More student work and a last-minute contest

My previous post was about the classes I'm currently teaching.  Here are a few more shots from my April 7 soy wax batik class at Greenbaum's Quilted Forest:

White cloth stamped with soy wax.

One very ambitious student spent most of the class time stamping designs onto her fabric, but still managed to get them all dyed.  Do you see why I get so many ideas from my students?  Teaching is a two-way street!

Piles of soy wax-stamped fabric ready for dye-painting!

The next time I teach this class, I'll get some shots of the stamped and dyed fabrics.  This blog post needs some COLOR!

The piece of painted canvas I received for the current challenge.  Yes, I've started!

And on the subject of COLOR:


Win a set of Golden Artist  Colors' surfaces and textures for dry media from Interweave Press  -- a sampling of 13 products, including the new Micaceous Iron Oxide.  (Serendipity?? I just learned the word micaceous during last week's episode of Project Runway, when Patricia embellished a dress with micaceous sequins! Did anyone else see it?)
Deadline: midnight (CST) Thursday, April 25, 2013.

Comments are ALWAYS welcome and appreciated!

It's All In the Details: fabric collage class

In all my years of teaching at Greenbaum's Quilted Forest, I think my current class line-up is my favorite! In March, I taught Serendipity Quilts, which is based on Susan Carlson's book of the same title.  It's only a 6-hour class, so students typically don't get to the quilting stage of their projects.  In fact, they discover that it's the finishing touches added later -- in the 7th, 8th, or 10th hour they've spent on their collages -- that really makes the piece come alive!  It's all in the details.

Here are some of the works-in-progress by my students:

 Anne's two colorful fish.

  

Carlene's flowers (with Angelina fibers at their centers).

Shelley's amazing green-eyed cat.

Alice's smiling sun.

I hope to see these pieces when they're quilted and finished.  Great work!

As always, your comments are welcome and appreciated.

Two members juried into regional show

Congratulations to our members Deb Sorem and Erika Close, who recently learned that their quilts were juried into the 2013 show Fabrications: The Art of Quilting. 

Deb's "The Signal and the Noise"

Erika's "Meyer Lemons"

This is the second year for this annual juried show of art and contemporary quilts, which is sponsored by the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show.  It opens on March 1 with a First Friday reception from 5-8 pm at Franklin Crossing.  This venue is on the corner of Franklin & Bond in downtown Bend.   If you can't make it for the opening reception, the show is open for viewing until the end of March.
 

Fabrications is the only juried exhibit of art and contemporary quilts in Central Oregon.  Quilts were submitted from Oregon, Washington, California and Arizona for consideration.  Jurors selected quilts that represent original design, excellent composition, and unique surface and finishing techniques.

Both Erika and Deb have logged many studio hours over the past year, as their work clearly demonstrates!

Painted Canvas Challenge

What has the Fiberexplorations group been up to?  Getting ready for our next challenge, of course!

On Sunday, our group got together at Deb's for a canvas-painting extravaganza.  Using only primary colors, we painted a large piece of 7-oz. cotton duck cloth.  We moved around the table, rotating from yellow to red to blue, giving each person multiple opportunities to use the three colors.

Lisa decides where to paint next.

 Then we added white highlights.

All hands in!

 The finished cloth, after adding bold strokes of black.

Layers build up as we added details.

Hearts, fireworks, flowers, leaves, swirls, ladybugs . . .

A truly collaborative project!

The paint has had a week to dry.  At our upcoming meeting Mon. night, we'll each receive a bag containing a portion of the painted cloth.  Stay tuned to see how we'll use it in our next challenge!

Please remember that your comments are always welcome and appreciated.

Mid-winter frost

Yes, I've been absent for awhile, but I have a backlog of photos and stories to share.

 In this case, there's no story -- just photos taken around our property in early Jan. after a few days of cold weather and heavy frost.

 A garden ornament was encrusted with white.

 

 A fence was transformed.
 

 Spider webs that looked crocheted.

And long-needle pines wearing ghostly-white.

  Beautiful.

"Letters" Challenge Unveiled

Our annual holiday potluck was held on Dec. 17th at Deb's, and after a great meal, we exchanged fabric postcards.  This year we added Put a bird on it to the holiday theme of our cards:

Our holiday fabric postcards.

 A few members were unable to attend the gathering, including Torrie (a huge snowstorm kept her on the other side of the mountains), but she sent a photo of her postcard:

Torrie's postcard

 Before unveiling the "Letters" challenge quilts, Chris showed a really cool gift she made for her daughter, a cover for her e-reader:

Chris's e-reader cover.

Inside the e-reader cover.

And the challenge quilts . . .

"64 by 64"  -- Torrie

 In 1964, Torrie began corresponding with a penpal in Australia, which has developed into a lifelong friendship that's continued to this day.  They've even met in person twice!  This quilt is a testament to that correspondence; the blue in the center represents the ocean that separates them.

"DNA" -- Chris

"Egg" -- Nancy

(title to be added) -- Deb

"Love" -- Patty

"Madrona"  -- Erika

"Postcard for my Family" (in progress)  -- Maureen

Detail of  Maureen's "Postcard"

"The Signal and the Noise" -- Deb

"Too Much Noise and Not Enough Transparency" -- Deb

Lisa's "Plork!?" (the sound raindrops make when they hit the ground)

My "Blue Secrets" (not yet quilted)

Another challenge with varied and interesting interpretations of the theme.  That part's always a thrill to me.  What will we do next?  Stay tuned to find out!

"Letters" challenge deadline approaches

A week from tomorrow is our annual holiday potluck/meeting.  We're having it at Deb's again because it was so much fun last year (and she didn't mind hosting again this year!).  We'll each show our finished pieces for the current "Letters" challenge and much of it will be a surprise.   Interestingly, it seems that there's been much less previewing of our work in progress this time than there was with past challenges.

Soon after the "Letters" theme was suggested as our next challenge, I had the idea of secret writing.  I was also playing around with some encaustic wax projects and wanted to incorporate that  into this challenge

Here is the encaustic bit that I'll add to my "Letters" piece:

Layers of writing on watercolor paper, dipped into encaustic wax.

Previously, we've shared our challenge quilts throughout their construction.  Some members were simply excited to show what they'd done so far, while others sought specific design feedback (Do the colors flow?  Does the quilt have enough contrast?  Does it keep the viewer's eye moving through the piece?)  One of the beautiful things about our group is the willingness of members to share their knowledge and their generosity in offering valuable suggestions in a completely noncompetitive manner. We've created a very supportive environment where members feel safe enough to show work that may they feel less than confident about.  Unfailingly, someone will speak up about the elements of that design that do work, and others chime in with thoughtful ideas and suggestions, sharing even their favorite tips and tricks.  Such encouragement is like a shot of confidence for the recipient.

So it seems that we're all growing more confident and have less need to get feedback while our challenge pieces are in progress.  I'm excited about that.  I've often thought it would be more exciting if our challenge deadlines were actually unveilings where we'd see each others' quilts for the first time.

That being said, I realize I'd have even less reasons for posting on this blog if I didn't show my work in progress (or my design dilemmas, and of course there have been plenty this time, as always). 

A section I've pieced, including rust-dyed silk (left), deconstructed
screenprinting (blue spirals),  and a Thermofax screenprint (lower middle in blue).

Hand-dyed silk; 3 needlefelted pieces incorporating hand-dyed cheesecloth,
rust-dyed silk, wool and silk rovings.

Still much to do to get this finished by next week.  The ideas continue to flow, so I'll keep working on it until it feels like enough!