Modern Quilt Design

Just finished a nice modern quilt for Doug, and now I am drawing designs for the next modern quilt- one by Lyn Baker.  I will most likely draw up 4 or 5 designs for her quilt using Art & Stitch program.  Here is my first one- a design for the sashing part of Lyn’s quilt:

mod sashing 1 by Carla Barrett

As you can see, this is a simple geometric design for a smaller border or sashing.  It has a nice modern vibe and will go with other parts of the quilt and designs I will be using.

Art& Stitch is a terrific program, it only took me a few minutes to import my quick sketch from Photoshop, then trace over the design using the Bezier Tool.   I first saved it in the ANS extension, then saved it with the extension used by my machine- an Intelliquilter.

Stay tuned!  Have several quilt images to share with you in the near future!  Carla

Art & Stitch: Designing a Series

As part of my ongoing practice after attending Theo & Loes van der Heyden’s Art & Stitch  workshop, I decided to show you how I drew a doodle and turned it into a series or quilting designs for my quilts.  If you are interested in learning how to do this, be sure to sign up for Theo and Loes workshop, too.

Let’s start with a doodle:

copyright 2013 Carla Barrett

Then you combined 2 blocks to make this design:

copyright 2013 Carla Barrett

Notice there is a cute little critter that emerged once the blocks combined?  I love the randomness of finding surprises like this.  Next, we will combine 2 triangles to make a block design:

copyright 2013 Carla Barrett

Now add 3 more blocks to create a large block design:

copyright 2013 Carla Barrett

We are just getting started!  Let’s make a border design to match the other blocks:

copyright 2013 Carla Barrett

How about a wreath where the critters are looking inward:

copyright 2013 Carla Barrett

Or, critters looking outward:

copyright 2013 Carla Barrett

In order for this design to stitch out without jump stitches, all I needed to do is add a transition design:

copyright 2013 Carla Barrett

Can you tell I am having fun?   By the way, my Birdy Designs are for a future post….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More Digitized Fun!

I promised I would share some designs drawn in Art & Stitch (ANS) software to practice what I learned in the workshop by Loes and Theo van der Heyden.  

In this class exercise, I started by drawing some feathers in a triangle block, then made a simple block motif by copying 4 times:

design by Carla Barrett

To be honest, it doesn’t ring my chimes yet.  So I decided to see what would happen when I copied more blocks designs together:

Yes, this block works for me now.  I like that you can take a ho-hum block design and turn it into a better design by playing with the program.    Once again, it only took me less than 10 minutes to create the block shown above.  I see lots of fun designs in my future!

Next up on my quilting table will be a lovely modern quilt by my friend Lyn Baker.  Lyn is a wonderful binding instructor and you can catch a class with her at High Sierra Quilters in Placerville, CA.  If you do not see a class on the website, but trust me, she has them regularly.  Contact Doug at the store if you need a binding lesson with Lyn.  Lyn is responsible for my huge improvement in my bindings.

Anyway, I plan to design some fun modern designs for Lyn’s quilt and then digitize them for practice.  I will be sharing my progress as I complete them.

Also, in my next ANS post, I will show you how I traced one of my birdy designs and made a quilting pattern out of the art.  Keep watching!

Art & Stitch Workshop

I recently attended a wonderful seminar in using Art & Stitch (ANS) digitizing software for quilting and embroidery design.  I loved this workshop and had a blast drawing designs using this vector program developed  by Theo and Loes van der Heijden.

As an incentive to practice what I learned, I thought I would share fun designs developed using ANS a few times per week.  To begin, the following designs were from a class exercise following directions by Loes.  (Carla note: For students who have taken my Tablet Design class, this is a similar process taught in designing wholecloth quilts).

You start with a triangle doodle design:

ANS example design by Carla Barrett

Repeat 3 more times to create a bock or motif.  For ANS users, you would select and then click on the magic square function in the program:

copyright 2013 by Carla Barrett

Next, you can then create a larger block using 4 of the blocks:

Copyright 2013 by Carla Barrett

Finally, you can also create a large Edge-to-Edge design in ANS, too:

E2E design by Carla Barrett

For those of you interested in the program I am using, Art & Stitch has a free trial download on their website here.

Let me know what you think?   Happy quilting!  Carla

 

 

 

Info About Next Session of eClasses

Just a quick message to let everyone know about upcoming eClasses I have scheduled for early 2013.

The following 3 class dates will be announced soon:

Quilt Whisperer eClass by Carla Barrett-  This class is all about learning Carla’s unique approach to how to design quilt tops for machine quilting.  Also learn some of Carla’s favorite quilting designs and how to find your own inspiration!

Fabric Design with Photoshop Elements* by The Pixeladies- The Pixeladies teach you how to design fabric for use in your art, art quilts and pieced quilts.

Tablet Design Class* by Carla Barrett- This eClass is jammed pack with methods for how to effectively use your tablet and PSE to design quilts, quilting, quilting motifs, zen doodle and more!

*this eClass has a prerequisite of Beginning Photoshop Elements eClass OR basic knowledge of Photoshop Elements or PS CS.

Side note- I decided to take a class break for this holiday season 2012 so teachers and students may enjoy their holiday season!  Keep watching for when I finish scheduling the 2013 eClass dates!

