Happy winter folks!  Egads….time whizzing by, change in the behind the scenes stuff on my website so trying to write a blogpost is totally unlike what it has been for 14 years…. I’m lost!   Don’t even know how to add a photo.  Well, it has been busy as usual what with massive house cleaning, getting ready for the holidays and all that.  I’m also starting a newsletter, so there is a new sign  up button on my home page and, if I can figure out how, I’ll put it in here, too. 

So it looks like I added a photo, now what…gosh I hate when things change so radically!   Trying to decipher MailChimp has been hard enough for the morning.  So here’s a quick peek at what I’m doing in the studio:

What are some of your favorite holiday traditions?  When I grew up we made candy and delivered it as gifts, but haven’t done that in decades.  In the interest of fitting into my clothes, I am restraining myself.  But I love remembering who gave me various ornaments or where we went that year.

and here is an attempt at a pop-up sign up for my monthly (or maybe every other month) newsletter…I’ll fine tune formatting another day, ahem. now, I need to figure out a logo!  Give me suggestions LOL! PS–scroll down, I can’t figure out why so much blank space.

Machine Quilting Forum 2018–here’s my station (the middle panel was blank as it was the de facto projector screen.  THANK YOU SO MUCH to Janome America and Greg Sanford for making sure I had a machine on which to demo!   LOVE MY JANOME!

The day began with “leisurely speed dating” for machine quilters at the Thursday morning Machine Quilting Forum.  For those who have never had the pleasure of attending, the 3-hour session begins with all the attendees sitting for the better part of an hour as the six instructors each got 8 minutes to introduce themselves and what they do.   Then, each of the teachers decamps to their station.  Attendees are assigned to one of six groups, one for each station.  For 15 minutes or so, the teacher gives his/her talk and/or demo, then the bell rings, and folks move to the next station until they’ve visited all six.  I absolutely love this session.  I remember before I started teaching they also used to have an Applique Forum and remember going “Oh I’d like to take a class from that teacher (or perhaps not),” learning HOW to PRESENT to a class (Karen Kay Buckley was so kind 15 or so years ago answering my questions before I bought my projector), and so on.  It’s also great for guilds wanting to book teachers–great preview!

The cast of happy quilters, with the teachers in the front row. If you look in the far back corner, that’s my spot

I talked about thread coloring and actually demonstrated machine quilting on this little piece which, if I get my act together, will be a SAQA or IQA donation next year.  It’s a rose hip:

Work in Progress–free-motion quilting demo and nesting threads

Then it was off to the Teacher Appreciation Luncheon and lecture by Pam Holland, then a (DRUM ROLL, sneak announcement here) taping a quick 3-minute promo with Ricky Tims because (SHRIEK check off the bucket list item) I’m going to be taping a segment for The Quilt Show in April!!!!   Should air sometime in the second half of next year!  Then a couple hours to see quilts, then dinner with friends.

Here I am, with thanks to the guard who took my picture, next to my Lilies of the Valley quilt.

I was absolutely enchanted with the portion of the Power of Women exhibit that was the 2 x 8 foot sheer panels of art cloth.  Here are the four sides.  Alas, instead of signage near the artwork, the info was in a binder on a table so I didn’t get details.   If you are one of the artists, please let me know which piece is yours and I’ll update this post.

Side 1

Side 2; I know the one on the far right is by Lyric Kinard.

Side 3

Side 4

This updated “traditional” quilt stopped me in my tracks…details in the second photo:

Then it was off to dinner with friends and fellow teachers Jenny K. Lyon, Deborah Boschert and Cindy Grisdela, at Ninfa’s on Navigation.  No Houston is complete with at least one (hopefully more) trip to Ninfa’s!

First off, Happy US Thanksgiving to one all around the world–this was written ahead and scheduled to post because (a) not everyone is in the US and (b) sometimes we need some R&R from the feasting and festivities!

