UrbanAmish

I am amazed by the kindness of strangers

2011-04-14T15:27:00.000-07:00

Two news items. Well, three.

Number one, I have not abandoned the UrbanAmish Lessons projects. Time to work on it has just temporarily abandoned me. The next lesson will actually appear on my friend's Joan Hawley's, Lazy Girl design blog first and then I will post here with additional customized details appropriate for my UrbanAmish friends.

Number two item. I just got my advance yardage for my new blender line, Tessuto, (Textile in Italian) that will debut at Quilt market in May at Salt Lake City. Here they all are arranged nicely before we dive in and start using them. They won't be looking so neat for very long once Pamela and I get going.

They are used in the design you see at the beginning of this blog along with my other blender line, Earthlight, which was introduced at the 2010 Fall International Quilt Market in Houston.

And number three, the reason why I'm writing today: I'm simply stunned, amazed and grateful. This week I got this email:

I had made it to the top 100 finalist! And then the voting started and so far it's been exciting to see my barn quilt design...picture at the top of this blog post is actually in the lead so far!

I know I promised my friends that I would share if I won the AccuQuilt shopping spree but I have not bribed every single one of those votes. So thank you kind strangers.

(And I really want to meet Eleanor Burns and have her teach me how to throw scraps of fabric over my shoulder with such joie de vivre.)

So UrbanAmishers, if you liked to help me and those I have bribed win, go to here:

http://www.accuquilt.com/barnquilt-top100

and vote for my design which is somewhere down about the middle of the page first in the row.

I do believe, Eleanor Burns, Alex Anderson, and Ricky Tims have final, final say who wins but I'm sure number of votes will count for quite a bit. And yes, voting ends on April 19th! So don't forget to vote soon.

Thank you to kind friends and kind strangers for helping me get this close to the goal.

Coming next: Do Fabric Designers Dream of Plaid Sheep?

This designer does.

The Twinkle Magic Show - Computer.m4v

2010-05-26T20:48:00.000-07:00

Wanted to share the schoolhouse presentation I just gave for Twinkle at International Quilt Market in Minneapolis.

I promise to really soon learn how to do voice overs.

This looks like a great way to show someone how a quilt goes together.

Color Mastery and Twinkle meet and are friends.

2010-05-16T15:07:00.000-07:00

Hello UrbanAmishers!

Just a few more days and off I go to Minneapolis for the debut of two of my fabric lines for Blank Quilting, Avignon and Twinkle. When I return I'll tell you all about Avignon and I'll also post the PDF files for my schoolhouse presentation: The Twinkle Magic Show. It contains lots of fun ideas for using Twinkle and will get your creative juices flowing merrily downhill where they will puddle easily into a beautiful new fabric dream masterpiece.
The above image is a quilt idea that reminds me of Life Savers, the classic assortment. All you need is width of fabric strips of red ,orange , yellow, green and black Twinkle to surround the candy colors and off you go. You can get a closer look and free Twinkle patterns by clicking here.

And here's a chance to get some free Twinkle fabric to play with along with Maria Peagler's fabulous Color Mastery book (also free!).
The fabric kit looks like this and it's great for doing some of the exercises suggested in the book.

And here's all about the give away at Maria's Color Mastery blog.
In Maria's own words and pictures:

The goodies get more interesting each week, don't they? This Color Mastery/Twinkle Fabric Collection prize pack is up for grabs this week, and it includes a Color Mastery book, the Color Journal Kit CD, and all ten colorways of Yolanda Fundora's brand new Twinkle fabric collection. Is this fabric not totally yummy? And it goes from a light value to a dark value in one hue. What possibilities it holds!

Rest easy: this contest is a bit easier. I really had ya'll searching all over the internet for the answers to last week's contest. This week, here's what you do: become a Fan of Color Mastery on Facebook by clicking on the Like button at the top right of the Fan page. If you aren't a member of Facebook, it's time to join: your quilting friends are already there, and it's a great way to see what everyone's working on.

So after you join Facebook and become a Fan of Color Mastery, then what? Well, nothing, or something, depending on how many times you want to be entered to win. Here's how it works:

Visit the Fan page and recommend Color Mastery to your friends by writing on the Color Mastery wall. It then shows up to all your friends (remember that Herbal Essences shampoo commercial? "I told two friends, and they told two friends, and so on, and so on ....".
Each day I select a winner from all the Fans who've written on my wall that day for a unique surprise - a different one each day.
Each day you visit and write on the Color Mastery wall, I'll enter you in the Friday drawing for the Color Mastery/Twinkle prize package. If you've visited every day, you'll have five total entries. Just for spreading the word about Color Mastery!

So UrbanAmishers...get yourselves over to Maria's fanpage on Facebook and see if you can win this fun set.

Twinkle! It's here! And Happy Bunny Day!

2010-04-02T13:15:00.000-07:00

Since the beginning of this year it seems time has accelerated triple-fold. Not a day goes by without having one more UrbanAmish thought pop up in my head. But do I tell you about them?

No, not at all! I looked and was aghast that my last post was three months ago! All that time I had been talking to you in my head but never got around to actually posting. So I feel a bit ashamed and hoping you will be kind and forgive me.

And I also need to confess that I really don't have another lesson fully ready to upload and share.

However I'm very excited about my new Twinkle line and wanted to share it. Playing with it does make me very happy. I'm hoping that spreads right out to you wherever you are.

The Twinkle is a hybrid of sorts. It's a novelty-blender-fabric stash.

Each Twinkle sku is a star-filled blender offering four coordinated shades on one fabric.

Here is an overview of what the entire width of the fabric looks likes (This is the blue colorway.)

And the transitions from one color to another let you create interesting effects with little sewing such as faux half-square triangles.

Here are close-ups of the three transition areas starting from dark to light.

Take all ten fabrics in the line together and with just a minimum of fabric from each you end up with all these colors. A rainbow of rollicking Twinkle fabric fun!

And Twinkle does have it's quiet contemplative side. It works great in a supporting role as a blender with a bit of sparkle.

Here's a sneak preview of a project to be published in a coming issue of The Quilter that uses twinkle with another one of my coming new lines, Avignon, to make a very elegant little tabletopper or wall banner with a bit of a bargello effect. (I'll keep you posted when that quilt pattern is published.)

This design is called Heavenly Blues and it's in honor of my beloved morning glories that get to grow rampant around my porch in late summer. Here's a pix of one of the best seasons ever. That blue makes my colorheart sing. And calms me too. Nice hue to have around if you are in a quiet mood.

But back to fun and rollicking wild times and let the colors flow! The wonderful folk at Blank Quilting commissioned me to design not just one but three gifts for you in the form of three free downloadable quilt patterns.

And here they are for your convenience all gathered in one place.

First is Twinkle Rainbow Sampler.

Click here to download PDF file.

Next is Twinkle Fiesta Ware, really lively fusible applique projects.

Click here to download this.

Or check out these Twinkle Cottage lap quilts with matching placemats to keep your beach or lakehouse comfy and spruced up.

By now Twinkle should be showing up in independent quilts shops everywhere. Please support them. We need them! They are at the heart of our quilting lifes. If you can't find these fabrics locally, you can also get them from me at www.urban-amish.com. Check out the Rainbow sampler packs.

And also www.quiltwoman.com just published two of my Twinkle pattern designs.

Great little gift banners. Quick and easy! You can make two up in a day. There are two designs per pattern.

So quilting UrbanAmish bunnies everywhere! Have a very happy Easter holiday with all your bunny loved ones!

Take good care. And may your chocolate Easter Egg come in the flavor you like best!

May your new year be bright!

