Improv Quilts at John C. Campbell on Off the Wall Friday

Fall 1

With 2024 starting, I thought it was a good idea to look into our next creative vacation.  Paul and I both wanted to get back to John C. Campbells Folk School in North Carolina so I started there.  Luckily, 

 I found the class, Intro to Improvisational Quilts taught by Veronica Hofman-Ortega.  The class description reads....

Explore improvisational cutting and piecing methods to create one-of-a-kind contemporary quilts. Dispense with templates, exact measurements, and block-based patchwork, and embrace the unexpected and exciting outcomes you can get with improvisational patchwork. Arrive with a sense of adventure and spontaneity and prepare to break out of the traditional quilt-making box. 

I thought, "Hey, that sounds like it would be fun!", so I talked Paul into taking another class that week.  There happen to be a few great ones to choose front (hint hint - Open Hearth cooking  - I mean who doesn't want their husband to learn how to cook over an open hearth right?) But he settled on, "Hand Building for the Garden" which contrary to what it sounds like is a pottery class that teaches beginner non-wheel clay techniques.  When we go on vacations like this, I, the quilter, want to sew all week while Paul, the woodworker wants to do anything but touch wood!  

Once emailing Veronica and getting the supply list, I could tell it was my type of class.  We're to bring all sorts of light to dark fabrics including a good gradation in gray.  Go figure I have it all here.  I haven't done improv piecing in forever though.  In fact, I really have never worked innately.  I mean I know that people do just sew and put it up on the wall and sew some more, but I still need to have a plan on where I'm going.

Take for instance my Fall Series.  I started out with 8...yes 8...just improved line drawings.  I picked a palette inspired by - gasp - fall colors and then.....just kinda sewed up what my line drawing was like.  I didn't use patterns but at least I had an idea of where it was heading!  I did do 2 out of the 8 and I really can see myself going back and finishing more.

Then there was my Crosses series.  With those, I  started with improv little crosses and came up with the layout using value studies. I think I did 3 or 4 of them.   hmmmm I really liked that series; I should do some more!

So needless to say, as the class date of March 24th approaches, I'm getting excited.  The fun thing about this kind of class is that you never quite know where it's going to take you and where you're going to end up!

So What  Have You Been Up to Creatively?

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Abandoned. . . A Fall Quilt

Abandoned, 29" by 26"

It took a good two weeks and a lot of long hours but I managed to get my fall quilt done.  I entitled it Abandoned since the swing looks so lonely without  its little girl on it.  So the way I solved the season ambiguity problem was to  just add a few sheer leaves at the end.  Now there is no doubt that its fall instead of spring.

I went a little Thread Happy with this one - I swear I nearly used every bobbin in my box.  They all started out full - next thing you know the whole piece is covered with thread  - and they're all empty!  It was so much fun though communing with my Baby for hours on end.  She felt very loved.

I can't even tell you what a sigh of relief I gave with delivering the pieces to the gallery with a whole 45 min to spare.  But  - as I pledge - they left blocked and labeled - so I'm all happy!   Still my sewing hole looks like a tornado went through it - so I better get it back into shape!  Its amazing how one little quilt can cause that much a mess!

With that one done, and a good 5 months of art quilting behind me, my traditional roots are calling me.  I have a  UFO box filled with little floral baskets made mostly of sateens.  I stopped because the whole project got way too pattern busy and I wasn't quite sure what to do with them.  Now with a break - I'm think I'm up for tackling them again.  Besides - I got an itch to get do some hand quilting.

See more great design boards at Judy's Patchworks!
See what everyone got done this month at Lily's Quilts!

Bobbins and Bobbins - Off the Wall Friday

How can it be Friday already?  I really need to start only budgeting a couple of hours of sewing each night.  Once I start on that third hour my eyes start glazing over and I start thinking of bed.  Is there such as a thing as asleep at the machine?

I did manage to get a bunch of thread work done on my latest piece.  So far I've gone through 3 - count them 3 full Bottom Line Bobbins.  You know you can fit a lot of thread on a bobbin using Bottom Line.  Not to mention, I'm only about half done.  I really am enjoying doing it though  - I always forget how much I love just free motion quilting.

Plus this time I got to use my new snazzy machining gloves - which are a lot lighter than my gardening one  (go figure!)  That was one of the better $8 I've spent lately.  It makes it so much easier to move the piece around.  The only thing I wish I had bought the X-tra small instead of the Small/Mediums - they're just a bit big!

