Testing the Waters

I am testing the waters today to see if I can write blog posts on my iPad without typing. I'm using my voice to write my blog, therefore saving my painfully sad arthritic hands. For the last 2 1/2 months I've been working on secret projects that I can't share, so it's been rather hard to find content for Twisted Sister. However, today I'm posting every intense project I've been working on and it's almost finished.

I have been invited by my fabric company, RJR fabrics to travel to Hamilton Missouri for the Missouri star quilt company's birthday bash. I will have a booth where I am promoting my fabric line hopscotch. One of the perks was that I could invite a friend to come and help me, so Leslie Tucker Jenison and I will be going on a field trip. She also is a designer for RJR fabrics. We always have a lot of fun when we travel together, so I'm sure this will be no exception.

I have been prepping for this for the last few weeks and it has been really intense. I have never looked forward to weekends as much as I have during this project. It is the intent of the booth that we are just there to promote my fabric line by doing some demos with Mistyfuse, show my work, have a giveaway couple times today and do a make and take project. I have never been to Missouri star so I have no idea about the logistics of everything. I just know all the things that I need to have with me to get the job done. I will also be doing two in store demos of how I make my wall quilts.

I am still a rebel quilter! I don't use batting and I don't do binding. My quilts are all made on a foundation of wool blendedt felt and backed with the same which provides a clean edge all the way around. I would describe myself as a raw edge collage artist.

Sizzx has really come to my rescue and preparing for this project. Missouri star has this really cute funky Bird (in one of the upper photos) as one of their exclusive dies with Sizzix. I thought it would make the most fun make and take project. People can select the fabric they want for the bird, Then a flower. A yellow center, a leaf and press it onto wool blended felt that is also cut out in the shape of the bird. And they get a really cute custom pin to put on the top and put it on their clothes that they're wearing. You know that phrase put a bird on it! These are some of the mini scraps from cutting on the Sizzix Fabi machine. As of Thursday this pile was a foot high and a foot wide. These are not the kind of scraps I ever save.

This is one of those projects that I had to keep track of everything that I used, so that RJR fabrics can replace all the fabrics that I used, which is up to 25 yards so far. The main companies that I endorse came through with some great giveaways for the weekend. Havel's Sewing gave me scissors, which are the greatest because they hug the fabric as you cut so you get a nice crisp line. National Nonwovens gave me really bright colors of their wool blend it felt that I use exclusively in my quilts. They selected a group of really bright colors which represents my color palette. Generally I use black and sometimes I use a bright color for the backing. Mistequay's came through with custom packages of white Misty fuse that someone could use for a small project. I absolutely love how they turned out. There's a picture above of the packets. And last but not least, Sizzix who helped me so much with the choices of dies for the Make and Take project. 

There will be more to share as I get closer to the event and I'll be blogging from the event if this portable blogger on my iPad works as good as I think it could work. It would be nice to be able to blog on the spot, or maybe even do a little video. We've been having an intense heat wave lately, so this weekend  I set up a little home studio in my living room to just get it done. This is a small quilt that I made that needs to be quilted and then I think some fun handwork could be added during down time sitting in the booth.