Painted Quilt Art 2012 at Asilomar.. Yahoo!

Some months ago, I was asked to teach at Asilomar in 2012. I am thrilled to finally say the contract is signed and back in my possession. It's a go! I'm excited for at least 3 reasons...
1) Heck.... It's Asilomar... How great is that?!... on the beach in Monterey,
California territory. Sweet!
2) It's 5 days of dedication to Painting AND Quilting the Arts. Heaven!
3) It's 5 days of time with quilters of like interest. That's always thrilling!
The date is April 3 - 8, 2012. I hope to see some of you there!!!
http://www.emptyspoolsseminars.com

A Fellow Quilter Question about Quilting People

(c) In Quito's Market (Detail)
I enjoy getting questions where I have at least some partial answer that might help someone in their journey. Following is a recent question from a fellow portrait quilter having just seen a photo of one of my portrait quilts...

From a frustrated quilter:
I just saw a photo of your quilt "In Quito's Market". I do figural
quilts and I have a question that nobody has been able to answer for me.
My problem is that I take a wonderful top, that I have spent hundreds of hours on and can't seem to understand how to quilt it.My quilts faces get puffy because of the quilting around the figure. I have tried quilting them minimally and it
doesn't help at all.There must be a secret


My response...
A face is usually a more central part of the quilt... anytime one quilts all around it first, there will be trouble such as you have experienced. I suggest one never create an unquilted island of anything before quilting the 'island' of as yet unquilted fabric.

With art quilts where there is generally more quilting than maybe a bed quilt, it is actually pretty important to work from the central area outward... and that often means the face first... which is what I generally do. The rule of thumb with quilting faces is ... make a choice up front.... either minimal quilting or alot.... anything else doesn't seem to work well, and ofcourse the same rules of thumb about even quilting distribution across the whole surface of the piece holds true.

If you do heavy quilting(almost thread painting as I often do) on the face, pretty much the same level of quilting density is called for across the rest of the quilt. One doesn't have to go the heavy thread painting approach.... so if doing minimal quilting on the face use minimal quilting elsewhere. Failure to evenly distribute quilting density is a call for ripples/ puffs. Hope that helps.
Good Luck!
Patt

The Final Few

This is the third/final showcase of texture fillers shown on ONE quilt over this and the 2 previous posts. It underscores the old saying that Variety Is The Spice of Life!" To me, it is so interesting to see a quilt with such varied interest.
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More Variety

All the texture patterns from both this and the previous post are from the SAME quilt. Incredible!
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2
3)
4
5
Am off to the tire store (flat) instead of watching super bowl. TIMING!!!

Prizewinner Close up

I am among many totally blown away by the continuing advancement in the art of quilting. Who wouldn't love this exquisite quilt by Sharon Schamber? !
I don't work the same as Sharon but I so love her quilting skill. Following will be several closeups of quilt patterns on this quilt. It's rare one gets sufficient time/ closeness to snap this number of real close ups. Yeah! The variety of patterns itself is part of this quilts beauty.
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2)

3)

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"Wacky Clever"

I loved this quilt. I haven't a clue who made it but snapped a pic at a show. It is impressive in it's simplicity
The black holes are not a peek thru to the black drape but are imbedded in this clever piece. I likewise liked the simplicity of the quilt lines. Often times in quilts, where there are alot of straight lines, the minds eye would appreciate some curves. But in this piece, adding curves (beyond the black holes) in quilting would have detracted from the wonderful wacky nature of the quilt top. I learn alot from looking at details of pieces I exceptionally like.

GAME ON! I play a game with myself picturing some things ( like quilting, color, etc) different than they are in reality. It seldom works in my imaginary dreamed up version... so I then KNOW the originator of the piece had an exceptionally great design sense/idea AND I learn from that. Click or double click for closeup view.

HOME to News

Back Home, unpacked, pretty much reorganzied but for some guild contract paperwork and received a note today for IQA ( Houston International) that contracts are in the mail for teaching at The 2011 Festival early Nov. Can't be sure which classes til contracts are done but I know I'm invited to teach.
The is the way this works...
1) They ask you to submit teaching proposals
2) They select all or some of what is proposed, and then send out contracts
A teacher then accepts ( usually) and signs the contract... and the process of getting ready begins even this early.

I proposed some brand new classes in addition to my most common offerings, so we'll see what shows up on the contract. I'll post which classes when I know with certainty.

BTW.... I'm told by a quilter follower My Navy Challenge Quilt ( The Incredible Corsair) is appearing in the newest issue of American Quilter Magazine. My copy has yet to arrive so I haven't seen. They kindly asked for permission late last year and I am surprised it appears so soon.