Colours of Korea

February 12th, 2009

Colours, colours and more colours! I am truly inspired by Korean quilts, particularly their colours. There is no place on earth I have been to that has given me such a colour feast.

 

When I first accepted the invitation to be a guest artist at the Seoul International Quilt Festival, to display my quilts and demonstrate my quilting and applique techniques, I did not know what to expect.

 

No colour is discriminated against in Korea. Colours characterise everyday life in Korea. Form food to clothing – red, green, orange, yellow, brown and every shade of pink and blue – to say that every colour and every hue of a rainbow is used is certainly no exaggeration. It is simply beyond words to describe how unusual colours are harmonised together; you just have to see it to believe it.

 

Vivid, vibrant colours are everywhere: from colourful sticky rice cakes to beautifully vibrant Korean traditional dresses. I found the multicoloured city superbly invigorating and my trip to the famous textile wholesale Market, Tong-Ta-Mong Market, simply reinforces this. Two-storey high buildings full of vendor shops filled with textiles and materials line both sides of a street, not to mention tailers specialling in Korean costumes for all occasions. In the middle of the street is a line of eateries with a variety of Korean food, again, in all sorts of shapes and colours with a mix of fragrances meandering… indulging all your senses all at once!

 

The Seoul International Quilt Festival is an annual event showcasing the outstanding works of Korean quilters. This two-year-old annual quilt festival of some 600 quilts is a grand parade of the works of the best and most skilled quilters in Korea. From traditional to contemporary, by hand and by machine, the enthusiasm and zest exemplified by these quilters clearly distinguishes Korean culture and skills. These inspiring quilts have truly set the world quilt making stage for an exciti9ng showcase.

 

Overall, the quilts I saw were refreshingly new and innovative, incorporating both conventionality and originality. Many quilts translate their makers’ contemporary interpretation of Korea’s unique traditions.

 

There I met quilting sisters, Mi Kyung and Mi Sun. Their quilts are examples of drawing inspiration from traditional everyday life in Korea. So Many Nights, made by Mi-Kyung, harmonises the colours of spring, using pastel preens, blues, yellows and browns and pares with pictures made by these colours with geometric patterned background consisting of creams and other earth tones. This quilt depicts many different types of lanterns and lights, each comprising commendable details through the applique. It further emphasises traditional shapes and patterns and juxtaposes it with new ideas, creating a pastiche between the conventional and the new and fresh. It is elegant in its simplicity yet encompasses many intricacies and a great deal of sophistication.

 

I was also impressed by the quilts of Jin Yuan Shan. Her quilts use such vibrant colours. She is a Korean Chinese and mixes her Korean traditions with Chinese colours – quite a stand out amongst the Bozaki inspired quilts. As well, her hand work is divine! All her ‘English piecing’ was done from the front, so her very fine hairy stitches add a unique depth to the quilts’ finish. Simply inspiring. I cam home and tried the technique and found it was not easy!

 

 Always wanting to experience other cultures, I rounded up my trip with dinner at one of the eateries serving traditional Korean food. A big lesson I learned is to not dive into any red dish without careful inspection. They are not just beautiful, they bite.

 

There was also plenty of shopping, of course. With the exchange rate at one Australian dollar against 1000 Korean won, everything sounds affordable. Korean silk wholesale is only $4 per metre, so it is understandable that I couldn’t help but make a little collection. The distance between Seoul and Tokyo is only the distance between Sydney and Melbourne. So when you visit Japan, don’t forget to drop over to Korea for a little indulgence. You won’t regret it.

 

 

By Liuxin Newman

First published on Issue #30, Australian Quilters Companion

 

Posted in My Travel Stories | 3 Comments »

What is in a thread?

February 12th, 2009

Dear Liuxin, I am a relative newcomer to quilting but since joining our local group, Lakeside Quilters, my skills have come along in leaps and bounds. And I’ve discovered the joys of hand quilting (using your method) and have fallen madly, passionately in love with needle turn applique. Which brings me to my question.

 

There are so very many threads on the market now – there ‘s even ‘thread clubs’ – that I am now totally confused as to what thread is best for what job. Is silk best for applique? Cotton best for quilting? And what about American linen? And what is Aurifil?

 

Please, I’d be most grateful if you could clear it up for me. I’ll be eagerly watching future QC issues for your reply.

 

Kind regards,

Barbara Randell from NSW

 

Dear Barbara,

It is so nice to hear from you. With quilting increasingly becoming an art form, more and more quilters create quilts as an intellectual challenge and thereby, growing demands for better products constantly compel manufacturers and inventors to create new products. As a result, the market is constantly being filled with the latest innovations at a speed and scale like never before.

