Yazzii bags—a classy way to organize, store and carry all your hand stitching and quilting supplies.

Calico Patch Designs products and Yazzii Bags.

The needle arts manufacturers are embracing time honored techniques like sashiko and kantha and combining them with intriguing new pattern designs, notions, and threads in gorgeous color palettes. Hand stitching—for decorative embellishing or for the functional mending processes—is still going strong.

Hand embroidery projects from Bald Guy in a Kilt/Global Artisans.

Sashiko stitching and hand sewing needles from Tulip.

And speaking of hand stitching... still one of my favorite fabrics to use for hand stitching is the yarn-dyed wovens from Diamond Textiles. A range of soft neutrals and textured stitched patterns are coming to the Nikko Geo collection. You'll certainly want to get your needles into these!

New soft neutrals in Nikko Geo [Diamond Textiles].

So, that's a wrap for Fall Quilt Market 2019! Hope you enjoyed a preview of what's coming to your local quilting and sewing shop.

All packed up! A pallet of boxes ready for shipping.

Fall Quilt Market Recap, part 2: Quilting

As one would expect, Quilt Market booths were draped with colorful, striking quilts—examples and inspiration for creating with fabric manufacturers' upcoming fabric collections.

Painted Ladies quilt (center) featuring Street Art batiks from Banyan Batiks.

A repetition of simple shapes and basic block patterns provided a framework for the array of colors and fabrics to a dance in rhythm in these quilts—with each quilt featuring a different fabric collection.

I attended two schoolhouse presentations by Banyan Batiks. Designer, Tiffany Hayes [Needle in a Hayes Stack], talked about her upcoming Sazerac batik line for Banyan Batiks. The collection was inspired by the era of the Speakeasy and is portrayed in sultry, rich earthy colors with spicy citrus-toned accents.

Tiffany Hayes talking about her Sazerac batik collection [Banyan Batiks].

Banyan Batik quilt at the schoolhouse session at Quilt Market.

Karen Gibbs from Banyan Batiks talked about the batiking process and passed around an example of the hand-crafted tjap [pronounced "chop"] that is used to stamp and create the designs and motifs on the fabric.

A tjap used in making batik fabrics.

Technique Reboot!
Classic patchwork techniques and quilt blocks are just as fun and popular now as they ever were! Diamond Textiles featured its textured cotton embossed collection with this one-block Carpenters Star quilt. The cotton embossed fabrics are created with a resist process—much like the process for making batiks.

One block Carpenters Star quilt with Cotton Embossed [Diamond Textiles].

The Superior Threads booth featured Leesa Chandler's Melba fabric line using the classic Stack N Whack (kaleidoscope) technique. The Melba collection [from Australia-based fabric company, The Textile Pantry] also has a teal/silver colorway that is just as striking in the Stack N Whack quilt.

The Melba fabric collection [The Textile Pantry] is stunning in the stack n whack quilt.

Northcott Fabrics is pushing the traditional attic windows technique to new levels with its upcoming collection, The View from Here. What's the view you'd like to see out your window?

The View from Here from Northcott Fabrics.

The View from Here fabric collection

The Log Cabin goes Uptown
M&S Textiles Australia brought a contemporary twist to the traditional log cabin quilt. A mix of colorful aboriginal prints paired with a light fabric offers areas in this on-point log cabin setting for fun machine quilting. In the classic log cabin patchwork style, it's all about the placement of the lights and darks!

Log Cabin quilt in the M&S Textiles booth at Houston Quilt Market.

The big block Durango pattern [Villa Rosa Designs] offers easy piecing for this log cabin quilt. It's a great pattern to show off a variety of large scale fabrics like these aboriginal prints.

Durango [Villa Rosa Designs] quilt in the M&S Textiles booth, Houston Quilt Market.

Whether you're a cat or dog lover, this clowder of "calico" cats is a cute way to show off the Australian aboriginal fabric designs. The Cat City pattern [Villa Rosa Designs] is a fat quarter friendly pattern. 