2009-12-31T12:04:00.000-08:00

I was preparing my old year/ new year post to UrbanAmishers when I received this wonderful email:

Hello Yolanda -

Thank you for posting your version of the Indian Hatchet quilt block. Many years ago my great-grandmother made me a quilt using this pattern and I always wanted to give it a try myself. The patterns I found used small pieces and seemed very daunting. Then I found your site. I appreciate your explanation of 'size does matter', 'large scale/medium scale' fabric prints, and showing so many block variations. I chose the mirrored version, and did my best to find fabric that met your recommendations.

This was my first quilt, and I loved the entire process. Attached are a couple of photos.

Thank you again for the great web site and thorough explanation of the Indian Hatchet quilt block.

Lisa
And here are the two photos she included.

I asked her to tell me a little bit about herself and this is what she said.

Thank you for the kind words about my quilt. Your web site was such an inspiration to make it happen!

Please feel free to post the email. I'm just a middle aged (45) gal who shares an almost perfect life with my husband, Mike, in rural Missouri. I was inspired to quilt by my great-grandmother, but never took the time to try until this year. I'm already in the planning phase of my next quilt.

Happy New Year!!
Lisa

(The jpgs were labeled: 'Mike's' so I'm guessing she made this quilt for her husband.)

My thanks to Lisa for making me very, very, happy.

And now there's at least one more quilter out there. I believe the world is only better for it.

Happy New Year, UrbanAmishers!

Merry Christmas UrbanAmishers everywhere!

2009-12-24T11:22:00.000-08:00

May your days be merry and bright in the coming year!

Post Turkey Thanksgiving UrbanAmishThoughts

2009-11-30T07:44:00.000-08:00

It's been a wonderful year. What's made it so particularly wonderful is that I find myself in contact with so many alive, creative folks. People willing to take my fabrics and run with them. Or people with whom I can share a common goal and encourage me to give it my graphic best.

They share my passion for creativity and collaborate with me generously and joyously. Some are nearby, some I've never met but have become friends through the magic of the web. One even shares my home!

This is my tribute to them and the power of collaborative friendship.

They appear in the opening image clockwise starting at 7 o'clock. Dustin Farrell, Kristine Poor, Joan Hawley, Pamela Zave, Deborah Vollbracht, Barbara Campbell, Mario Picayo, Marta McDowell, and Diana Mancini. I've introduced them below and their names connect to their web sites or blogs where you can find out more about them.

Dusty (Dustin Farrell)

Dusty is an art longarm quilter. Dusty has been drawing and painting from ever since he can remember and he continues to let it all flow magically out of his hands through his longarm quilting. I have had the pleasure of seeing his stitching artistry on three of my quilts so far: Dream Garden, Twinkling Star (Both patterns available on my web page.), and Jake's Escalator (which will be published in the Jan/Feb 2010 issue of Fon's & Porter's Easy Quilts).

Here they are for your viewing pleasure (Click on the pictures to see bigger so you can see the quilting details a bit better.)

This is the Twinkling Star made up from my Sketchbook Fabrics.

This is a close-up. Love the variation on the traditional feather. And it's all freehand 'longarming.'

This is my Dream Garden quilt which is made from the fabric collection by the same name.

This is a detail.

This is the quilt, Jake's Escalator, just the corner that fits... too big to photograph the whole thing but you'll be able to see it in the magazine. This is made from Garden Party, the navy-wasabi colorway and my latest line with Blank Quilting.

And a close-up of the quilting detail. Remember! Click on photos, any photo to see BIGGER!

And for the curious: this is why it's called Jake's Escalator.

Kristine Poor (Poorhouse Quilting)

I first met Kristine through her samples of the bags for a Leisure Arts book called Sew & Go Totes at Houston Quilt Market 2008.

Pamela, my partner, was with me at market and spotted all these sample bags in the Leisure Arts booth made up with an old fabric line of mine, Software. We walked in and asked why they were there and they handed me a dummied version of a book soon to be released. We were dumbfounded because practically every projects used my fabric line. So I left a business card and gave it to the Leisure Arts person in the hopes we could make contact and I could thank her personally.

The way she had used the fabrics it was obvious we were on the same design wavelength.

The rest is history. We have been collaborating happily every since.

This year, for Spring Quilt Market she remade some of the projects in the first book with my Sketchbook line.

The Duffel Bag

The Bongo Bag and the Craft Tote

And the backpack.

And here's her toy tote which uses my Garden Party line and will be on the cover of her next book! And a picture of the banner ad for it at Houston Fall Market 2009. The book is called: Ready, Set, Go: Baby Necessities to Sew. At market this year, I also had the added pleasure of meeting her mom. What a team they make.

Check out Kristine's site and also see what fabric kits are available with her designs.

Joan Hawley (Lazy Girl Designs)

Joan Hawley is my role model. Joan does everything she does well. Her patterns are exquisitely written and therefore very easy to follow. Her tutorials illuminating. Her fabric choices inspired. I was overjoyed when I found out a few years ago that she was reissuing the cover of her Runaround Bag pattern with my A la Mode fabric.

Since that wonderful day she continues to promote my fabrics generously on her blog and at Market.

Here's a sampling:

Her Miranda pattern dressed in Sketchbook fabrics at the Salt Lake City Airport

Sassy dressed in Garden Party before her flight to Houston for Fall Quilt Market 2009.

The Claires dressed in two coloways of Sketchbook fabrics. The pictures show front and back of the same bag. Clever, no?

And the latest cuties, the Maggies, presents from Joan to go with my Sassy and my Miranda.

Maggie is Joan's newest release AND the larger Maggie fit's my iPhone oh so comfortably. Now I can always find it fast because of the clip and it's cozy new home.

I'm very excited because over the holidays I'll be setting up a mini-Lazy Girl fabric and pattern store at urban-amish.com.

And the other thing about Joan that is really nice is that she shares pictures of Honey with me. She knows I have a thing about poodles and for the moment can't really have one. But here is a picture of Honey sent right after she got her hair done. How can you not love that sweet all-knowing little face? Whenever I get a picture of Honey snoring or a close-up of her cute fat toes, I feel like a proud aunt.

Pamela Zave (Pamela Zave's Color Quilts)

Okay, this is my honey. I know I can be accused of being prejudiced so just go to her website and judge for yourselves how good she is. She's a computer researcher and a fabulous art quilter. She was just made an AT&T fellow, a great honor, for decades of outstanding computer research. Here's her cake. She dived into it I'm told. She likes whipped cream. She and I are UrbanAmish development team. If the cake had been near me I would have joined her in the dive.

She's into color. Our breakfast conversation do tend to run into the esoteric areas of color and pattern and quilting design and fiber content (but that usually but not always concerns my latest cereal). We are happy this way. Currently we are transforming our little 1934 truck-delivered Sears Cape Cod into a personal size quilt and print museum that we get to sleep and eat and watch movies on AppleTV in.

We just got delivery of new hooks for the picture molding we had put in our living room and dining room so we can change the exhibition as much as we want without making holes all over the walls. And we actually transformed our home into a temporary Rubik's Cube by having the floors refinished to "museum" blond.

She is currently exploring green—it's yellower side in great detail—but more about it in a later post.

Here are some of my favorite of her color explorations:

This is the exploration of the bluer side of green in the quilt formerly known as Before Night Falls but now called Forest, Ivy, Emerald, Viridian.

The brighter side of the spectrum explored brilliantly in Sunlight, Citron, Saffron, Ochre. (Soon to be in a book: 500 Art Quilts by Lark Publications.)

And the introspective purples in Lavender, Heliotrope, Heliotrope, Iris. Or as I call it, being a Prince fan: Purple Rain.