 

With the abundance of supplies, it is often confusing as to what to choose when it comes to finding the product best suited for our particular purpose. To keep a clear head in the face of ample choices, I try to distinguish the difference between NEW products from GOOD products – finding good products out of new products.

 

When it comes to threads, new threads are not necessarily better products. I keep my eyes open to new products and try them as they come by, testing them against the few good products that have become favourites of mine for particular objectives in quilt making.

 

For hand quilting, I focus on which thread will give me a better result at a smaller cost: YLI Select 100% Cotton in 1000 yd spool tops the list of threads meet these criteria. The three characteristics that make it my favourite hand quilting thread are:

Glazed – doesn’t tangle without waxing

Stiff – creates better visual depth of your stitches

Thin – easy to pull thread through the quilt and stitches look smaller than that of thick threads.

 

Best of all, you will definitely get your money’s worth with this thread (in Australia, you spend $12 for a spool of 1000 yards of thread)! In terms of needle turn applique, I prefer fine yet strong thread for blind/invisible stitches.  Without very fine thread, even if you learned the entire list of needle turn techniques I teach in my applique book and classes, you will not be able to achieve the best result without flaring the project.

 

As the seam becomes narrower, for example around a sharp point of a leaf, blind stitches must be placed closer to each other than the width of seams must be placed closer to each other than the width of seam. When the number of stitches per unit increases, it must be balanced by reducing the bulk of the threads. This means changing to thinner thread in order to prevent flaring of your project. What causes project flaring? Overcrowding the material with too much or too thick thread – stitching is not just making beautiful shapes, it is adding thread into the fabric. See my point?

 

Meeting my criteria for the best applique thread is, of course, YLI #100 silk thread. YLI is the name of the manufacturer and #100 is the weight/thickness of the thread. Usually, thread thickness are indicated as #100, #60 or #40 etc. on a spool; the higher the number, the thinner the thread.

 

Selecting threads for machine work can be worked out in a similar fashion. I used YLI #100 silk thread for my very densely machine quilted quilt because the more stitches I put into the same area of the quilt, the thinner the thread should be for better results. As a result, my quilt not only drapes well and no breakage at all until the whole spool runs out. I know we were all told to buy more needles or thicker needles for machine quilting in case your thread breaks too much. Can one keep increasing the thickness of a needle just to accommodate thicker thread? No. The thicker a needle against the density of your materials and batting, the hotter it gets when machine stitching – this will break more needles (unnecessary cost to you) and more frustration and more threads.

 

For further information, read my book Perfect Hand Applique with Thimblelady. It explains in full how to match material to your chosen designs, then how to match needles and threads to the materials and battings… it is a scientific balance of the three.

 

Following the principles of selecting the best suited threads you need for better quilts and easy sewing, let me answer your questions as follows.

 

Q: Is silk best for applique – cotton best for quilting?

A: The threads most suitable for quilting and needle turn applique vary depending on the desired result. It isn’t what material the threads are made of but what they do best that is the key. I select #100 silk thread not because it is silk but because it is the thinnest thread in the world right now and it gives me beautiful and fine applique stitches like no other. Why no one makes #100 cotton? Because cotton is a shorter fibre, make it that thin a thread, it won’t be nearly as strong as silk which is of a much much longer fibre. I am going to stay with this thread until a better thread is invented. The best quilting thread is the one that gives me better quilting stitches, easy sewing without pain and is the best value for my money. I like #40 glazed cotton for my hand quilting for its hairless and stiff result that makes my hand quilting stitches neat and sharp and my quilt soft and even.

 

Besides, talking about the strength of thread, YLI #100 silk is what I use for my very fine machine quilting – it is the only thread that doesn’t break (not even once!) before the whole spool runs out, no matter which machine I use it on. I like the YLI Select Cotton thread for my utility quilts, on which I put very little quilting stitches in order to keep its drape – machine quilted quilt is usually stiffer in comparison to a hand quilted quilt using same design and same thickness thread because machine can’t quilt with a single thread like the hand quilting does. It is the amount of  thread you add into a quilt determines how stiff a quilt will be. 

 

Now you must try the #100 silk thread for the whipstitch piecing using double strands of thread – double thread tangles less and keep your stitched area soft at the same time.

 

-By Liuxin My advise column in Australian Quilters Companion 

Posted in Quilt making essentials | 1 Comment »

Question #1: Is there a way to share without being exploited?

