Paula Nadelstern's Opulent Ornaments

Here's a nice mood-lifting and seasonal project - Paula Nadelstern's Opulent Ornaments.  All you need is one of her panels and...  taken from Benernina's Blog "We All Sew."  Enjoy

Opulent Ornaments

 

December 17, 2015, WeAllSew

Enjoy the Opulent Ornaments by Paula Nadelstern!
Here’s your chance to get in touch with your inner embellisher. These eye-catching ornaments often trigger nostalgic memories of family members who made some type of embellished Styrofoam ball. This version kicks it up a notch. You’ll intuitively rely on the repetitive flow of shapes and colors from a commercial kaleidoscopic or medallion-like print to create this easy-to-make and visually beautiful object, brimming with sparkle and ready to display.

It’s all done with regular, inexpensive dressmaker pins, not fancy-schmancy silk or piecing pins. The key is to layer luminous beads with iridescent sequins; I pile one sequin on another for interesting effects. It’s a More is MORE moment!
About thirty ornaments—some on candlesticks, others filling a wrought iron basket—spill along the top of a 7 ft. long x 1 ft. wide x 3 ft. high rosewood cabinet in the living room of my New York City apartment. Sitting under a quilt and behind a couch, the unit was built to store rolled up quilts.

Here are images of the most recent ones I’ve made with my friend Katherine Knauer.





Now I get to introduce you to Karen Selva from Colorado Springs, CO. Karen spent twenty-four years in the Air Force before retiring as a colonel.  Her three kids are grown and she works on a variety of craft genres to her heart’s content.
This year, one of Karen’s six Christmas Trees is a fabulous 7 ft. tall tree adorned with twenty-four bejeweled balls. The tree is raised up a foot on a table covered with brown, quilted fabric. Karen started making the ornaments before last Christmas.

Here’s some of what she has to say:
“Making the ornaments was a creative outlet. Following the beautiful designs of the fabric allowed me to make essentially the same things but different every time as the mood moved me. In order to make the balls the focal point, I used ribbon to separate the tree into diamond shaped areas where a ball could sit front and center as the star of the show. I found blinged out poinsettias (think glitter) in the same colors as the fabrics to center where the ribbons cross, keeping the attention on the balls.  There are 24 balls total: 16 six inch balls, 4 five inch balls and 4 four inch balls.  Those smaller eight are at the top of the tree to give it the illusion of being taller. I have another three ornaments on the mantel and another three (one in each size) that will sit on the buffet table in the dining room.”
To attach the ornaments to the tree, Karen glued two long 2″ eye hook needles, putting E6000 glue on the needle which is pushed into anywhere on the ball against a sequin to make it blend in. The glue does not go through into the Styrofoam but does firmly connect the eye hook to the fabric.  Then she used a regular ornament hook, wrapping it firmly around the tree limb to secure it.  To ensure stability, she makes some of the limbs support the larger balls just in case the glue does not want to hold.

Please download the instructions: Opulent Ornaments Instructions.
Here is a list of fabric types you’ll want to look for:

• Mega Marbles
• Three of a Kind
• Kaleiodoscopics
• Prisma Star
• Patternista Panel

You might even find you already have some in your stash.

 

CHROMOZONE NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE FOR PREORDER!

Paula Nadelstern's (The Kaleidoscope Queen) newest lines - ChromaZone and the new Sunstone Collection - are now available online for PreOrders.  Expected delivery is late February 2016/early March!  