And Pamela just hung up my gift quilt in my studio: Delphine in an English Garden, a bigger-than-life portrait of my favorite stuffed animal standing in the focus fabric field of one of the fabric lines I have most enjoyed designing, In an English Garden. The picture also gives you an idea of what the cyber half of my design studio looks like. (By the way, that's the free download quilt for my soon-to- be-released fabric line from Blank, Twinkle, on the screen of my beloved Mac.)
Having this quilt right before me increases my happiness quotient exponentially. It's like having a door into a magic realm unexpectedly installed in your room.

Deborah Vollbracht (Creative Folk Quilting)

Deborah found me through the Blank Quilting website. She politely asked if she could use some of my fabrics for a project she had in mind. When I started seeing her designs I was very taken with her style. I liked the simple elegance of her ideas. They were spare to a perfectly balanced point—no more and no less than was needed to make a visual statement.

She also impressed me that in about 6 months she willingly underwent a crash course in computer literacy while temporarily away from home and engaged in helping her sister out in a difficult time. Total grace under pressure.

I carry her pattern designs on my website for now until she can make her transition fully back to her beloved Colorado where she finally was able to return and take the next steps to getting herself a website.

For now we must make do with her blog to read her in her own voice and see snippets of her fabric play. Do visit it and you will see what I mean. (Link from her web name above.) I predict once things settle down for her she will be a creative force in the design world and I will be able to say I knew her when.

I have to thank Deborah for one of the most emotionally meaningful pieces of fabric art I now own.

Below is the Fab Frame that she made for me with a picture of my parents on their honeymoon in 1943 as a thank you for helping her out with the pattern for it.

My mother died this summer; my father died in 1994. It hangs in my studio where I see them everyday.

I also have to thank her for this great placemat set that graced my porch this summer.

the pattern is called Simple Elegance. My porch set is in Garden Party fabrics.

My friend Marta's set is in Dream Garden fabrics and that's her lovely kitchen dining area. Marta lives in another great old Sears home near me.

All of Deborah's patterns mentioned above are available through my website along with fabric kits if desired.

Barbara Campbell (Love in Stitches)

Barbara and I met through our local Garden State Quilters guild. For two years we collaborated as a design team under the umbrella name of Love in Stitches. She sewed and designed quilts and I designed fabrics and virtual quilts. Together we co-authored two books: Holiday Quilts: 25 Designs for the Holidays and Everyday and Fuse It and Be Done both for Krause Publications. We traveled to quilt market together and back home we had a lot of fun brainstorming and bouncing ideas off each other.

However we came to the sad realization that despite all the fun we were having our business model was not financially viable and that our design and work styles were fundamentally at odds. Independence with the occassional collaboration was the only way to go for each of us.

Today Barbara designs for many fabric manufacturers and continues publishing many beautiful quilts in the trade magazines. Barbara continues to be the source of many beautiful quilt designs using my fabrics even now and is concentrating on developing her wonderful ideas and getting them out to the world.

Here's one of her latest soon to be published with Quilter's Newsletter. It's a very clever rethinking of an old favorite, the basket quilt. (Rethinking the everyday in quilting is something Barbara is very good at. She's always trying to figure out a way to do things faster. She just doesn't like to do the same thing in the same way twice.)

Here's a close-up detail. Notice the fabric folding.

And here's one that she did with my Sketchbook line featured this fall in Fabric Trends. Note it was featured with Kristine Poor's bags from her Sew & Go Totes.

Mario Picayo (Editorial Campana)

Mario is the editor-in-chief of Editorial Campana and it's juvenile division, Campanita.

I design the books for Editorial Campana. Editorial Campana publishes literature written in English and Spanish by Latin@s who dare to challenge the literary canon, conventional social thinking, and who believe in culture as patrimony for everyone. Campana publishes works that contribute to the recovery of Latin@s personal and historic memory as well as those that will develop the pleasure of reading literature written by Latin@s.

I love this collaboration in particular because of it's cultural significance to me personally. Both Mario and I were born in Cuba. We both have lived also in Puerto Rico and New York City. Mario lives now in Upstate New York and I live in New Jersey. Campana offices are in New York City. So geographically and culturally we have led similar lives.

I enjoy working on all the books but I confess to have really gotten the most joy from working closely with him on illustrating his story A Very Smart Cat/Una gata muy inteligente, the second of the two bilingual Spanish/ English children's book I've illustrated for Campanita.

Readers will see some of my Dream Garden fabrics being used as home decor in Ms. Kitty's home. The book, published in September 2008 is now in it's second printing.

Here's two of my favorite scenes.

The first is one of the first scenes in the book when you know things are going to go bad.

This second scene is when things are almost past the point of no return (it's all still careening downhill —for the humans in the household— Kitty seems to be enjoying herself just fine.)

Marta McDowell (MartaMcDowell.com)

This is my buddy, Marta McDowell, in her Old McDowell Had a Farm outfit. Despite the informality of her dress, Marta looks really impressive on paper and is more so in everyday life. Marta teaches landscape history and preservation at the New York Botanical Garden and is the author Emily Dickinson's Garden (McGraw Hill). I met Marta at a mutual friends' home but I got to know her through reading her beautiful Emily book.
I've had the pleasure of collaborating with Marta on a joint book, A Garden Alphabetized (for your viewing pleasure).
Now we have many projects up our joint sleeves, including Orchidaceous and possibly a book about a local historical garden jewel, Willowwood. Can't wait to see what the new year brings.
Below is Ladyslipper Chapel from the Orchidaceous book project.

Diana Mancini (BlankQuilting.com)

Diana is the creative director at Blank Quilting. It is no exaggeration to say that working with Diana is a dream come true for me. I've worked both in-house at design studios and as a free agent for many years now and always wished and hoped for a creative director with whom I could feel comfortable and whose vision I could respect and trust. I have finally found such a person in Diana Mancini.

Blank Quilting is fortunate to have her and so am I. I love textile design above all my activities because it's the one art form that is truly collaborative. After you are through designing the fabrics another person will come along and use it to create more art multiplying the joy and pleasure of the creative activity in an ever expanding chain.

Therefore, I'm so very thankful that I got to work with Diana and hope to do so for many years to come. She's made a huge difference in the quality of my life.

Road to Houston • UrbanAmish Lesson 3, Part 1

2009-10-09T19:58:00.001-07:00

This year is the 30th anniversary of International Quilt Market in Houston Texas.

Every year manufacturers from all over the world hitch up their team of oxen, fill their covered wagons to overload and head for for the George R. Brown Convention Center to ply their wares.

Since I was coming here to help present my new Garden Party line from Blank Quilting, it was only appropriate to mark this Market milestone with the first public introduction of UrbanAmish and to offer on the same day to subscribed UrbanAmishers Lesson 3 Part 1 of the block formerly known as Road to Oklahoma and now dubbed Road to Houston after going for a spin on the UrbanAmish wagon. I wanted to make the download available so we could all be here together at least in spirit.

Pamela Zave, my partner in this endeavor, became enamored of this block after working through the lesson with me and did 3 lovely variations on it. She used the UrbanAmish color formula #2 from the downloadable lesson to make these. Pamela is an art quilter. She does not naturally gravitate to traditional blocks but the scale and updated color formulas seem to attract her in a way that a more traditional approach does not. I'm always thrilled to see her enthusiasm for the new UrbanAmish lesson because she is not an easy woman to convince. (By the way, Pamela just received the great news that one of her quilts will be published in a new book by Lark called 500 Art Quilts due out Spring 2010.)

Here are her three Road to Houston test beauties.

A fresh red and green and soft yellows combination.

An apple green block.

And a yellow and blue texturally roiling sample.

But you know what? I'm going to make this blog post a short one.
In a few hours I need to be at the Blank booth to give my talk and I'm simply too excited to sit at my laptop typing. I want to go look at quilts and see my friends that I only get to see once a year here.

