QuiltingAndPatchwork.com 
Quilters aren’t running for public office, that I know of (although some probably are in their community or state).  However, quilters are expressing their support for Barack Obama through their art.
At Kyra’s Black Threads, I read a post, Fiber Artists for Obama, about the artists who are using their talents to support the candidate of their choice.  Kyra directs you to Cultural Expressions for more information.
Are there quilters and fiber artists supporting other candidates through quilting or who simply are raising the consiciousness of citizens to take an interest in the political scene and vote?
(c)2008 Mary Emma Allen

Yesterday I posted my daughter Beth’s photo of lilacs and a butterfly as a possible inspiration for quilting.  I didn’t realize at the time Beth was printing the photo on fabric for the final panel of her round robin book project.
When I saw her compiling the pages today and spied the butterfly and lilacs, I realized Beth had used her photo as inspiration for this project.  It captured her imagination as it did mine.
Check this post, Quilting Inspiration from Your Photos, for the photograph.
Here is the book page made from the photo printed onto fabric.  (Photo and book page from Meandering Threads.)  …read more

Keep your camera handy!  Don’t let those interesting photos escape you.  My daughter continually looks for inspiration for her quilting and fabric art in the world around here.  Recently she found some lovely spring flowers in thearea around  our home.   From lilacs, butterflies and lady slippers she gains inspiration and ideas. 
She also created a trillium design for one of her contributions to a round robin project.This is an example of a page for a round robin book created from a picture of trillium Beth took on one of her photography expeditions around our woodland last year.  When she needed something to …read more

I thoroughly enjoyed Cyndi’s interview of Angie Platten at Layers Upon Layers.  Angie, a multi-faceted artist, does lovely work.
Cyndi has a number of photos of some Angie’s various types of work….journal quilts, fabric postcards, altered books, handmade books, ATC’s, altered CD’s, and fiber art.  I particularly like the journal quilt Cyndi shows on her blog.
(To see more of Angie’s work, visit her web site and her blog.)

Fabric postcards with circle designs have been coming and going at our home.  One of my daughter’s postcard exchange groups has a theme of “Circles” for their latest swap.  The postcard design needed to have at least one circle in it.
One arrived today from England with circle stitching and sparkly circles sewed on it, too.  (And it came through the mail perfectly intact without an envelope or plastic covering.)  It’s interesting the great variety of postcards that can be designed with a simple circle theme.
Here is one of Beth’s:
You can check out more at her Meandering Threads blog  You may …read more

As I watched my daughter make a fairy for the Round Robin quilt book project her Fiber Explorers group is undertaking, I was amazed.  The theme for the book she had to work on this session was Art Paper Dolls.
I think this is lovely, and even the photo shows the three-dimensional effect.

Now maybe I’m prejudiced because Beth is my daughter!  However, I’m going to suggest she sometime make a whole book of these little fairies in different costumes and and poses.  Perhaps I should write a children’s story and let Beth make illustrations in fabric. 
Learn more about the Round Robin fabric …read more

Do you have a quilter’s Inspiration Bag?  The idea came to me as I read Emily’s message in her Quilters Village Newsletter. 
She had just returned from the International Quilt Festival in Chicago and mentioned her bag of inspiration…items she’d collected while at the show (fabrics, fun fusible, funky art items, bright thread, hand dyed fibers, gold fabric paint).  Emily was anxious to begin creating from her collection and thought the rainy day they were experiencing was perfect.  Then she mentioned that you didn’t have to attend the show to have such a bag or have a rainy day. 
Simply “fill a box …read more

Here’s the latest creation Beth made for the Round Robin her fiber arts group (Fiber Explorers) are doing.  She made it as a page for Carmen’s book with the them of “In the Woods.” Since we have trillium among the wild flowers growing the three acres of woodland around our home, it seemed appropriate to make these flowers for Carmen’s book.  You’ll find more about their Round Robin books on Beth’s Meandering Threads blog and perhaps gain inspiration and ideas for a book of your own.   Each of the fiber artists developed a theme for their book.  Then each of …read more

As we watch yet another foot of snow accumulate around our house in April in New Hampshire, my daughter and I wonder where spring is and all those green leaves and flowers that should be budding.  (We’ve had two storms, a foot of snow each, in less than a week in a season when we should be looking forward to warmer weather.)
So we look to our quilting fabric art and “Think Spring!”
Beth posted a photo of the storm on her Meandering Threads blog and then some fabric postcards with spring scenes or themes.  These actually are some she made for …read more

Beth’s fiber arts group has completed another segment in their Round Robin quilts.  She posted some photos, at her Meandering Threads blog, of work they’ve accomplished so far. 
Each quilter is contributing a page to one another’s books.  They also selected themes for their books which the contributors are carrying out.
It’s very interesting to see the various techniques and ideas they are coming up with.

Here is Beth’s contribution to one of the books with the theme of “Sky.”  It’s difficult to see clearly here, but Beth placed cheese cloth over the blue ocean to give it texture.  The fabric is some …read more