Fuse It and Be Done!
Barbara Campbell and Yolanda Fundora
Krause; $24.99

Who knew you could find so many fusible products? Barbara Campbell and Yolanda Fundora tested an exhaustive list of 20 fusibles from fusible web to Angelina® fibers. This project-oriented book features more than two dozen “no-sew” projects and ideas. A plus is the disk with 47 design templates for 16 of the projects. If you have questions about which fusible to use and how to use it, this is a good place to start.

Here’s a link if you’d like to add it to your library.

The Fall issue of The Professional Quilter includes a profile of Shelly Stokes, owner of Cedar Canyon Textiles, distributor of Shiva Paintstiks and related products. Here’s an excerpt from the profile in Shelly’s own words:

The Shiva paint company attempted to bring the paintstiks into the quilting world in the 1980s. However, the rotary cutter hit the market at the same time, and everyone wanted to strip-piece quilts rather than paint fabric, at least here in the United States; the fiber artists in the United Kingdom started working with paintstiks around that time and so have more years of experience with them.

After working with paintstiks for a while, I decided to write a book – the right product at the right time. I think it’s fair to say that I have done much of the work to make the product visible in the quilting market in the last few years, particularly here in the United States, but I am certainly not the first one to “discover” the product and its wonderful application on fabric.

Before I started working on the book in earnest, I went to visit Jack Richeson and Company to make sure that their wonderful paintstiks would be readily available to my customers. The Richesons supported my idea, and in 2004, Cedar Canyon Textiles became an official distributor for the paintstik products.

It took almost nine months of hard work, but my book was ready in May of 2005. Once a good set of instructions was available, the market for paint expanded dramatically. As it became clear that the paint was going to dominate our business, I had a hard choice to make: grow a business or continue to teach and create art. Because I had been away from the day-to-day job market for ten years, the business was very appealing. I’ll get back to more of my own quilting in my next round of “retirement.” We did the last of our retail shows in 2005 and made the transition to our new identity as the Paintstik Place.

In life and in business, one thing leads to another. As the fiber art and quilting world embraced the paintstiks, we saw the opportunity to venture into accessory products. In 2006, we manufactured four sets of rubbing plates for use with the paintstiks and started a pattern line in 2007.

To read more of Shelly’s story along with her business tips in Issue 109 of The Professional Quilter, your subscription or membership in the IAPQ must be current. Learn about all the benefits of IAPQ membership here

In the current issue of The Professional Quilter, Scott Murkin discussed the need for quilt judges to maintain currency as quilters add new surface techniques to their work. Here is an excerpt from that article:

An increasing number of formally trained artists have moved into quilting and textiles as their primary medium. At the same time a large number of quilters who started in a more traditional vein are exploring new techniques in their work. Because of these trends, quilt show judges are faced with a wide and varied selection of surface design techniques that they must evaluate on the judging floor. Learning the fundamentals of these techniques and how they are assessed has become one of the ever-expanding tools in the quilt show judge’s toolbox.

Surface design refers to anything the artist does to change the fabric either before or after the quilt is constructed, but is also sometimes expanded to include things added onto the surface, such as threadwork, couched fibers and sewn-on objects. Each of these will be addressed in turn.

A variety of paints can be applied to fabric with nearly infinite techniques and widely differing results, depending on decisions made by the artist. There are paints made specifically for textiles, but many traditional artists’ paints, such as acrylics and oil paint sticks, can be successfully adapted for use on fabric. While not technically paints, even the pigments from crayons can be transferred to fabric and made permanent. Paint can be brushed on, splashed on, applied through a stencil, stamped on with commercial or home-made stamps or found objects, or applied by screen-printing, among other techniques. Many artists are also using inks and thickened dyes in many of the same ways that paints are used. Paint can be applied to fabric before any sewing begins; it can be applied to a pieced or appliquéd quilt top; or it can be applied to the finished quilt, often exaggerating the effect of the texture of the quilting stitches.

