Before I get into that, I am going to tell you how I know Rose. Rose has been a reader of my blog for a while, and I did know her a little bit from there, but she is also good friends with one of my former employers at Generation Q. When we went to our second Quilt Market in Houston back in 2012, Rose stayed in the group of hotel rooms GenQ had reserved for staff. She hung out with us and on one night a bunch of us went out to dinner and then shared a cab back to our hotel. Our hotel was quite nice, and happened to also be situated directly next to a rather large, um, adult-oriented shop.
Naturally, we had to check it out. So, I am one of the few people in the world that can say I have been post-Quilt Market late-night sex store shopping with Rose Hughes. Well, sex store looking, as we didn't buy anything, but still—it was a bonding experience and I am sure Rose and I will be friends for life because of it.
It was around that same year Rose published her third book, Design, Create, and Quilt, and I bought myself a copy. I was incredibly impressed with that book because it was really a series of lessons in art and design and composition, with each project illustrating a different lesson. She even starts you out with a folder project so you'll have something beautiful to store all your art inspiration in.
So, when she asked me to participate in this tour for her new book, Fast-Piece Appliqué, I said OH YES PLEASE, not only because I'm happy to support her work, but also because I got a digital copy of the book and I couldn't wait to see what she had done this time.
As I said, all Rose's books cover the Fast Piece Appliqué technique, but this one really dives into it. She also explores in depth the idea of taking a scene, a photo, an idea and reducing it to its simplest elements in order to make a bold graphic statement—and a quiltable one.
I'm not going to spoil the technique here—you'll need Rose's book for that—but I will tell you that it gives you a way to make absolutely ANYTHING you can think of. It's all done by machine and there's no fusible web involved! I will also tell you the main thing you will learn that you may have never done or even considered before is couching—where you lay down yarn and attach it with a zig zag stitch by machine. It's not hard, so don't be scared of that, and when you read the book and see how it's used you'll be all, I CAN TOTALLY DO THAT.
Now, have you ever heard that old Schoolhouse Rock song, Three is A Magic Number?
The number three has a lot of interesting mathematical properties, none of which I will bore you with here, but to me an interesting mathematical property is pretty much the same thing as magic, and Rose clearly had magic in mind when she made her projects for this book. Each quilt in some way includes, illuminates, embodies the number three:
(images courtesy of Martingale publishing, photography by Brent Kane)
Some of them are three-panel quilts; others are single quilts with three main elements. Rose has clearly been communing with the divine.
If you have not been following the tour, Rose has a special love-themed project download at each spot, perfect for making a love-ly quilt or wall hanging:
Or some super sweet pillows:
Each blogger on the tour got to choose a word for her download and I chose...LUST!
Naturally, someone already commented, "Of course YOU would choose 'lust'!" I have absolutely no problem with anyone thinking of me as 'lusty.' Lust makes life interesting, especially when you are a silver-haired forty-something quilter. And hey, I'm trying to write a romance novel, so I better have a good love affair with lust! Also 'lust' was the naughtiest of all Rose's words, and you know I can't just be sweet. I have to add a little salt.
To download your pattern for LUST click here. And to win a digital copy of Rose's book, leave me a comment telling me who or what you lust after. Riches? Chocolate? A lifetime subscription to Biblical Archeology? Danny DeVito's furry tush? There's no judgement here, you know that, right? I love all you freaky weirdos, so TELL ME EVERYTHING.
I will pick a winner on Sunday, January 18 and announce on Monday, January 19.
Please visit all the stops on the tour to get all the word patterns and more chances to win:
Jan 5th- KISS-- Victoria Findlay Wolfe
Jan 6th - SOUL-- Natalie Barnes
Jan 7th - SEXY --Maddie Kertay
Jan 8th - SWAK-- Teri Lucas-Generation Q
Jan 9th - LEAP-- Mandy Leins
Jan 12th- LUST-- Megan Dougherty
Jan 13th - HUGS-- Jenny Wilding Cardon
Jan 14th - FIRE-- Sam Hunter
Jan 15th - SING -- Rachel Biel-TAFA
Jan 16th -- Rose Hughes
http://rosehughes.blogspot.com
UPDATE: Did you know it is already January 19th? I have no idea how that happened. Anyway, the winner of the digital copy of Rose's book is Debby E! You kindly gave me your email in your comment, Debby, so I will forward that to the pertinent parties and you should have your e-book soon.
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