Category Archive

Today, I was writing an email to my Aunt Vonnie.  She has sewn all her life, but is starting to learn to piece and quilt. I’m having so much fun helping her.

As a “seasoned” quilter, there are just things I take for granted. Chatting with my aunt helps me to remember these things.

For example, a Fat Quarter. I throw this term around and realized not everyone knows what a Fat Quarter is and why we like them.

A 1/4 yard is normally 9″ x 44″”. As a quilter, this is not a very useful piece of fabric. A Fat Quarter is better.

A Fat Quarter is a piece of fabric that is 18″ x 22″. To make one, cut a 1/2 yard of fabric (18″ x 44″), cut this piece of fabric in half. This makes a Fat Quarter, 18″ x 22″.   (I keep a list of Common Yardage cuts on my website.)

I recently sent my Aunt Fat Quarter bundles of my Gilded Greenery fabric.

I was explaining that this fabric is a basic. That means it is a co-ordinate, it “goes with” fabrics with more texture. For example, here is a Variable Star with Gilded Greenery in the background and Blank Quilting’s Chelsea collection in the Star.

By placing the Gilded Greenery fabric in the background, the more textured Chelsea fabric is allowed to ”pop”.

This contrast or difference in value is important. It lets each part of the block be seen. If the values are too close together the parts of the star and background will blend together. I often use this trick in my quilts. I like to see a strong contrast between parts of my designs.

In the block below, the value of the background and the star points are close to each other. The patches blend into each other.

Here is the Variable Star block with stronger contrast, set into a quilt. I’ve played with the coloring. Each background is the Gilded Greenery collection and each star is made from Chelsea. Notice how the background “pops” the star pattern. The different colored backgrounds also add a secondary design to the quilt.

 While the colors are beautiful, it is really value that is doing all the work. I like to say, in my quilts, “Value does all the work and color gets all the credit.” A Value Lesson can be found on my website.

Another beautiful day in Portland, Oregon, so I decided to walk to the Convention Center. Along the way, I spotted this art installation in the lobby of a building. I don’t remember the name of the building, but I certainly remembered this artwork.   .    .   interesting inspiration for a quilt!

Once in the Blank Quilting booth, we had a few minutes to say hello to each other and get ready for our day. Here is our Vice-President, Jeremy Jeffries with two of our sales reps, Kathy Hewitt and Cathy McLees. My buddy (and AMAZING sales rep) Cheryl Aldrich is sitting in the table in the background.

During a break, I visied the Handi Quilter booth. This is the creator of the first portable home machine quilting frame, and these are amazing quilting machines.

I had to try my hand at it!!

Headed back to the booth, I ran into this lovely shop owner and was admiring her shirt. She was kind enough to pose for a photo.

I don’t know about you, but I see a very cool optical illusion quilt in this shirt!!

During lunch, I spotted this arrangement on a table outside Starbucks.  (Okay, I didn’t eat lunch that day, I had a latta!)

I thought it was interesting and took a close-up.

After three days of Quilt Market, my mind is full of inspiration and my heart is full with the new (and old) friends I’ve been with. Back at the hotel, I noticed this stained glass in one of the restaurants.

Now it is time to pack and head back home, I can’t wait to get into my studio!

Quilt Market started on Friday. The weather was perfect and the skies were clear. From our hotel, we had a beautiful view of Mt. St. Helen AND Mt. Hood. It is rare to see both so well. It was a good start for Market.

Mt. St. Helen

 Mt. Hood

Since the weather was so perfect, I decided to walk to and from the Convention Center, about a 4-5 block walk. As I walked, I took note of the scenery.

The fence and the trees created a nice perspective view. On closer look, the flowers made an interesting scene, against the wrought iron fence.

A few blocks away, the spire of the Oregon Convention Center.

A close-up.

 Once on the Show floor, I was able to meet many shop owners and Vendors.

Janet Rice-Bredin from Bontanical Art Quilts was only a few booths away from our Blank Quilting booth. We noticed her beautiful booth and her friendly personality at once. (You can read her blog at http://janetricebredin.blogspot.com/)

We loved her patterns and her placement of color.

On closer look- Allthe fabrics were from Blank!

She loved our fabrics and used Gilded Greenery, Splash, Essence, Bali Rain, Floret and many other of our lines in her patterns!

Gilded Greenery by Karen Combs for Blank Quilting

Essence by Karen Combs for Blank Quilting

 Bali Rain by Blank Quilting

More Market news tomorrow!

