Arrowmont - Day 1 & 2

Greetings from the fiber studio at Arrowmont  School of Arts and Crafts - located in the lovely Smokey Mountains of Tennessee.  OMG what a whirlwind the last two days have been - exciting and productive.  I'm taking Abstract Art Quilt Class with Elizabeth Barton.  The class is full of 15 ladies ranging from women who have never sewn a quilt before to season veterans.  They are a great bunch!


Day One was spent on theory and design.  And just for the record - when Elizabeth wants you to design - she means really design. We went through 3 design exercises - all leading  us to abstracting out a composition.  I was bit tight and ramped up - so I really thought my work was drivel, but by the end of the night  (11:30 pm!!!) I finally had a good composition going.  Yep - you read that right - I worked till 11 and ended up with 17 different designs and value drawings.

Yes the Red Solo Cups Made the Trip

With the composition and value set, you would think that all I had to do was sew it together right?!  Ohhhh no - the second part of this great class is that we learned how to dye gradations.  Elizabeth does her dyeing a bit different than I do, but I love the way my fabric came so I definitely will be doing her process again.  Our assignment was to dye 8 fat quarters into gradations of black or blue and make our composition.

I had planned on finishing it up tonight - including quilting - but decided to stop when I sewed my finger straight through!  OMG!  Blood - Tears - the shock of it all on 5 hrs sleep was enough to make me crazy.  Luckily a new friend of mine, Cathy (who follows this blog!) is a nurse and she took over the whole bandage procedure.  My finger is throbbing but I can still type so I guess I'll live.

The quilting will just have to wait till tomorrow!  I promise I'll share more about Arrowmont since there is a ton to tell!