Last summer, I took part in the Merchant Mall at Bernina University in Orlando. Most of the people at the conference were sewing machine dealers and their employees.

With my new Design Magic book in hand, I offered the dealers and shop owners a free DesignMagic stencil along with a free project. I was really interested to see which of the original 4 stencils (Safari, Scroll, Fractured-X or Wavy Squares) would win a popularity contest if people could choose just one.

While all of the stencils were popular, 35% of the dealers chose the Scroll stencil to make the sample for their project. The most frequent comment was that they liked the circular lines of the design — often referred to as “curlicues.” Here is a photo of the Scroll stencils.

When I created these designs, I was thinking about waves. (If you take one of the curly images and lay it on its side, it looks like a wave breaking — or at least it did in my mind.) But the composite image doesn’t look like water in any way, shape, or form!

Leanne (my trusty assistant) thought the images looked like Scrollwork, and that’s how the stencil got it’s name. (The discussions on names get very interesting at times — much rolling of eyes and tons of laughter as more than a few inappropriate possibilities are tossed about…) But, back to Scrolls…

I used the Scroll design for the very first project I created for the book. I made the little Scrollwork quilt at a retreat last fall. It was really an experiment to see if I could use Design Magic images with patchwork projects (instead of whole cloth), and clearly, the answer was YES! Here’s a photo of the Scrollwork quilt.

Making this quilt led to all of my “aha” moments related to the alignment guides on the pre-cut mylar stencils. when I made the blocks for this quilt, I put them on oversize blocks. Then I had to try to trim them down to size. With some designs that might work OK, but this one was a real bear. All the curves made it tough to find the “corners” for trimming the blocks to size. It was definitely one of those moments when I said “There has to be a better way!” And, of course, there was.

A number of people have asked what color paintstik I used on the Scrollwork quilt. Since there is no “burgundy” in the paintstik line, I made my own by mixing Purple Sage and Alizarin Crimson. (Crimson is a dark red, and the addition of purple tones it down to a nice burgundy.)

Before I go, I want to share one more piece that I made with the Scroll design. This is one of my Magic Mats. I painted this fabric while I was in Orlando. (I’m always happy when I can do double duty by demonstrating on fabric that will actually get used!) I used Chocolate Brown (from the matte color line) on the pink fabric.

If you would like to make Magic Mats, you can download our FREE PATTERN from the Learning Center by clicking on this link. To see all of our DesignMagic stencils and more information on how they work, visit this page.

How appropriate! I return from my trip to Chapala, Mexico with a camera card full of flower and foliage photos to find the Flower Power issue of Quilting Arts magazine in my mailbox. Looks like I’m ready to go! There are some really great ideas in this issue to go along with my fresh stock of photos.

And, just before I left on my trip, I received a shipment of samples from Colourcraft, a fiber art company in the UK, with a bunch of products to test. As I opened the box, I wasn’t sure if I felt like a kid in a candy store or if I had been magically transported back to Christmas morning. I need to block out some serious play time! Looks like it could be an interesting weekend — in spite of all the snow that got dumped on our area this week.

Here are a few more flower photos from my vacation in Chapala. Perhaps you can join me in finding inspiration for a Flower Power quilt!

The calendar tells me it is officially Spring, but it appears that Mother Nature has other plans for us here in Minnesota this week. Ah well, it’s still March, so I guess I shouldn’t hold my breath just yet.

I’m just back from a wonderful vacation in sunny Chapala, Mexico. Chapala may not be a familiar name like Cancun or Puerto Vallarta, but it is home to several of my dear friends and a large community of Americans, Canadians, and ex-pats from around the world. And believe me, I understand completely why they decide to live in this lovely community!

We stayed at the QQ Inn, a lovely Bed and Breakfast just a block off the lake. It’s hard to take a photo of the place due to the dense gardens in the courtyard, but I have a few that help give a flavor of the place.

This photo shows the favorite morning location for reading — the sun hits this spot just around breakfast time. (Breakfast is served at the civilized hour of 9 — if you want early morning coffee, you’d better be prepared to make your own. )

Here’s a photo in another direction. The windows in the center of the photo were part of our room. Each room is named, ours was the Royal Palm. At least some of the rooms are named from books by DH Lawrence. He lived in this place while he was writing at least one of his novels.

I really enjoyed the gardens. There was a profusion of different types of plants and flowers. I left my computer home on this trip. (That’s a first in many years!) But I did take my camera along in spite of my preference for not walking around with a camera around my neck. The photos don’t really do justice to my memories, so most of the time I just skip it.

At any rate, I put the telephoto lens on the camera and had fun in the garden. Here are just a few of the lovely flowers packed into the gardens.

I’m not an avid gardener, so I really have no idea what types of plants were there. But I really enjoyed just looking at the plants and seeing the different forms of the flowers and leaves. If you ever need inspiration for designs, a bountiful garden (or a wild jungle) is a great place to explore. It’s amazing to see the sheer variety in nature.

While I’m waiting for green things and flowers here in the north land, I have warm memories of a lovely visit to Chapala. And Spring can’t be too far away… we had robins in our yard on the 16th and I saw a blue bird on Saturday. Soon, I keep telling myself. Soon.

