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Birch Pond

And yet another piece!  Amazing what happens when you finally dig out from under the mountain of accumulated work…all the stuff that piles up while life is happening!  One of my favorites in the new crop of small art quilt pieces is  Birch Pond:

Birch Pond full

I’ve always loved etchings and woodblock prints (even bought a couple books on woodblock print making, tho I’ll likely never make such a thing…but of course the design ideas and visual techniques can always be applied to different media…like quilts!).  Mary Azarian is one of my favorites, and I got the Shepherd Seed Catalog for years just to see her illustrations.  Alas, I can’t find the latter online….the link for Sheperd’s Seeds automatically switches over to White Flower Farm where there are NO seeds listed…Sob!  Anyway, check out her website…the Farm and Field prints are fancier than what was in the catalog, but in the same vein.

So, looking for something fun and easy to do this summer at Maine Quilts, I was thrilled to see that Laura Wasilowski was teaching her Woodcut Quilts class!   Laura’s website is www.artfabrik.com (with a K…sigh).  As part of the class kit fee, we received some of Laura’s lovely hand dyed fabrics and threads, but of course I had to be me and took my pre-fused stash of batiks (well, a selection). This piece varies somewhat from “true” woodcut quilts because the individual leaves are not edged in black, but I can live with that <grin!>.

Here’s a detail:

Birch Pond Detail

The 14×14 inch quilt is mounted on 21×21 stretcher bars covered with dark blue batik cloth, clean finished and ready to hang.  It is available for sale at Ducktrap Bay Trading Company (gallery here in Camden, Me. — click on the New Work link under the Galleries column for more info).

I had fun in the class… it was low key and easy paced (a bit slow for a kind Type-A sort like me who is quite experienced, but that happens to me a bit too often….I’m to ready and raring to go!), I learned new stuff, Laura is a well-prepared and entertaining teacher and best of all, I now know some of her tricks so I can let what I learned percolate and come out in a quilt in the future.  Yeah!  My own woodblock prints without having to carve the wood (not that I’d mind learning that, either, but there aren’t enough hours in a lifetime already!).  Cheers!

7 Responses to “Birch Pond”

  1. Laura Wasilowski Says:

    This is a beautiful quilt! Thank you again for taking my class.
    Laura

  2. Marie Says:

    This really is a beauty! It has a lot of depth and the colors really add punch. Good going SB !

  3. Vicki W Says:

    This is a terrific piece!

  4. Bethel of Bethania Says:

    Love this quilt so bright & colourful … thanks also for the link to Mary Azarian – I think I will need to look into these woodblock-print quilts they look great… OOroo … Bethel of Bethania

  5. Denise Dobek Says:

    Hi: Renee Shepherd has her own website. You can find her at http://www.reneesgarden.com. She no longer publishes a catalog but does have an online catalog. Denise

  6. Wil Says:

    Very pretty!

  7. Maggie in E. Central Illinois Says:

    Great quilt! I took a class with Laura in Chicago recently and had great time!