After an extended break while moving disrupted my routine, my life and my sanity, I’m back in the bookmarks folder today to share with you on this happy Monday. I took a glance at some quilt artist’s websites today:

Jane Blair Quilts—Years ago, I fell in love with Jane Blair’s Gypsy In My Soul quilt when I saw it, either in a publication or at the Quilt Museum in Paducah, never realizing that she had such a large collection of other work. Recently I ran across her site, and the rest of her quilts are just as beautifully done as Gypsy. I can really relate to her “body of work” as it seems so like my own: taken as a whole, her work could be attributed to many different artists, so varied are the styles and techniques.

Candy Goff, Handquilter—Candy Goff’s site has been in my bookmarks folder for many years, probably since I started collecting bookmarks to begin with. There are some timeless tips and tricks there, as well as photos of some of her stunning quilts, and you’ll also find the story of her Misery Quilt which I’ve mentioned before. I kind of wonder what’s going on with her these days though, since it looks like the site hasn’t been updated in years. Are you still quilting, Candy?

Caryl Bryer Fallert, Bryerpatch Studio—Caryl’s galleries are a must-visit stop on any hunt for quilting eye candy. She shares the stories and construction steps and techniques for many of her quilts here, and there are many detailed close up pictures. Check out her Frequently Asked Questions page for her expert quilting tips and tricks, and you can find her fabrics, patterns, books and other products in her store.

Joyce Carey—I don’t know what else to say about her work, except “Go get lost on her site for an afternoon like I did!” With her expert eye for design and color she creates works that appear three dimensional, but are, in reality, completely flat. She shares thoughts on her design and fabrication process, as well as views of some of her quilts, in movies and slide shows about her work. Her quilted art pieces inspire lingering for close study, and the only thing that would make her site even better would be more close up and detail views of her artwork.

Edmund Cluett Contemporary Patchwork—Another artist making quilt art pieces to die for, most of Mr. Cluett’s work is small scale and meant to be framed. Bright colors, rough edge appliqué and fresh, original designs combine to entice me to decorate a room around one of his pieces. All of his work is completed on antique Singer treadle machine!

Want to join me as I organize and purge my bookmarks folder? Feel free to use the Monday’s Melange picture above on your blog post when you share a few of your bookmarks (whether they’re in your browser or online at a social bookmarks manager like del.icio.us), then leave me a comment here so that I can add a link to your blog and everyone can visit! Enjoy!

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After an unanticipated two week break for the flu and house hunting, I’m back in my Bookmarks folder today to share another Melange on this happy Monday. Today I’m surfing through some art, computer and Internet related links.

The Art of Monica Van der Weer—I love her artwork, and she offers it for download to use as desktop wallpapers. She does lovely paintings of cats, dogs and other animals that are reminiscent of Charles Wysocki. You can also send greeting cards featuring some of her paintings. I remember that I figured out how to put one of her backgrounds on the Windows Startup Screen on my office computer once, and then I couldn’t ever figure out how to take it off. My boss hated cats, but unless he’s bought a new computer since then, I imagine it’s still there…

Digital Blasphemy—Ryan is a wonderful digital artist and his desktop wallpapers are really cool. I have a number of them that I use depending on my mood or the season, and he’s always creating more to add to his members only gallery. He rotates some of his members only wallpapers out to the free gallery which I’ve linked to.

PlasmaDesign—Yet another desktop wallpaper site. These wallpapers have more of a Mac-ish feel to them, though of course they are compatible with Windows systems as well (or even Linux, if you are of that persuasion). Some of his wallpapers are free, and some are members only and require payment, which seemed fairly reasonable at the time I did it, which was years ago. He has some lovely landscapes and cool looking abstracts to spiff up your desktop. Read the rest of this entry »

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I’m back in my Bookmarks folder today to bring you another Melange on this happy Monday. More quilting bookmarks:

StenSource International, Inc.—I found this place in 2004 when they had a booth at the Houston show. Home of the Creative Iron, fusible, laser cut fabric appliqués. I’ve yet to make something with these appliqués, but it’s on my list of to-dos. And check out these coordinating stencil sets that you can cut apart; they have all the stencils you’d need for a quilt, big blocks, small blocks and borders, all on one stencil. I suppose you wouldn’t even have to cut them apart, and then they’d be all together when you need to use them.

Red Rock Threads—This place is my favorite to buy threads! Based in Pahrump, Nevada (near my Las Vegas hometown), this nice lady has LOADS of different brands of thread in stock, all the time. She does one thing, thread, and she does it very well indeed. (Okay, she has some needles and embroidery supplies, but she does them well too.) Shipping is extremely reasonable; it used to be free, and just after she was forced to change policy due to rising Postal Service fees (long after the fees actually rose, btw), I talked to her on the phone and she actually apologized and said she felt soooo bad that she’d had to start charging shipping. If only other mail order businesses were like this, right? There’s lots of extra, free info on the site about threads, as well as conversion charts. Quick ordering, quick shipping, great customer service, what more could you ask for? Well, I could ask for YLI Soft Touch, which seems to be the only thing I’ve ever wanted that she didn’t have!

The Quilters Quarter—I have no idea why I bookmarked this one, or when for that matter, but I am happy to see that they have YLI Soft Touch cotton thread! I have a heck of a time finding this thread online for some reason. I use it in the bobbin for machine embroidery, though I’m not sure why I started that either. Somehow it just seems to make sense to use cotton thread if I’m doing embroidery for quilts; you know, that “cotton fabric, 100% cotton thread” thing. Quilters Quarter has a pretty nice selection of other quilting items, and I see a good selection of stencils there. Read the rest of this entry »

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