QSDS Ann Johnstons's Class

The class was terrific! I had so much fun playing with dye paste and learning a great deal along the way. I am still tired from it all. We painted and printed using print paste directly on fabric. Some of us silk screened, stamped, rollered, stenciled, monoprinted, rubbed, etc. We also used corn and potato dextrine as resists. The class was 7 days... enough time to really get into it. Of course we took the required afternoon off and went to see Quilt National which, needless to say, was impressive. I aspire to that... probably only in my dreams. We also did some overdyeing and I managed some Shibori pieces as well. I have colored appendeges to show for it as well... yellow toes, blue, and red fingers. It was fun playing with all the toys.
I am waiting for permission to post some work from my classmates as well. There were 18 of us in the class which included some top tier artists... Shelley Baird, Marie Wiley, Faye Hoch, Ellen Bazzoli, Rachel Covo, Deborah Fell, to name a few. I felt quite intimidated the first few days but then just soaked it all in. Everyone was very gracious and generous about sharing knowledge and techniques and a good time was had by all. Ann was a good teacher. There were some awesome pieces from this class. I tried my hand at most things and have many pieces started and none any where near done. They all need more work but some of them I have a good idea of where I want to go with them. I have one piece that I think is a total disaster but I will use it to practice on.. who knows, maybe it will turn out ok.

I am waiting for permission from some of my classmates to post some of their pieces. I will add to the slideshow. I have added works from Meg Rogers,Teri Hjetland, Mary Anne Loehr, and Faye Hoch. I need to figure out how to incorporate these wonderful techniques into the work I enjoy doing. Enjoy.

Sacred Threads

On June 18th, we flew to Columbus, Ohio for the start of an exciting 10 days worth of activities which included my niece's wedding, a viewing of the Sacred Threads exhibit, and 7 days of classes with Ann Johnston at QSDS. We intended to meander our way through Amish country to drive back to Canton for the wedding. The weather did not cooperate.... it stormed all day Friday so we took the highway instead of the scenic route. The sun came out on Saturday and the wedding was lovely. On Sunday morning, after attending an after wedding brunch, we headed back to Columbus and the Sacred Threads show. The show was very moving. The pieces together created a very powerful story. I have permission from some of the artists to post their pieces here.

The artists are: Janice Potter, Lion of the Sea and White Buffalo Calf Woman Rhapsody, Diane C Lochala, Vines of Life and Time's Portal, Karen Fridy, Temptation, Wendy L Starn, Fire and Ice and Summer Breeze, A.Carole Grant, Joy, Gerrie Congdon, Juxtaposition and First Light, Sue Reno, Wood Poppy and Mystery Fern, Ginny Greaves, I am the Vine You are the Branches, and my piece, Dance! I have some others I would like to include and am waiting for their permission. I will amend the slide show as needed.

After viewing the Sacred Threads show, my hubby dropped me off at QSDS for my 7 day class with Ann Johnston. That will be a separate post.

Struggling to acheive realism

I am the first to admit that I cannot draw worth a damn. What I see in my head doesn't always translate well to paper. So for those of you who have the ability to draw this post should give you a chuckle. I have been trying to depict hands for the piece I am working on. It has been very frustrating for me. How do I get a 3 dimensional vision into a 2 dimensional piece? Pretty pathetic I must admit but this is how it is going to be. I cannot do what I cannot do. Sigh, I only have 2 others to do. These are the types of things that I get hung up on, get frustrated, then run away. Anyone else react like that?

Thread painting

I have been working on my project and making some good progress. Today was a first for me. I tried my hand at some thread painting. Not bad, although I will not be competition for anyone. It was sort of fun once I relaxed. Of course I kept it pretty simple so it was hard to screw up!
This piece also calls for some beading so I have lots of work still ahead of me. This piece is going to be larger than I have been working on lately. Probably a good thing. The larger size poses other challenges but leaves me more options.
I am starting to get ready for my class with Ann Johnston at QSDS soon. If anyone else is going, let me know so we can meet up. I think it will be lots of fun.

As ye sew, so shall you rip

This has turned into an interesting week...NOT. Nothing went quite as planned but I am not unhappy. Monday morning started out great. I finally began the project that I had been postponing for the past 6 weeks. I was happy with the way it was going and once I got some of the pieces on it was time to sew them in. I decided to use a variegated thread and a decorative stitch on my machine. I sewed about 8" worth and took a good look at it. YUCK! It was awful. It took me 2 minutes to sew it down and an hour to rip it out. Very frustrating. Of course I was now looking for an excuse not to work more on it that day so we went to play bridge. We won. ... actually had a very good week at the bridge table. I went back to the project this morning and got what I had done stitched down. It looks fine now. ...working on the next part. I need my cat to go nap because his help is not doing me any good. Looking forward to a productive weekend.

I need to start getting ready for QSDS in a few weeks. Of course I have done nothing. Dyeing is going to be on the agenda next week.

Hope everyone has a good weekend.