Cat City quilt [Villa Rosa Designs] using Australian aboriginal prints
from M&S Textiles Australia.

Another log cabin quilt—this time with the barn raising setting—features the Primitive Collection from Batik Textiles.

Log cabin quilt in the Primitive Collection from Batik Textiles.

We never tire of these classic blocks! They stand the test of time because they are so versatile.

Primitive batiks at Houston Quilt Market.

New Techniques

MJ Kinman's booth showcased her stunning gemstone quilts. MJ has trained a team of Gem Affiliates from across the USA and Canada in her unique piecing technique. 

MJ Kinman's Gemstone booth at Quilt Market.

Northcott Fabrics is bringing her gemstone designs to the quilting community with fabric panels and jewel-toned coordinates in its Jewel Box collection. Now quilters can achieve gemstone designs in multiple ways.

MJ Kinman's booth at Houston Quilt Market

Ask your local quilt shop [YLQS] about these fabrics and any classes they will offer to help and inspire you in your quiltmaking endeavors. YLQS is your source for what's coming in the quilting world.

Experiments with natural dyes and quilting cottons

Donna Brown's "Can you Dig It" natural dye class was an eye-opener to putting nature's color palette on cloth.

Dobby weave cotton cloth hand dyed with logwood and osage orange.

I have some experience fabric dyeing with synthetic dyes, but the time had come to learn about pre-1856 colorants—natural dyes, extracts and pigments—for coloring textiles. So, for the class supplies, I gathered cuts of several quilting cottons that I generally use for sewing, garment making and quilting, along with a few rubber stamps, stencils and brushes, to learn about natural dyes and techniques for applying these colorants to cloth. Here are the results.

Immersion Dyeing
The class spent time weighing and mordanting the fabrics prior to the dye process. Dye pots were prepared and the coloring began.

Osage orange (yellow) overdyed with Logwood (purple) on
a white textured yarn-dyed cotton from Diamond Textiles.

Logwood (blue violet) took nicely to a printed batik from Majestic Batiks.
Notice the flower motifs of the batik design.

Pomegranate (yellow) overdyed with Logwood (purple) on a
pintuck cotton from Diamond Textiles.

Direct application of natural pigments
We learned about mixing natural dye extracts and pigments with tragacanth so the colors could be directly applied to textiles. Various tools can be used to create patterns and imagery to make complex art cloth.

Stencilling on Tweed Thicket, a yarn-dyed cotton from Diamond Textiles.

Rubber stamps and stencils on silk broadcloth.

Initially, the colors were from the pure pigments. However, with a room full of artists, painters and a few experienced dyers, the workshop participants quickly began creating and sharing elaborate and beautiful "custom color" dye mixtures.

Pigments mixed with tragacanth for direct application techniques.

Direct application of pigments with a foam brush
on embossed cotton (Diamond Textiles).

Stamping with a wood block on cotton knit from Art Gallery Fabrics.
The highlight colors applied to select leaves with pigment pastels.

First layer: monoprinting with a Gelli plate
on white cotton [ColorWorks from Northcott].

Silk screen (central motif) and stenciling on a batik from Majestic Batiks.

Silk screen, stamping and direct application on various quilting cottons.

Once cured (about a week for the direct applications), I'll be excited to begin working with these samples!

Natural dyes on quilting cottons. Photo credit: Yvonne Martin-Kitt

Not one "mean girl" in the bunch
Natural dyeing is a combination of history, chemistry, and art. I enjoyed all the ingredients and aspects of the recipe. Thank you to Donna Brown, a knowledgeable and generous instructor, for taking me on my maiden voyage with natural dyes, extracts and pigments! You made me and everyone successful in our creative textile endeavors.

Donna Brown (left) and I at Shakerag Workshops 2019.

And to the fellow artists who graciously shared in this learning experience with me, your talents, friendship and thoughtfulness are without limits. Thanks for a wonderful experience.

"Can You Dig It?" natural dye workshop. 2019 Shakerag Workshops.
Photo credit: Yvonne Martin-Kitt.