Teaching the Teachers

On Saturday I had the honor of teaching an Altered Surfaces workshop to some area school teachers. It's always a lot of fun and so rewarding to share techniques that they can take back to their classrooms. It feels good to contribute to keeping art alive in schools!

We played with rust dyeing, several methods for stamp making, and always a favorite...gelatin plate printing!

It was a fun, fun day! Thanks to the Yadkin Cultural Arts Center for hosting this group and asking me to share my love of fiber art!

Hard at work...I mean... Creating!

Stamping with our created stamps!

Some gelatin plate prints

More stamping awesomeness!

Yes, printing with bubble wrap is a blast!

Combined stamping and gel plate print

Prepping for Camp!

Sparky and I are busy today making the sample quilt for my  "I Can Quilt!" Kids Camp...coming this summer at Sew Original, Winston-Salem, June 25-29.

I took the week off last week to get some long overdue tasks done around the house, not the least of which was painting the youngest's room (I bought the paint oh, a year or so ago!). It's now a gorgeous deep gold (ala Wake Forest). And yes, that means making a black and gold quilt is in my very near future! :)

Glad to mark some things off the list...but it feels good to be playing with fabric and thread again!

Catching Up

Things have just been hopping around here lately! What have I been up to? Let's see...

I've been teaching...

 

Altered Surfaces - rust dyeing, stamping, discharging, and gelatin plate printing

(Here Deb and Lynn show off their awesome creations!)


Silk Scarf Dyeing...

I've been making clay buttons...

which have now been glazed and fired and I need to go pick up :)







I've done 2 festivals...

One the weekend of the hurricane and one the weekend it turned cold and rained! LOL! Yes, outdoor festivals are a hit or miss kind of thing. I can't say that it's been a highly successful adventure yet, but it's been on my list of things to try and I want to do a few more before I make a final judgement on their feasibility as part of my studio business. I don't like the unpredictability of the weather...


After all, gallery exhibits are climate controlled! I've had two openings in recent weeks...

"Courage"               
This is a traveling exhibit curated by my friend Kathy Brusnighan (seen left). A gift to the community, these inspiring and encouraging pieces debuted at Circa Gallery in Asheboro, NC on Sept. 15 and will be exhibited in hospitals and galleries throughout central NC through the end of 2012 where the exhibit will conclude at the Center for Creative Leadership. For more information on the exhibit and a schedule of locations visit Art With Purpose.

We all had a great time at the reception! Thanks Circa Gallery for hosting us!

 

(my piece is in the lower right..."Consider the Lillies (Even When the Sky is Falling)" hand dyed fabric collaged to canvas with dimensional flowers)







"Faces"

 
 Another fun reception! This show is at Sawtooth in the Davis Gallery and will run through November 17.





My pieces from L to R:
"Rest" and "Relaxation" (stacked)
"Sam"  (daughter of a longtime friend)
"Faith", "Kay Oss", and "Clara T." (whimsical)
"How Do You See Me?"  (interactive, changeable piece)
 

I've been hard at work on a memorial commission piece...but I can't show it yet...


The boys and I enjoyed an evening at the Dixie Classic Fair. My favorite part...the fancy chickens!

And of course, there have been lots of soccer games...

And baseball games, including a FUN! trip to Myrtle Beach for a tournament at The Ripken Experience!



Well, that's it in a nutshell!
(Did I mention I love coffee?)

:)

Meanwhile...

I have a bad habit of going for long periods between posts... but I have good excuses! Really  :)

I've been busy this summer teaching Kids and Teen Camps at Sew Original and it's been lots of fun! There were two "I Can Sew!" camps for kids, one teen camp and today wrapped up the kids "I Can Quilt!" camp. I'm utterly exhausted...in the best way possible. It's been great sharing the love of all things fabric with these kids!

I managed to get some photos of Quilt Camp...enjoy!

Prior to camp the girls picked out their fabrics, which I pre-cut for them so we wouldn't have to deal with rotary cutters and the accompanying potential hazards thereof ...  :)

They learned the joys of chain piecing...

Row piecing...

Borders...

The joys of pin basting...just look at these happy campers!

Then it was on to the quilting. These girls were FEARLESS!!

Sew girls, sew!!

And look! TA DAAAAA!!!!!