When I get back home I'll write more in depth when I post the second part of the Road to Houston lesson. The Road to Houston is long, twisty and very exciting and after writing 14 pages I realized it was going to have to be presented in two parts.

At the very end of this post you will see an image of the first page of the lesson. Click on the image to download lesson. And if you are curious about my new line for the wonderful people of Blank Quilting visit my web site: www.urban-amish.com

BUT! Just one more story to share before I close down my laptop.

Here is a picture of a wonderful surprise that arrived in the mail just before I left to come here. This little bag below is Sassy, by my friend, the wonderful Joan Hawley of Lazy Girl Designs fame.

Sassy's new dress is from my new Garden Party line in the Navy/Wasabi colorway.
She's trim and petite but she carries all you need without breaking her stride. And what a charmer out on the convention floor! People talk me just because she's so cute.

Take good care, UrbanAmishers!

Click here to download lesson.

Ellen Emeline Webster (1867-1950)

2009-06-07T06:32:00.000-07:00

I had the incredible pleasure of meeting Pat Cummings, quilt historian, at the Machine Quilter's Expo in New Hampshire this past April where I was teaching two classes based on the book Fuse It and Be Done with my co-author Barbara Campbell. What stands out from that brief half hour that Pat, Barbara and I spent together is how much we laughed and her mention of Ellen Webster.

Upon my return home I quickly ordered the CD of the eBook that Pat and her husband, James have produced. What a delight it has been stealing chunks of the day here and there to slowly savor each of Ellen Webster's charts

I wish everyone else interested in quilt history to have the same chance at such pleasure so I have asked Pat to introduce the book to UrbanAmishers.

In Pat Cummings own words:

When I came to the realization that I wanted to know more about Mrs. Webster, who had made some wonderful quilt charts, thereby “saving” antique quilt designs, I looked online for more information. There, I began to discover some of her other interests, that of an avid bird watcher, and that she was a writer who heavily contributed to writing her own (Hardy) family's massive genealogy. As thread led on to thread, I purchased obscure research materials, bugged Interlibrary Loan at the local library to borrow materials, and contacted historical societies across the country. Some quilt historians from the American Quilt Study Group, supplied tidbits of information that helped me to piece together even more details. However, a major breakthrough came when Ellen's two great nephews visited me, bringing me two family, Victorian crazy quilts to photograph, and old family photos, as well as Ellen's diaries and letters. I felt I had hit the jackpot, not that all the rest of the already uncovered information wasn't fascinating. It was!

Everything I learned about Ellen lent testimony to her loving soul. She cared a lot about people. She passionately gave quilt lectures, as well as talks about birds, and Bible studies. She was a model citizen, generous with her talents and time to her family and community. She was a pianist and organist, as well. Immediately, I felt such a connection with Mrs. Webster. She grew up on a farm, she was an educator who had taught school, including at the college level, and she loved quilts and the history of them, so she and I had all of those things in common, and more! I, too, love music and birds.

Her quilt charts could not have been done by just anyone. As a trained teacher of Mathematics, she brought special skills to the task. She made the charts to use as teaching tools in order to preserve the designs of antique quilts that she viewed in the 1930s. She was fully cognizant of the work of quilt designers and other quilt historians of her time, both emerging fields for women. She mentions them on the paper board charts, inscribing their names in pencilled notations. Each chart in the e-book is full-page size. The discovery of her total life, not just her quilt documentation work, was a joy. Her writings provide insight into the times in which she lived. The reader will gain insight into New Hampshire life when every family had a horse, and a sleigh to get around in winter, and a carriage to travel in summer. In the twentieth century, Mrs. Webster never drove a car, relying on public transportation, usually the train, to get to Massachusetts where she earned two college degrees.

The beauty with which Ellen Webster surrounded herself seemed to be in spite of her circumstances. She seems to have done most of her work as a quilt historian and educator, after her husband passed on, and also after, achieving a master's degree from Boston University in 1926. While Mrs. Webster may be remembered for the time-consuming, precisely-made, quilt charts she created, her physical beauty is memorable, as is her inner strength. She served as a role model for women then, and her life, as any life well-lived, is worthy of our attention, now. What an inspiring individual!

So! If you are as curious as I was here is how to get it:

Ellen Emeline Hardy Webster (1867-1950), Her Amazing Quilt Charts, Her Writings, and Her Life
by Patricia Lynne Grace Cummings, quilt historian and James Cummings, photographer

An e-book on CD: 355 pages, with 340 photos - plays on any computer.

Available at: http://www.quiltersmuse.com/products-available.htm

PS. Patricia Cummings writes a quilt history column regularly feautured in The Quilter Magazine.

Another PS. While nosing around the Quilter's Muse website I came upon Pat's tribute to Jose Martí. As a Cuban-American I was touched deeply by Pat's heartfelt tribute to my country's leading poet and visionary.

Detail of Pat's crazy quilt dedicated to Martí.

Therefore if you are curious about that, go to this page too: http://www.quiltersmuse.com/Jose_Marti.htm

UrbanAmish Lesson 2 • Roman Broad Stripe or Rome Can Be Built in a Day

2009-05-10T11:34:00.000-07:00

Photo of centurion courtesy Luc Viatour via Wikipedia Commons.

The Romans were no slouches at decorative touches as you can see by this photograph of a Roman Centurion at a historical reenactment in Boulogne, France.
I've paired him with one of Pamela's Roman Broad Stripe blocks that looked particularly good with his outfit.

In this lesson we are going to explore an UrbanAmish variations on the Roman Stripe. I've based the Roman Broad Stripe on the traditional Roman Stripe Amish block, a block often seen presented in the configuration shown to the right.

This has always been a very appealing block for me specially in the Lightning configuration. While the small band of stripes in the traditional block is quite appealing for colorwork . . .

Red and green play with my Holiday Splendor Christmas line in a traditional Roman Stripe.

. . . I found myself wanting the bold lightning effect AND the visual impact of larger scale graphics while putting a new line idea through it's paces in a virtual quilt design. I tinkered with stripe proportions and came up with an UrbanAmish variation. Here's the virtual quilt that gave birth to the proportions and dimensions of UrbanAmish Roman Broad Stripe.

Quilt design by Yolanda Fundora: Roman Landscape

An aside: For the life of me I cannot find why the traditional block is called Roman Stripe. (Any quilt historians out there please chime in through a comment if you know the answer so the unenlightened may be illuminated.)

To have an UrbanAmish Roman Broad Stripe adventure you must download the following:

UrbanAmish Lesson #2: Roman Broad Stripe

To download, click here.

UrbanAmish Lesson #2 Templates for Roman Broad Stripe.

To download, click here.

As you already know if you have read previous posts: UrbanAmish lessons are fully tested on a laboratory volunteer.
Pamela is never harmed in the process but I was a bit afraid she might hurt herself in her enthusiastic response to this lesson.

She produced 4 individual Roman Broad Stripe Blocks.

These two configurations take the 2-unit block for a spin:

These are one-unit lightning configurations. (To be further illuminated you must read the lesson.):

And while her brain munched on those she came up with a design that incorporates her two favorite Roman Broad Stripe configurations:
Lightning and Double"K". She calls this "Urban Baby Quilt," saying, "Urban babies wear black and go to art museums."

Pamela adds:

I made my four sample blocks from an early version of the lesson. In this version, fabric B was supposed to contrast to A in value, hue, and texture, and fabric C was supposed to be similar to B in value and hue, while similar to A in texture. For instance, in my blue block, all the fabrics are turquoise and cobalt blue. A and C have curly lines, while B has straight lines, making the two groups contrast in texture. B and C have more cobalt (and black) than turquoise, while A has more turquoise than cobalt, making these two groups contrast in value and hue.