When judging the painted quilt surface, the judge is primarily considering issues of design, deciding if the artist has used the paint as an effective accent or the primary design element. The formal principles of design, such as unity, variety, balance, contrast, proportion, scale and rhythm are evaluated, as well as the emotional impact of the image.

You can read Scott’s complete article in Issue 108 of The Professional Quilter. If your subscription is not current and you need to renew, or you want to start a new subscription, here’s a link to our order page

Valori Wells & Carolyn Spencer
C&T Publishing; $22.95

In keeping with my organizing theme of the month, Oh Sew Easy Life Style has some terrific ideas to help you organize your life and personalize your home. Several organizers feature a hanging background fabric with large pockets handy for storage. One is geared to recipes, one to office papers and one to kids. Baskets are popular for organizing and Valori Wells and Carolyn Spencer show you how to make basket liners for square, rectangular and round baskets. On the functional side, you’ll find sassy aprons and a picnic cloth. And what life style book would be complete without a few tote patterns? Valori and Carolyn include a diaper bag and a slumber party backpack. In total the book offers ideas and patterns for 20 fun and stylish projects, as well as basic sewing techniques. You’re sure to find something to make for yourself or give as a gift.

Here’s a link if you’d like to add it to your library.

During our PQ Café Business Series call last month with Debbie LaChusa, we talked a bit about taking inspired action. Debbie said this is where the magic happens. You need to be open to inspired ideas and taking inspired actions as a result.

Some years back I read The Attractor Factor by Joe Vitale, and he also wrote about inspired action. He said it was “any action that you take based on an inside nudge.” In a sense, it’s acting on your intuition or that little voice inside that’s talking to you. We all have those experiences.

So where do you find these inspired ideas? Debbie said she gets hers on her daily run. I often come up with ideas – great and not so great – during my morning walk or when I take a break in the afternoon with a cup of tea away from my office or when I walk to the mailbox and back. (It’s a very long driveway!) You might find yours soaking in the tub after a long day or hiking in the woods or gardening, in other words, someplace that’s not your office or studio. I think Julia Cameron’s artist date can do this for you, too. It takes you outside your normal surroundings.

One tip, here, keep a pad or a digital recorder handy, if possible. I find I often need to make a quick note of the idea, in case I’m distracted. I can’t count the numbers of great ideas that disappeared.

When the idea comes to you, what do you do with it? Sometimes you just move forward, trusting it’s the right the thing to do. Other times it’s important to ask if the idea will move your toward your goal or vision or intention. If the answer is yes, then get to work – take inspired action.

As I said, we all have those “inside nudges” prompting us to take action. Problem is we can talk ourselves out of them – too little time, too little money, too little whatever. I call it self-sabotage. I think we need to learn to trust that inner voice a bit more.

The Professional Quilter includes articles to help you create success with your quilt business. If your subscription is not current and you need to renew, or you want to start a new subscription, here’s a link to our order page.

Quilt Challenge
Sharyn Craig and Pamela Mostek
Martingale & Co.; $21.95

Everyone loves a challenge, and that’s the premise that started Sharyn Craig and Pam Mostek on this book. Pam made a set of Wonky Log Cabin blocks and challenged Sharyn to see what she could do. And, the magic began. From there they set up eight challenges and each completed a block with specific design and color guidelines. They were joined by other quilters in each challenge. Some of the challenges include Black, White, and Red Allover, which uses black, white and red as the color and the basic Nine Patch as the block; and The Color Purple, which uses the same purple fabric in all the quilts and the Rail Fence block. The variety of quilts is wonderful. Pam and Sharyn also include tips and techniques.

Here’s a link if you’d like to add it to your library.

Join us in the PQ Café on Thursday, September 17 at 8 pm Eastern for our next call  Get Organized, Finally! with Morna McEver Golletz and special guest Debra Lipp.