All that's left to do is flip and stitch the binding to the backside and sew on the labels. I should have taken pictures of the labels...they were so cute!! They each designed their own.

I'm so proud of these girls. They worked hard and had fun!

Time Out for Some Family Fun

The recently promised photos of the Ornamental Fiesta class will be forthcoming...I would have finished two in class had I not driven to Asheville without Bernie's power cord! DOH!! Hard to do the sewing part without that, huh? Oy. I was able to borrow someone's machine to do part of it, but I still need to satin stitch the edges, stitch down the metal, and do the embossing. I will say though, that it was a really fun class and I can't wait to show them off!! If you ever get a chance to take a class from Judy Perez, don't miss it...she is a great teacher :)

Meanwhile, this past Friday was my husband's birthday...and not just any ordinary one, it was the big 5-0! He was in Minnesota all week on a business trip and flew home on his actual birthday. I started to have the crowd at the baggage pick up area sing to him, but he's not one for calling attention to himself and I figured he might just jump on the conveyor belt and ride right out of the building. So, I refrained. :) We did, however, stop at Bibb's, one of his favorite BBQ restaurants, for dinner on the way home.

The real celebration came Saturday night. We hosted our "Grub Club" and extended the guest list with his parents, brother, sister, niece and two surprise guests - his college buddy and wife - whom we hadn't seen in about 11 years! He had no idea they were coming! He came home from our youngest's baseball game and there they were. It was great! It was a night of Italian feasting with homemade raviolis, pasta Alfredo with chicken and sausage, salad straight from my garden, fresh NC strawberries, and more. Good food, good friends, good conversation all night, and kids running all over the place!

Coach Jim prepares to blow out all those candles...

On Sunday we spent the day at the Winston-Salem Dash game...it was hot but fun, and they won! Go Dash!

Even the sky was showing love...see the heart? :)

It was a great birthday weekend!

Fun with Ink!

I've been having the most fun!! My guild - Forsyth Piecers and Quilters - booked a Tsukineko Ink workshop with the brilliantly talented Judy Perez, held this past Saturday. I've been wanting to learn what to do with these inks for a while now, and have been looking for an opportunity to have Judy here for a class ever since we met a couple of years ago when she was in Winston-Salem on a personal trip. When I saw Asheville on her calendar I jumped at the chance to book a class in Winston-Salem, only 2 hours east of Asheville.

It was 6 hours of bliss!  :)

In this class Judy teaches two different methods for working with the inks, and she provides images to work from so you don't have to get bogged down in trying to think up something. It was a relaxed, really fun day! Look what we did!.....

Judy (right) giving tips to Joanna White

OK, we didn't do these...Judy did! Aren't they amazing?

This is my first test piece...learning to get the feel of it using the Fantastixs

My second pieces, done mostly with the Fantastix. I call them "Alien Fruits"  I was in a playful color mood :)

This is Fred, my seahorse. I love him madly! He is what I created in the afternoon using paintbrushes in the second technique Judy taught. Be on the watch for Fred to turn up in a future art quilt...

Asheville is hosting Judy's Ornamental Fiesta class and I'll be heading up there for that this week, so tune  in later for more pictures!

Up and Running

Having enjoyed my little 'vacation' (NOT!) I'm happy to report that I'm back up and running! And just in time for a busy weekend...

It was part 2 of my Surface Design class at Sawtooth. Last week students learned rust dyeing and stamp making; this week they learned discharging and my favorite, gelatin plate printing! Two things I love about teaching: I get to share what I know AND I get to learn from seeing what others do with the techniques. They always amaze me! Here are a few shots from the day's fun...

Discharging...

 









Look how cool!

Discharged pieces processing...

Sandra and April creating

Lots of fun as usual!

And what better way to spend the rest of the weekend, but to fill it with baseball! Saturday night we went to the Wake Forest game and Sunday afternoon the oldest had a middle school scrimmage tournament. Yes, it's still February, but you'd never know it by the temperatures lately. It was a gorgeous day!

 
     


The season is off to a great start!

Yes, it was a wonderful weekend and I'm glad to be back at it again. I hate being sick...I'm a most impatient patient! When I was leaving class Saturday I looked up and saw this...there was peace over the city. Who could ask for more? :)