I am thrilled to be the featured artist on the SAQA New York blog. You can visit the blog directly by clicking here. If you do visit, please leave a comment . . . I would be so pleased!
What a nice honor it is to be recognized by this fabulous group. Studio Art Quilt Associates is a terrific organization with many dedicated members who work hard to promote art quilting. A heart-felt thanks to my friend Susan Schrott, the new SAQA NY Co-representative for Southern New York.
Saturday was a very special day, because I got to spend it with my buddies, the Pelham Quilters! It was the first time I have “officially” taught my new Improvisational Flowing Lines workshop, and I have to say, it went off pretty well! I have test-run the workshop with my friends in the past (they are my usual willing guinea pigs!). My friend Susan really took off with the technique, incorporating it into her beautiful quilts. My friends Linda and Georgia had a good time learning the technique, but as yet, have not completed their tops.
The ladies of the Pelham guild were very enthusiastic about learning this new-to-them technique, and had all sorts of ideas about how they were going to incorporate it into their own work. Here are some photos that I took during the workshop . . .
This first one shows a very happy Lorraine, the guild president, fondling the beautiful flowing lines that she created:
And here is Millie, hard at work piecing at her machine:
In the next photo are Doris and Evelyn at the cutting table, both seriously contemplating their next cut . . .
And next is Jean, hard at work at her machine.
Here is my friend Renee Fleuranges-Valdes, rotary cutter in hand, ready to add to her beautiful, colorful and soft flowing lines. See that big smile on her pretty face? It was there ALL day! Renee wrote about her experience at the workshop on her blog. where she had some very kind things to say about me and the workshop — Thank you, Renee, you made my day!
Here’s Lorraine again. She took to the improvisational technique of cutting and quilting like a duck to water. With her background in fashion sewing, she was very comfortable cutting and sewing curves. She had no trouble “loosening up” and choosing from her pile of beautiful fabrics with wild abandon!
Here’s a photo of Millie’s piece, as she contemplated whether or not to add a some four patches in with her flowing lines — she later decided to go ahead and piece them in, and the result was amazing, as you will see in the group shot at the end of this post. Aren’t her colors just gorgeous?
And here is the group, proudly showing off their beautiful work. I was so impressed with how each woman made the technique her own by using her own palette of fabrics and colors.
By the way, see what Millie did by adding traditional 4-patches? She’s over on the far left of the above photo. What a creative way to incorporate her own touch into the piece! Doris, standing just to the right of Millie, used just a small amount of bright yellow in her piece, which she appliqued on to her strips before piecing them in. Cheryl, standing on the far right of the photo, turned her piece 90 degrees and added a strip down the center. It will be one side of a tote bag. Jean, kneeling in front of Cheryl, used beautiful fabrics in earthy colors to make a piece that is so appealing, and so very different from the others!
I’m thrilled that the workshop was a success! I want to thank the wonderful Pelham quilters for their enthusiasm. Also, thanks for the really good snacks. Lorraine is a fantastic baker — her brownies were delicious, and oh, that banana chiffon cake — yummy!!!
Subversive Stitchers: Women Armed With Needles is the extremely cool blog of Dawn Goldsmith. I’m so honored that Dawn has featured my quilt “Venetian Lace #1″ on the sidebar of her blog. She had such nice things to say about the series, too. Thank you, Dawn!
Do check out her blog, which she describes as “a writer’s look at the quilting and quilt art community and anything else fabric”. She features frequent guest bloggers from the quilting world. (She’s asked me to be one, and I really have to get to work on that!) Dawn has a knack for collecting interesting and fun information and I adore the title of her blog — how great is “women armed with needles” I ask you? What an image it conjures in my mind!
A few years ago, I traveled to Venice, Italy to learn to make needlepoint lace the way it is traditionally made on the island of Burano. It was an experience I’ll never forget. I learned a lot about the part of the world my parents came from, I learned a lot about myself, and I learned to make “punto in aria” lace. Much of what I learned during that visit to my favorite place in the world has been “translated” into my current quilt series.
Today, I ran across a great website with an online tutorial on creating needlepoint lace. Although the technique I learned in Venice is slightly different, the website below covers the basic steps for making lace on a solid paper foundation, using mostly blanket-stitches to create the designs. It’s a wonderful tutorial that’s worth a look. Check it out.
Needlepoint Lace Tutorial « textile dreams – fibery wake up.
Two of my very favorite guys (my husband and my youngest son) worked hard today to transport my heavy shelving units into my studio. I spent the day filling them back up with all of my beading “gear”. As you can see from the photo below, the shelves fill up the empty back corner very nicely and provide some much-needed storage space.
I thought it might be easier to respond to all of the comments I’ve received here in a new post, rather than within the comments, where they might get overlooked.
I’ve been receiving some lovely comments on the blog lately. The diversity of these comments, and of the people who have left them, has got me thinking about the magic of this blogging-thing. It seems as if it really is a way to make the world a smaller, kinder place.
Some of the people who have left comments on my blog are former students, like the not-bashful Renee. I love hearing from former students whom I’ve had such fun with — it’s nice to stay in touch with those creative, friendly people. It’s wonderful that, because of my blog, someone whom I’ve met in a workshop can check in to see what I’m up to now and just leave a note saying, “Hey.” And when they tell me what they’ve been up to, well, that’s even more fun!
Others who leave comments are friends, like Susan, and Jeri and Benedicte (no blog). I sort of expect them to read my blog (ha!), but still, it’s nice that they actually do! When they leave comments, it’s a compliment, because I admire their work so much! Besides, they talk to me so often in real life that the fact they’d go out of their way and take the time to leave a comment on my blog is touching.
Virginia Spiegle , McIrish Annie, and Kyra found my blog through my participation in blog “rings” such as Artful Quilters, SAQA or Fiber Arts Bloggers. These women have left thoughtful comments that mean so much to me, especially on those low-self-esteem days when I wonder why I bother to keep a blog (or even to quilt, for that matter).
What’s really amazing to me, though, is when a comment comes from far, far, away. The other day I received a comment from a reader in Portugal. I’ve never even been to Portugal! Through the magic of blogging, a Portuguese knitter left a comment to this blog post that made me feel I was not alone. Wow. That’s pretty powerful stuff!
As I approach my 100th post (who’d have thunk it — this is post number 96, only four more to go!) it’s nice to know that somebody is out there listening!
If you’ve ever left a comment on my blog — thank you very much! And if you have left a comment but I haven’t mentioned you or your blog here, well, leave another comment, please! I’ll mention you, I promise!
