Feelin' Lucky!

Quiltopia weekend is here in Salem, Oregon!  Last week, The Oregonian (Portland's daily newspaper) published an article about the event, which included photos of some of the quilts made by my coworkers at Greenbaum's Quilted Forest, the event's sponsor.  I was excited to learn that my quilt Hello Mr. Sun was included in the article -- twice!  (One photo was a full view; the second was a detail shot.)

You may remember this quilt from my post last November.  It was made as a sample for a class I've been teaching, Serendipity Quilts, from the same-titled book by Susan Carlson.  Here are the photos from The Oregonian:

"Hello Mr. Sun" (Photo by Josef Brugger)

The caption read:  Joanna Price, a frequent teacher at Greenbaum's Quilted Forest in Salem, sewed this sun artwork as a class model from a book titled "Serendipity Quilts." An array of fabric art will be on display at the 2013 Quiltopia festival in Salem. 

Here's the detail shot:

Detail, "Hello Mr. Sun" (Photo by Josef Brugger)

Quiltopia is a 3-day festival that includes a quilt show with vendors, plus the Salem Fiberarts Guild's Annual Handweaver's Sale and Demos, both at Mission Mill Museum.  The Quilted Cottage Tour on Sunday is a self-guided tour of two houses filled with quilts.  Other activities involving quilts are also part of the festival.  For more info, click on this link.

I'm pretty thrilled about my quilt being included in the article, along with the many "congrats" I received from my friends.  That little bit of attention and acknowledgment's left me feeling happy, lucky, and thankful!

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.

New samples for winter classes

It was a very busy week!  I didn't get any photos at our meeting last Monday because of poor lighting, but next month should be a different story.  That's our holiday potluck dinner, where we'll exchange fabric postcards (this year we're adding a distinctive Portland spin on the cards: Put a bird on it!) AND unveil our Letters challenge quilts.  And it will be at Deb's, where the lighting is much better.

Last week's stormy weather was good for keeping me at home, working on the samples for the three new classes I'm teaching this winter at Greenbaum's Quilted Forest (Salem OR).  In fact, I turned them in just one day late, and that was because I kept adding tiny details to my fabric collage (Hello Mr. Sun) to create more definition.  That project is for my Serendipity Quilts class from the book by the same title (Susan Carlson, author).

"Hello Mr. Sun" class sample.

I still see areas that beg for more detail, but I had to stop and get this guy delivered!  That's okay; I'll use it in class at a teachable moment -- an opportunity to show the impact made by the tiniest of details.

Eye detail of "Hello Mr. Sun."

Detail of lips on "Hello Mr. Sun."

My sewing machine was so sweet and compliant as I did the free-motion quilting on Mr. Sun.  I used rayon threads for the soft gleam they impart (light gold for the sun and a medium blue for the background). 

My next duo of samples is for the Zen Quilts class, and is based on the concept of Zentangles, a type of doodling I've played around with for the past 5 years. I just now clicked on that link and visited their website for the first time in quite awhile, and I am WOWed by its popularity.  There are even yahoo groups set up for sharing the tangles that people have come up with!  (tangle is the term for a specific doodle design).

"Zen Quilts # 2 & 3"

 My third new class is the one I'm most excited about.  For me, surface design on fabric is all about making discoveries, and I love sharing those techniques.  When you combine fiber reactive dyes with a soy wax resist, you get batik!  To make my sample for this easy batik class, I simply cut some of the pieces I've made and stitched them together: 

Samples for my soy wax batik class.

With Thanksgiving behind us and my class samples finished, I'm ready to concentrate on pulling together all my ideas for our Letters challenge and choosing a starting place.