The earlier version of the lesson was fun and rewarding, but it was HARD to find fabrics that went together in exactly the right way. The new version is much easier to follow, and will give you blocks that look just as good.

Urban Baby Quilt is not quite legitimate because there is too much contrast between B and C. I don't care! I loved these fabrics too much.

I am fortunate to have most of Yolanda's fabrics in my stash. My green block uses the Holiday Splendor focus fabric from her current Christmas line with Blank Quilting, and shows that it doesn't have to look like Christmas. The palm trees in my yellow block come from Yolanda's older "Playa Sur" line. And the red fabric in the baby quilt comes from Yolanda's older "Textura Graphica" line.

Our shared quilt studio in the midst of a Roman Broad Stripe lightning brainstorm. That's Pamela's current color wheel quilt design on the back flannel wall and part of her lovingly organized fabric stash.

Premio Dardos

2009-04-02T06:26:00.000-07:00

Two days ago I received an email from Vicki Lane telling me she had awarded me the Premio Dardos. I really had no idea what the Premio Dardos was but it did mean a lot that it came from her. My spirits were lifted quite high and I thank her for that.

Make sure you follow the link to go to her hub website specially if you are a mystery fan. There you can find links to her newsletter and blogs. Definitely worth the visit.

So what is the Premio Dardos Award?

"The Dardos Award is given for recognition of cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values transmitted in the form of creative and original writing. These stamps were created with the intention of promoting fraternization between bloggers, a way of showing affection and gratitude for work that adds value to the Web.”
Dardos winners must do the following: 1) Accept the award by posting it on your blog along with the name of the person who has granted the award and a link to his/her blog. 2) Pass the award to another five blogs that are worthy of this acknowledgement, remembering to contact each of them to let them know they have been selected for this award."

I did not want to pass on the award frivolously so I really thought long and hard about what pleases me in a blog. I came to the realization that a spirit of generosity and joie de vivre were the important factors for me.

So my Premio Dardos nominees are:

In Wales:
An Artist's Garden

In Sweden:
RosesansStuff

In California:
tulipsinthewoods.com

And in my own Garden State of New Jersey:
will work for fabrics
&
my dearest friend, Marta's gardening blogs.
Two addresses for this one because of a recent spring-induced migration. I do not want you to miss access to the older posts. Marta McDowell & Chickweeds

As a web experiment I took the liberty of updating the Premio Dardos image. I searched for the highest resolution file on the web, did a bit of modification most important of which was to add the current year and to change the typeface of the title which had become quite deteriorated by the time I received it. It will be fun to open up the possibility of seeing this particular mutation show up unexpectedly someday.

My Travels with Miranda

2009-03-27T11:37:00.000-07:00

A fortnight ago I had the pleasure of making a business trip cross-country with a new acquaintance. By the end of the 6-hour plane ride, I knew we were going to be fast friends.
The next couple of days at the presentation and during the trade show we were on our way to a life-long friendship.

A lot of you know Joan Hawley, of Lazy Girls Design. I have long admired her bag designs visually and follow her very informative blog every Monday morning. However I had never had my hands on one of her designs to use.

I'm by nature an impatient and demanding bag user. I want a bag to have everything I need, whenever I need it with a minimum of rooting around. I want it to be able to carry all my reading and writing materials, my iPhone, second pair of glasses, wallet, passport case, camera... the list is infinite. When I want anything I want it fast. I want to be able to put down the bag and have her stand up by herself. And above all I don't want the shape of the bag to distribute the weight so badly that my arm is sheared off at the shoulder when carrying it. Miranda by far exceeded all my demands and even anticipated a few I didn't realize I had.

Stuffed!: iPhone, wallet, glass case, my idea corral (see "Stripes Rule!" post), quilting magazines , two books, travel pillow, passport case, and a Runaround bag you can't see because of the angle.

Joan had made me a Miranda Day Bag using the sienna & black colorway of my Sketchbook fabric line that debuts at the coming Spring Quilt Market. We were doing this with the idea of co-promotion at the trade show I was traveling to.

I was carefully wrapping up Miranda into my suitcase when I took a closer look at her and realized that she looked perfect for that long plane ride. So I unstuffed my usual bag and arranged everything into Miranda. Already I could tell Miranda was not just another pretty face. Here was a bag that knew what it took to go the distance.

As it turned out we had an extremely productive and satisfying trip. Miranda garnered compliments all the days we were there and has continued to do so back on the home turf accompanying me on my shopping expeditions. She can even carry my 12" Macbook!

Back at home at the studio meditating upon a successful trip.

And Miranda also loves her little sister Runaround which she carried lovingly and safely all the way across the USA and back. Check out the zipper and thread tutorials Joan has posted starring Runaround also in Sketchbook fabrics on Joan's Lazy Girls Design blog.

And for the readers among you:

You can see this is one of the books that I carried on the plane with me.
Mauve: How one man invented a color that changed the world by Simon Garfield.
Check out the review on Amazon for details. It's a real page-turner for anyone concerned with color. I whipped right through and so has Pamela, my dedicated UrbanAmish pupil. (And she doesn't even get extra credit for it.)

As background for the book shot I used Pamela's current Color Wheel quilt project.
Visit her website if you haven't yet. She has some very exciting color ideas too. (See sidebar for link.)

Don't Drink and Drive! ...or is it Don't Quilt and Drive? ... definitely Don't Drink and Quilt.

2009-03-26T14:12:00.000-07:00

The following UrbanAmish cautionary tale is brought to you by Barbie Vanderfleet-Martin, good friend and quiltaholic. I met Barbie through my local quilting guild: Garden State Quilters. The guild is composed of roughly 200 or so of the finest quilting addicts in the middle northern area of New Jersey. Barbie is a very accomplished and out-of-the-box thinking quilter. She owns a longarm which she wields with dextery and finesse. She, along with her good friend Alicia Bell, are the women that keep the guild members supplied with fine quilting-related classes and lectures year round.

UrbanAmish Legend #3 reporting in:

The Amish quilting imperfections are due to their belief that only God is perfect. I believe that too. Although my reasons are very different. I began my first lesson with the intention of beating all by making a quilt in an evening. With my Fabric all selected and cut I was off to the races. I had 16 Indian Hatchet block to put together. Being the advanced quilter ( huh ) I chose to do this without the templates in a flip and sew method.
This would leave me with a number of half square triangles for border option. Thinking ahead I am. Here is the result. Two perfect blocks. We thought only God could do that.

HUH! We thought Barbie could as well. Somehow things got turned around at about the same time My Dear Husband called 'Cocktail Hour'. I now have TWO perfect blocks and 14 to unsew. And how did this happen?

(Editorial comment: Besides saying Huh! a lot Barbie also says Eh? quite frequently. Guess where she's originally from.)

God and the Amish do not drink. I believe this is what makes their designs so perfect. I however do so love a refreshing Caesar and hours of some very interesting sewing. I am not perfect but know how to have a good time.

At about this time I switched to red wine. The quilt was left until the morning after........

Caesar recipe:
Rim glass with celery salt.

1oz vodka
a bunch of ice
top up with Clamato juice
a shake of tobasco
a stir stick of celery stalk and a twist of lemon

A clear-headed but unrepentant Barbie did manage to turn it all around to face the right way the next day. Here's her India Hatchet top. I must say I was very pleased to see an older fabric design of mine used for the focus fabric. And I love the fabrics that she chose as complements. She created a very exciting multidirectional flow with her fabric choices.

The red focus fabric Barbie used is from my Chelsea Morning Collection: Crimson colorway.

