Category Archives: workshops

Making Plans/Goals

     I am waiting for this huge storm but, so far, only a few inches compared to the 12 inches forecasted. I have my dyes mixed and am ready to try a limited amount of snow dyeing. I spent some time today dyeing some lovely threads. That is always fun.

    I did have some time over the holiday break to make some plans for the next year. And start making a set of goals for the year. Are you ready? To be bored reading another list on someone’s blog? All joking aside, I do think the list might push me along.

Goals/Plans For 2011

1. Complete 20 quilts 3×3 or larger by the end of the year. At least 5 of these quilts will be in a series                       investigating motifs and varying colors.
2. Investigate various surface design techniques including screen printing and deconstructed screen printing.
3.  Continue fabric dyeing in the warm months.
4.  Attend/complete the following workshops:
     Artist’s Toolbox: Lyric Kinard-online at Quilt University  January 28th

     Creating Compositional Cloth : Claire Benn and Leslie Morgan at the The barn: May 16-20th
     Silk Dyeing Feb 6th  adult ed at Kendall College
     ? one more for fall

One of my favorite Vermont barns

                              
                                    

     The 20 quilts is very ambitious for me. 20 tops-yes but 20 done. Mmm….lots of focus will be required. In all reality,  the next four months mean lots of quilts. (Once May hits our family with sports schedules, I fight a losing battle on getting much done in my studio. ) The overall goal of this year is to gain more exposure to surface design techniques and to investigate motifs within my quilts. Surface design techniques- I am not sure this is an avenue I want to use but I won’t know until I try them.

     Well there you have it. It did take me awhile to decide. I love the push that a workshop or class gives me. Maybe a workshop junkie. But a discerning one. I did say no to the Sketchbook Challenge and Jude Hill’s last online class. But it’s just about killing me not to do Jude’s class:).

Off to finish dyeing some floss. It’s getting late.

Be creative, my friends.

The Workshop Queen

     I was asked last week who I had studied with. I couldn’t rattle the list off even though I know I have taken lots of classes.  Fortunately, I have lived in many different places over the twenty  some years I have been sewing. I didn’t always join a guild but when I did, I wasn’t disappointed. It is a good way to take a one or two day workshop to see if it is a technique or method you would like to add to your basic skill set.

 I have had some great teachers and some not so great teachers. But I did take a few minutes to answer that question for myself.

Traditional
1. Ami Simms
2. Jeanna Kimball
3. Nancy Pearson
4. Ann Frishkorn
5. Harriet Hargrove
6. Mary Ellen Hopkins
7. Mary Stori
8. Maureen Noble

Non traditional
1. Elin Noble and Jane Davila
2. Carol Soderlund
3. Libby Lehman
4. Carol Taylor
5.. Velda Newman
6.. Ellen Ann Eddy
7. Marjorie Mcwilliams (Quilt Universtiy)
8. Melanie Testa ( Joggles)
9. Jude Hill (online)
10. Nancy Crow x 3

 I know there are some I have forgotten. Now that I have written it all down-wow that’s alot of classes! And  wide range of teachers and styles. I don’t have a burning desire to take another right now. Maybe next spring. Just want to work. I just wanted to have a better answer the next time someone asks me who I have studied with!

Do you have a favorite teacher or class you have taken? Why did you like it? Or is there someone you haven’t taken a class from but has inspired you?

Happy Sewing, my friends!

.

Monday Catch Up

Grafton Inn,VT

     I am ready to get off the month of May. My friend Betsy described it as wanting to get off the hamster wheel. I do agree. Just got back from a family wedding in Grafton, VT. Left Thursday and came back last night.( Love hearing about what went on while I was gone….). It was an outdoor wedding and the weather was picture perfect Vermont.

Even had fiddleheads on our salad-how much more Vermont could you get? Nice to see family from afar. Did lots of spring clean up at our house there and it always takes longer than you think.

 Congrats Mike and Kate-you finally did it!

     Well I finally downloaded some more of my pictures from my workshop. This is my last piece that I did.

In Process…

She mixed the week up a bit and had us do our larger piece in the middle of the week. This was our choice using any of the motifs that we had brought with us- I mixed up an L and a T. Disappointing and I told her that it looked like a cross between a bad Christmas dream and the American Red Cross flag.