There are four different color ways - Red/Green (Christmas), Caribbean (very bright), Multi and Blue for each design.The first is her newest panel - Dragon Medallion.  The one we're showing you is her Caribbean one - yellows, turquoise, pinks.   As with all her panels there are 6 large medallions, 10" in diameter.  Three different designs, two of each.  Then there are 12 smaller ones - 3 designs, four of each measuring 3 1/4" in diameter.  The second piece is Magmatude. In this Prima Donna there are two different motifs.  One is 8" in diameter, and then there's a smaller, 4 1/2" diameter.  The repeat is 15" however a 1/2 yard will give you 8 full repeats of both motifs.  The third is Filigree. Interestingly enough, Paula tells us  that this piece was originally designed to go in her last collection Fabracadabra.  However since that line was huge, it was decided to hold off until the next collection.  This is quite unusual because she uses a white as the "filigree" pattern over the colored motifs - all is bilaterally symmetrical.   The repeat is large, 24".  And it appears that you will need 1 1/3 - 1 1/2 yards to get 8 full repeats of each motif.  The final design is Vox.  Vox does somewhat remind me of a voice recording meter (if you've ever seen one).  This striped pattern runs the length of the selvage. The repeat is 12", however it does appear that 1 yard will allow you to get 8 full repeats of each design you see in the pattern.

What is very different about each of these new bilaterally symmetrical designs is she did not use a black outline in her design.  Therefore each is a bit less defined, though the coloration of each will work with her more recent lines.   Below is a sample of each new design.




The final picture is of the eight new Sunstone colors that work magnificently with the ChromaZone line - very bright in coloration, except for her new black - haha.  This black is unbelievably fabulous, really.

                   

Paula Nadelstern's ChromaZone

From a Bernina blog post:

Skip to content

SIGN INSIGN UP

Search for:

CHROMAZONE – HOW TO GET TO THAT FIRST REVEAL

• Facebook
• Pinterest
• Google
• Twitter

October 22, 2015, WeAllSew

ChromaZone, Paula Nadelstern’s 14th fabric collection for Benartex, will premiere at International Quilt Market in Houston this year. Benartex will give away one set of half yard cuts of the entire ChromaZone fabric line. Read more in this post.

Companies like Benartex who design and print our quilt fabrics are called converters, because they convert greige goods into the prints we buy in the quilt stores. Greige goods (pronounced gray) are raw fabrics before they undergo dying or bleaching.

I don’t have an art or textile design background. My degrees are in Occupational Therapy with a Masters in Psych, although I haven’t worked in the field for a very long time. Until my accidental apprenticeship with knowledgeable Benartex designers, everything I knew about color I learned as a kid from my prized box of sixty-four kid-worthy crayons.

I work with the Benartex Creative Director and Stylist, Ruth Beck, and a clever, creative CAD artist who gets me. They help take my “What If” ideas all the way to the quilt shop. Ruth is responsible for marrying trend with design, color and technique. Equally important, she has production know-how and understands the nitty gritty of how to print on cloth (which is very different from paint or CAD processes) and how to communicate effectively with the Korean mill.

Keep in mind, I’m not only a fabric designer, I’m also an art quilter who uses fabric with luminosity and shading in her series of kaleidoscopic quilts, and I’m a teacher whose students’ success often relies on fabrics that mirror image. When I set out to design a new collection, I’m balancing these three aesthetics.

My goal is to design beautiful stuff that can be used in a myriad of ways for anyone’s piecing adventure, not just to be used to make kaleidoscopic designs. I welcome color and motif inspiration whenever I’m lucky enough to notice it: an elevator door, a set of Italian dishes, a painting at the Met, the arabesque patterns in the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque on a teaching trip to Abu Dhabi.

From the start, ChromaZone was to be about color. Lots of it. The title was the product of a brainstorming session fueled by a lovely Sangria in Casa Hidalgo, a fish restaurant in Sitges, Spain where me and my three best quilting friends were exhibiting our Semper Tedium quilts—but that’s another story.

It was also intended to be a relatively small group taking less time than usual because of my extensive 2014 travel schedule. With this in mind, I began by making mock-ups using artwork from previous collections. Since I don’t create on the computer, I physically cut and collaged actual fabric. The CAD artist scanned these and then skillfully used Photo Shop to move them toward a finished product. I sit at a computer a few feet from her so we can collaborate easily.

Months later, an existing design called Dragon Feathers turned into Dragon Medallions, Magmatude evolved from Magma, and I re-colored a previous allover called Sunstone to work with the new group. Vox is brand-new artwork, taking on the role of a great ombré stripe which automatically slides the eye from here to there, forming visual pathways that instill an element of motion. We had ambitiously over-designed the previous collection, Fabracadabra, which turned into a collection too big for marketing purposes. The leftover, Filigree, was adapted for ChromaZone.