Report from "The Watering Hole": Real UrbanAmish Legend No.1

2009-03-16T15:04:00.000-07:00

I started getting wind that something was up in Pennsylvania when I got a picture of fabrics clutched closely to the body. A sure sign of an oncoming quilting frenzy if I ever saw one. Not too long afterwards I started receiving snaps of blocks as they were coming together. Finally there was the top! All in the space of a weekend.

Dolores Joshua, Road Warrior (a.k.a. Blank Quilting Sales rep) had managed to surprise and delight me once again.

What follows is the story told in her own words of her UrbanAmish Africa adventure through UrbanAmish Lesson 1 • Indian Hatchet (You can download this lesson and templates for your own use in this post.)

Where to start? This is my first journey into blog-land, so it is a bit premeditated, not natural, nor comfortable for me….

But here goes….. I read the UrbanAmish lesson over and just let it percolate in my head for a few days, not consciously thinking about it. That way I knew when I was ready to tackle the project I would have worked it out in my subconscious. Finally one morning I was ready to take on the challenge. I walked into the living room where a pile of fabrics was being auditioned for other projects. Suddenly the Safari II fabric I had lived with for MONTHS was calling out to me. I had never figured out how I wanted to use this wonderful, graphic fabric.

I suddenly knew! The description of medium value as “equal distribution of lights and darks” ran through my head and I knew I had a good focus print. (See the Zebra print at the beginning of post.)

Next challenge…the two accompanying fabrics.

The companion piece from the collection was a no-brainer choice for fabric B. It fit the description perfectly- “Darker value tone on tone”…and it was a smaller scale print!!!

Next choice….my lighter value tone on tone.. Now I was confronted with a conundrum. I always think “why use one fabric when 20 will do?” I knew I wanted to add a teal blue to the brown in this fabric, and when I went to my stash many fabrics were waving their hands at me.

I got out my ruby beholder to check the appropriateness of these choices. I didn’t want any one of them to vary greatly from the others.

This is a close-up view of the fabrics as seen through the Ruby Beholder.
Same fabrics without the red filter.

This quilt layout can be found in Lesson #1.

I already knew that I would use an arrangement of blocks like the one in the blog…it had a very rhythmic feel to it and I could feel the drums beating and a very African theme emerged in my mind.

I counted up the blocks in the original design and went to work! The final quilt emerged a few short hours later and I am very happy with the end result. I call it “The Watering Hole.”

Having lived with the top for a week or more, I know what I am going to do for borders…that will follow soon, hopefully this weekend.!

I like the way the various blues add variety and gives the “water” depth.

Phoebe gives her approval!

Okay; I just have to ask. How many of you DON'T own a cat who sits on every quilt you make. I figured it'd be easier on the Blogger server to pose the question this way.

Coming up in the next posts:

Traveling with Miranda! A photographic tribute to a real fine design.
UrbanAmish Lesson #2 (Rome Might Be Built in a Day)
Real UrbanAmish Legend #3 tells her story. (If she ever puts that wine glass down)

Report from the Fringes: Real UrbanAmish Legend No. 2

2009-03-08T18:01:00.000-07:00

My friend Marta surprised me Sunday evening with an email chronicling her very first piecing adventure. She had Pamela and I laughing and chuckling for quite a while after reading it.
We thought any quilter at any level would enjoy reliving their early piecing adventures through Marta's intimate encounter with the Indian Hatchet UrbanAmish Lesson 1.

Marta is a very accomplished knitter hence the title: Report from the Fringes. She is also a very accomplished gardener hence her preoccupation with the direction of stem growth in her block. But we digress: read on!

Subject line of the email: Hatchet Quest.

"There once was a knitter with a designer friend. Designer-friend said, "Be an Urban Amisher." So with designer-friend's cool pattern and fabrics, knitter (that's me) set out on the quest. Note for readers: I learned how to sew for a Girl Scout badge about 40 years ago. (Where does the time go?) Yes, I can thread the machine, but my sewing generally consists of zigzagging edges for hems.

Nice pattern. I liked having the pre-made templates. Lazy I am. And good thing the instructions included checking the scale and how to change the printer settings.

I chose designer-friend's English Garden (floral), A La Mode (Stripe) and a plain green from the stash. Okay, are all the stripes supposed to go the same way? I cut extras so that they would.

Am I supposed to pin these? And why are there pointy bits hanging over the edge? I suppose in spite of the triangles I should center the two pieces. Yikes! Should be right sides together. Bet you quilters were screaming when you saw that.

Maybe it's time for a tea break. Does anyone have any chocolate?
(Editorial comment: Marta does not know this but her pinning style will probably cause some squeals from quilters also. It's best to let her have her tea and chocolate in peace.)

I'm worrying about those triangles.
(Editorial comment: I'm still worrying about the pinning.)

It's really going to be a pain to have to finish each of these off. The reverse button on my machine is stiff. I really think I need to read something about quilting.

Okay, I made one seam. Here is the reverse side.

But I think the flowers look like they are growing the wrong way. Does direction matter? Knitter-gardener can't stand it if the flowers are growing upside down.

Why God invented the seam ripper...

Is there a technical term for this? I'm starting to wonder if this is called the Indian Hatchet because you want to throw yourself on it.
(Editorial comment: Glad we didn't mention anything about the pinning before. We can tell she's at a fragile junction now.)

In Yolanda and Barbara's book, Holiday Quilts I read about chaining.

That makes piecing go much faster.
(Editorial comment: Not sure, but do you think there were some decorative stitching attempts on this one seam? I don't remember that being included in the chain-piecing instruction.)

Maybe quilting is like swimming. So dangerous it should only be done with a buddy present.
(Editorial comment: We are also glad her scissors seem to have short blades. Should curtail any possible damage.)

How I learned to chain. And which way to press the seams.

Press toward the darker fabric.

Aren't they cute? I'm not sure if I should press as I go...

Oops, never watch TV while cutting out your pieces.

Well, if there's extra, I guess I can just slice it off.
(Editorial comment: Interesting. She's not using your typical quilterly see-thru grid ruler. The things we take for granted.)

Do I change thread colors?

They look like Tibetan Prayer Flags.

A digital camera was handy when I was trying out Yolanda's variations: Variation One, Parallel.

Two: Flipped and Mirrored

Three: Mirrored

Four: One Quarter Flipped

Five: Parallel and Flipped

Six: Inverted and Mirrored. I flipped back through the photos on the camera and decided I liked Flipped and Mirrored, Variation Two.

Hmm. Now is that saying, "Measure Once; Cut Twice? Oh well, hope I can make up for it at the machine.
(Editorial comment: I know I've muttered that very prayer once or twice myself.)

Well, it's done. How do you quilters get all of the little corners to line up?

I know it's weird, but I really like the back."

This docu-drama was contributed by Marta McDowell, botanical lecturer and author of Emily Dickinson's Garden.
Marta is also my co-author on A Garden Alphabetized (for your viewing pleasure) a book of twenty-six images and twenty-six essays is for all lovers of flowers and gardening. Marta wrote the essays, I made the images.

Visit her very entertaining and thoughtful gardening blogspot at: http://martamcdowell.blogspot.com/

This book and Emily Dickinson's Garden available through Amazon.

Coming next: Lesson 2 and tales Real UrbanAmish Legends Nos.1 & 3.

Having your own UrbanAmish adventures? Tell me about then. Tell us all!

Become an UrbanAmish Legend in your time!

To get UrbanAmish Lesson 1 as a free download: Click here.

To get the UrbanAmish Lesson 1 Template set as a free download: Click here.

We Have A Winner - "Vee" is for Victory!