She laughed and said ok- just finish it. She said I backslid on it which I did.At that point in the week, we were all getting punchy. I do recognize my mistakes-bad color choice, too simple of a motif which looked like strip piecing and not thinking far enough ahead with it. That is the good part of the process-knowing when you made a mistake, finishing it and letting go.

     Now, for “homework” she said to do the assignment over at home :)!

Happy Sewing, my friends!

Nice Interview

     There is a nice interview about Nancy Crow on Terri Jarrod Dimond’s blog this morning.

      At one point, Nancy came in our class a bit irritated about what a reporter had asked her. She spoke to us about the fact that she is an artist who makes quilts. She was passionate about not wanting to lose the word quilt out of our vocabulary or definition of who we are. Not textile artist, not fiber artist but an artist who makes quilts.

      Prior to this class, I was introduced by my mom to one of her friends. When her friend asked what I did my response- I am a mom but in my spare time I am an artist and I make quilts. She had lots of questions for me. It was the first time I said it and it felt awkward-do I really think of myself that way? Now I will be honest with you and I did know she was a sculptor. So I wasn’t that brave. But what will my response be? Will I care enough about the heritage of quilting to make that statement mine? Do I need to go to art school to consider myself an artist?

                                                   Art outside the Barn

                                               Working hard-on the wall

     Ok what do you consider your self? What words do you use to define your art? I am just interested.

Off to garden-a day of sunshine!
Happy Sewing, my friends!

After

     I can only come up with a one word title. I feel a bit slow yet amidst the chaos that is created this week-in between coming home and getting ready to leave already for a wedding in VT this weekend. Just a few days to re-group and re-organize -slow and not very productive is not really a great place to be at.
     I spent last week at the Barn at a workshop with Nancy Crow at the class titled Sets and Variables I and II. The class -very basically-was working on a specific motif ( a original block pattern you drew) and all it’s various configurations. Each piece we cut was cut freehand and individually. She gave assignments and lectured at the beginning of the day and we had timed exercises to complete. For example, here is the project and you have one day to do it or two days to do it. Then, each person would present it to the class and Nancy would critique it. She has an amazing amount of energy and is brutally honest. But within the critique, she met each of us where we were in the process-as a true beginner or much higher. So, after the initial  critique you were less fearful , and were actually looking forward to seeing what she had to say. For the brutal honesty and time she gave us, I really respect that. Because honest critique of your work is very hard to come by.
      Lots of art theory-LOTS! I am not a person who likes to present to others so the whole experience is really hard for me-but I realized I learned the most from seeing others pieces and doing a self-critique of my work. And yes, I really did work from 7:30 am until 10pm. Brain work and sewing work.

                                                   Design wall: Day One

     Since it was an intermediate class, I expected it to be hard. Nancy spent an incredible amount of time with us both individually and as a group. Design, shape, texture, figure-ground, pattern repetition, pattern manipulation-I could go on and on. She wants you to figure out the answers and process the information.

     The energy that is created with working with others is something I don’t know if I can explain. As a quilter/artist , it is lonesome working by yourself. I rarely sew with others because it is just too hard lugging my stuff out of my studio. (Yup I will now call it a studio.)  Few people do this kind of work so I am kind of an oddball too. Like-minded quilters are hard to find? So just not being odd, was great. I enjoyed spending time with a  woman, Rahel,  who was sitting adjacent to me- a woman from Israel who had just retired from teaching. She has devoted 40-50  hours a week since her last class on producing quilts so the body of work she showed was amazing. And she gave a brief 15 minute talk to us-at Nancy’s request-about how to integrate art as a priority if this is what you want to do. Rahel was very articulate and had us all in tears at the end- how using your hands is a gift not to be wasted.

                                         End of Day One

     This was clearly a stretch for me both technically and design-wise. I knew that going into it and didn’t really expect to make wonderful things there. I never do with timed exercises.  It’s more for me the knowledge I leave with and how I begin to process it as I leave and go forward. And my head is just bursting so I hope all of it stays inside and just doesn’t burst.

   Unfortunately, on the last day of class one of the gals I traveled with fell and broke her femur….poor thing needed surgery. I must run and try to call her and see how she is doing. We had to leave her behind in Columbus while she recovers. Miss you new friend and hope you heal quickly.