I color the line on a computer in the Benartex studio using textile design software called Evolution.  As I’m coloring, I’m fascinated by the idea that I can cause different color ways of the same design to function in diverse ways. In one colorway, a contrasting motif might pop and create a visual line when it connects to its repeats. In another, the same motif may be colored in a hue that softens it so it recedes (rather than pops) or connects it to a neighboring motif (rather than standing out on its own).  Some of this is serendipity, some contrived by me but ultimately it means I have a bigger “vocabulary” to work with. You can see what I mean by looking at the four colorways of Magmatude.

ChromaZone has five patterns in four colorways. I always do a Blue group (because I know it will be the most popular) and I always include a Multi filled with lots of different colors. The new direction this time is a Christmas color story, as true to the iconic colorway as I am capable of since I’m programmed to believe that when it comes to color, more is more. The Caribbean group was inspired by a teaching cruise to the Bahamas.

This collection has a more painterly quality than usual. In previous collections, most of the designs have a precise quality with clear definitions of the motifs because each element is outlined.  The outline keeps each color contained in its position. Without an outline, a painterly effect is created because one color might fall-on another producing a third color. This is called trapping. Fall-ons are less apparent when it’s a fabric with a single color story, like shades of yellows. The role of the outline is to separate colors that don’t make good neighbors, like orange and green which can generate an unwanted muddy brown where they touch each other. The painterly approach made a difficult job even harder for the stylist whose job is to make sure that what I create on paper can be produced on fabric. A good example of both of these effects can be seen in the pattern called Filigree. The colorful, painterly pattern in the background is not outlined while the prominent white scroll is outlined in black so the white stays fixed.

It takes a long time, at least 6-9 months, from the day the three of us meet to discuss the new line to the day it is sent to the Korean mill for the first strike-offs. A strike-off is a test length of fabric printed by the mill in order to check the pattern registration and colors. From strike-offs to actual fabric is about three months. I live in the Bronx (which is the most northern borough of New York City) and typically commute downtown to Benartex by subway for at least 3 months almost full time, broken up by teaching commitments. I don’t do any of the coloring at home because I don’t have the computer software or large format printers.

Welcome to the ChromaZone.

It’s give-away time:

We have a give-away of one set of half yard cuts of the entire ChromaZone fabric line. Simply comment on the post to answer the following question: How would you incorporate ChromaZone in your next project?

A winner will be drawn randomly on October 26. Good luck!

 

Post navigation

PREVIOUSPrevious post:Mixed Media Artwork with BERNINA Longarm Q 20

 

• RSS Feed
 
• Facebook
 
• Pinterest
 
• Instagram
 
• YouTube
 
• Flickr

• © 2015 BERNINA
• Contact us
• Privacy
• Terms and Conditions
• BERNINA USA
• Newsletter Sign Up
• Sign In

WHAT DO JUDGES LOOK FOR?

Nearly a month ago we had our local guild quilt show - the Boise Basin Quilt Show.  There were around 300 quilts to see and many, many vendors.


If you're interested in checking out some of the quilts on display - go to our Cotton Club Facebook page.  Below are a sample.   The first quilt, by Carol Lohrenz (sp?) won Best of Show.  Most people were quite pleased to see that an "art quilt" took the top prize. The second one by Patty Henry won Best Appliqué as well as some other top awards, such as from the National Quilting Society so she can enter this quilt into national quilt shows.  In fact we're told she would have won Best of Show, however this quilt was made from a kit and kits do not qualify for Best of Show.   The next quilt did not win in the category, but the technique is called "shatter and sew."  The border around the piece is the actual fabric used as the main focus of the quilt that was "shattered and sewn."  The final piece did win in its category, though sadly I don't recall the category.  The piecing was quite small and made up of courthouse steps and log cabin blocks.

