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Just a quick post to let you know what I have been up to. First, I am happy to say that I am getting stronger every day. I can get back up the hill to the condo faster and without stopping to catch my breath! I can stand up from the sofa faster ad easier each day. My backaches are subsiding. That is great progress for me.
Above you see the house that I created from the blue moon quilt.Here is the original – kind of boring. I love it as a 3-Dconstruction.
It was on display with other fantastic 3-D objects at the Oregon SAQA conference. Our Blending Poetry and Cloth exhibit is on display there now at the Salem Historical Center. I loved getting reacquainted with my Ode to aTree quilt.
That was an all day affair, and the next day, I took myself to the NW Quilt Expo to wander amongst the quilts and do some retail therapy. I love Marcia Derse fabrics and I selected these from her new line. Love the greens! I also picked up some thread and needles from Superior Thread.
The big news is that I am moving my studio next month to a place a bit larger where I can have a design wall that I can stand back from. It will be a shared space with my daughter Lisa who needs a place to do her fine art painting. More about that as we progress with the move and setting up the space to accommodate both of us.
Last week, I was privileged to take a 2 day workshop with Fran Skiles. I had so much fun and it was kind of like making a mystery quilt. She would do a demo and give us instructions to create some pieces and then we would move on to something else. She purposely did not show us a finished piece so that we would not have a preconceived notion of what to do.
We started by making random stitches on a piece of plain fabric.
Then we coated one side with gesso.
Next we made monoprints on Chinese rice paper using printing ink.
Then we drew on Japanese rice paper with a bamboo pen and India ink.
We learned how to transfer photos from copy paper using gel medium.
I don’t have photos, but we also drew on stitch and tear pellon with watercolor crayons which we then transferred to the fabric with gel medium.
Once, we had all our parts, we started assembling collages and then doing washes with thinned paint.
I have 3 more skins (Fran’s word for the treated fabric) and lots of parts to make more collages. It was so much fun and so freeing to create the parts without a plan – just to play.
On Thursday, we have our Oregon SAQA one day conference. Our guest speaker is Kay Khan, who does intricate 3-D fiber work. In an homage to her, we were invited to create 3-D pieces. I am cutting up a boring quilt which will become a structure. I glued the parts to stiff pellon tonight.
Tomorrow I will assemble it and hope it stands upright without too much work!!
Beyond Fistula is an organization that helps women and girls in Africa who have recently undergone surgical repair for fistulas- a complication of difficult childbirths. My friend and fellow art quilter, Mary Ann McCammon, is very involved with this organization and has traveled to Kenyan to work with the women, teaching them to create little art quilts. You can read about her here.
There is to be a fund raising event here in Oregon wine country, selling a lot of the work these women have created. Mary Ann asked us to create a larger piece, using the work done by the women. I have done two of these. I am embroidering their names on the front.
On the back is a pocket with a card with information and photo about the maker.
Here is the second one I made.
The fund raiser is in November at a winery.
Tomorrow is Columbia Fiberarts Guild with Fran Skiles as guest speaker. On Thursday and Friday, I am excited to take a workshop with her.