Online Quilt Show coming in March!

"Inspired To Quilt" Online Quilt Expo

I've got some very exciting news! Coming up soon on March 7th-10th 2012, there is going to be a very special online event that you are not going to want to miss.

 

Willow Bend Creations Online Quilt Expos is hosting the "Inspired To Quilt" Online Quilt Expo. This event will bring all of the sights, sounds and excitement of a live quilt show right into your home via your computer.

 

And guess what...? I'm going to be one of the featured presentations. I will be showing how I do my felted appliques, the technique that I used for Crazy Sheep and Sheep Wannabees and the Sheep Faces bag.

 

I've been nominated as the "Most Inspiring Quilt Instructor Of 2011".  It's quite an honor and I would really appreciate your support in coming out and

voting for me.  

I am competing with 14 other quilt teachers.  You will be able with watch our interviews and demos.  

  

This is going to be a lot of fun and it's FREE for everyone to attend. So be sure to register by clicking on the link below and tell all of your friends so they don't miss out on the fun!

Here's that link:

http://inspiredtoquiltexpo.com/deborakonchinsky

 

By registering, you will get reminders of this online event, so it doesn't slip your mind since it will only be happening for 4 days. 

  

See you there,

 

Debora Konchinsky

Crows pattern is launched!

I don't know what took so long.  Usually it doesn't take a month to finish writing a pattern, but I guess I wasn't as focused as I usually am.  The Crows pattern has 17 pages, seven pages of which are of crows drawings and one page of feather drawings for the quilting in the border.  Crows pattern is up on our website ready to fly to your house as a PDF pattern or a printed snail mailed pattern.

The Crow quilt is evolving...

This is the Crows quilt with the appliques sewn through the backgrounds and cotton batting.

At this point I have added the backing fabric so the quilting of the backgrounds goes through all three layers.  Each block has a different quilting design.  This is a study in variations of quilting patterns as they relate to my subject matter. All the crows have beaded eyes using  "iris" colored glass beads.

Life gets in the way

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. On August 28th, a tree fell on our carport destroying it. That set off a chain of events.  We had a visit from the tree surgeons to chop down the offending 60' maple tree and an ailing 60' walnut tree across the driveway. We ordered the new carport.  That company abandoned us, with no communication for 6 weeks when, lo and behold, they called and said they wanted to install on October 31st.  They never showed up, but they called at 8:30 at night, promising to install the carport on the next day.  At 8 AM they worked like a well choreographed dance for 1 1/2 hours and they got paid and they left.  Meanwhile, we had some renovations in the kitchen and bath that took three weeks.  Then I got shingles, from the stress of the mess, I think.  The medication made me dizzy and forgetful.  I finished the meds, and the house is getting back to order.

I am starting to plan the next few patterns which will be small.  I am playing around with crows in applique, and fuzzy cats in felting on cotton fabrics (just to see if can be done successfully) and it is time for a new cat pattern.  People keep asking for donkeys...I'll start to do the research and see if I like donkeys.

This fall, the Sheep Wannabees went on tour with World Quilt, a group of Mancuso shows, because it won a blue ribbon for Best Hand Workmanship.  I am beginning to see that being judged at a quilt show does not reward cleverness when it comes to quilt design.  What is being awarded the top ribbons is craftsmanship.  That means that the judges are looking for how well the stitches are formed and if the binding corners are square, things like that.  Winning a ribbon has everything to do with the competition.

Foxes and Chickens

My newest pattern is out.  I chose the subject because I have friends who adore foxes.  I've even seen one in my yard.  I guess he didn't like it here since I only saw him once in the seven years we've been living here in Southeastern Pennsylvania.  Click on the photo to see a larger image. This quilt is 35" x 32".  Yours made from this pattern could be a different size or shape depending on how you combine the blocks.
Foxes are beautiful animals but they have mean streaks.  I read when they get into a chicken coop, they kill all the chickens.  I guess killing is a sport to them.  My cat does the same thing, one mouse at a time.

This quilt is raw edge stitched and has hand embroidery in the backgrounds where I drew flowers and trees. In my quilt,  the chickens are on the outside, creating tension.

 I tried to keep the hand embroidered flowers in scale with the foxes.  It is amazing how many you can draw with pearl cotton embroidery thread if you break down the flowers you see in your yard into French knots, satin stitch, straight stitch, chain stitch, and Feather stitch.  These are all basic stitches.

The border quilting is based on the noxious plant, the Poke weed.  The berries become purple when they are ripe and the birds love them.

This fox is thread painted to get the texture of his fur.

The backgrounds of the blocks were machine quilted on my home sewing machine.

This chicken portrait cornerstone was raw edge stitched.  Each color is on top of the main color (black and white for this chicken).  Everything is fused together before the raw edge stitched was done.

   

Felted apliques bag

Look at what I just made this week.  The sheep faces are appliques that have been felted with curly and combed wool fibers.  I used menswear wool fabrics and orange pearl cotton for the feather stitching, and wool batting from Fairfield.  

People are always amazed at the detail that can be achieved with felting.  It is so easy to shade to get dimension, by adding a little bit of gray to the color you are working with.  The gray needs to be mixed in your hands (push and pulling it to mix colors in your fingers).  The sheeps face patterns are part of the Crazy Sheep pattern.

Foxes... a new pattern in the making

I am playing with foxes now and I can't decide if I like wool felted fox best or cotton machine appliqued fox.  On the cotton example I thread painted the fur.  With the felted example, I mixes the gray and orange fiber before felting in the tail.  Both examples need white added to their faces and bellies.  This is the beginning of a new pattern for Critter Pattern Works.