The big quilt event in June was a trip to Ohio, first to attend the Sacred Threads reception (this is my quilt,"Sue's BlueFish", at Sacred Threads), then to see Quilt National (the MOST amazing quilts I've ever seen!), and finally to spend a week at QSDS in class with CYNTHIA CORBIN.
Our class was called "Black Fabric Sketch", and here's a picture of Cynthia (a most gentle and kind teacher) in front of one of her pieces. We were asked to take a piece of black fabric and cut a line into it. Then another line. And so on, and then to move the pieces apart to see the shapes & the lines.
Here's my black fabric sketch, and then the first two pieces I made using each black piece as a template to construct each segment. My first effort has what Cynthia called a "yellow tornado" through the middle. Trying to tone down the tornado effect, I made the second one (to the left).
My final attempt was to make the last one with many highly patterned yet strangely similar fabric bits that I had brought with me. I called this one my "purple fantasy." By the time I had completed these three pieces, I wasn't sure I understood the black-fabric technique, but I was becoming more comfortable with curved seams. Then I made a new black-fabric square using only straight lines and trying to make a human image. I call him "The King."
And just to keep him company...and to take a break from piecing...I fused him a "Queen."
The last several days of the class we worked on our final project. Before I did my large piece, I made a small "study piece" (it's only about 6 x 8), and it's called "Lady Flower Study."
Here's a photo of my larger piece as it stood on the design wall the last day of class (now being quilted and finished).
Now let's see....what did I do after June? Well, I played with making quick little fabric pieces just fusing down in several colorways. I gave some of them away already, but here's one in gold/orange and another in reds. These make good pieces on which to practice free-motion quilting.
I cut up a quilt I'd made a while ago...two strawberries, so huge they looked goofy, and just saved a bit of the lovely silk to make "One Very Nice Strawberry" (below)
I took a terrific online course with Ellen Lindner and learned her reverse-applique-by -machine technique, and made "Ellen's Apple"~~
I finished my quilt "Memories of Japan"
I took an online course at Quilt University called Silk Dyeing with Marjie McWilliams; it's a 4 week course, but I still haven't managed to get back to the laundry room to do the last week's assignment. Here's some silks from week one:
I spent a happy day at my friend Barbara Svoboda's house taking my first taste of breaking dishes and putting them back together again as ceramic mosaics (doesn't that sound like a familiar process?). Here's one of Barbara's gorgeous stepping stones~~~
And finally, I began what I think will be a pile of goofy dolls for Baby Ami (one,unfortunately,already eaten by his puppy, Zephyr), and a beribboned little Minky snuggly-thing which he's really starting to reach for!
