Commentary about works in progress, design & creativity
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I don’t have any Shrinky Dink material, but can easily get some. I’ll put it on my craft supply list.
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Sarah Ann Smith of Art & Quilting in Camden has set up a new blog, soon to be a group blog, with the intent of encouraging people to learn to see so they can improve their drawing.
Sarah started the blog on May 5, so you are not too far behind. She mentions The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain book as one of the resources. You can add this to your list of drawing sites to review, in addition to Gabi Campanario (who now posts at the Seattle Times site) and Urban Sketchers.
Violette Clark, a Canadian artist I wrote about on the Creative Prompt page, has a new book out. I first heard about Violette on the CraftSanity podcast with Violette Clark during a recent road trip. The podcast is one of the earlier ones and it didn’t mention Violette’s new book I haven’t seen the book.
Violette has a great style. If you take a look at her website, you will find it full of creativity, cheerfulness (my favorite) and joy. She has a blog and message forums for her fans to discuss everything from her blog posts to how they are inspired by her work.
Check back for a review of this book!
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Summary: this post follows up on Saturday’s post about the Pamela Allen class.
I realized that when I am in a class with Pamela, I do think outside of my own quiltmaking box. I also realized that if I just listen and do what she says I succeed. I also feel a bit freer in my work. I really have a strong feeling that I need to make a much larger piece in Pamela’s style.
Pamela gave us tips and I interpreted them as:
We talked a lot about art quilts at our dinner out together. I feel strongly that all quilts need to have a good design. Block type quilts have a basic structure which helps with good design. Most art quilts do not have a basic, inherent structure and some go astray because the quiltmaker doesn’t care, doesn’t know how to initiate and then evaluate a design or doesn’t have the technique foundation. I think it is easy to find out about these things. There are a lot of good principles of design type books, such as Pentak and Lauer’s Design Basics. The basic thing concerning technique in art quilts is that they don’t fall apart upon hanging. Pamela doesn’t have the classic quilt background that many quiltmakers have, but she has learned what she needs to keep the quilts structurally sound and then applied her art and design training. This is the best of both worlds and this is where I really want to be.
You can see from the gallery above how she inspires great and different work. Diane is a wonderful silk painter. She normally paints a whole cloth piece on silk and then quilts it. Her blue trees piece is really different from her normal style and really, truly wonderful. Kristen is very busy with her family and doesn’t have tons of time to sew, but made some fantastic pieces that her children would enjoy. I love that space alien monster! Kristen’s pieces are also cheerful and imaginative and wonderfully creative. Mrs. K’s sauguaro cactus/Suspicion Mountains piece has a calmness to I that I love. I hope she finishes it and hangs it somewhere where it can inspire other people. Everyone really did fantastic work and I am sorry I didn’t take more photos.
We made a creative mess. Mess is the wrong word; we had supplies and we needed to use them. When you only have 15 minutes to make a piece of art, the fabric will be flying and it was. I brought my scraps which kept ending up on the floor. People would stop by, pick up some bit of fabric and ask to whom it belonged. It became quite hilarious. We really couldn’t have done the workshop without Mrs. K. She brought tubs of fabric which allowed us to actually have backs and batting and such things. I seemed to conveniently forget those supplies when I go to Pamela’s workshops! DUH!
Summary: This post talks more about how the Pamela Allen class with CQFA will inform the Tarts Come to Tea.
I find that a good class will inform my work in a way that other experiences don’t. I don’t see quiltmaking in a vacuum. I see it related to other art and that is one of the benefits of taking a class from Pamela Allen. She really brings her training in art to the quiltmaking/fabric collage world. Her comments about artists in other media really enrich my quiltmaking experience.
After sleeping on my class experiences I went up this morning to look at the Tarts. There are things I like about it and things that really need improvement. I actually wonder if I should just start over and make the piece in the style I worked in over the past couple of days? I am loathe just to toss all the work I have done, so I came up with a different solution.
When working with Pamela, she suggests putting a background down (which has already been layered with a back and batt) quickly and then cutting pieces to put on top of the background. One of the things that I liked about this method is the layering. I have had layering and the way it creates textures on my mind lately and the class experience solidified some of what I was thinking about.