February 10th, 2009
In the Very Name of Sharing…
By Liuxin Newman

Dear Liuxin, I really enjoy your column in Quilters Companion and real your articles with great interest. I would like to challenge you with a few sensitive and touch questions and hear your thoughts on them. I have quilted for decades and am sensing a change in the quilting community. To be frank, I sense a loss of the sharing spirit. My friend did your applique class and cam back raving about the many new techniques she learned but refused to share them with me, instead, insisted I take your class. What is wrong with sharing between friends? At another class, the teacher insisted we buy a copy of Patricia Campbell’s Jacobeen applique book that she was going to teach in the class. I did your quilting class. You didn’t impose a copy of your book on everbody. Why do I have to buy a copy of the book when I have already paid for the class? I did a class recently and feel clearly the teacher is very reserved in sharing. Why? Lorna from NSW

Hi, Lorna, Thank you for writing to me. Aren’t you good at raising big issues?! They are surely sensitive and touchy. But thank you very much for raising them. It is time to have a closer look. Everything is changing. So is the quilting industry (yes, it is an industry now). Traditionally, quilting teachers naturally emerged from good quilters who learned mostly through their own quilt making and were gradually recognised by quilters around her by continuously making good quilts over the years.

In recent years, quiltmaking has been ever popular with one foot marching its way into a textile art form at an accelerated pace, while the other is deeply rooted as an enduring traditional craft. Quilters want to make better quilts and more quilts and this, aided by the revolution in information technology, has made learning easier, faster and yet cost-effective. It has also made teaching a profitable profession, possible for many without becoming expert quilters themselves. As a result, a new breed of teachers has come into being in large numbers, teaching other quilters’ works or inventions.

Now you have two kinds of teachers. On the surface, it is all sharing. But looking lcosely, you will note the difference: some teachers (inventors/manufacturers) share what they have found out through their own quilt making, while others (tradesmen/marketers) are sharing what the inventors have found out. There is nothing wrong with ‘sharing;. It is where the finance flows that is the issue. When a tradesman shares, he/she is profiting from sharing an inventive quilter’s invention for his/her own financial gain, while an inventive teacher is sharing her own invention for her own gain. Let’s have a closer look at the cases you mentioned.

Case #1: Your friend wouldn’t teach you what she had learned in my class and advised you to take my class. To me there is nothing wrong with sharing with a friend, particularly as a non-profitable act. By urging you to take my class, your friend was trying to make sure I am paid for sharing my appliqué secrets. This is what many quilters are doing at their initiative to protect and encourage those inventive teachers they love. You are so lucky to have this honest friend. I certainly am very grateful for her appreciation for sharing. Please give her a big hug for me. This is the kind of quilter every inventive teacher wants to share with! I can’t wait.

Case #2: Your teacher insisted you buy a copy of Patricia Campbell’s book for her class while I didn’t impose a copy on quilters in my class. The difference here is that your teach was sharing what she had learned from Patricia Campbell while I was teaching my own invention, where I have the right cut my own income without hurting anybody else for my students’ benefit as I wish. In this case, although you paid for the class, the teaching fee went to the tradesman teacher, while only part of the cost of the book went to Patricia, the inventive teacher from whom the tradesman teacher learned her own skills and on whose work she based her teaching. If your teacher allowed you not to buy Patricia’s book, she might look rather generous to you when she would have pocketed all your money for herself and left patricia and her publisher the losers. Do you see the point? I don’t have to sell a copy of my own book in my class should I so wish, but those who teaches what my inventions for their own profit must. This is the difference. I must say your teacher is honest and has done the right thing to protect the inventor. Appreciate her because many are profiting themselves at the expense of real inventors in the very name of SHARING…

Case #3: Your teacher is reserved in sharing. Hmmm, I don’t know the reason for this individual case. But I do know and feel for those inventive teachers who want to share but also have to protect themselves from those tradesmen teachers who scavenge around their classes to ‘source’ teaching ideas and materials. I have encountered teachers boasting about how they went around different classes to pick ideas and techniques to make up ‘their own’, so they don’t have to do the hard yard of work and boast that they don’t have to acknowledge the inventors. There are tradesman teachers teaching designs when they can’t even draw. Some entre a quilt into competition as her own when it has more than significant input from her teacher. These problems will hurt the quality sharing by inventive teachers as well as honest tradesman teachers, ultimately all honest quilters. Copyright law is not the only law that can protect inventive quilting teachers. Look inot trademark law and the Trade Practices Act (or Trade Secrets Act in US) when you have something good to share! Get good professional help. Techniques, classes and services can all be protected by law. However, while I am lucky to have myself covered, I understand a good proportion of teachers either don’t have the knowledge or can’t afford decent legal professional help. That is, their inventions are not potentially profitable enough to cover the legal expenses to protect them from the prying eyes of a small minority of tradesman teachers whose ethical standard is ‘how not to be caught’. Unless this is changed, we’ll only see fewer willing to share.

