Artist Spotlight: Ann Kreager

“I am piecing natural dyed fabrics into log cabin blocks…. This block represents fabric dyed from Maine, Connecticut, New York and Colorado. My goal is to have this quilt pieced and hand quilt(ed) by the end of 2019. It will have so many great memories stitched into it….” - Ann Kreager

Last June, Ann and I met at Squam Art Workshops. Since then, we’ve kept in touch and I’ve enjoyed seeing this Colorado artist’s gift for all things sewn and knitted on her Instagram feed. What strikes me about Ann’s work is not only her attention to detail, but how she manages to infuse each and every thing she makes with meaning.

Ann made a block a day!

The special quilt featured here is no exception. Ann’s painterly mix of cheerful colors harmonize beautifully, and she has managed to create a quilt that is simultaneously modern and timeless. Ann finished her quilt with big stitch quilting in the ditch. See the photo below for a close up look.

How incredibly satisfying and heart warming it must feel to have created a quilt exclusively using hand dyed fabrics from dyers you know, including your own. As one of the dyers represented in the quilt, I feel Ann has stitched together not only meaningful pieces of fabric, but a powerful sense of community.

Ann inspires me, and I think anyone sleeping under this quilt is guaranteed sweet dreams!

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Detail of Ann’s big stitch hand quilting.

“I love all the sweet friends I have made on this IG community. I am thankful for all the inspiration and support I have received from others. ”

— Ann Kreager

Ann finished her incredibly beautiful, meaningful quilt well before the end of the year!

I’m sending out a big thank you to Ann Kreager for allowing me to use her photos, and to share a peek into her quilting world with all of you. You can follow her on Instagram @hottamale1985.

If you’ve tried natural dyeing, like Ann has, you’ll have a very good idea about the amount of work and time that go into naturally dying fabric. When you share what you’re making with my fabrics, you give me such a sense of satisfaction about my dye work, and it’s what keeps me coming back season after season offering you my very best naturally dyed fabrics. “Artist Spotlight” is one way that I can celebrate YOU, and it will increasingly feature you and what you make using my naturally dyed fabrics, so be sure to share! #tierneybarden

As always, I love hearing from you in the comments below or @tierneybarden.

Wabi-Sabi Sewing Blog Hop

Have you seen my friend Karen Lewis’s newest book Wabi-Sabi Sewing?

I’m so happy you’re here because today is my day on the fun-filled blog hop celebrating Karen’s gorgeous book! I’m thrilled to be in excellent company, and you can follow along and meet makers from around the globe by using #wabisabisewing or @karenlewistextiles. There are giveaways, insights into the book, reviews, beautiful examples of projects and much more, so don’t miss a day!

Win this awesome bundle!! Enter here: @tierneybarden

To celebrate Karen’s book, I’m having a giveaway! For your chance to win, head over to @tierneybarden and play along - it’s easy!

• A copy of Wabi-Sabi Sewing

• Three Fat Quarters of my naturally dyed organic sateen, just like those used in several of the projects

• One skein of cotton sashiko thread

• Needle keep and a Tulip hand quilting needle

The star of the show, Karen’s own signature from one of her hand printed tulip panels.

Fond of texture, Karen uses a variety of fabrics in her projects, from bark cloth and linen to her own hand printed fabrics, and I’m honored to say, my hand dyed fabrics.

With categories like LIVING, EATING, EXPLORING and SLEEPING, Wabi-Sabi Sewing has something for everyone. Karen includes a wide range of techniques from quilting to embroidery to visible mending. You’ll find projects that use a few scraps and come together quickly, as well as projects that use a bit more fabric, the scrappier the better, and still come together quickly!

The coziest spot in the house, all ready for fairy tales and day dreams.

Every step of making this Hexagon Harmony pillow was fun! I chose big stitch hand quilting, just like Karen did, and it was my first time using sashiko thread and Tulip needles. Wow, they’re sharp needles, but what a difference they made stitching through the layers of fabric and wool batting. Karen’s instructions were straight forward and the entire project moved right along. I used a down pillow insert and am in love with the result!

