Learnings

Sigh. This was such a delightful little piece when I brought it home from the workshop. I sat with it for a while and decided it didn't need any quilting or embellishment. So I was simply going to do the Pillowcasing backing technique that Melody taught us in her class. But UG! I forgot how much you lose to seam allowance. Sigh. Now it's a Learning Experience rather than a Piece of Art.
Oh, well.

Melody Class: The Rest of the Story

There were a few in the class that were calling me "Miss Productivity" and other names. They didn't quite understand what an incredible blessing and rarity it was for me to have uninterrupted hours to do art. I had a grand time, learned some useful things, and look forward to many more workshops in the future.

Melody Class: Day 1 afternoon

I was having a great time, and put together piece after piece. Melody was very helpful (and gentle) with her comments. She looked at my first piece (photo 1), and helped me understand that there were way too many things going on in it--too many elements. So I CUT IT UP and started again (photo 2). Most of the pieces from the first piece became elements of other quilts during the 2-day session.
When I had a hard time understanding how she built a background, Melody came right in and started re-organizing my fabric and together we made a fantastic background (photo 3). This piece is now complete and hanging in my office at work, as a reminder of my artistic side and the joy of collaboration.

Melody Class: Day 1

Melody's class began with a slide show and a story about her art. It was great, and the class asked tons of questions. She talked not only about her success, but also about the times everything wasn't working for her. I find it so valuable when people will share the things that don't work, the hard times, etc. In some ways, that's almost more helpful than sharing successes.

After that, we each got to choose 2 fabulous vibrantly dyed fabrics, iron on WonderUnder, and start cutting. The fabric was so beautiful many of us had a hard time cutting it. But I realized it was beautiful but useless until you cut it up. So my rotary cutter sprung to life and zip-zip-zip I had a pile of beautiful pieces all ready for play.

How I Decided to Attend QSDS

My husband gave me the best Christmas gift ever last year. It was for 8 hours per week. I couldn't use them for sleeping or cleaning or working. I could use them for my art, or working out, or anything that renews me. AMAZING!

We haven't been able to get a regular schedule for these hours. Often I get 2-5 hours per week in. So I decided to make up for my deficit by attending a weekend class at QSDS in nearby Columbus. I looked over their course schedule and had a few classes I thought I'd like to take and asked advice from a couple of art quilt friends including my oldest friend Deborah

Clearly, Melody's class was the one to take. Her vibrant colors just sang to me!

So my husband had Kid Duty all weekend (except for a lunchtime visit each day), and I got to PLAY!!

The Original Nap Art

Here is the original Nap Art. One Saturday, Luke was napping and Charlie was watching TV, so I thought that I could slip in a quick piece of art. After just a few minutes in my studio, Charlie decided what I was doing was more interesting than TV and begged to help. So we worked together.
We used a photo of a sunflower from a birthday card my sister Joyce had sent as a basis for our art. I did 2 of mine, and then we did one for Charlie. I actually kind of like Charlie's better!
It's just a simple fused piece. And we really did get them done before Luke got up from his nap.
Success!

Cloth Paper Scissors Recipe Card Challenge

I entered my first challenge/swap this spring. The goal was to take a 4X6 recipe and embellish it. It must include floaters, and must be encased in vinyl. I wrote my very best cookie recipe on bits of fabric, and the directions on other bits of fabric. And then on the back side, I beaded a cooling rack and made little fabric cookies as the floaters. It wasn't very professional-looking, but it was a lot of fun. And the recipe is so good it will make up what is missing in artistic finesse.

Farm Jackets

This spring, Susan G taught me how to make a jacket using a sweatshit as the base. Actually, we began about a year ago and I finally finished this spring.

I began the jacket for Charlie, then had Luke and decided he needed something as well so quickly threw together the little vest in one evening. I made them to wear as their Speical Easter Outfits. However, they ended up with colds and staying home from Easter services. Oh, well! It's the process that matters.

Photo Pillow

When I moved to Ohio, I tried to start a "Quilties" group, women who were interested in quilts and may or may not actively quilt. One of the things the Quilties did was to learn how to make these fantastic photo pillows. They would be great as prayer pillows for someone who is sick or lonely!
I made this pillow for Charlie's godparents. It is of their daughter and her namesake, her great-grandmother. The daughter loved it, and the grandmother who came to visit from Greece loved it just as much.

First Art Quilt Class: Pizza Postcards

Here are photos from my Very First art quilt class, a one-evening course taught by Jo Rice. She's got such great style, flare, and a great can-do attitude. It's wonderful to be doing art around her!