Dear friends, Just in time! A creative community project from Wisconsin Museum of Quilts & Fiber Arts! Since what we have most of right now is time – let’s make quilt blocks! Here’s the news from Melissa Wraalstad, Director at WMQFA: “The...
Dear Friends, A force of personality, Maday is passionate about her life. She approaches her sewing projects, sewing classes and community projects with equal verve and dynamism. As I’ve gotten to know Maday I’ve come to realize she’s more of a city gal; taking off on...
Traditional heritage informs Karen Goulet’s contemporary expression For more than ten years, Karen Goulet has worked in creative media specifically needle arts, quilt making, surface design, weaving, mixed media and knitting. She identifies as a traditional and...
Welcome Heidi Parkes, our newest member of the Cedarburg Spur Fiber Arts Trail! Coming from an art background, Heidi says sometimes it takes quite a bit of planning and figuring to do something that would be ‘so easy’ with paint or collage. There are so many art ideas...
I sent her the ‘Artist Questionnaire’ I ask everyone to fill out. “But I’m not an artist!” was her reply. I said fill it out anyway; people should know more about you. I think we should know more about the people behind the scenes, most of whom are volunteers who make...
I thought it was time to reconnect with Peggy and see where she has taken her work with fabric. Peggy was included in the 2013 Almanac for her beadwork. One of her two quite large necklaces is shown below. This beautiful pieces shows fabric beading and sculpting...
Originally posted October 16, 2012 by Jenny Wilder. With all of the colorful leaves collecting in nooks and crannies, swirling up into cyclones and skidding across the driveway, I got to thinking about Susan Stein and her art quilts. Susan, who owned a quilt store in...
Good composition in any piece of art is magic. When it comes together it speaks to the viewer in powerful and inspirational ways. It’s more than technique, but yet the technique needs to be right on, so the viewer can look past it and see something more. The...
This afternoon I made a quick trip to the Minnetonka Center for the Arts in Orono, MN. If you take Cty Rd 15 along the north shore of Lake Minnetonka you will be treated to a very pretty drive. The Art Center underwent a dramatic overhaul about 14 years ago. The...
Color and fiber work is a process of exploration and discovery for Susan Antell. She has spent a good deal of time studying the dye process for both cotton and wool fabrics. When I met Susan almost three years ago, she had recently finished a booklet containing...
I have always enjoyed receiving stories from The Milwaukee Art Quilters (MARQ). This story is no exception and I hope you enjoy their quilts as well. THE JENNINGS HOMESTEAD By Suzanne Mouton Riggio The Milwaukee Art Quilters (MArQ) is an unusual guild with no officers...
By all accounts Hwy 1 in rural Johnson County, Iowa is a great road for cycling. It’s a hill and dale kind of road with curves and long vistas that stretch out over checkerboard farm fields. Groomed farmsteads hug the road offering up antique shops in converted...
Helena Wentzlaff’s quilts are to quilting what Mt. Rushmore, apple pie and country living represent in American folklore. Heritage, home and roots. There’s no question one of her quilts could be shown around the world and people would identify it as one of the more...
(Elkhart, IN ) — (Updated post 5/18/2017) This is the time of year when summer travel plans are being made with the happy anticipation of simply going somewhere else for awhile. In my growing up years, the signal was a few dropped comments between my parents at...
Anita Jain says the biggest challenge to devoting herself to create fiber art is lack of time. Common Strands International Fiber Art Exchange, an organization founded by Anita and whose mission is to promote cultural exchange of traditional and contemporary fiber...
After I’d seen the techniques Tina Hughes uses and style she expresses making her quilts it was quite humorous to read the definition of quilt in the Oxford dictionary. “A warm bed covering made of padding enclosed between layers of fabric and kept in place by lines...
Rose Allen is part of a collaborative group of art quilters in the Twin Cities who enjoy support, friendship and a lifelong passion for quilting. Rose started quilting many years ago but feels that she found her place when she began to design her quilts from her own...
Nancy Birger told me about her husband’s work and how they have moved nine times over the years with assignments from the Fish and Wildlife Service to different parts of the United States. I asked how that influenced her quilting. She then showed me this amazing piece...
Caring Quilts Day by Kim Gannaway, Guest Blogger Caring Quilts came to be because of a workshop I was taking back in 1999. The assignment was to create something that you were passionate about, and you couldn’t do it by yourself – you had to create a community to...
In the 2013 Almanac I identified twelve artistic references. I call them references because I used a combination of the elements of art and the principles of design. Each month has a designated artistic element or an artistic principle which allows the reader to view...
It’s been years since Kathy Esch has spent time relaxing during the State Fair! Over 20 years, in fact. This year we are celebrating the Great Minnesota Get together at her yarn shop in Anoka, MN! On Saturday, the 25th from 11-2 I’ll be there talking about...
Living close to woods and lakes in central Minnesota, Kathy frequently sees a blue heron standing in the shallow water at the end of the dock. When presented with a quilting challenge, “June is…” Kathy decided to use her frequent visitor as her...
On Friday evening I went to an exhibit of textile art at the Textile Center in Minneapolis. The exhibit represented the culmination of eighteen months work in the Protégée/Mentor Program which was sponsored by the Textile Center. This is the fourth time the Textile...