Have you tried a variety of methods to organize your quilting “stuff”? Do you buy every new organizing gadget you see? Is your studio space disorganized and inefficient – and you know it could be improved – but you don’t know where to start? Or, are the  organization strategies you’ve tried just not working for you? Do you migrate to the kitchen table to work even through you have designated a space for sewing?

It’s possible that you’re trying to put the proverbial round peg in the square hole because you haven’t fully analyzed what does and does not work for YOU and why. You’re trying to use tools that someone else says will work for you. Debra Lipp, a Corcoran College of Art + Design-trained graphic designer, is a task analyzer and organizational specialist who works with creative people. She loves to understand an individual’s thinking process and help to discover what works for them – as an individual. And, lucky for us, she’s also a quilter/fiber artist.

This teleclass is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 17 at 8 pm, Eastern Daylight Time. Registration includes the teleclass and MP3 downloadable recording, so if you can’t come to the class, you’ll get the recording to listen to at a time that works for you. Here are details.

Quilting Your Style
Leah Fehr
Martingale & Co.; $26.99

A prom dress adventure in a dressing room – you’ll have to read the book to learn the story – led to Leah Fehr’s understanding of trying out different sewing techniques and evaluating options. In Quilting With Style, she shares a variety of embellishing techniques, including ruffling, beading, yo-yos and couching, on five-inch blocks. You can use the individual blocks in a sampler quilt as she did in the “The Dressing-Room Sampler” or use the techniques in the nine included projects or a project of your own design.

Here’s a link if you’d like to add it to your library.

I’ve been thinking a lot on the power of intention this past year. For years in my yoga classes the instructor has had us set an intention for class, and, yes, occasionally mine is to make it through the class. About a year ago, I taped a note to the bathroom mirror that says, “What is your intention/choice for today?” I find it gets me started on a conscious path each morning.

What exactly is intention? Webster defines it as a “determination to act in a certain way or resolve.” Gary Zukav in The Mind of the Soul says it’s “the use of your will….a commitment to accomplishing an objective, to creating something that was not there or to continue creating something that is.”

Here are some tips for creating powerful intentions in your life:

1. Get clear about what kind of person you want to be. Then get clear about what you want to do and what you want to have. Clarity is very powerful. I think figuring out the kind of person you want to be is most important; the “do” and “have” will follow.

2. State your intention. Say it out loud. Say it more than once. Write it down. I’ve been known to write my intentions on a paper and put it in my pocket. I take it out during the day and read it. This is especially helpful if I think self-sabotaging behaviors (like grabbing an extra one of those cinnamon scones that I picked up at the bakery last week and put in the freezer) are around the corner or I need an extra boost of motivation to stay focused and on track.

3. Share your intention with someone who cares about your success. It’s helpful if you share your intention with someone who will hold you accountable. Offer to do the same for her.

4. Now take action to demonstrate commitment to the intention. It doesn’t have to be some big action; many little actions will compound. And, while you can have a whopping big intention for your business, your intention for today might be to find some peace in your hectic life, no small feat.

5. Celebrate or somehow acknowledge this achievement, and then take the next step or action. Then rinse and repeat.

Before you know it, setting an intention each day will become a habit. Setting an intention clearly puts you in charge, and you’ll be energized by how much you are in control. You’ll be thrilled with the person you are “being” and with your ongoing accomplishments.

I hope you’ll take the time to set an intention for yourself and/or your business each morning. Let me know how it makes a difference in your life.

Here are two quotes on intention that I like:

Quilted One Block Marvels
Carolyn Sullivan
American Quilters’ Society; $22.95

The book’s title does not do justice to the actual marvels inside. Australian Carolyn Sullivan teaches you how to design your own block from elements in architecture or nature and then turn repeats of that block into quilts. She focuses on three types of symmetry – repetitions, rotations and reflections – to create the seemingly endless quilt design variations. Once you understand the concepts, you are free to make your own quilt or make one of the 12 that the book includes.

Here’s a link if you’d like to add it to your library.