Posts by ShellyStokes
Blue Fingers Are Happy Fingers!
by Shelly Stokes, Founder and Creative Mentor No, I have not totally lost my mind. Blue fingers really are happy fingers. And if you must know, it’s because Susan Cleveland says so — and she’s right! Susan Cleveland (another crazy lady from Minnesota) and I had a little confab in my hotel room during Quilt…
Read MoreSlow Stitching Adds Life To Painted Fabric
If you have been with me for a while, you know that I’m working on a major project. Yes, this baby will be a Show Quilt. It is the first big art quilt that I have tackled in about 10 years. It’s a big undertaking, but I’m loving it! The first big steps in this…
Read MoreCreate A Thread Tracking System
After last week’s column on Choosing a Thread Palette from a bunch of autumn colored flowers, reader Bret Adams asked a really good question, “How do you keep track of your threads so that you know what you need to buy when you are shopping with vendors?” Bret noted that it is much too easy…
Read MorePick A Palette From Fall Flowers
When Jack surprised me with a beautiful bunch of fall-colored flowers last week, I knew I wanted to capture the colors for a future stitching project. I took some photos, of course, but those are much too easily “out of sight — out of mind.” As the flowers started looking a little bit droopy, I…
Read MoreHear With Your Ears, Listen With Your Heart
by Shelly Stokes, Founder and Creative Mentor A year ago, I had just returned from a 3-day retreat with Rachael Jayne Groover, author of Powerful and Feminine. It was a wonderful event, and another step on my path to figuring out what I am here to BE in this world. While I was at the…
Read MoreFrom Kaleidoscope Fabric To Beautiful Bag
In last week’s tutorial, I told you about my process for creating overlapping rubbings from the new Kaleidoscope plates. (Click here to read that article if you missed it.) This week, I am happy to show you my beautiful new handbag. I love making handbags from fabric I create. They are one-of-a-kind bags that do…
Read MoreOverlapping Rubbings Tutorial
by Shelly Stokes, Founder and Creative Mentor The new Kaleidoscope Rubbing Plates received warm welcome at the Minnesota Quilt Show and the International Quilt Festival in Chicago. Many thanks if you were one of the select group of people who snapped one up at the shows or placed your order during our promotion. I know…
Read MoreExtreme Stenciling on Suede
To wrap up the series on Extreme Stenciling, I want to go back a couple of years to some experiments I did with suede. I met Jayme and Megan from Bella Nonna Design Studio at Quilt Market — and accepted their challenge to see if Paintstik colors could be used on leather and suede. To…
Read MoreExtreme Stenciling with Paintstik Colors
by Shelly Stokes, Founder and Creative Mentor As I mentioned in the first part of this series, I have been doing some serious stenciling over the past couple of months. I hand-cut three stencils that are 50” high x 20” wide and stenciled the images on black fabric panels. For this project, I wanted the…
Read MoreTitanium Is A Stenciler’s Best Friend
In the past month, I have spent between 25 and 30 hours stenciling images on a new project. I am working on black fabric and a nice range of iridescent and matte Paintstik colors. For my project, I wanted my images bold and bright. Yes, I wanted them to jump off the fabric. Now that…
Read MoreHow Does Your Garden Glow?
by Shelly Stokes, Founder and Creative Mentor A couple of years ago, I got bit by the hand-stitching bug. Hard. I am not saying it was a bad thing – just that it totally changed the way I think about painted fabric. It started with just a little bit of embellishment for a handbag. Then…
Read MoreInspired By Color At Quilt Market
by Shelly Stokes, Founder and Creative Mentor I have just returned from a whirlwind trip to Quilt Market in Houston, TX. I have worked every market for the past 8 years, and it was time for a break. It was a delightful trip in more ways than my tired little brain can count right now.…
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