My second full day at International Quilt Festival 2018 I got to teach one of my “Quilting the Garden” workshops, Collage the Garden.  Along with Thread-Coloring the Garden, the two classes can be combined into a two-to-five day workshop–any guilds or retreats out there interested????   My students were, of course, brilliant!    They had a choice of either the tiger lily or water lily in the class–I love when students take my patterns and projects and completely make them their own.   Like yesterday’s post, I’ll have TONS of pictures including some from Preview night on the show floor. Taught students how to pattern, how to use my favorite Mistyfuse, how to get the fabric to do some of the work for you!

These are the two class samples…you can see how well the students did!  One had a *very* hard time letting go from the traditional quilty-applique “thou must do it thus and so exactly” but she finally threw caution to the winds and did a great job–so proud of her!

and here you can see the actual student work:

Way to go!

Learning how to pattern

fabulous fabric choice….let the fabric do a bunch of the work for you. The placements of the darks is spot on.

and the water lily–love how she went deeper darker in the center with reference photo right there to guide her choices

students hard at play!

an ochre/yellow version

Flower nearly complete

And auditioning a background

Another great fabric choice, and love how the trees fabric changes once cut up and placed into the background

WOW!

The students were wonderful—LOVED having a FULL Class…the collective energy helped everyone!

Then there was preview night…drum roll:  gotta love that little red dot indicating my Autumn on Blueberry Lane sold…AND it was hanging next to my dear friend Deborah Boschert’s ladders and trees quilt, which ALSO sold!

Mine on left, Deborah Boshert’s ladders on right…and both sold!

Love it when I spot someone looking closely at my work, this time it is the Pink Oyster Mushrooms quilt

And part of the Power of Women exhibit….my Lilies of the valley is on the bottom tier on the right side. LOVED this particular part of the exhibit!

I’ll be back with more on Festival 2018 in the coming days!

Tuesday Morning looking at the George R. Brown Convention center from my hotel room, ready for the first day of teaching!

Before any more time elapses, it is time to blog about a wonderful International Quilt Festival 2018.   Since I have a billion photos, I’ll just insert images with little verbiage.   On Tuesday, I taught my Birch Pond Seasons class–because it was the day between Market and Festival, the class was smaller but that meant students had plenty of space to spread out and work, which is great for this class.  I love what my students did!   If you put Birch Pond Seasons in the search box for this blog, you can find one or two other posts about previous classes.

My stuff up on the foam core at the f front and students composing their quilts! The two class samples are on the right hand board, a summer and an autumn version.

Love how Cathryn Sullivan of Pipe Creek, TX, cut the ridge line with the shape of trees–her ridge is closer to the viewer than the hills in my quilts. See below for this quilt as she worked on it more.

And Kathryn’s piece with the closer hills and “woods behind the pond” added. LOVE the silhouette of the treetops!

I love when students use fabrics that aren’t in my wheelhouse and make it their own

The sky fabric was inspired! Love that she used purple for the distant hill. See her progress in the next photos.

She had this great watery fabric for the pond, but it just didn’t sit well for either of us

The brilliant students near her helped her trouble shoot with what fabric she had and they picked this one for the pond

Once the ground/foliage near the pond was in, it worked so much better — ponds reflect the color in the sky so it fit perfectly. The blue was great as water, just not in this composition where it kinda screamed. Mo Bettah!

More great water…this student had a gentle, subdued palette that spoke to her–and amazing blue batik for the water

Another version!

And one more

And towards the end of the day with more trees and ground blocked in

LOVED the fabrics for the sky!

Work in progress!

At some point during the day, friend Luana Rubin (half of the creative team with her hubby who founded eQuilter) popped in for a quick photo:

With Luana Rubin

Then, it was a quick dash to pack up, haul the suitcase and stuff back to my room, then go to the Awards ceremony and cheer on the winners, especially my quilty friends! 

