Batik Debate..

I adore this quilt. A while back, OK, two years ago, I ordered a spectrum of hand dyed fabrics so I could replicate it. I made a few of the blocks from various Hawaiian pattern books. They're OK, but I need to have a consistant background that I won't run out of. It's a little problem I have, running out of background. I don't plan ahead.

OK, here's my idea: to make this quilt using batiks. Would it be too weird and disjointed? Would some of them pop and some retreat into the background? Would the Tonga Batiks I'm thinking of ordering look tacky with the more subdued batiks in my collection? Do I have enough things to work on at the moment?

Quilt Show in H'ville..

Saturday, June 30, 2007



I worked the WNCQG show a few hours Thursday and Friday this week. Guild Folk were worried we wouldn't have a good show so soon after the massive Symposium effort but people really came through. There were tons of really great quilts including a Calico Garden and a kick-ass traditional Hawaiian quilt-both by Norene Goard, my new quilting guru. A quilt made with Irma Gail's cool bird applique patterns and hand quilted made a nice showing, too. Here's a link to my webshots page with these quilts:

http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/album/559680890ySPNXq?track_pagetag=/page/photo/goodtimes/friendsfun&track_action=/Owner/DB/Album

Baltimore Applique revisited..again.

Friday, June 1, 2007

Here's an old online journal I started three years ago after my second stint at Elly's Applique Academy in Williamsburg:www.livejournal.com/users/sterby.

Well..I'm taking another Baltimore class at Material Things this summer. Our first lesson is the Fleur de Lis-an easy block I've already made a few times. Now for the background fabric decision, in case I decide to actually make an entire quilt. The Kona Snow is so classic and the appliques won't shadow through its thick surface. Kona's a bitch to reverse applique on, though; it frays horribly. I like the Moda Textures off-white but it's kind of thin and Andi may not be able to get a bolt of it for me.Later this summer, I'm going to Nashville for the AQS show and a class or two with Hawaiian Applique Queen, Nancy Chong. Hopefully, this will work out. I've had bad experiences taking a bunch of classes from the same teacher..(can you say 'Dear Jane'?)Susan and I got our class with Irma Gail next spring in Paducah. We've been stalking her in earnest and hoping she'd teach something we could attend.