quilt madness

I'm in Paducah, KY, during Quilt Week, where some 35-40,000 quilters invade the town. I'm with my mom, debuting her newest book, Nickel Quilts and Borders. She is also doing a series of benefit lectures for Habitat for Humanity, which is pretty cool. The vendors market is new, and needs help getting publicity, so spread the word about Two Hearts Quilt Market. It's in the old Gore's grocery store, which is a little bit out of the way, but completely worth the stop! We plan on coming back next year.

Here is a pic of the new book. I did the graphics. Tell your quilting relatives about it.
Nickel Quilts & Borders by Pat Speth

And! The Best In Show award went to a quilt based on Lord of the Rings.
Tribute to Tolkien by Sue McCarty

plates and drawings

I've been working with surface textures treatments lately, specifically with various methods of applying stain. Typically stain is applied after a piece has been fired once, bisqued, but with these plates I added stain while they were still greenware. First coating them in wax, then carving away the wax where I wanted the stain to be, I was able to use the clay as a canvas. I was a little nervous about messing up the drawings, so I had Tom draw some as well.



Glazing the plates I also used a completely new-to-me method: coating areas in liquid latex. Layering glazes can be tricky, especially if you want a crisp line, around a drawn image for example, and liquid latex can be applied with a brush and peeled off after you dip the piece in glaze. It was messy, smelly, and I ruined a couple of brushes, but I like the way the plates turned out and will probably use the latex some more.