Off to catch up.

Happy Sewing, my friends.
  

Intense

     It’s the only word I can use to describe the week: Intense. Just got home this afternoon from a five day workshop at the Barn  I am a hard worker and have never been afraid of hard work. But that was really hard work. Brain work. I was there from 7am until 10pm every day! The kind of work that is really exhilarating but it’s exhausting at the same time.  I spent the week with 20 other artists who make quilts. They came from all kinds of places: China, Japan, Alaska, England , Israel and the good old US. The conversation was great-not just about art, the food amazing , and the process of learning grueling but good  The end results I had  were mixed. I just was overstimulated with all the ideas going through my head. And that’s a good place to be at right now. I just want to savor it for awhile longer before real life jumps in again.

  From my walk one day when I needed a break-

The ceiling of the timber frame barn we worked in- which was a great distraction!

Most of the pictures I took involve others works so there won’t be any sharing of that kind. But I will tell you more later….I am just tired. And glad to be home.

Happy Sewing, my friends!

A Spring in My Step

     I can’t believe how much better my foot feels without the big boot on it. Activity as tolerated was the word of the day yesterday and it definitely was a neuroma. So, it’s gone and I am taking things slowly but with a smile on my face. I didn’t realize how much it hurt before surgery-all gone now!

     So what have I been doing the past week. I read three books. I couldn’t put down Jodi Piccoult’s new book and read it in 48 hours. I knit-a bit rusty I was-but finished a hat and am working on the mittens. I also am stitching on my new jeans piece. Again, slow but steady.  Binding this piece in the background tonight. It is partially pieced and partially fused. A nice size for one of my walls and will be hung tonight. I watched these  DVDs and picked up a few tips.

    Today, I have a confession. I have been sewing for a long time. I never had entered or attempted to enter a show. And this spring, I got up enough courage to do it. One of my pieces was accepted to a small show-80 pieces- in May-a quilt show. I was surprised because it isn’t like anything I have seen in the show before. But, I was happy!
  
     Also, I  have a commission. Might be a challenge-working with colors I wouldn’t have chosen-but that is what I am finding to be a commission. Two good things in one week. You can’t beat that.

    And now, I must go and work on these motifs for my class at the Barn in May.

 When I couldn’t sew, I made little paper mock ups. Now to translate them into fabric and sew them together. Two more motifs and then I will be done with the homework for that class. And then , the work will really begin…I can’t wait to go back and now two gals from Grand Rapids might go too.

Happy sewing, my friends.

Something New

     I am a member of the West Michigan Guild which meets every other month and sponsors a nationally known teacher to come for workshops and a lecture. It’s a guild of several hundred so not easy to get to know others. At first. But since I always jump in to the opportunity to take a local class I have met some fun sewing friends. I really had no intention of attending  this month since it was not a technique I could see myself using. But a quick posting of an invitation of Facebook on Tues night led me to go. Paper piecing? Mmmm…I couldn’t imagine how I would do as I was driving there. Where would that fit in to what I am doing now? But I needed social contact with other humans who sew and would actually talk back to me. I hoped.

      Well, the teacher was Deb Kurasik and she would teach us paper piecing using a pattern called Look Ma No Curves. Deb was a great teacher and made everything seem easy. I brought my hand dyes and picked really bright colors to start an intricate pattern of pointy triangles.

  

It was so out of my realm-I haven’t used a pattern in three years maybe-that I was grateful for a great teacher sitting next to me as well-Betsy. I enjoyed chatting her ear off for five hours and one thing about quilters-they are always fun to get to know. And nice.  The pattern is on the back and you sew each piece on to the paper foundation.  Took me awhile to wrap my head around that concept again. With Betsy’s patience, I finally did it and enjoyed something entirely different. Great pieces to use in some project. No, I will not make that quilt. I admire those who have the patience and expertise to do this but not me….

     Five hours of work and I only made two pieces. Wow. But I did sell a piece of my hand dyed fabric to a quilter who needed just the right color. Recouped some of my spending , met a great teacher and got to know another great precision perfect quilter who is funny, too. Thanks Betsy for the invite.

    I have seriously digressed from the jeans quilt. Must focus today.

Happy sewing, my friends!