Sue Kelly joined me for the trek to Cleveland to film a couple of segments for Quilting Arts TV at the end of February. We traveled on one of those winter days when we really would have been much better off snuggled up in front of a fire at home. The weather was miserable, the flights delayed, and that was the good part… After a very long day, we made it to Cleveland and put on our happy faces for the camera.

Sue Kelly is from St. Cloud, MN. She is a professional machine quilter who loves to dye and discharge fabric and play with all kinds of embellishments, including our Shiva Paintsiks. After seeing one of her quilts, I asked Sue if she was game to film a segment for Quilting Arts TV. Sue graciously agreed, interrupted her work to get some samples ready and got an inside look at TV production. Here’s a photo of Sue and Pokey as they discuss Sue’s segment with producer Kathie Stull.

Sue’s segment is all about painting a quilt AFTER it has been quilted. In the photo above, you can see two pieces of fabric with light wavy lines. The first is one of Sue’s discharged fabrics (the black fabric) before quilting. The piece on the corner has been quilted and then painted with Artist’s Paintstiks. Here’s a close-up of that piece.

Sue takes her inspriation from the fabric she is quilting or at times from a photograph. She quilts each section of the quilt with a different pattern and then paints various sections of the quilt with iridescent paintstik colors. The results are amazing! One of the samples Sue worked on for the TV segment has a bunch of overlapping circles. These were inspired by a piece of fabric that Sue’s mom dyed for her.

Here is a detailed image from this quilt. You can see how Sue has changed her quilting pattern in various sections of the quilt. The different motifs are really highlighted after the quilt is painted.

Here’s the basic process if you want to try this for yourself.

• Layer backing, batting, and top fabric into a quilt sandwich.
• Quilt by machine (or by hand if you wish).
• Paint various sections of your quilt using different paintstik colors. Use the paintstiks directly on the fabric, using a light touch. This allows you to apply color to the raised areas without painting the stitching.
• Allow the painted quilt to air dry for at least a week.
• Cover the quilt with muslin or some type of press cloth (Sue uses an old t-shirt for a press cloth) and heat set the paint. (Set your iron to the appropriate temperature for your fabric,  and press each section for 15-20 seconds.)
• Bind your quilt and enjoy!

Before I finish, I just have to show you the quilt that Sue made for her husband. It was based on a design by Robbie Joy Eklow (and used with Robbie’s permission). It is simply stunning.

Sue’s Quilt then Paint segment will be part of Quilting Arts TV’s 400 series. It should be on the air at the beginning of 2010.

I got the first set of plates from our new Happy Holidays set at the end of last week, so I had a good excuse to push all the paperwork aside and pull out my paints. (I love days when I have a good excuse to ignore all that “office” work!) I remembered to grab some fabric as I was leaving home, so I was ready to give the new plates a good workout.

When I get a new set of plates, the first thing I do is to simply paint each plate with a single color. This helps me figure out where the challenges are with each design. With the holidays plates, I immediately discovered that I needed to peel open the side of my paintstiks rather than the end because of the large open spaces in the design.  (I really like those open spaces, but they force me to change my painting ways so I don’t keep running off the side of a design…)

Fixing the “oops”

Since I’m sure that I’m not the only person that runs off the side of a design, I thought I should share a method for fixing the “oops” factor (or at least making it less obvious!) Here’s the plan:

Here’s a single color rubbing of the holiday lights with an “oops” – you can see where I went off the edge of the design on the top right. Now that’s more of a “design element” than I would be happy with, so I’ll use a piece of masking tape to see if I can pick up the paint.

I put a piece of masking tape over the excess paint and rubbed it with my fingernail to really grab the paint.

When I peeled up the masking tape, most of the paint came with it! I repeated the process and now my “oops” is barely visible and certainly not distracting.

Working with multiple colors

I liked the string of lights, but I wanted more than one color. Of course! I know, I’m chronically allergic to using a single color of paint, so bear with me.

When I have a design like the lights, I find it almost impossible to paint the lights and then paint the string a different color. So I start by painting the entire design using the color I want for the string and then going back to fill in the other colors. If I don’t lay down a heavy coat of paint with the 1st pass, it’s pretty easy to cover it up with a 2nd pass.

Here’s the design with one bulb painted blue. I still find it easier to use the side of the paint rather than the end to get nice, even coverage.

And here’s an image with lots of colors.

Enjoy your paints!  ~Shelly

Yes, I know it’s March and we just got past the Christmas holidays, but we’re planning ahead! (Either that or we are waaaayyy behind schedule – I’ll let you decide.) All moans and groans aside, I’m really excited about our new Happy Holidays rubbing plates. With designs ranging from snowflakes to holiday lights, ornaments and holly, the designs are festive but not cute. Perfect for a range of holiday projects! Here’s a look at my first sample.

I’m really thrilled with the text plate. I’ve been wanting to work with words for some time now, but this is the first chance we had to try it out. When I looked at the plate, I really wasn’t sure if it was going to work. But once I got the paint out – well let’s just say I’m totally convinced that text is going to be a lot of fun. I think this is going to make a super all-over pattern for gift bags, placemats, totes – you name it!

With the exception of the text and the holly/bell design, these plates have larger “open” spaces in them. This set will definitely be a challenge unless you adopt Nancy’s method for using the side of a paintstik for making rubbings instead of using the end of the stick. If you haven’t read them already, go back to read the posts about Better Tools, Better Rubbings and Better Rubbings (part 2) from December. If you use a Grip-n-Grip mat, the 404 spray, the side of your paintstik (and a little practice…) you really can get fabulous results with minimal instances of oops!

And speaking of oops… in my next post I’ll share a couple of more tips for working with rubbings – how to fix some of the “oops” and working with more than one color.

One more thing – before I forget – the Happy Holidays plates will be shipping to retailers by the middle of April.

Happy painting!

~ Shelly

In spite of the weather, it has been feeling a bit like spring for the past couple of weeks here in the office as we put the finishing touches on a new Coneflower pattern by designer Nancy Kazlauckas. I have a perfect place in my office to hang these quilts – and then it will be spring year-round! (Just don’t tell Nancy – she thinks she’s going to get one of them back…)

Nancy’s latest creation is a 27 1/2″ x 38″ whole cloth quilt. That’s right – it’s all paint and no piecing! I actually sat down and painted several of the shadow boxes on the left side of the quilt to finish up the photography, and I can vouch for the fact that it’s easier than it looks. Nancy has a super easy method for putting those shadow boxes together. It really works!

Not just a pattern…

This is our first Pattern Plus. In past patterns, all the stencils were traced and cut from freezer paper, but this time we tried something different. You cut the big coneflower stencil from freezer paper, but we’ve made mylar stencils for the smaller images. This will save you a ton of time – and you can use the stencils again and again for other great projects. Given the price of stencils these days, our retail price of $14.95 for pattern plus stencils is a real deal.

Here’s an alternate colorway for those who prefer cool colors. They are both beautiful, so you’ll have to choose. Or pick your own colors!

Speaking of colors, the warm color quilt was created with matte paintstik colors. Nancy used Azo Yellow, Peach, Azo Orange, Napthol Red, Alizarin Crimson and Burnt Seinna.

The cool color quilt was created with iridescent paintstik colors: Iridescent Pink, Purple, Turquoise, Dark Blue and Leaf Green.

We expect to begin shipping Nancy’s new pattern by April 6.