Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold to the rescue

Probably my favorite color to paint with, Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold, came to the rescue for this piece, Sunflower. It was looking a little pasty, a wash of the gold and then edged with a wash of browns made the yellows pop. 

Sunflower 

Have you ever driven through Vermont in the summer? Rolling greener-than-green hills and clear bluer-than-blue skies. And hay bales. Lots of hay bales. 

Hay Bales in Vermont

Snow!

It's snowing here, yet another Storm Of The Century. We are getting anywhere from 8 to 24 inches and wicked strong winds. I could do without the wind, but it'll be nice having snow on the ground.

The kids are home this week. well sort of. Adam was home last Saturday through Wednesday and Sarah is home (with a friend) Wednesday through this Sunday. I love being able to be mommy again, even just for a few days.

I am still working on Artem #2. I've added the green for the leaves. It seems as it's going to be a while before it's actually finished... I want it to look like an illustrated manuscript, with a decent amount of detailing on it. Maybe I should put it in the guild quilt show, then it would have to be finished!

More fabric and batting are being loaded on "Sweetie". These will be much smaller (!) and more abstract then Artem #2.

I am auditioning "ugly" fabrics to use as backgrounds. Some are high contrast, some have very bright colors and there are a few low contrast all mixed in so I can see how different prints show through the paint.

Vita brevis, ars longa

The quilt that I am working on for my class is long - about 10 feet long! It's 18 inches wide.

There's a whole lotta machine stitching going on. This is actually my first official piece on the long arm. yeah, so of course it's ginormous and for a class. A little optimistic, aren't we?

 After the "primer coat", bringing most of it back to a neutral white.

Starting to add some color. The blue and pink are from Sarah's baby furniture. Eighteen year old paint and paint cans are not very cooperative.

Masters II Exhibit at NEQM

Over the weekend I was able to attend the gallery tour given by Martha Sielman, the curator of the Masters II exhibit at the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, MA. What a great experience! She knew so much about each quilt that you can't get by just reading the cards on the wall. Unfortunately, while pictures were allowed, we were asked not to use them in blogs or on facebook, so there are a lot of links, not a lot of pictures.
One picture of most of the SAQA members in attendance:

Martha is in the front, center left. I'm smiling from the third row, third from the right. 

and it was great to see Janet, Michele, Maryann and Margaret!

The work in the show was fabulous! Someone asked what my favorite was and there is no way I could pick one, even now. Although there is one that I would take home in a heartbeat. A Time To Dance May 17 by Karin Franzen can be seen here. She used sheers in layers which gives a very floaty three dimensional effect. I'm pretty sure those cranes would be happy nesting here.

There is a piece by Maryline Collioud Robert in the show with brilliant colors and intriguing organic shapes. While her inspiration comes from the real world, she brings these visions back to her studio not by taking photos or sketching the images, but by collecting adjectives and then refers back to this list of words to create her quilts. What a great way to get an abstract image that completely represents the original scene.

There were quite a few pieces that incorporated hand piecing or hand quilting which was beautiful, it's such a different look and feel from machine pieced and quilted. It also made me a bit nostalgic for my hand quilting days. (Especially today after wrestling with my long-arm!) I loved the focus it required and the control I had over the materials. Perhaps a separate series in the future.

Please go see this show if you can, it is well worth the time!

New Class!

Yes, it's been a while. Last fall was so out of routine that I ended up just holding on and going for the ride!

I've started a new class with the awesomeness that is Lisa Call, her Master Class. It's a six month class, so I will have a much better vision of where my quilts are going and getting into the studio will become more routine. It's hard to argue with six months of (good) habit making!

I've started my first quilt for the class, based on Artem, which will become Artem #1, first in a series of quilts made with raised lettering and painted. No pictures yet! Next week should show some progress.

What would you do...

If you knew you couldn't fail?

I decided I can't fail. Why?
1. I'm in a class all by myself! I'm the only one who can be me, do what I do...
2. I'm the teacher... i design the syllabus and direction of the class.
2. I'm also the grader. I decide what's on the test and how to score it.

Methinks that I have things stacked in my favor...













I had a great time today making some really UGLY quilt tops. I can't wait to see what they look like when they are quilted and painted.

Handi Quilter Fusion has arrived!

I was expecting it on Monday, but it showed up today:

woohoo! But I have to wait to have the shop I bought it through, Bits 'n Pieces,  to come set it up. Apparently it's a wee bit complicated!