Neroli Henderson, The Eternity Spiral, 

Heidi Profetty’s heart-warming mosaic quilt

Sue Bleiweiss, Graffiti 2

Jenny Bowker’s moving and astounding work

Andrea Brokenshire won one of the top eight awards and did what I’d do if I ever get so lucky–happy-danced her way up the stairs!

And Patty Kennedy-Zafred, SAQA member, blazing new ground for IQA with her Silent Canary

CONGRATS to everyone who entered, whether you got in or not…here’s to inspiring works!

Hot off the press, Lyric Kinard’s Start Your Art deck of cards / prompts is available as an actual deck or a digital download. You can get it here

Art and quilt teacher and friend Lyric Kinard (website and Facebook and Instagram) delighted me recently when she asked if I’d like to be part of a bloghop to launch her new prompts deck of cards “Start Your Art: 48 Warm Up Exercises to Jumpstart Your Art”…of course!  I shared a sneak preview two weeks ago, here; In that post I shared an exercise done waiting for an appointment on my iPhone. This time it is the official bloghop and giveaway.  Read on to find out how to win a copy of the deck for your favorite art teacher and a digital copy for you!

Update:  Entry period is over and comment number 4 won!  Judy Tucker, get in touch!

The random number generator picked 4!

One of the great and cool things is that Lyric asks you to “Make Bad Art.”  Yup, it is OK to make bad art.  In fact, it is really useful!   There is a story that has been around for eons (and likely true many times over):  A college art teacher divided the class in half.  One half of the students only had to make ONE big project, but it had to be really, really good.  They could spend ALL their time making it their best.  The other half of the class had to make many, Many, MANY things.  Guess who made the best pieces?  The ones that had to make a lot of art.  As one woman I remember from an online chat group said years ago, “make crap (pardon the language). Then make more crap.”  Throw it away.  Keep making.  Then eventually you realize you’re doing better!

Since I have the digital version of the deck of cards, I just randomly clicked on several cards, selecting ones I could do from the comfort of my living room chair–after Houston I’m ready for some random creativity and fun that doesn’t require a lot of scrambling around.  What better than zero-calorie ice cream?  The prompt on p. 60 asks you to tell how to make a sandwich or other food, with no words.  This would be improved with color, but that would require going downstairs to my studio for pencils or watercolor so pen and ink it is!

One prompt is to draw how to make a sandwich or other food with no words. Why have a sandwich when you can have an ice cream sundae?  Notice the happy me?

Another exercise is a variation on the theme of doing a value scale..how many types of marks and ways to create boxes of different value (light to dark) can you create?   Think of doing this with thread on the top of a quilt…..ways to change the color of the cloth underneath!

How to make a value scale….p. 39

And one of my favorite exercises–start with a snippet of something and make it different.  Lyric asks you to start with a copy of a favorite piece of art, but I used the version I teach in my design class:  take a magazine page and select a portion of it.

The original advertisement page from British Country Living.

And here’s a portion of it and my Bad Art.  I was doing OK until I put in one of those checkerboard things on the left side.  Ugh.  Too heavy.  So I had to add some more to balance it out…..

A fun ramble and play in front of the TV last night!  Most of it I don’t like, but I do like the way I did the leaves and love that “dropped spaghetti” railing from the photo that I extended on both sides.  Fun motif–either as a thermofax screen to put paint on cloth or as a quilting or hand stitching motif, or just improv piecing!   See….you make bad art, the brain starts pinging, and you get more and more ideas!

Lyric is offering a real-life deck of Start Your Art Cards to be given to your favorite Art teacher.  To enter to win this deck on behalf of your favorite teacher and a digital copy of the deck for you, leave a comment below sharing memories of your favorite art teacher.  On November 21 Lyric will randomly select a winner and work with you to ship the real-life deck to your favorite art teacher. Please be sure to leave a CORRECT email address so we can reach you if you win!

And if you’d like to play and support an artist (namely Lyric) go HERE to order them directly from her!

Perhaps most fun of all, SHARE your art from Start Your Art here on the Start Your Art Facebook page right here.