Now the question remains what do Judges actually look for in a quilt when judged.  Morna McEver Golletz tells us:

You have just finished your latest quilt, are proud of your accomplishment and want to show it off. You first share it with your family, then with your small quilting “bee” and finally take it to show and tell at your next guild meeting. For some quilters, this is enough. For others, it is not. Many quilters and fiber artists want to see how their work stacks up against the competition, whether that is hanging it in a local, non-judged show or entering it in a major juried and judged competition. In addition to gaining recognition for your quilts, you also educate other quilters and the general public about quilting and its standards. For local guild shows, this is often a primary reason for holding a show. Additionally, if your quilt is entered in a judged show, you can set goals for improvement based on feedback from the judges or your own comparison with winning quilts. And, of course, you might just win a prize, either a ribbon, cash, or merchandise.
Impartiality in judging is important and one way this is done is through use of a panel of independent judges, usually three. Quilt judges may have been trained and certified by the National Quilting Association, or they can be trained through experience. They all adhere to similar standards of judging, although final results will be varied based on the individual judges.

 

Judging can take place either before or after the quilts are hung, and each method has advantages. Judging quilts after they are hung allows the visual impact of the quilt to be better appreciated. Judging quilts before they are hung is usually faster, but visual impact takes second place to the ability to view the workmanship.

 

Judges often use scorecards or evaluation forms and either a point system, an elimination system or a combination of the two to evaluate the individual entries. The point system uses a predetermined maximum number of points to judge specific areas, for example, up to 20 points for the color and design, up to 20 points for construction, up to 15 points for finishing, etc., with the total equaling 100 points. Each quilt is judged on its own merits, and the quilt with the highest total number of points is awarded the first place.

 

The elimination system, on the other hand, allows each judge to evaluate a quilt, make comments on its technique and offer feedback for improvement. If the judge feels the quilt should be held for ribbon/award consideration, it is put aside. If not, it is released from the competition portion. After the quilts are judged in this preliminary fashion, the held quilts are compared to others in its category and the winners are determined.

 

Neither system is perfect. Regardless, judges evaluate quilts against the same standards. Here are just a few of the commonly held standards that quilt judges use:

 

General Appearance

• The quilt makes an overall positive statement upon viewing
• The quilt is clean and “ready to show,” i.e., no visible marks, no loose threads, no pet hair, no bearding, no offensive odors.
• The quilt’s edges are not distorted. This is easier to gauge when the quilt is hung.

Design and Composition

• All the individual design elements of the quilt – top, quilting, choice of fabric, sashes, borders, embellishments, finishing – are unified.
• The design is in proportion and balanced.
• Borders or other edge treatments enhance the quilt appearance.

Workmanship

• Piecing is precise, corners match and points are sharp.
• Seams, including those of sashing and borders, are secure, straight and flat.
• Quilting stitches are straight where intended and curved where intended.

 

As noted, judges consider certain “standards” when evaluating quilts – and the list is really quite extensive – but how do they decide which quilts are the prizewinners? And what is more important, design or workmanship? In the end I think it comes down to design, the quilt with the greater visual impact. But even the quilt with the greatest visual impact cannot rescue poor workmanship.

 

ICAP offers three resources recommended for those in judging programs. You can learn more about The Challenge of Judging by Jeannie Spears, Judging Quilts by Katy Christopherson, and a audio recording of a conversation on “The Judge’s Perspective” between Morna McEver Golletz and judges Jane Hall and Scott Murkin on our resources page. We also offer a package with all three of the resources. See the Resources for Judges page on our website.

 

Perhaps you have a different perspective about quilt shows and judging. Your thoughts and experiences are always welcome. You are also welcome to leave a comment on the ICAP Facebook or Google+ pages.

 

– – – – – – – – – –

Morna McEver is the founder and CEO of the International Association of Creative Arts Professionals where creative arts entrepreneurs craft business success. Her weekly e-zine offers tips, techniques and inspiration to help you craft business success from your creative arts passion. You can sign up for a FREE subscription at http://www.creativeartsprofessional.com.