Candace Kling, Ribbon Artist Extraordinaire

Is this a great smile..or what?  Candace was one of the best instructor I've ever had. She was articulate, concise and organized... There was not a wasted movement nor wasted word  the entire day....I was mesmerized watching her hands work the fabric...  It was a great day.

I've  had Candace's book for a long time and only used parts of it so I wanted to take this class to feel more comfortable with manipulating both ribbons and fabric... The biggest thing holding me back was the price of the beautiful silk ribbons... I'll never be able to afford them so matter how I covet them.  But in this class we were making flowers from silk fabric and silk blouses are something I often find at thrift stores and can dye... 

The project I have in mind for after the suffrage quilt will involve a LOT of dimensional flowers of all sizes and types so this fit right in with my plans.... but I kept thinking about even doing them smaller and Candace told me she was developing a class on miniature ribbon work...  She thought it would really appeal to doll makers but I can see it as wonderful for crazy quilters.  And working  in miniature would take less ribbon... The class will be in Seattle in May and when I called today in mid November.... I was 4th on the list and the class will be limited to 10...

You can see her exquisite work and find the locations of her classes on her website. 

Post #998
(Note:  Also I  heard from Carole Samples and she said if you will email her direct she will send you the information on ordering the templates from her..... fancwerx@inebraska.com
 They are available nowhere else and she has the machine that makes them...)

Taming the Templates.....Attention Miss Carole

(Note: Okay everyone it's your lucky day.....  I just heard from Carole Samples and she said if you will email her direct she will send you the information on ordering the templates from her..... fancwerx@inebraska.com
 They are available nowhere else and she has the machine that makes them...)

I've always kept my Carole Samples templates on a big ring as suggested but it was difficult finding a number and awkward to put them on and off the ring in order.. When I got to her class I looked around to see what others were using but it was rings everywhere I looked ..Plus the black marker numbers were hard to read on the purple templates.. So I knew I had to have a system that was user friendly to ME!!

So I set about to work out a color-coded system with rainbow colors...  I divided the templates into subgroups with 5 to a group.... 1-5, 6-10, 11-15, etc.  First I tried colored pearl cotton on each template and it probably would work but I wasn't satisfied...

I decided that I wanted to use colored tape but didn't want to buy seven rolls for just a few inches of tape so I did the colored rectangles on my computer and printed them on a sheet of good quality labels.. I divided each rectangle into 5 approx. pieces 1/2" x 2"   and put the numbers in order by color.. starting at one end of the rainbow ....red

The hole  for a metal ring was covered by the tape but I could punch it through... But I don't see ever putting these on a ring again.. They are so easy to sort and read this way.... Eventually I will make them a travel roll but I will use them at home 99% of the time... What I need now is an color-coded organizer for the drawer and that is next on the list..

Even gathered in a bunch you can see how easy they will be to sort... Sorry it's out of focus... trying to hold camera with one hand while photographing the other is a bit shaky.... Near the middle you will notice a blue label with a tiny white strip on it also...  I am starting to add that extra strip  to my favorites (about 12 so far) to make them even easier to find...

Now that part of the problem was solved I needed a way to see all the configurations at once to make design decisions... So I put all the templates on the scanner with their new lovely colors...

I divided them into groups, scanned them,  and reduced them so each color group would fit on a 4x6  index card... These cards will be laminated and put on a metal ring... I did reduce them further and got them ALL on one 4x6 card but they may be too reduced to be usable....but worth a try..

This is a work in progress and will need some fine tuning but I am loving it so far...  I should be able to study the cards and snap out the right template in seconds.....

I'm hoping Miss Carole is reading this post and I know she'll notice that I'm missing template #23 and I want her to know that Morris is not responsible...  I'm hoping it will show up when I actually get my work area sorted and cleaned...

In case you haven't kept a count this is post #997  on this blog and I will have something special on POST #1000....

Home, happy, and tired....

Well here is Carole Samples in Wichita and it is me taking the picture.  Besides being an unparalleled resource on crazy-quilt history and seam history, she was sharing, gracious and witty.. and I love her!! She talked almost nonstop for 6 hours both days and never digressed from what she wanted us to learn about her book and templates. 

Sometimes events happen in your life and you don't realize until later how pivotal they were and the effect they had.  ... Like most CQers I've always keep a record of seams that were inspiring and  use them in my work.   But in those 12 hours with Miss Carole I went from copying seams to a mind set of designing  seams...and I knew immediately my life as a crazy quilter had made a dramatic change.   In the past I would open her book and find a seam I liked and find the templates to reproduce it... Now it will be just the reverse... I will FIRST choose templates and then design the seam... I will take you on this journey with me....
Both the workshops with Candace and Allie were great also and will talk about them later....

I can hardly wait to start but need to unpack and recover from the trip.... The trip home was grueling as there were 3 legs (Wichita to Minneapolis to Salt Lake to Spokane) and it took 12 hours total.  Morris was in trouble while I was gone... DH forgot to put the 1/2 gallon bottle of olive oil on a shelf out of Morris's reach...   Morris has coveted that bottle of olive oil for some time and how he is able to drag it about is beyond me as it is half as big as he is... Anyway he got it and drug it from the kitchen pantry into the area of the living room in which he keeps his treasures and chewed the lid off.... DH did his best to clean it up but I believe no matter what I do now I will have to get an area rug to hide the stain. And I woke up to snow!!!!

Wichita bound....and a new feature..

At this point I have no idea how I am going to get all the stitching stuff into one suitcase and clothes also...I'm taking three classes...one from Allie Allison and also one from Candace Kling.  I had a class from Allie in CT and she is so much fun... She just lives across the state from me and for both her classes I'll have gone cross country... Candace Kling also teaches in Seattle which is just across the state from me... So why travel so far to take classes I could take closer to home...?

Well the answer is Carol Samples... I have her templates and my book of stitches for Carole Samples to autograph already packed.  I love my templates but only use about 10 at the most out of the 36 and am anxious to soak up all she has to offer... I wish it were a longer class... She has a list of all we are to bring and it includes a "happy heart" which I will definitely be  bringing along...  When Morris was in the dog house for chewing up my favorite template, Carole kindly sent me a replacement to get Morris back into my good graces... For a picture of the Morris-modified template click here!

  During the giveaway I had people say they would sign up to be a follower but I didn`t have that feature on my blog... I started blogging about 3 1/2 years ago and  I didn't see the feature as that useful... People could sign up to be a follower but that didn't mean they actually did... I`m a follower on a lot of blogs that for one reason or another I never visit... So at that time I opted for a stat counter so I would know exactly how many visits I had..

But since I've been often asked, I've added it to the right sidebar...  And if you're not a follower and would like to have your picture added, I'd love to have you join in the fun.... I also found out since that it works the other way also...  I can click on the pictures of followers and visit their blogs and see their interests.... fun for me also!!!! Now a good time to thank all the lovely folks who have faithfully read all my ramblings over the years..  I am now up to almost 1000 posts (994 in fact.). I have a plan to celebrate that milestone...

And the winner is

And the winner is...................................Suztats of Ontario, Canada...  I want to thank everyone who entered the giveaway..  I was overwhelmed and pleased...  Remember there are still 3 kits available on my Etsy shop....  I did include all those who had a problem posting and sent me emails or left a message on a list that they wanted to enter...  Thanks again everyone...