I’ve just updated my shop with freshly dyed fabrics and OOAK gift items. Have a look!

The Race Is On

Today is Friday, October 19th, and probably our last day in the upper 50’s, which means my indigo vat has one last round before hibernating for the winter.

photo courtesy of Tracy Altieri.

Fabrics are soaking, and the clock is ticking. I’m really looking forward to getting my hands in that big blue vat! If you’ve followed along on Instagram, you’ll have had a glimpse at an average dye day and how it moves from hour to hour throughout the day. Suffice it to say, with all of the dyeing these past few weeks, there will be a shop update very soon!

These action photos were taken by my very talented friend Tracy Altieri, and you can find her gorgeous blog here and on Instagram @myretiringlife. On this particular dye day, Tracy swiftly captured me gingerly shaking out the fabric immediately upon exiting the vat. The fabric transitions from a yellow-green to blue-green and then to a majestic blue, as seen below. The blue deepens with each dip in the vat. This process never ceases to delight and impress! With that, I’m off to the vat, tick tock!

Indigo dyed sateen drying among the dogwoods.

A shop update is quickly approaching!

photo courtesy of Tracy Altieri.

Stay tuned for next week’s post!

Friday, October 26th is my day on the fun-filled blog hop for Karen Lewis’s chic new book, Wabi-Sabi Sewing! Meet the entire line up of talented, generous sewers and quilters on the blog hop which begins Wednesday, October 24th with Svetlana Sotak at http://www.sotakhandmade.blogspot.com. I’m thrilled to be a part of the blog hop celebrating Karen’s book. Follow along to see gorgeous examples several of us have made from the book. There will be giveaways, too, including one happening right here! You won’t want to miss it!

A hidden clue for next week’s exciting post. Can you spot it?

I hope this weekend brings you some of what you love most about fall! See you next week!

Gallery Talk: Resplendent

At last, we've reached the final post about the making of my art quilts recently shown at Squam Art Workshops. 

While the previous five quilts focused largely on their story telling element, this quilt's story is in its making. Enjoy a closer look at Resplendent's inception, techniques and artistry. For the complete view of "My Enchanted Wonderland" installation, please click here.

Resplendent, 2018

Title: Resplendent, 44.5" x 46.5"

Materials: Naturally dyed organic cotton sateens, commercial cottons, metallic and cotton threads; two layers wool batting

Techniques: English Paper Piecing, hand and machine piecing, fused applique, hand quilting

Date: June 2017 - May 2018

re-splend-ent, adjective

attractive and impressive through being richly colorful or sumptuous

Looking back over the months that this quilt was being made, I can honestly say that resplendent is the best word to adequately convey how I felt through the entire process, including how I felt when I saw it finished for the first time. From the initial design idea, to fabric choices, exploring paper shape combinations, cutting paper for the center medallion, and hand piecing and quilting - at every stage, I felt a sort of inner radiance mixed with thrill and eagerness to keep going. 

1" hexis cut from paper and wrapped with fabric. I'm a fan of glue basting.

In the beginning, this quilt was intended as an attempt to satisfy my curiosity about medallion quilts (their history, variety of quilt components and assembly methods). At the same time, I had been anxious to start an English Paper Piecing (EPP) project using my naturally dyed fabrics. Just at the early stages of designing this quilt, Elizabeth Duvivier invited me to teach at the June '18 session of Squam Art Workshops. We had discussed paper cutting being a large part of the class, and then with a little more play time and sample making, I bridged paper cutting to fabric by way of fused applique - more on that a little later in this post - but it's important to note this time of play was a key moment in the planning of the workshop, as well as the evolution of this quilt. Lesson: make more time to play. 

First things first, I began the process of making Resplendent by cutting piles and piles of 1" paper hexagons. I also pulled a stack of my naturally dyed silks and cottons in colors that I see around me every day during summer months. I laid them out to create a transition from light to dark and noticed darker greens were needed, but because they aren't in my standard dye palette, I turned to Nancy Rink's New Aged Muslins by Marcus Fabrics. Feeling the need for a little bit of visual texture, I brought in just a few batiks, and a stripe by Moda and stars by Andover. 