Thanks, Carla

Trip to Kauai

Aloha!  Just got back from a vacation to Kauai.  I figured I wouldn’t mention that I was going before I went- no sense in advertising that my house is empty, y’know?  LOL

I did visit Kapaia Stitchery, the local quilt store, plus I purchased 2 new books on Hawaiian Quilting.  I was inspired to design my own Hawaiian Quilt design:

We stayed in the same Kuhio Shores condo we did on our last visit.  I initially found this rental at Vacation Rental By Owner (vrbo.com) owned by Mike Galvin and we love staying in #415.  The room is on the 4th floor, overlooking the waves, sunrise, sunset,  surfers, and Hawaiian green sea turtles (honu).  Click below to see how close to the waves we were in this video by Mike. (Note: If you dislike Hawaiian music, be sure to mute your computer):

Speaking of honu, one of my trip highlights was snorkeling off the shores seen in the above video and running into a very large green sea turtle.  I am talking about a full adult turtle about 5 feet tall!  It swam right next to me, so I stayed still so I wouldn’t scare it off.   I also saw many slipper lobsters, sea cucumbers, octopus, moray eel, and so many colorful reef fish to name!

Joe was near this same area the day before and had to cut his snorkel time because a 6 foot Mako shark had been spotted by a spear fisherman.  Swimming with turtles- great!  Swimming with a Mako shark- that might ruin your day!

Of course, I visited Glass Beach at low tide, satisfying my need to hunt for sea glass.  Joe was patient while I climbed on the rocks, hunting in all the nooks and crannies.  I did find an unusual glass pipe section that looks very old and interesting.  I find I am a beach comber at heart.

Check out what the sand looks like close up:

Love vacations…. but it is great to be home again!  Hugs, Carla

Catch Up! And Other Things…

I am pleased to announce that the first online Tablet Design Class was a huge success!  Wait until you see the fantastic homework that was turned in by the students- Wow!!  But, that is a future  post, so I will make you wait.  Here are a  few Creative Exercise samples I drew for the class:

A colored wholecloth quilting design:

A quilting design repeat:

Using colored images to help choose quilt design colors:

Practicing quilting fills:

This is just a sneak peek of a few exercises in the class.  All-in-all, I think I shot and edited over 35 videos for this class!  By the way, the next time I teach it will be in the Fall, 2012.  Post a comment to get on my class interest list.

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Freeform Beaded Necklace-  The long awaited blog prize is almost ready to ship to the lucky recipient!!  This turned out very cool, I now need to make a second one for my own portfolio.

Want to see?

OK, here is the finished view of this freeform beaded necklace.  I named it, “Waves of Color:”

Any comments on this latest freeform beaded design?

More to come!  Now that class is over, my creative spirit is unleased!

Hugs, Carla

 

 

Works In Progress

Thanks for the emails asking me why I have been quiet.  I am working on getting ready for the Phoenix Guild trip, and for the Fall Class schedule.

In Phoenix, I am giving a lecture on Quilt Whispering, followed by a workshop on Doodle Art Fills.  Here is my class logo:

I have expanded this class to a full day workshop, so I have added lots of fun Creative Exercises, including this class sample project:

Last weekend, Joe and I went to Fort Bragg, CA, and of course I went sea glass hunting!  The ocean is so refreshing, I envy the readers who live near the ocean!

Back to work now!  Hugs, Carla

Successful Class!

With my 3 week long Quilt Whisperer 101 Online Class wrapping up, I have the free time to blog again!  I am happy to report that the class went well, and the live meetings were fun to do.  Thanks to all the students in the July QW Class for your hard work and for taking my class.

So what’s next?  Next up is a Tablet Design Class, which is already written.  However, I still need to shoot and edit the videos for the weekly lessons.  Here are examples of what the class will teach.  How to draw a wholecloth quilt using a tablet:

 

How to design quilt tops using a tablet.  Here is the before:

Quilt top by Debby B.

Here is the designed quilt:

(Thanks to Debby B. for allowing me to share her lovely quilt top)

The class teaches many other skills, too.  How to design Edge-2-Edge designs and pantos, and how to PPP with your tablet, and more!

Once I finish my videos for this class, the class will be announced and my mailing list notified by an email newsletter.  If you wish to be on the class list, just post a reply here- or on my class page.

Other news:  With an adorable grandbaby in the home, Joe and I lives are enriched!  Ethan is now 3 months and is so cute… a Gerber baby really!  He is a good natured baby, healthy, and even sleeps through the night!  He is a precious gift.

My next speaking and workshop is scheduled for September in Phoenix, Arizona.  I am honored they asked me to come.  I will be giving a lecture on Quilt Whispering, and my workshop will be my Doodle Art Fill Class.  Students will go home with their own original doodle art quilt to later quilt:

How have YOU been?    Happy Summer, Carla

Asian Feather Freehand Design

I wanted to share a freehand quilting or doodle design with you today.  This one I have used for many Japanese and Asian inspired quilts over the years.  It is basically an Asian Feather design.

The picture below shows you how to draw or quilt out this feather modification.  It is rather like a ginko leaf edge or even a ruffled edge:

Please forgive the quick drawing, but this gives you an idea of what this looks like.  For new quilters, here is the difference in shape between a regular feather and my Asian Feather:

You may omit the interior feather design or not, depending on your need.   This type of feather is very forgiving quilted out, too.

Use on Asian quilts, nature quilts, leaf quilts, and other theme quilts.  Let me know if you find posts like this useful, and I will do more quilting designs posts in the future.

Take care, Carla