I'll be speaking at the Redlands Art Association in late November, read all about it.

Dear <<First Name>>,

Program at the Redlands Art Association

On Tuesday, November 29 at 7 pm I'm going to be giving a modified version of my talk entitled "My Journey from Traditional to Art Quilter" at the Redlands Art Association. I will be discussing how my obsession with color and dyeing fabric led me from making traditional quilts with store bought fabric to becoming the fabric artist I am today. My story should resonate with artists of any media and help inform beginning artists who are searching for their “muse”.

(one of my very old quilts!)

The program is free and open to the public; the gallery is located at 215 E. State St. in Redlands, CA 92373

Learn Free Motion Machine Sketching with me in Coachella Valley

I'm going to be teaching a class to members of the Coachella Valley Quilt Guild. They have offered to let a few non-guild members sign up for the class, the fee is $45 for non-members. The class will be held:

Sunday, January 15, 2017 from 9 am to 4 pm

Free Motion Machine Sketching is an extension of free motion quilting; instead of creating an overall pattern for background texture of our quilt, the quilting line is front and center in the design. In order to emphasize the handmade nature of our work, we retrace our steps and try to miss on purpose; I love the beautiful imperfection of a strong line that is created by drawing it over and over – it’s just my pencil is an electric sewing machine.

In this class you will learn how to stitch several different motifs: lots of different plants and of course my favorite birdies! You should be familiar with Free Motion Quilting, so that we can concentrate on FMMS techniques. If you like, bring in some inspirational photos (digital or hard copy) and I’ll help you extract the essence of them and free motion machine sketch your own signature motif. Although you may want to just work on practice blocks, I will show you how to create a fabric sketchbook in order to keep track of all the motifs you learn.

For more information or to register, contact Christina Smithberg via email: Christina.smithberg (at) yahoo.com or call 925 899 416

Desktop Calendars

For November I've created a calendar for all my awesome newsletter subscribers that celebrates the golds and greens of acorn squash on a piece of luscious silk I dyed for my Dyeing 104: Multicolor Silk online class.

Click on either the picture above or this link to be taken to Flickr where you can download the size that you need.

I'm looking forward to carving Jack O'lanterns; here in Redlands we can't do that until the day before Halloween or it will be all soft and shrivelled by trick-or-treating time! I hope you find time to celebrate fall's lovely colors!

Yours in color,
Candy

Featured classes and Upcoming Shows:

Online Classes Sale!!!!!

Would you be interested in learning how to dye? Or perhaps you’ve done some dyeing with Procion MX fiber reactive dyes and are less than happy with your results? Either way, my online courses “Dyeing 100: Intro to Dyeing with Fiber Reactive Dyes”, “Dyeing 101: Controlling Color“,”Dyeing 102: Controlling Texture” , “Dyeing 103: Multi Color Cotton” or Dyeing 104: Multicolor Silk may be a great place for you.

They are self-paced courses with no time limit on course access, so you don’t have to have the time right now to follow the class through to completion. In fact, one of the aspects of my classes is that I’ll be able to help you identify how and when you can dye, I’m a pro at fitting my passion for color in around the cracks of my busy life! I’m having a sale on all the classes from now until the end of the month, so now is a good time to register! Use the code "BOO" to save 20% on registration

Really Free, Free Motion Quilting

Monday evenings in January 2017: January 9, 16 & 23 from 6:30-9:30 pm

Learn how to free motion quilt and free your creativity! I will teach you many different free motion quilt motifs, discuss strategies on how to handle quilting large quilts, and we will assemble a book of these motifs for you to refer to back home in your studio.

Note: If the class is full, ask to be placed on the waiting list...every class I've had someone not be able to come because life got in the way! For more information on any of these classes or to register, call the Redlands Sewing Center: 909.792.3994

Holiday Open Studio

Looking forward to December, I'm having an open studio on Saturday & Sunday, December 10 & 11, from 11 am - 4 pm each day. Please stop by for some holiday goodies, I love getting a chance to say thanks to my awesome customers with some mulled cider and yummy baked goods. You'll get a chance to poke around both my dyeing and sewing studios, and I'll have lots of items out for your holiday shopping pleasure!

Advanced Free Motion Quilting

Monday evenings in February 2017: February 13, 20 & 27 from 6:30 – 9:30 pm

Take your free motion quilting to the next level! This class is designed for folks who’ve already taken a free motion class with me. We’ll work on making our stitches more even, developing smoother curves and pointier points, and expanding our motif knowledge. I’ll show you new quilting motifs we didn’t cover in the first class, and more importantly, work on varying the motifs you already know to fit particular design issues and ultimately develop quilting patterns that are all your own! I’ll show you how to bind your quilt completely on your sewing machine. We’ll also make a sampler quilt that allows us to feature our favorite motifs and learn my fun and easy method of Quilt As You Go!