An evening with RaNae Merrill

Ever since my quilting friends, Laura and Anne, invited me to teach a Free-Motion Quilting workshop for the Smoky Mt. Quilters last year, we touch base periodically. Recently, they told me that RaNae Merrill was going to speak and teach for their guild. Sheesh… how could I not take advantage of this opportunity??? Gee whiz, I sell this woman's fabric designs!!!

Radiant by RaNae Merrill for Blank Quilting.
Seven colorways.

Her fabrics are really cool! [See her Radiant collection for Blank Quilting.] You might remember my Radiant Triangles quilt post... Yes. This is her. So, I go.

Her presentation for the guild chronicled her journey into the quilting industry. How doodling spirals got her thinking about quilt possibilities… how photography and travel lead to designing fabrics… and how her first meeting with the design department at Blank Quilting lead to the purchase of the designs that became the Radiant collection. Everything wasn't easy—there were a few rejections with her first book proposal—but she kept at it and now has two published books, Simply Amazing Spiral Quilts and Magnificent Spiral Mandala Quilts, and teaches around the country.

 

The underlying theme of her presentation, however, was that of encouragement to anyone who has ever considered or dreamt about doing something. If a possibility presents itself… take that chance. If a door opens a crack... push it open and see where it leads.

Guild members were treated to a wonderful Show and Tell of the many spiral and mandala quilts from RaNae's collection. She also instructed us on how to draw a basic spiral—a preliminary exercise for on of the workshops she taught that week. If you like paper piecing, the spiral quilts and RaNae's books are for you!

Learning to draw a spiral.

I was able to attend one of her workshops—on a new technique she is developing. I'll give you a peak of this project in a bit. For now, I'm going to watch some spirals being done on the ice by the Olympic ice dancers...

BOM quilts for every season

My friend, Kathy, the owner of Spring Creek Quilts and Fabrics, is a Block of the Month (BOM) queen. Whenever I get to visit her, she's got several of them going—in various stages.

Sampler quilt with machine quilted designs in variegated thread.

You saw the brightly colored sampler she made with Yvette in this blog post. She designed that quilt, by the way, and did the machine quilting on her long arm. Isn't the variegated thread simply spectacular on the solid black alternate blocks?

Kathy has a few new BOM programs starting in 2014, so if you like tackling a larger project by doing smaller, more manageable units on a monthly basis, give her a call. "Fairy Tales" has a sweet, fanciful, pink and green color palette and the finished quilt will fit a single or twin bed.

Fairy Tales BOM

This primitive style BOM quilt features blocks that have a small vignette surrounded by patchwork.

A primitive style BOM.

"Starlit Garden" is an appliqué BOM with a classic layout. The nine center blocks have a radial symmetry. The primary and secondary colors of the flowers, leaves and vines have a twinkling effect on the black ground.

Starlit Garden BOM.

Previous year's block-sets hang on design walls throughout the shop.

Look at all the details in these blocks! You can tell Kathy really loves appliqué and is so adept at choosing the most appropriate fabrics. She chose Fusion Illusion for the background of these blocks. Doesn't it look like a "wintery mix" swirling around the gingerbread house?

This Christmas holiday BOM has a nice mix of patchwork and appliqué blocks.

Here is a stunning water gardenscape. Lots of beautiful batiks in this quilt.

Again, look at all the detail in the blocks! Some of the flower petals are even 3-dimensional.

This is probably my favorite.

I like the bears ice skating on the pond.

Oops! Watch that slippery ice, little bear!

Oops! The little bear took a spill on the ice rink.

Wha-cha got cookin' ?

When it looks like this out your window…

… and the roads are like this…

… you need to find a bunch of these ...

Freshly cut cotton and batik fat quarters.
Fabrics from collections by Blank Quilting.

 … and cook up something like this!

Buck-a-Block sampler quilt at Spring Creek Quilts and Fabrics, Cookeville, TN.
The bright and colorful border fabric is Yvette by Blank Quilting.

Take a good look at what a variegated thread does for the quilting design on this sampler.

Detail of sampler quilt.

A free-motion quilting design with variegated thread in the alternate blocks.

Spring Creek Quilts and Fabrics recently had batik fat quarters for $2.50!!! 

I'll take a dozen!

Cotton and batik fat quarters at Spring Creek Quilts.

I'll tell you more about what my friend, Kathy, at Spring Creek Quilts and Fabrics has been cooking up lately. Stay tuned!

Free-motion quilting and exciting news

Drawing free-motion designs on paper
reinforces the muscle memory
for free-motion quilting.

After a week of brutal, no-fun-to-drive-in weather, I had the pleasure of teaching my "Intro to Free-motion Quilting" class this weekend at one of our local quilt shops, Pins and Needles Quilt Shop.

Students start off with pencil and paper and then we move to needle and thread.

This group was fearless! I did a demonstration on quilting free-form feathers and they were mastering these by the end of class!

Free-motion quilting on your home sewing machine! 

We start off with loop-d-loops and variations on these...

Practicing free-motion quilting.

 … but as you can see, it did not take long before they were doing feathers!

Free-motion feathers with your domestic sewing machine.

And here is the exciting news…

While I was there for the class, I was asked if I would consider working on an upcoming special event. So, I am excited to tell you that I will be collaborating with Stacy at Pins and Needles on a special Quilters' Retreat scheduled for early May. Check her Facebook page, or contact the store, and let her know you are interested!

The creative wheels are spinning and were're cooking up several fun projects and activities. I can't reveal all the project details just yet, but the retreat will be lots of fun, with great food [I've seen a preliminary menu] and the locale is beautiful and picturesque!