Just took these a few moments ago and had to share…..

And to skip back to the first in the sequence….and then in order.  Taken from the living room side windows and (the last one and the one above) the porch, looking west over the lawn and the big meadow below the stone wall/hedgerow…

Pinch me… I really get to live here?  Where’s the best place to live on Earth?  MAINE!

Wow has time whoooshed by faster than the usual blindingly-fast disappearing that it usually does!  I’ve returned from a fun teaching trip to two guilds in Arkansas, a visit with an internet friend, gone to a 5-day dyeing silk workshop in Massachusetts, attempted to get caught up on paperwork (but not the accounting…UGH), and launch into Eli’s track season, his last sports season of Middle School… it is hard to believe in 5 weeks or so he will be a Freshman-at-the-end-of-summer!   So I guess I’ll start with the oldest news first:  Little Rock!

While heading out to lunch one day from class, one of my students pointed out a building across from the library (where the workshop was held) because she had a piece in the SAQA / Studio Art Quilt Associates regional exhibit!  On my day off between the two teaching jobs, I got to hang out with an internet friend whom I finally got to meet in the real.  Sherri D. took me to the exhibit and a few other places, so let’s  begin with the SAQA exhibit and Georgia’s  fabulous small piece!

Butterfly by Georgia Manning Lewis

She used many surface design techniques on the background and has been doing some wire-work for 3-D shaping.

The first piece I photographed in the exhibit is for my friend Kathy, who loves birds and makes wonderful bird quilts.  So Kath…here is an Arkansas wren for you:

Studio Wren by Sheri Marshall

I loved the stunning simplicity and calm of this piece:

Shamrocks by Ruth Ann Yax

I hadn’t realized that Arkansas is right next to Louisiana and, hence, close to the Gulf.  This artist is from (I think) Mississippi, where the BP oil spill wreaked so much environmental damage.

Guardian of the Gulf by Sarah Scott

A trip to China (according to the blurb card on the wall) was the inspiration for this garden-inspiring quilt:

The lotus by Darlene Garstecki

The artist made this quilt as a mourning quilt after his mother passed away.  On the card he noted: “We used to walk a road in North Carolina and talk.  I have since thought that maybe the words we spoke were captured in the trees; and if I was very quiet and listened very hard, I would hear the words falling back down on me, as I walked alone.”  …… I so love that thought…..

The View from the Road by Murray Johnston

On the other side of the building, I spotted these small kimono which (if I have deciphered the enlarged photo correctly) are by Judy Tipton Rush–really stunning quilting:

Judy Tipton Rush's pieces in the gallery store

The building is a craft/arts center, and had this gorgeous light fixture (I don’t even want to know how much it was for sale!…. and it’s not like there would be a place for it in my house!)

Way cool light fixture

And I’ve been having fun in my working sketchbook/notebook of ideas messing around with collage and magazine pages, so I really enjoyed these two sets of mixed media collages by Kathy Bay.  From looking at the photo closely, I believe they are acrylic paint plus paint on paper that she painted (as opposed to “found” papers).

Crayola Land by Kathy Bay

By Kathy Bay, these remind me of icebergs

Now, of course, I wish I’d taken photos of ALL the quilts, but at least you have a sampling! Enjoy, and I promise to be back without such a long gap between posts!

Hi everyone! I’ve been seriously absent, mostly busy!  I taught in Arkansas, got home at suppertime (stopping at Eli’s track practice on the way home from the airport), off to Coastal Quilters the next morning, unpacked that day, repacked the car the next day, and the following morning off to Massachusetts for a dyeing workshop!  More on all of that, but for today I’m sharing what I’ve just finished… lesson 4 in Jane LaFazio’s Joggles class, Watercolor Sketchbook:  designs from life.

The finished sketch/lesson

This lesson was “from the mountains,” so my garden filled in!  I chose fiddlehead ferns, a sure sign of spring in Maine, and the tightly furled (and opening) leaf buds of the beech tree.  As I wrote to the class:

I just adore the beech leaves, how they cling so tenaciously to the branch throughout winter, only relinquishing their hold when new growth finally forces them off and to the ground.

I’m posting a photo of what I sketched, but alas I waited too long and things kinda wilted, so I picked a second branch so you can see the long, slender, tightly furled leaf bud.

What I sketched, slightly wilted (with a strong afternoon sidelight and long shadows from the window)

Beech sprig on my closed laptop

I really liked Jane’s page with the two rectangles of leaves and the background of larger leaves and paint coloring the page around the boxes (not shown…in the lesson). I tried to do a similar tint/wash on this, but think I might better have stopped before that step. I was tired of plain backgrounds, but think this painting-in-back would be more effective if I had multiple smaller boxes/windows for the composition rather than this view. I included one photo of how *I* flooded in color: dampen section, add dots of thinned color, blend with a flat brush.

wet into wet....

…..I ended up with stronger blots of color than I wanted, tried to lift, then got sorta yucky rubbed areas. I do think I may want to use a less wet approach on this paper and then make myself a “mixed” journal of both mixed media and watercolor papers, or just suck it up and pay for a large watercolor paper journal period.

I DO like my “photo corners” tho! And it is curious that I, who adore vibrant color, am having fun with more subtle colors… AND (drum roll! ) I managed to remember to take photocopies of just the inked drawing for possible “other use.” What a concept…my brain was engaged!  Here’s the inked page (draw in pencil, draw in with ink, erase pencil) and the page with the greens and browns added, but no background wash.  I think maybe I should have stopped here, but so it goes.  Turn the page, try again!

