It's a gorgeous day here in the Seattle, WA area. We have a few scattered clouds and a nice breeze, with the highs in the 70's. I love looking outside at all the colors in the garden and our yard and our hydrangea flowers are just starting to turn color from light blue to purplish. 
As I mentioned on Facebook, I just sent away two photos taken this past Feb. in Hawaii to www.spoonflower.com. Spoonflower is a site that prints on fabric. In this case, the photos will be printed on a cotton/silk fabric that has a slight sheen, which will be perfect because both digital photos are beach scenes. Their prices are incredibly reasonable, especially when you compare printing on your home printers - you need to keep in mind when you print yourself, you have to pay for the computer ready fabric and the ink cartridges.

I have printed landscape scene before on computer ready fabric, as demonstrated below, using a method called "tiling" or "posterizing." Basically, what you are doing is taking a digital image and enlarging it so it prints on several fabric sheets. What you end up with is: a scene that you must put together - It involves trying to eliminate the white border around each portion of the scene (one printer sheet). Many quilters just line the pages up and end up with straight lines through their scene. I prefer another method. I cut every other line in a curvy fashion then lay that line on top of the coordinating straight line. In my method, the scene blends together and you see no joining lines. As an example, I am including a photo of my quilt, Clover Lake, where I used this method. The only part of the scene where I didn't use this method was the sky. Instead, I substituted an actual commercial sky print because I thought the joining lines would be too obvious. I accomplished this by cutting "out" the mountain and trees and then sliding the sky fabric beneath. I glued the curvy lines and sky into place using a glue stick and 505 Re positionable adhesive. In Clover Lake, I also added some of my own pine trees, rocks and moss along the shoreline of the design, as well as overlays of Angelina and extensive machine quilting. 

 

Another quilt where I used the tiling or posterizing method is my quilt Serenity. This quilt was auctioned benefiting the Association of Pacific West Quilters. I wish I had bid on it myself as I truly love this quilt! In this quilt, I used one of Mickey Lawler's SkyDye hand -painted skies. The only problem was: I didn't have quite enough fabric. So, here's what I did; I laid a portion of the fabric on the top of my printer and then copied and printed the fabric on computer ready fabric. To join the fabrics, I cut my trusty curvy line and you can't even see where I joined it. See, there's always a way to solve a problem......I enhanced my design with Neocolor wax pastels, machine embroidery, and overlays of Angelina. Man, I miss this quilt......

Facing a quilt & printing on canvas

Good news on the home front! I have been down-graded to a stretchy sling instead of the cumbersome immobilizer! Yea! It's much easier to sleep and my dog Blondie likes it too - I changed sides of the bed back to my normal side and now Blondie can march right up and give me doggie kisses and curl right up to me to go to sleep.
My doctor said I can use my hand a bit more so yesterday I started taking the facing off of my quilt Tuscany. A word to the wise, when you try to put a facing on a quilt that has really thick edges (like Tuscany), the facing does not roll back like it should. Once I saw how uneven the quilt was after facing it, I went YUK! I photographed it but used the magic of Photoshop to square it up. Once the facing is removed, I will make sure it is actually square, and if not, square it again and then add a traditional 2 1/4" double binding. Sometimes you win and sometimes your little "trial" of techniques doesn't work. Comes with the territory! Wish me luck! I can't square the quilt until I get more strength in my right shoulder but at least I can be doing something in my studio! I'm also toying with the idea of having a photo printed on fabric in a very large format (you can send away to have it done). Once I investigate the process I'll get back to you. I think it will be fun as I have had photographs printed on canvas before but trust me, those puppies are a bitch to quilt through. I'll show you the photo of a quilt I had printed on canvas and you can see I did some very heavy stitching but broke about 6 needles in the process! Take care.
xxoo Joyce

Thank you for your kind words regarding my latest blog a view days ago. I thoroughly enjoy your comments. I do want to share that my quilt,Dryer Lint Etc., has been found and sent back to me!
I am thrilled to have it back! It's a long story but basically, just a huge mistake and not a theft!

I'm off to see my Ortho doctor today and am hoping I might be able to have a smaller sling after my rotator cuff surgery - sleeping is the pits in this large immobilizer.
I hope all of you had a great time with family yesterday, on Father's day - we did! My amazing family came over with dinner and set everything up for a lovely meal! 
xxoo
Joyce

New Directions

Well, with life, comes change! As I sneak into my "golden years," I have made a decision to retire from teaching and lecturing. As my photo shows, hauling around 50 lb. suitcases with teaching supplies all over the globe has resulted in a full rotator cuff tear. I had surgery on May 20th of 2014 and I will probably have to wear this stabilizer for a total of three months!
For some reason, Comcast has decided to no longer let we users update our web sites, so I will be posting on my blog more often, showing some of my more recent quilts and letting you know what I am up to!
At present, since I can't quilt, what I can do is type on my ergonomic keyboard so I am working on my first quilting novel. It is really fun, although kind of hard to find my "voice." I am constantly trying to make it more interesting which is a bit of a task but hopefully, it will be ready to submit to a publisher in the next nine months. Before that, however, I have to find an agent and set the wheels in motion! 
If any of you have questions or comments, please feel free to e-mail me at JBecker3@hotmail.com. For now, I am going to include some photos of new quilts. The first quilt, "Dreaming of Tuscany," was inspired by the artist Haiben. Originally, I planned to create this quilt in a 6-day workshop with Lenore Crawford at Empty Spools in Asilomar, CA. However, another landscape teacher slated to teach at Empty Spools during the same session broke her arm and I was asked to step in to teach. Having been there the year before to teach, I immediately said yes - especially since you have the same students for six whole days. Trust me, having the students for that length of time is a teacher's dream! Anyway, I decided to create the Tuscany quilt using my methods and I am happy with the result.

The second photo is of nearby Monterrey Bay, and a quilt made by one of my students at Asilomar, Janet Coggins.
I will posting more often so please check back frequently, O.K.? I have more quilts and photos to share! xxoo Joyce

Promise to Post More Often

I apologize for not writing more often - I hope to do better in the future! 
One of my most favorite bookings of all times was a recent stent teaching for six days at Empty Spools Symposium at Asilomar State Park near Pacific Grove, California. Having the same amazing students for six whole days is just heaven for we teachers....

I also decided to fill an empty spot on the board of the Association of Pacific West Quilters until the year 2014 - I have a strong affiliation with the board as I am a founding board member. Exciting things are happening and a new post will go out to members and on the web site soon!

I will be doing a Podcast with American Patchwork and Quilting on Monday June 24th, 1:-2:00 PM Pacific Time. A am very excited to be on the radio again as it is lots of fun and what the heck, I can wear my jammies as nobody sees me!!!

More to come soon, I promise...
Love,
Joyce
 

The Quilt Show Episode 912

Well, after a year and a half after taping an episode focusing on landscape quilting with The Quilt Show online with Ricky Tims and Alex Anderson, my episode (#912) begins airing today and can be viewed for the next two weeks - there will also be a new project for members available later on as well as more slides of my quilts......It was so much fun being on the show and I am very humbled to have been asked to be a guest!