2009-03-08T05:46:00.000-07:00

Actually we've had a winner since March 1 but the post just came through this morning for me to moderate. Her blog post name is Sarah Vee and she said:

I'm thinking Roman Stripes.... I LOVE all the stripes! I am a quilter who has steered clear in the past of stripes - have started to see them used in ways that are making me less afraid. I love your idea pouch.

She got it before the last two hints. So double congratulations.

Sarah Vee: please contact me through my profile information so you can tell me which shirt you'd like after you've visited the UrbanAmish store to see the models available.

Size Does Matters: The UrbanAmish Core, Central Concept

2009-03-07T16:22:00.000-08:00

The first block below represents an Indian Hatchet block 4" square finished size. This is the typical size given for the traditional version of this block.

The second block represents an Indian Hatchet block 8" square finished size. This is the recommended Urban Amish size.

As you can see from the side to side comparison above the 8" unit shows off the focus fabric to full advantage.

It lets the fabric design breathe! How many times have you become enamored of a beautiful large-scale fabric or even mid-scale fabric and walked away from it because you have no readily available idea how to use it. Urban Amish Lessons are designed to help you design quilts easily that incorporate the new designer fabrics gracefully.

But there are more advantages to an UrbanAmish block approach. A very important one is the speed with which you can assemble a large quilt.

When you take the first block and make a Flipped & Mirrored Variation using four Indian Hatchet Blocks you have an new block unit 8" squares. (Refer to page 1 of U rban Amish Lesson 1 • Indian Hatchet Lesson and template download posted February 15, 2009 for the full details on the Indian hatchet assembly variations.)

If you take the second block (the UrbanAmish size block) and make a similar Flipped & Mirrored Variation you end up with a new block unit 16" square.

The advantage is readily apparent.

To make a 48" square top the old-fashioned way takes 36 Mirrored and Flipped units of 4 Indian Hatchet blocks each. (144 Indian Hatchets).

To make a 48" square top the UrbanAmish way takes 9 Mirrored and Flipped units of 4 Indian Hatchet blocks each. (36 Indian Hatchets).

See the side by side proportional comparison below.

That wedding gift or that quilt for the baby shower suddenly seems possible.

Coming up next in the blog, still a prequel to Lesson 2 :

A Real UrbanAmish Legend #1:

Stripes meet Indian Hatchet. An Urban Amisher takes to the wild.

A Real UrbanAmish Legend #2:

A Knitter fires up the Olde Sewing Machine and Lives to tell the Tale.

Contest update: No one has yet guessed the next block and I really want someone to win the UrbanAmish tee shirt so I'm going to give two more hints.
Hint #1: It is not Grandma's anything... not a fan, not a plate, not a garden. (Overwhelmingly those were the guesses.)
Hint #2: The name of the block has classical associations... Latin scholar's would like it. Look at the lighter fabric used in the Stripes Rule! post.

And before I hit the Publish Post button!
Look at what Joan Hawley of Lazy Girls Design made for me with my soon-to-be-released Sketchbook fabric line from Blank Quilting!

This is a Miranda Day Bag. This is made from her pattern #123. It has 10! inside pockets. That's a good day bag.
Get to know Joan at www.LazyGirlDesigns.com. You will be happy you did. I love reading her blog to start off each week.

Stripes Rule!

2009-02-27T07:54:00.000-08:00

In my personal design book, stripes have a lot of ZING! I love their energy and I want to harness it to work for me in my fabric and quilt designs. My Dream Garden fabric line though seemingly demure avails itself joyously of this energy.

This week I had the pleasure of talking about these pert little creatures of the fabric world with one of my favorite fabric reps on the planet. We were bemoaning the fact that quilter's in general seem to be wary of striped fabrics. She had a brilliant idea of how to use them. I've invited her to share her idea through this blog as an "Urban Amish" guest designer. Hoping that will be coming soon.

Meanwhile, here in Urban Amish land we are busy preparing the next lesson that will deal directly with the elemental power that is represented by the stripe. We want the lesson to be really well-crafted so we won't release it until we've had a chance to work all the details through properly. And I'm actually wanting my star pupil to have a bit of time to sew up a really wonderful design she came up with after her experiences with Lesson 2. It is thrilling to see her design come alive on the flannel wall.

In the meantime I thought I'd share these stripey thoughts.

This fabric pouch is my idea travel folder. It's an idea corral. It keeps my notebook, favorite mechanical pencil and postcards, index card notes and bits and pieces of paper that accumulate on my travels. And it folds down quite small so I can slip it into my shoulder bag if I want to.

It has two compartments.
This "Personal Idea Courier Pouch" gives my organizational loving soul quite a thrill.

I didn't set out to make such a thing. I was simply testing out an idea I had for a quilt pattern and had this pieced chunk of fabric lying around the studio. I kept playing with it until finally I figured out what I could use it for. If you want the template I used for the wedge, click here and it will download.

Best of all I got the chance to use at least one of the fabulous wooden buttons I got at The Wooly Lamb in Pennington, N.J.

Love to see where the use of this template leads you. There are no instructions accompanying the template but I can bet there's plenty of you who don't really need me to tell you what to do with it. (Please send me pictures of whatever you do do and they will be posted.)

And I have a contest! It's a Guess Which Block Will Be the Next Urban Amish Block contest.

There are clues in several of the pictures in this blog post as to which block this might be. The winner will be the one who guesses first and will get to pick her/his very own Urban Amish shirt as a prize.

Go here if you want see all the t-shirt styles that are available.

(Contest not open to the Urban Amish elves that actually KNOW what the next lesson is and are not guessing at all! You know who you are.)

And look how nicely stripes behave in a fan configuration using some more Dream Garden fabric. As if they were born to it.

So make those fabrics work for you. You will end up loving them and wondering what took you so long to become friends with the stripey types.

Zebra courtesy of John Storr via Wikipedia Commons.

Last minute addition: More Stripely Zing.

Just came across this on my computer and had to add it to the post.

Here's a closeup of a block in the quilt designed by my friend, Barbara Campbell, that will appear in the Quilter's Newsletter publication Traditions with a Twist. (On the newstands starting late May.) I don't think stripes intimidate Barbara, do you? What a nice weaving effect she has achieved.

UrbanAmish Lesson 1 • Indian Hatchet

2009-02-15T13:54:00.000-08:00

Email subscribers: to view the full blog just click on the Urban Amish title above blog entry.

Ruby Short McKim in her book One Hundred and One Patchwork Patterns published in 1931 in Independence, Missouri writes of the Indian Hatchet Block:

"Warlike and treacherous as the name may sound, we guarantee this to be one of the most peacefully simple blocks to put together of all the old-time patterns. Many a little girl has learned to sew on Indian Hatchet blocks, although a mother perhaps supervised the cutting."

It seemed fitting that in 2009, ( 78 years later) we begin our exploration of Urban Amish design principles with this block, one that was already considered old then.

Pamela Zave, my partner in this enterprise is an art quilter. Here is one of her Color Wheel Quilts called Sunlight, Citron, Saffron, Ochre. You can visit her website which is listed in the sidebar of this blog.

I'm a professional fabric designer and license my designs to Blank Quilting. I have also co-authored two books with quilter Barbara Campbell, Fuse It and Be Done and Holiday Quilts.

Pamela has been an art quilter since she took up quilting in 2003. She has stated to me in our myriad conversations about quilt designs not to have a deep love for traditional blocks. I, on the other hand, have an intense love for them.

Since embarking on these lessons, she has developed an affection for particular blocks. All the actual blocks that are pictured in the lessons are hers. The fabrics used are from her own stash. Her stash has quite a few of my own fabrics since she raids my storage area whenever she wants. Above all, though, she has an incredible collection of today's contemporary fabrics all beautifully categorized by color family.