As you can tell, I'm putting off the final decision on what exactly I'm going to do about the season situation.  I got so many good ideas from everyone - a big Thank You.  The only thing I can tell you right now is that I decided not to do any tulle - not so much because it wouldn't have made a nice value change - but putting it over so much of the barn I wasn't quite sure how it would effect the texture.  With the deadline so close I didn't feel like experimenting.

So by Monday the suspense should be over and we can find out exactly what I decide together!

So what have you been up to Creatively this week?

Barely a Barn Raising - Off the Wall Fridays

Okay, I admit it, I’m Pathetic! 

I do know that I have a deadline coming up in just a little over a week and did I manage to get more done this week??  That would be a big fat no. Life keeps on intruding dragging me here and there. I don’t seem to have the discipline to yell, “Stop – I have to work on my fall piece!” No. . . . I just keep letting anything and everything distract me.

Kali thinks I'm Pathetic too!

Did I mention I was Pathetic?

So I really am going to have to buckle down this weekend.

But what have I gotten done so far? I did manage to start working on the barn and working out the value problems. I’ve already done the side wall over since the one I did this weekend was way too light. I do like the gradation in value I’m getting with the reds – adding a bit of orange in there so it doesn’t get too matchy-matchy. I’m having a bit of problems with placement so I might end up making a quick placement pattern – which I normally hate to do since I don’t like to stick so strictly to the initial design but now its getting hard to get everything lined up right.

So I think its time to get a good book going on my mp3 player and see if I can focus in my studio.  The one I'm listening to right now is The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King.  I've read/listen to it several times and still never get sick of it.  Its the story of Sherlock Holmes apprentice (and later wife) Mary Russell.  Hopefully by Monday's post, I'll have more to show for myself!

So what have you been doing creatively??????

Another Beginning. . .A Fall Quilt - Design Wall Monday

Fabrics laid out more or less by value

  

Initial Value Sketch

With the Beauties done and the Albion Fair packed up for another year, it seems life around here can get back to normal.  The deadline is looming though for the Fiber Invitational so it seems there's no rest for the weary.  With that, I spent a good amount of time cleaning my sewing hole on Saturday (How in the world can it get that dirty with one little project?) and picking out fabrics for the fall wall hanging I've been designing.

Kali standing guard over my hand dyeds

You might remember it from the value drawings I was doing.  I blew up the initial pattern to about 30" by 30" and pulled out the hand dyeds.  I decided a palette of fall colors - red, orange, yellow and a hint of green for accent should do me well.  I haven't worked in these colors in a long while so it will be different but I think it will really invoke that mood of autumn that I'm looking for.

Just the beginning taking shape on the wall

Today I got started on the background of the sky which is the lightest part of the piece and just the first steps of the barn.  I like the sky .. . . .but I don't know. . . . . it might be getting too Easter Eggy Sweet.  I'll get the barn up and and a few other pieces and decide then.  If it does I'll just add some greyed pastels to add a little tension.  But for now its up.  Getting the barn the right value is soooo tricky - you want to get it dark enough that it contrasts the sky but light enough that it recedes back.  Not to mention that there are still value changes in the barn itself.  Like I said, there's no rest for the weary.

One thing I know about me though - if I didn't have a deadline  - I wouldn't get anything done!  
See more great Design Walls at Judy's Patchworks!

From Idea to Design to Pattern

Morphed drawing

Am I the only one that creates better with a deadline looming?  This spring I got my first invite to the fall fiber invitational at a local gallery.  Now, I've been wanting to be asked into this show forrrrever. So you'd think I would get right after doing the two pieces that were needed.  But Nooooo!  My mind went to town coming up with ideas that would fit the theme, "Seasons".  The rest of me, not so much.

With the September deadline fast approaching and with my renewed dedication to all things creative, I finally got the first idea down.  Summer, with its sunshine filled days and more relaxed feel was of course my first choice.  I'm blessed to live close to the banks of Lake Erie and the I never get over the wonder of the Great Lake.  With that in mind, I wanted to capture that feeling of lazing on the beach with also working on my new subject women.

Composition and Angles changes

So I started out with an image inspired by the work of Mabel Hewit  who worked in these amazing modern woodcuts.  Ever since seeing her exhibited at the Cleveland Art Museum, I thought her representational style would translate to fabric beautifully.

I  started with images morphed from Hewit's "Sun Bathing".  I  then took a couple of days sketching and resketching the Bathing Beauties changing the composition and the curves  - making them more pleasing.  During this whole process, my mind was still working on which direction I wanted to take this piece. 

Final Edit

I think I've figured out a line of action. . . . but I'll leave that for another post.