Ellen Anne Eddy

One of the best benefits of belonging to my local guild is the great speakers that we have come to give lectures and workshops.   Our next big name speaker to come will be Ellen Anne Eddy.  I had not heard to her, but when I heard the names of the workshops (The Color Cookbook Approach, Gilding the Lily, Bobbin Work Applique Flowers, Thread Magic Mastery: Working with all Kinds of Threads) I knew that this was going to be a great.  Then, I was reading Subversive Stitchers: Women Armed with Needles and she had done a review of Ellen's latest book.  I knew I had to get this book before Ellen came.

I consider myself pretty savvy as far as ordering things from the internet.  But the morning I went to Ellen's site, was not one of my better days.  I erroneous ordered two of her newest book, Thread Magic Garden, and I tried to correct it, but my computer was giving me some fits.  I decided it would be okay, as I could always gift the extra one. 

Okay, to quote John Melloncamp, I'm still hayseed enough to say look who's in the big town.  So when my cell phone jingled, and showed an unfamiliar phone number, I wondered who could be calling.  It was none other than Ellen Anne Eddy herself!  She had seen that I was having some difficulty, and just decided to call and straighten up the situation!   What a pleasant and congenial person.  We chatted about computers, and her upcoming appearance in Champaign.  I even ended up buying a third book on her recommendation, that would help with one of her workshops.

Her newest book explains how to do thread painting, and speaks of the stabilizers, interfacings, and threads that she likes to use.  She also explains her technique, so that you can try your hand at thread painting.  This is a my attempt to do a free hand flower.  A bit of puckering, because I didn't have it well stabilized, but I was pretty happy with the results.

The best thing is that she breaks down how to create different kinds of flowers, and shows not only the finished product, but also what it would look like before you add the stitching.

I tried my hand at the zinnia that is pictured above.  I love zinnias, used to grow them in my flower garden when I was growing up.  They always remind me of my Aunt Zola.  Here's my attempt.  I think is not a bad job!

I love thread painting.  I will be taking a class with Nancy Prince at the Indiana Heritage Quilt Show next month.  And I love Ann Fahl's work.  If you love thread work, I really think these books are for you!

Sunflower

Last year on our way home from my quilt guild's retreat at Princeton, IL, we stopped at several quilt shops.  I picked up several quilt kits.  I actually did get them sewn, and only one is left to be quilted.  The one that I most recently finished was a quilt pattern by Clothworks. http://www.clothworkstextiles.com/pattern_download.asp?ID=188

I was really drawn to the bright colours.  It was a fun quilt to make, and I had some great scraps left over!  But the most fun was when I went to quilt it!

When you read the books that teach free motion quilting, they often suggest that you quilt a patterned piece of fabric, following the designs to loosen yourself up.  Well, the floral fabric in this kit was just begging to be quilted like that!

I was trying to do some free style butterflies around the center, but I ended up just doing freestyle feathers.  My friend Bev suggested I use a bright variagated thread in both top and bobbin, as I was using a white muslin on the backside.

I was really amazed at how well this looked on the back!  I'm still at a point that I am wishing to hide my back stitching, for fear that all the mistakes will just pop out!  But it really turned out nicely.

I liked the look so well that I decided to make a small wallhanging using the same technique.  I have been following Nancy Prince's classroom on Thread Painting on "The Quilt Show".  This is just a bit of a warm up!







And what am doing with the Sunflower quilt?  I gifted it to my friend and co-worker Bonnie.  She had been whining that she didn't know what she could do to get a quilt from me.  Turned out, a little whine, and be my friend, was all she needed to do!  Bonnie, I hope you enjoy it!