I’ve just returned from Spring Quilt Market in Portland, Oregon. This Market is like every Market I’ve ever attended:  exciting, inspiring and exhausting! There is nothing like it!  I plan to post photos and thoughts over the next few days.  .  .

I left for Portland last Tuesday. Alarm was set for 2:45am in order to make a 6am flight. There is just something WRONG with getting up for the day at 2:45am!!

After flying most of the morning and a significant time change, I arrived in Portland at 1pm. Due to misplaced luggage and and meeting up with the other members of the group, it was 3pm before we arrived at the hotel. I could not wait to get into my room, unpack, freshen up and get something to eat!

The view from my room was beautiful. It was a “city” view.

 We spent the remaining few hours getting ready for set-up the next day and I could not wait to get some sleep!

On Wednesday, we set-up the booth and prepared for Sample Spree and Schoolhouse. This is a photo of the booth after many hours of set-up!

Thursday or Schoolhouse/Sample Spree day is always a long, but exciting. We finished setting up the booth during the morning, presented four Schoolhouse presentations during afternoon and set-up and worked Sample Spree during the evening. By last count, it was an 18 hour work day!

 Here we have people coming in for my “Creating Illusions in Quilts” Schoolhouse.

I showed a slide show and a trunk show at this Schoolhouse.

 I just LOVE being with quilters! They are the best! Just look at these smiles! (For all of you in my Schoolhouse - I TOLD you that you would be in my Blog!) 

 I enjoyed all of our Schoolhouse presentations and met many wonderful people.

After cleaning up from Schoolhouse and hauling many, many boxes to Sample Spree, we set up our tables.

 It is hard to picture, but this HUGE room is filled with tables and right after this photo was taken was filled with shop owners -  ready to buy! Sample Spree is open from 8-10pm.

Back at the hotel, it is midnight and we finished setting up the booth, Schoolhouse and Sample Spree. Tomorrow, the show opens and I can’t wait.

 More Market news and photos tomorrow!

Interesting where a cold, gray day can lead! 

I started this quilt several months ago when it was cold, wet and dreary outside. I wished for summer and let that inspiration lead me. The quilt, Summer Dream was the result. (Posted in “gloomy outside, cheery inside“  and  “the quilt glows“)

I just got the quilt back from my Terry, my Long-Arm quilter and she did a fantastic job!  (Terry Dramstad from Quilts, Ink. in Cooperstown, North Dakota)

I used my Shade Cascade fabrics for perfect shading from light to dark. The shading gives the quilt a beautiful illusion of depth and movement. The colors I used are Sky, Glow and Pansy.

The pattern is now on my website. . . You never know where inspiration will lead. I wonder what is next?

As a traveling teacher, packing and unpacking are part of my job. As soon as one trip is over, another is upcoming. For the few weeks, I’ve been making lists and packing for Spring Market. Everything has to be shipped tomorrow, so I’m getting down to the wire.

This year Spring Market will be held in Portland, Oregon. It is a beautiful city.  It has a population of over 2 million residents. The city covers 130 miles and is listed as the cleanest city in the U.S. Companies such as Nike, Adidas and Intel fuel the local economy.  Portland is located an hour from the Pacific Ocean and is close to Mount Hood. (Check out the link for the Mount Hood web cam!)

There is always lots to do, to prepare for Market. I’ll be doing two Schoolhouse Sessions for Blank Quilting: Secrets of the Selvage and Creating Quilts of Illusion.

I will debut new colors in my Gilded Greenery collection.

And my new collection called Nami will also debut.

Often I am asked, “How do you design fabric?” Sometimes I am inspired by a concept, sometimes a texture, sometimes by a need I see as a quilter. Many different things inspire my fabric and quilt designs.

For Nami, I was inspired by antique and traditional Asian textures. To give the collection a clean, yet traditional feel, I used the combinations of indigo/white, black/white, red/white and red/black.

In order to have designs that worked well together, I selected curvilinear designs and geometric designs. These play well off each other and can be used together in a quilt.

The three curvilinear designs are:

The floral designs are inspired from traditional Asian textures. The wave design is inspired from an antique kimono texture.

The three linear designs are:

Each of these designs were directly inspired by traditional Sashiko quilting patterns. In the third design, the stitching lines show.