With the Tarts, I think I will finish my plan so that I have a solid top. Instead of, then, sending it out to be quilted, I will put some kind of stabilizer, or additional stabilizer on it and then add another layer of fabric to the top in the Pamela Allen style. I think that will add movement to the piece and make it more interesting.
I have always wanted to add some stitching and embellishments and will do that after I get the piece quilted.
The Tarts, as they are now, reflect my A type personality and I want to move the piece beyond that buttoned up feel to the piece. The motifs are interesting and the fabrics are fun, but it really needs movement. I took another photo of the entire Tarts and plan to print it out. Once I do that I can take notes on how I want to add layers.
I have been in class for the past two days with Pamela Allen. Pamela is much more than a quilt teacher. She is truly an art teacher who works and encourages work in fabric. I had THE Aha moment in her class today and it really thrilled me. I could feel the difference in my work after that moment.
As you may have read, or noticed, I felt crappy all week. Barely any blogging got done even though I have a pile of sticky notes with reminders of things to tell you. My house is a wreck and my to-do list is still long. A cold was really beating me down and I was doing everything I could to conserve energy so I could go to class. A good move on my part was to take Thursday off of work rather than working straight through and then going directly to class.
I have taken several classes with Pamela. The first one I took was in Richmond, Virginia at Quilting Adventures. I actually took two different classes in one weekend. The first was a self portrait class and the second was on composition. I started one piece in each class.
Pamela also came to California in 2008 to teach at EBHQ. I took her class there as well. I don’t think I ever wrote a blog post about that one, but Julie wrote one, which is probably what I would have written anyway. 😉
The quiltlet, House and Garden, that I did at EBHQ has been worked on more since the class and I am almost finished with it. Maureen sent me a link to facing directions from Jeri Riggs site and I plan to use them to make a faced edging as soon as I finish the beading.
I brought all three of these pieces to the workshop with the intention of working on them and not starting anything new.
The first exercise was a monochromatic exercise. I didn’t do it. Don’t worry! I warned Pamela that I was planning to bring projects from previous classes. I did enjoy the pieces that others in the class made.
I worked and made progress on the Garden. I am actually ready to handstitch on it, though I do still have a bit of piecing to add. I am really pleased with the work I did on the Garden. I think it looks very different from what it was when I started. I also think it looks a lot better.
I am really pleased with the petals that I added. I wanted to create a little more interest in the space where the blue petals are now.
In the bottom part of the piece, the flowers were all middle ground. Pamela helped me create a foreground by putting some darker blue behind the red flower with the petals. I also created a little bit of a different foreground with the flower in the bottom right hand corner. I was thinking of it as kind of a coneflower, but some people said that it also looked like the petals had dropped off. I have a little work to do on the bottom. During the critique, Pamela and the other students suggested that I extend some of the stems to the bottom of the piece and make the bottom of the piece longer as well. They also like the brown border. That brown is currently the back, but I will cut it off and add it to the new front, but only on a couple of sides.
I didn’t succeed in doing my own thing. Pamela is such an engaging teacher that it just wasn’t possible for me to ignore her completely. She did help me with the projects I was trying to work on, though.
After a quick litle quiltlet exercise (15 min), she gave us a piece of fabric and we had to make something with it. My piece was brown. No other colors. None of my colors. Bleah!
The exercise was about accentuating or extending existing lines in the fabric she gave us. I liked the idea of the exercise.
This is the piece that came out of it. The colors aren’t me, and you can see that I injected quite a lot of blue into the surface.
Today, we worked on critiques and one piece using stripes and prints to create movement.
This piece brought the AHA moment for me. The AHA moment was a point where I finally got all that I have been learning from Pamela. I finally understood about the background and how to put stripes and prints on the piece in different ways in order to achieve movement and the illusion of something. I am really pleased with this piece and think it is very strong.
I can see how some of what I learned today will help me with the Tarts. I am going to use some of the techniques and thoughts to get that piece finished.
Thanks, Pamela!
Another crazy post about a variety of random topics from while I attempt to find my time management skills and tell you all the various things that have been happening.