The inked outlines

At least with my current skill level, I think maybe I should have stopped here and not added the wash of color in the background

Anyway, here ’tis. Now for lesson 5 and back to lesson 3….. Constructive criticism is most welcome and appreciated!

The same applies for all of you…. should I have stopped

Quilters are just so much fun… even when you travel nearly 1700 miles, go to a state you’ve never visited before, and meet total strangers, you instantly feel at home!   This week I’m in Arkansas, and on Monday and Tuesday lectured and taught for the QUEST quilters of Little Rock…boy did we have FUN!

At the end of the day in my Tame Fussy, Fiddly Threads class

I flew down to Arkansas on Sunday, connecting in Boston, Mass. and Charlotte, N.C.  As things go it was uneventful, but I must say I loathe air travel any more!  I swear the thing that will eventually convince me to stop  teaching is airports and schlepping of stuff!   That said, it was wonderful once I arrived!  I was met by Sherri D., a friend from a small internet group.  When I booked the job, neither she nor I realized I was coming to HER guild!   So I got to meet her hubby, son, and spend time with her having a couple of happy meals there.  They even sang their Renaissance Faire Celtic songs for me!

On Monday, I gave “The Decorated Quilt” lecture to a full room (always more fun!), and in the afternoon I taught an intro to machine quilting class.

Because this was only a half-day workshop, we didn't do as much with the walking foot on, but I did have them stitch a circle and learn how to make parallel lines without marking. Then we dove into free-motion designs.

Lookit the heart-feathers on the right... I showed them how to mark a spine and guidelines, then wing it to make feathers... I just love that she was willing to give it a go and not be intimidated!!!!

I can't believe this student got so much done in such a short class! There were a couple ladies that, I can tell, are really going to take off with this!

The next day was the full-day class about threads that some think of as cranky threads!  As usual for my classes, I begin with a “slide”/digital presentation that covers the “must know before you start” stuff, and also keeps me on point and not wandering off into fun but time-consuming stories!  After all, I want them to SEW!  Because using fused fabrics to do things in all my classes would be hopelessly dull, I introduce some new stuff in some of the classes instead.  Here, as an alternative to sewn or fused leaves, we stencilled these leaves with Jacquard Lumiere textile paints (you can buy them at craft stores sometimes and from www.dickblick.com always).  I encourage students to use my patterns but re-design the layout or branch out completely on their own. I was thrilled with the results!

Aren't those colors amazing? I love how she varied the tones within sprigs of leaves

Here's how we begin: cutting a stencil out of freezer paper, then ironing it to black fabric. It looks so-so at this stage, but when they start peeling the paper off they are SO excited!

I WISH my photo were a tad more in focus! This lady used my gingko leaf pattern to make her leaf shapes, and I love how she streaked the gold onto the green...fabulous!

The subtle tone on tone black this student brought for the class is awesome for this project. She placed leaf shapes into a starburst pattern and decided they looked like flowers...isn't this gorgeous?

Luckily, program chair and absolute HOOT Evelyn C. suggested photos, so we all got together (including me in the photo…I’m kneeling on the right) and actually got photos of what everyone did! That’s the photo at the top of this post….. Can you tell we had fun?  After class, three of the ladies took me out to dinner at a local BBQ joint, Lindsey’s….OH MY!  I had chopped pork bbq, greens and potato salad, and was introduced to my first (but I hope not my last) fried pie.  It’s like a turnover…. think pie crust, dollop of (in my case) peach pie filling made from scratch, crust folded over to make a half-circle and crimped together and fried.   YUMMM!

Next:  a day with Sherri and Hot Springs Village Quilt Guild.  The HSV day is today, so I had best get my suitcases…we hit the road in about 20 minutes!

A brief book review before I head off to Arkansas (at 5:15 tomorrow morning…..blinkbleary-eyes)!  Executive Director of SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) Martha Sielman is published again with this portfolio of works depicting things “nature.”  It is another eye-candy book, and I am enjoying it greatly (and no, not in this one!).  There are 19 profiles of various artists, plus a number of galleries with works by many, MANY more artists.  The galleries include Flowers 1, Birds, Water, Animals, Leaves, Insects, Flowers 2, Trees and Textures.

Usually, I like to thoroughly pore over a book, reading and evaluating it cover to cover.   This spring is sufficiently busy, however, that I didn’t want to wait, especially since Lark Books (the publisher) was kind enough to send me a review copy.  The interviews with the profiled artists are nicely in depth, and I feel the questions responses give me a much better feel for the artist and how this work brings out their individual response to art and the world around them.  The artist profiles are roughly grouped into the same categories as the galleries.  For example, Ginny Eckley’s work–which often features birds–is just before the birds gallery.  Organizing the book in this way helps the viewer really see how the “voice” and hand of the individual artist are revealed despite similar subject matter.

This is a book I know I am going to want to savor over an extended period, and one which I will return to in the future.

I’ll be teaching in Arkansas for the QUEST guild in Little Rock then the Hot Springs Village Quilt Guild this week!  I’m home for just long enough to do laundry, then off to attend a workshop on dyeing silk.  I’ll post when I can!