Hola! I’m in sunny Chapala, Mexico soaking up the warm temperatures and magnificent local colors. One of my dear friends moved down here several years ago and I am finally making good on my promise to come for a visit. After a very long, very cold winter in Minnesota, it is absolutely wonderful to spend some time in a hot, sunny city!

Before I left home, I put together my second set of notes for painting on suede. You can go back to the first post on this topic by clicking here. It turns out this was a great item to post during my trip. The iridescent paintstik colors on the magenta colored suede look like they belong in a fiesta! Ole!

If you are looking for suede, hop on over to Bella Nonna Designs. Jayme and Megan will be happy to take care of you.

Not only do they have delicious colors of suede, they have a couple of patterns that have a gazillion little projects that can be made from either 4″ squares or the larger sheets of suede. Actually, they have quite a lot of cool stuff on their site. It’s definitely worth a visit.

The Magic of Masking Tape

Masking tape is wonderful stuff. Especially if you want to play with suede. You can use tape to create stripes, squares, diamonds, or even just a bunch of random shapes.

I’ve been using 1/4″ tape for my suede projects because they are small. When I’m working on large pieces of fabric, I use wider tape. Our friends at Bella Nonna have a Deco Tape product that is 7mm (.28 inches) wide and is a little less sticky than masking tape. It pulls up from the suede a little easier than standard masking tape.

Here’s a quick sequence of steps for making one of Bella Nonna’s Zippety Bags. They have kits for this project in several colors, or you can use your own materials with their pattern.

Of course, you can make stripes (or other shapes) on suede and make it into anything else that trips your trigger. I’ll show you how to make the stripes — you choose the project!

Stripes on Suede

Step 1: Use narrow tape to mask off stripes on the suede. The areas under the tape will be unpainted. The areas between the tape will become the painted stripes.

Step 2: Apply color directly with the paintstik. Rub firmly in both directions. I used iridescent light gold (yellow) lime green, green, turquoise, dark blue and purple.

Step 3: Use a stencil brush to “scrub” the paint into the suede. If you don’t mind getting getting a little paint on your hands, use your fingers. I found it easier to use my fingers in this case — and the iridescent colors are all non-toxic. (Clean your hands with our Brush Soap to remove the paint without drying your skin out.)

Step 4: Remove the tape and set the suede aside to dry. I put a lot of paint on my suede when I made this sample and it took at least a week to fully dry.

Confession: I did NOT wait until the paint was fully dry to complete my sample — I had to send it off to Pokey Bolton for a Quilting Arts TV segment. I had no problem with paint smearing after 2 or 3 days. It just was not completely dry.

Step 5: Cut the suede using the pattern piece for the Zippety Bag. Stitch the zipper to the edges of the bag. I had my doubts about going around the curves, but I followed the directions carefully and it worked just fine.

Step 6: Zip up the little bag and enjoy!

In last Monday’s post, I talked about projects you can make with the Primrose Stencils including the big (huge?) Woodland Flowers Quilt. If you missed it, I also said this was NOT the first Design project I would tackle if I were new to paintstiks or Design Magic. (It’s not a difficult quilt, just a really big one!)

So, what would I recommend? Frankly, I’d start with the placemats. (Not to be confused with my Magic Mats free project — these placemats are in the Design Magic book.

All you need are 2 fat quarters, a chunk of batting and my favorite combination of toys — one paintstik, one brush, & one set of stencils. You can make your own stencils using the process in the Design Magic book, or you can use a set of our pre-cut mylar stencils.

Now I’ll be the first to admit that lots of paintstiks are more fun than just one… but you really can get by with one if you really want to. Here’s a photo from the instructions in the book.

To make this placemat, you’ll paint 12 images on the fabric in a 4 x 3 grid. And that brings me to an interesting decision — which designs look good in an odd-number grid?

Choosing A Pleasing Design For Placemats

If you have made your own designs — or if you look at our pre-cut mylar DesignMagic Stencils, you’ll see that some designs look better when the 4-patch formed by the repeating patter is kept intact. Stated another way, they look better in an even-number grid rather than an odd-number grid. The Primrose design we talked about last week is a good example that looks best in an even-number grid.

For the placemats or any other project that has an odd-number grid, I like designs that create more of an overall random pattern. Here are 3 of our DesignMagic Stencils that work well for this type of project.

Wavy Squares Design

Fractured-X Design

Bubbles Design

Each of these samples was painted on graduated color fabric. You can get a totally different effect by using more colors and painting on a tone-on-tone fabric. Here’s another sample of the Bubbles Design.

I have to share a short story about this particular sample — I was so lucky to find that fabric at Houston last fall — I could not believe my good luck! I was doing demos for my good friends at Laura Murray Designs and needed something to paint on. This fabric was perfect –  Fizz for my Bubbles! What more could I possibly ask for?

Show Off Your Placemat Projects

If you’ve made placemats from your own designs or from our stencils, feel free to post them on our Facebook page. I’d love to see what you are up to!