I showed these blocks yesterday, because I went to Always Quilting today to see Terri Thayer speak and do a book signing. I took a look at the quilts on the wall and found out that this is an Always Quilting exclusive pattern that they call Crazy Eights. I kind of like what the name Infinity suggests, so I will have to think about what I am going to call my quilt and the block.
Terri and I had a tentative date to go out and talk about writing. I was pleased that we were able to go and have a quick coffee. I like Terri, because she is very approachable and willing to talk about her writing process. We ended up talking about writing and migrating blogs, book promotion and other time management issues.
Terri’s new book, Ocean Waves, is out. As soon as you are done reading this post, go and buy it. 😉 Terri will be at the Chicago Quilt Festival in a couple of weeks. You can buy it from her directly there and get it autographed. Of course, you can buy it from Amazon as well. Just buy it. Supporting local authors is how we get books that have to do with quiltmaking. Terri is in the process of negotiating for the next contract for books in the Dewey/Quilter Paradiso series.
I heard about Alicia Paulson of Posie Gets Cozy on the CraftSanity podcast. Jennifer Ackerman-Haywood has interviewed Ms. Paulson twice, once in episode 17 and again in episode 91. She has several things on her blog and website that I like:
I have been working on the Tarts. It is slow going. My latest task is to find the right color for the tea kettle block in the lower left hand corner. I did the design last week, but haven’t put fabric to machine yet. Photos soon.
And finally,….
As I mentioned I headed south over last weekend. While driving I found that the cherry trees were in gorgeous bloom all along the highway. The color of the flower petals seemed darker than the petals falling to the ground already in San Francisco. They may be flowering quince or some other flowering tree. I don’t know for sure. I just know that love the cheerfulness of the trees and how they make the City look when they all come into bloom at once. I, finally, had the opportunity and the time and the camera and the tree all in the same place at the same timeand was able to snap the picture above.
My sister is a very talented scrapbook artist and these are some pages that she made for us.
Yes, the ‘t’ is missing, but I found it and glued it back on the page. Now, all I have to do is fill the pages with pictures.
Enjoy and be inspired.
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I have been admiring a variety of photo sites lately. Deirdre put me on to the Photo Museum site. In my quest for cake inspiration I stumbled across this site and its artist, Cory Clifford. This image reminds me of Wayne Thiebaud.
Source: fineartamerica.com via Jaye on Pinterest
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I listened to an interview with Mary Lou Weidman on Annie Smith’s podcast this morning. I listened to and wrote about it before. You can find the podcast and show notes at Simple Arts and the podcast on iTunes. It is the 4/17/2008 episode and well worth your time. Mary Lou is a really positive person and what I noticed about this podcast was her discussion of small blessings. I know that blessings can be a loaded word for some. I think of her concept as small treasures anyway.
Mary Lou talked about enjoying the small things in life: a special pear with a wonderful slice of cheese on it, a nice cup of tea, a wonderful bar of soap or bottle of lotion. While I have been trying to, generally, think positive, this comment gave me a little shove in the right direction. I also realized that there were a few recent things that I have really been enjoy. I recently received some apricot vanilla bars of soap and some of my favorite chocolates from a very special person in honor of a very special anniversary. Times are tight financially right now and these were in lieu of the wished for trip to Hawaii. I find, however, that I am not too disappointed and that I think about these gifts very often. I really am enjoying them.
Also, I have been rummaging through my stash quite a bit lately for fabric for the Tarts and other projects. I do this pretty regularly, but am not buying as much new fabric, so I am paying more attention to the fabric I have. It is really fun!
Finally, I also finished the Crazy Test on Thursday. It is ready for…something. I don’t know what it will end up as or who it will end up with.
In general, all is well!
Vicki is one of my blog readers and a wonderful colorist. If you are familar with the Quiltmaker’s Color Workshop by Kerr and Ringle (review), then you would enjoy Vicki’s blog, Field Trips in Fiber, and especially her work on color theory.
Her color theory work was done a couple of years ago, but she has some very astute comments about the different color theory systems and color wheels. Lately she has been dyeing groups of related colors. I think that this current work must come out of her color theory studies. She posts the groups of colors next to each other (as Kerr and Ringle do in their book, above) as she dyes them, including, occasionally, the inspirational picture. Her postings illustrates perfectly the Kerr/Ringle “Big Idea.”
