A busy Sunday

Tomorrow night's our monthly Fiberexplorations meeting, but I just received word that we need to change the meeting location.  On such short notice, I offered to host it, and just sent out an email telling everyone.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that everyone checks their email and sends an RSVP so I don't have to track them down by phone.

The downside to hosting is that I've been living as if the entire downstairs was my studio, and some cleaning is definitely in order.  (That means less time to sew today, when I'd planned on working on the samples for my 3 new classes.)  On the other hand, I can share my work-in-progress from the 5-day Rosalie Dace workshop in early October.  It's still pinned to the design wall (though partially stitched!) and would've been too cumbersome to take to the original meeting location.

Work in progress from 2012 Rosalie Dace class.

One day last month, the Salem Art Group got together for a "play day" at Nancy Eng's studio.  She does the most beautiful encaustic work (and is very generous in sharing her supplies!)  Here's the encaustic piece I made:

"Relent" (mixed media encaustic).

"Relent," detail.

 Though I'm still a novice when it comes to encaustics, I love it.  The smell of the warm wax, the tactile appeal of the finished surface, and compared to quilt-making, the almost-instant gratification! I've been considering ways to incorporate encaustic wax with textiles, and at least for the current Fiberexplorations challenge, Letters, I've found one way:

A "waxed" letter."

 I haven't decided how to use my waxed letter in this challenge, but I did leave a blank, unwaxed tab at the top of it (on the left) so it can be stitched onto fabric.  It sits on the table, beckoning and encouraging me to finish the class samples and get to work on this challenge!

There's one more thing I want to share, circa 2006 (?).  I taught a series of mystery quilts and this was one of them.  I rarely finished any; I just worked through all the steps on each so I'd be prepared to teach them.  This one was found with one row sewn in upside down, but it had already been "unstitched" and only needed to be sewn in again.  Presto -- a new quilt top!   (I was always partial to the geometric designs that relied on strong contrast in order for the design to pop.)

A "building block" mystery quilt (in need of a good pressing).

Please leave a comment, even if it's just to say hi, and come back again soon.  I promise to take photos at tomorrow night's meeting!