But, can this be changed? Can an everyday quilter make a difference? Absolutely! In fact, we have a common interest in protecting the inventors – whether you are an inventor, a tradesman teacher, a quilting business owner, a quilt guild member or simply an everyday quilter.

Every author knows what an effort, both financially and emotionally, it costs to write a book. Every publisher or retailer knows what a financial undertaking it is to get a book from printing to delivery. It takes a big heart to share when everyone knows the potential risk of being ripped off by sharing their knowledge. It is not uncommon for authors not benefit at all from publishing their work. If you truly value sharing, you can buy a book you need instead of stuffing another 2 pieces of fabrics you won’t use into your already cluttered wardrobe. No quilter is too poor to buy the knowledge she needs.

Every tradesman teacher should make it a pleasure and obligation to acknowledge their teaching source and explain to their class why they need to purchase a copy of the original book / pattern. If you take the lead to appreciate your own teachers who have shared everything with you, you are protecting your own source of sharing. A wise English saying is ‘never bite the hand that feeds you’.

Every shop owner and teaching conference organiser should set standards of teaching and put teachers with original ideas and techniques first. This is exactly what the most reputable international quilting event Organisers are doing. Quilts Inc, which organises the international Quilt Festival, won’t take teachers teaching other’s inventions without the inventor’s written permission. Remember, when good people do nothing, bad things happen.

The ultimate responsibility to keep the sharing spirit up lies in the hands of everyday quilters. If you refuse to attend a class run by teachers who profit from another’s invention, without paying their fair due (no matter how cheap they offer it), you can bet there will be less cheaters around you, but more inventors inventing and more honest and good teachers sharing!

My simple logic is if we run out of inventors, there will be nothing to share.

-The end.
First published on Australian Quilters Companion Issue #29

My questions to you: In the face of commercial greed, what would be the best way, or is there any way at all, that I, or other teachers, can share effectively and thoroughly with you? This problem is felt by me and many others all the more in the current situation. My applique book sales are so down that have hurt me financially big time. I had never thought this was a risk - all I was thinking during the writing was how to make my instructions so clearly that quilters will be able to learn by themselves! I am disappointed that my effort and hope to share my skills and inventions through my applique book turned out like this. Looking at the pile of books in storage, I can’t help asking myself should I have shared? But if I didn’t, could I have won the praise of so many of the honest quilters?! This is our problem. Can you think up a way we can share without being exploited?

Posted in My Questions to YOU: | 10 Comments »

How to reset your password

December 18th, 2008

This guide will take you step -by-step through the password reset function. Please make sure you follow each step carefully. Click on any of the images to view the full size version.

Step 1. Click the Sign In link at the top of the website (circled in red below).

Step 2: Click the “Forgot your password?” link, circled in red below.

Step 3: Enter the email address of your account into the field shown below and click the “Request New Password” link.

Step 4: Check your Inbox. You will receive the first of two emails from “Thimblelady Online”. It will look similar to the example shown below.

Step 5: Click the link included in the first email. You will be redirected to the sign in page, which will show a notice inside a green box telling you that a second email has been sent to you with a new password. See the example below.

DO NOT ATTEMPT TO SIGN IN YET.

Step 6: Check your inbox again. You will receive the second email containing the reset password, as shown below.

Step 7: Copy the password from the email and paste it into the box on the sign in page, along with your email address, as shown below. Click the “Sign In to Your Account” button.

Step 8: It is highly recommended that you change your randomly generated password to something that you will remember. Click the “Your Account Details” link in the right hand menu, circled in red below.

Step 9: Enter a new password of your choice into the “New Password” field and repeat the new password in the “Confirm Password” field, then click the “Update My Details” button.

Step 10: CONGRATULATIONS! You have now successfully reset your password. See the confirmation in green below.

Posted in Quilt making essentials, Website Service Support | 2 Comments »

The New Stitch Regulator!

November 13th, 2008

Hi, Girls, please forgive me for all the delays… I have been really slow, too slow, in making a demo or demos on my NEW regulator as I have promised, due to the enormous final work of editing my new book about my next new invention - Thimblelady’s Magic Square! . As usual, the work is much more than what I can handle within the deadline I have set for myself… But I am getting there! Keep watching this website, I’ll make and load the video demos as soon as the book is out for print by the end of next week! Thank you for your patience. Cheer from Liuxin. Back to work…

Posted in Quilt making essentials | 11 Comments »