What is Sashiko?
Early 18th Century, the wives of Japanese farmers, fishermen and lumberjacks made warm garments by stitching     two pieces of heavy fabric together. They used fine running stitches throughout the entire garment. At first, the    stitching was used for reinforcing and repairing damaged fabrics but later became more decorative. The cotton fabric was dyed very dark blue with the root of a native plant. We know this color as indigo.

By the end of the century, this particular style of stitchery was known as “SASHIKO”. Around the late 19th Century, sashiko appeared in cities. The style was adopted for warmth but the stitching designs became more elaborate.

I created this kimono quilt as a free project giveaway for this collection. Be sure to ask for your shops to order Nami and ask for the free project sheet.

 I also played with Nami and Gilded Greenery in this quilt, Celtic Vision from my book, Celtic Pieced Illusions.

 I used the Cinnamon and Saffron colorways from Gilded Greenery and three textures Nami in this quilt. I think it is an amazing combination!

I’ve just gotten my sample cuts from my new fabric collection, Nami.  For Spring Market, I’ve also added new colors to my Gilded Greenery collection. These sample cuts have also just arrived.

I’m so pleased with both collections! In the past few days, I’ve been working on quilts and samples for Spring Market and my Schoolhouse presentations.

 Here’s a look into my sewing studio. You can see the infamous “fabric closet” on the back wall of the studio. This is the one I cleaned out this weekend.

I usually spread out when I work. I have two different cutting stations. This one is on my Koala sewing cabinet. I have the Koala Quilt Mate III. I’ve had it for about four years, don’t know what I did before I had it!

 I’m working on the blocks for one of the Market quilts. If you look closely, you will see my constant companion, Cocoa in his bed, under the table.

Several weeks ago, he enjoyed playing in the snow!

 I have some of my favorite notions out while I’m working.

 I LOVE the new .07mm mechanical pencil by Clover. It is a fine tailor’s chalk and is perfect for marking.

 I also love my wool Ewesful  pincushion. The lanolin in the wool keeps my pins sharp and I never have to worry about the pins rusting.

Here’s a look at my other cutting station and my Block Butler design wall. The quilt on the wall is in progress and uses two textures from the new Nami collection and two new colors from Gilded Greenery.

Another sneak peek at two textures in my new Nami line as well as two new colors in my Gilded Greenery collection.  Gilded Greenery Saffron and Cinnamon - I LOVE the rich colors of these new colorways. (There are more colors, but I’ll show those later.)

 A close-up of the Gilded Greenery texture.

If you look in the corner of the photo above, you will see a basket with work in progress. Here another sneak peak at a 3-D cube in a 4th dimension. I’m playing around with this and hope to have more time to dedicate to this concept later.

All the warm weather has put me in the mood for some spring cleaning! My fabric closet in my sewing studio was a mess! I could not find anything and I was getting pretty cranky about it.

This weekend, I decided to tackel my sewing studio. After about 15 hours of cleaning, sorting and weeding out, I finally finished! What a beautiful sight!

Here is the closet, all sorted and beautiful!

This shelf holds my Gilded Greenery and Essence collections. Now, I can find the colors I need, as I design quilts for these collection.

 Gilded Greenery - color Danube

 Essence - Arctic

The next shelf holds my blue, green, black and white fabrics.  (Hmm, looks like I need a few more blacks and whites!)

The third shelf holds my teal, yellow and orange fabrics.

On the top shelf, I have my hand painted, sun screen and hand dyed fabrics. I decided to store these fabrics in these see through bins. It makes the fabrics easy to find and keeps them neat.

On the side of the closet, I’ve stored my previous fabric collections. I try to keep some of each fabric, so I always have a reference. I also have batting at the top of the closet.

Notice the “sewing fairy”, she is guarding the fabric. Don’t mess with her!

I also sorted my Koala notions cabinet. I can finally find all my stuff!

The thread drawer.

Notions drawer - all organized!

The rest of my closet has also been cleaned out. I love to use baskets to keep things sorted. The stuffed animals are for fun!

Another sewing fairy guards this side of the closet!

 I’ve also been working on quilts for my new fabric collection, NAMI, for Blank Quilting.

Here is a sneak peak. We will be debuting this collection at Spring Market. As we get closer to the release, I’ll show more of the textures and colors.

Be sure to ask your local quilt shop for Nami, designed by Karen Combs for Blank Quilting.

Nami is a oriental inspired collection. This is the wave design, inspired by an antique Japanese texture. This is the indigo and white colorway.

 Nami in the black and white colorway.

Nami in the red and black colorway.