EPP hexis being sewn into units before being sewn together to create the center panel of the quilt. 

Making the most of every piece of fabric, especially my hand dyed indigo.

A few of the jewel shape paper pieces used in the outer border being wrapped and glue basted. 

One unit of many forming the outermost border. The center diamonds are all lovely, soft shades of peaches and pinks from my dye pots.

A tray made transporting the English Paper Piecing units much easier!

I chuckle when I recall how I used to think sewing by hand must take ages! Having done a bit of hand sewing before embarking on this quilt, I knew that with an efficient set up (tools, posture, support, etc.), hand work actually moves right along. Stitching one color and shape to the next is satisfying, relaxing and enjoyable. I'll even admit to finding it slightly addicting. Sewing EPP is like solving a puzzle - as soon as you put two pieces together you can't wait to see the next piece put in place, and the next! 

Speaking of puzzle pieces, once the center panel and outer borders pieces were stitched together, the four outermost corners were in need of a solution. They presented a fun design challenge, for example, I knew I wanted the colors to flow around each corner, keep the eye moving and maintain a coherent design, but I also had to keep in mind that a paper cut design would be applied over this space, so how not to compete with that design? Below are photos of my solution, and with that portion completed, I moved on to the paper cut motifs. 

A corner in need of a solution. 

One half of the corner unit.

One half of the corner unit meeting up with the border.

Two corner units sewn together, inner border added.

In the quilt world, there exist a few applique methods. I tend to do a lot of needle turn applique, of which you can see an example here, here and here, but when it comes to my paper cut designs I find fused applique to be the most appropriate method. Generally, if it can be drawn and cut, it can be fused. It's a fairly simple process, and any one can use this technique with beautiful results. I enjoy sharing the technique with fellow creatives, not just quilters, and you can see the work of talented Squam students in my Instagram feed here.

On the left is a paper cut that didn't quite hit the mark for Resplendent's center medallion. I must have cut four or five different designs, fine tuning each time, getting closer to what I felt was just right. 

The final paper cut design ready for transfer to fusible web, which had already been adhered to fabric. When cutting, I first get my head in the right place: patience, steadiness and staying in the flow. 

The paper cut design is cut and turned over to the right side. 

Fusing the center medallion onto the quilt top. Tiny, sharp scissors trim any stray threads before fusing. 

Once the quilt top is completely assembled, at last, all of the paper pieces can be removed! Aa a mountain of paper pieces grows, one can see the wisdom in reusing papers.

The assembled quilt top, paper pieces removed, and the entire top pressed. The next steps include layering the batting and backing, basting, machine quilting the paper cut motifs, hand quilting the rest, and then binding. 

The day to begin Resplendent's hand quilting was memorable. It was 7:00AM on Saturday May 19th, 2018, and I was in my Nest with fresh hot coffee to my left and my small wooden tool bowl on my right, and the TV was airing Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding. There was one specific moment after the ceremony when a reporter commented that this wedding was "resplendent". I could hardly believe my ears. Of all the adjectives to describe the wedding, he chose the word I had named the very quilt I was stitching. Without slowing, my needle simply continued to weave glinting gold metallic thread through all the layers, holding them together for a lifetime.   

Big stitch hand quilting, detail. Metallic thread and Aurifil cotton thread.

A view of the back of the quilt. Topography comes to mind.

One last look, Resplendent surrounded by Specimen (L) and New York Beauty (R)

How's that for a fairytale ending? Thank you all for the time you have taken to read my posts about this special body of work. I value your interest and your feedback. Many of you have been so kind to share your own reactions and thoughts with me, and I've sincerely enjoyed those conversations. 

A heartfelt thank you goes out once again to Elizabeth Duvivier @elizabethduvivier and Meg Fussell @squamlove for the opportunity to produce and show this body of work, as well as their support. This has been an epic stitched journey and I've enjoyed every single moment. I remain open to traveling with this show, and would appreciate any potential locations/events you may know of.  

Please continue to share your questions and comments below or by email: tierneybarden@gmail.com. I read them all. You can also follow my natural dye works and daily life on Instagram @tierneybarden.