Her enthusiasm for the lessons in fact is so great that she is often, if not always, the instigator for the next Urban Amish lesson. (She has also been heard to exclaim: "Urban Amish! Not for the squamish!" I've threatened to make her a tee shirt with those very words.)

Our method for the lessons is as follows:

I give Pamela a set of templates for the block we are exploring. All our units are 16" finished size, much larger than the great majority of traditional blocks. Click here to download your own set of templates for Lesson 1.
Along with the templates I give her an Urban Amish fabric formula. Click here to download the formula and your own visual guide to Lesson 1.
She goes to her stash and tries to come up with a successful Urban Amish block that is pleasing to her eye while at the same time complying with the fabric guidelines.
She gets graded for her efforts and receives a "report card" with comments.

We want the Urban Amish lessons to help you accomplish several things.

Give you a way to be comfortable and successful using today's larger scale contemporary fabrics. Traditional blocks date back to a time when quilting was done with scraps. The pieces in the blocks are usually small. Small-scale prints or tonals such as batiks work fine within this context. Since the resurgence of interest in quilting in the late 1970's, more and more fabric designers are working exclusively for the quilting industry. Fabric designers naturally don't have the scale constriction and design fabrics larger in scale driven simply by love for the fabric itself. However this natural inclination of the fabric designer sets up a dilemma for the quilter. Quilters also respond to the beauty of these bolder fabric designs and find themselves bringing them home. At times, however, these fabrics languish in the stash because traditional blocks at traditional sizes don't quite accommodate the design of the fabrics. Our simple solution is to think big, i.e., change the scale.

Give you a way to make beautiful, contemporary quilts with a lot of graphic impact and appeal in a lot less time. This is a natural outcome of the shift in block scale. The downloadable lesson will give you many variations on using the Indian Hatchet blog in effective quilt designs.

Give beginning quilters an easy and practically foolproof introduction to quilt design.

Give quilters who buy my fabrics an insight into the way I design my fabric lines and suggestions how to be creative with them. In Lesson 1, I use my new fabric line, Sketchbook, by Blank Quilting for Spring 2009 to put the Indian Hatchet block virtually through its paces.

Even though each lesson only requires Pamela to produce one 16 1/2" block design she frequently produces two or three because they are so much fun.
We end this post with some eye candy. Here are the two blocks units that Pamela ended up with. (A block unit is made up of 4 Indian Hatchet blocks.) Be sure to download the full lesson so you can get the Urban Amish fabric formula she followed.

I hope this first lesson is helpful and above all as fun as it is for Pamela and I to put together for you. Please send us your own Urban Amish experiments. We would love to see them. Remember: Urban Amish! Not for the squamish!

Sketchbook, my new fabric line from Blank Quilting will be available in Spring 2009.

It has begun...really!

2009-02-07T04:30:00.000-08:00

I live with a fabulous art quilter. Some of you know I'm a textile designer in my better moments.
As I design my fabrics on my computer I'm constantly designing virtual quilts to test them.
For more than two years I've been talking about a way of looking at both fabric and quilting design as Urban Amish. Well, Pamela...the art quilter I live with... finally put the thumbscrews on and forced me to make it real and teach her the principles of this way of looking. So we've promised ourselves a set of twelve Urban Amish lessons that upon completion would have explained as clearly as possible the thoughts underlying Urban Amish. Here's the block that is a result of lesson four. And as a result of it we have a working cover.

We will start posting lessons and results of the lessons in the following weeks. I'm hoping for active participation in this from interested readers.

(Always remember, clicking on an image will make it bigger.)

Houston High

2008-11-18T11:43:00.000-08:00

I love the big round windows on the second floor of the George R. Brown Convention Center from which you can look down on the exhibitor floor. I pause there frequently on my way to-and-fro my room at the Hilton and Quilt Market and Festival to plan my next foray or simply enjoy the view.

I spent 11 days there between Market and Festival. (With two days in-between spent in getting to know Houston a bit better.) I went with my partner and art quilter, Pamela Zave, whose first time it was at both venues.

It's been a little over 2 weeks and I'm still trying to take it all in. I want to write a bit about the new and exciting from there but there is so much that this first post-Houston post will simply have to be a declaration of intentions to cover certain topics. To keep my blog accountable I will make a list of what will be covered and interperse that with the Urban Amish experiments that have begun and will be documented through this blog. (I have acquired a willing student and theory-tester!) In addition, I plan to keep letting you know when my new fabric lines are available from Blank Textiles and how they are being experimented with on their native soil. (My shared quilting and design studio.)

(An aside: the Blank booth won the Best Merchandising Award at Market. Go Blank!!! They are such warm and wonderful people. Who can refuse to love them. Their sales reps are all quilters. That is a very smart thing to do.)

What I'll be covering from Market and Festival:

Seamingly Accurate from Quilt.Woman.com
Quilter's Rule: 3 of their nested ruler sets ( The octagons, the diamonds, and the equilateral triangles. )
A template set from Clover that lets you do a English paper piecing type of work but with octagons and small squares. Unfortunately, it is a strictly Japanese market only product and the package is in Japanese. ( I will try to find my source and an English name for them among my receipts... and I'll include a picture close-up when I get to them)
Some very fine "quilting-chick-lit" acquired at The Craftman's Touch booth by Sandra Dallas, Jane Kirkpatrick and Emily Richards. (And I do not mean any disrespect to these fine authors if any one is wondering. I love the genre almost as much as I love my sci-fi.)
The wonderful aboriginal designs from M&S Textiles and the upcoming book, Australia Spirit edited by Meryl Ann Butler, author of 90 Minute Quilts and just plain wonderful human bean.

As to Urban Amish: My pupil/guinea pig has completed her first assignment. (She completed it three times; we had first semester of school issues which she finally was able to overcome.)

I will be posting the assignments and the results in the next few weeks. For those who wish to do the exercises I will be posting the PDF templates for download and expounding a bit more on the theory behind the exercises.

First Lesson will be: IndianHatchet.

That's it for now. I leave you with some eye candy from Quilt Festival.

Oops, almost forgot... coming also

A sneak preview of my new Christmas line, Holiday Splendor
A bit about the new book just released, Fusing and Be Done! which I co-wrote with Barbara Campbell.
And my first Urban Amish quilting pattern to be published by QuiltWoman.com.

So make it easy for yourself, and subscribe. And make lots of comments.
I promise at the very least some pretty pictures. (If you just want lots of pretty pictures...check out my other blog: visualthinkinginagarden.blogspot.com)

What is Urban Amish? (or Home Alone)

2008-10-01T18:18:00.000-07:00

I'm a textile designer that works at home alone. I license my designs to a fabric manufacturer based in New York City that caters specifically to the quilting industry.

As a result, I talk to myself all day long.

Most of the conversations have to do with textiles design and how it relates to quilting design.
Or... quilt designs and how they relate to textile design.

I feel we are at an unusual point in textile history where for the first time fabrics are being developed specifically for use in quilts.

There is a focused synergy going on that we are just beginning to tap between the quilter and the textile designer... and all the hybrid creatures in between.

In the past, before the resurgence of interest in quiltmaking right around the late 1970's, quilts were primarily made from fabrics intended for other purposes other than quilts: clothing, curtains, feedsacks.

But alas I cannot continue this thread of thought today since it's 5:18 AM and I must make my way to Newark Airport. Houston Quilt Market & Festival Bound!

As my t-shirt constantly reminds me: life is good. I leave you with 2 snaps of my working table these past 2 weeks.

Note: Even though this post is dated October 1st, it was actually completed on October 23. October 1st, 2008 is the blog's birthday when I finally got around to realizing that this format would be a great way to get to know quilters, designers and other fabric lovers and at last sat down to write.