The Art Quilt at Haliburton School of Art & Design

Last week I spent teaching "The Art Quilt" at the Haliburton School of Art and Design. As in previous years, I had the pleasure of experiencing many deer sightings. Most of them were near the instructor cabins, or on the road to the instructor cabins.

In this class we talk about creativity, I give a presentation about Composition and Design, and students are given two different design exercises. The first exercise involves Seat of the Pants Construction, while the second involves designing with a plan (creating your own pattern). I encourage students to work small so they won't be so precious about their work and willing be willing to take risks. But before we do the design exercises, we spend a day dyeing fabric.

Here are Gail and Virginia mixing up dyes in the dye box we are required to use. The dye box completely contains any stray airborne dye particles. It might seem awkward at first, but once a system is worked out, things go pretty smoothly. On the bright side, it means not needing to sweat behind a particulate respirator.

It is always exciting to see the fabric after it is washed out.

Carol and Janice look pretty happy with the results.

All of the "Seat of the Pants" exercises were posted to our design wall and we discussed them as a group.

Really love that green squiggly line along Janice's composition.

Here are results from the Planned Design (creating your own pattern).

Virginia:

Lynne:

Gail:

Helen:

Lynne:

Charlotte:

Carol 

After many years of this class filling (sometimes with a waiting list) I had only seven students this year. It was a small and intimate group. However, I will be retiring the class for a few years and teaching a different topic next year.

It seems that more and more I am relying on the camera in my smart phone when I travel. However, I did have my DSLR camera in my car, knowing there would be opportunities to photograph deer. Having a zoom lens sure helps. Here's one of those photos.

I have no teaching now until the end of October. The time between now and then will be spent in the studio, taking vacation (which includes some pleasure travel), and probably dyeing more kits. I can hardly believe that we are so far along in the summer season, but it went by very quickly during my many weeks of travel.

Preparations for Spring Teaching/Conclusion of The Art Quilt.

I'm making great headway here preparing for my spring/summer teaching trips. I've copied, folded (my husband did the folding) and packaged 360 patterns.

I've also dyed and ironed 74 meters of fabric, and dyed a further 42 meters and have mixed up dyes for an additional 26 meters. We still have a fair bit of dyeing and ironing to do, but it is my hope to get the bulk of it finished before I head out on the road at the end of April for my first major teaching trip of the year, to Lethbridge, Alberta.

On Saturday I taught Session 5 (last session) of my Art Quilt class here in Ottawa. In preparation to talk a bit about edge finishes and mounting and framing, I stitched, edge finished and mounted my little demo quilt that I started while talking about "seat of the pants" design. This is my favorite method of framing at the moment. I'm not a big fan of stretching a quilt around a frame. For this piece I purchased a frame, removed the glass, and mounted my little quilt on top of the foam core back that came with the frame. The edge of the quilt is finished with a satin stitch. But why frame? Because this is such a small piece (8-1/2" x 10-1/2"), the frame gives it more presence. I encourage my students to work small with their design exercises so they will be willing to take risks.

Students brought some finished quilts to class. You may recall that in our previous class we did some free-form cutting of curves. On the left you can see the results that Beth achieved. Fun, isn't it? She used a lot of leftovers to make the little trillium piece on the right.

I think I shared this piece in my last post. Since then Heather cropped it further, quilted and faced the edges. Also very fun.

This is also Heather's completed piece from an earlier class where we did seat of the pants designing. We all loved the irregular border.

Cindy used the free-form curves piece she started in the last class, further sliced it and added a leather crow. I think the neutral curves enhance the scene well.

Not sure if you can see the stitching on this piece, but Beth has done a fair bit on her leaves.

Wendy's rooster, inspired by a design she found on the internet, is finished, and quilted with a chicken wire design.

She turned her free-form curved quilt into an Easter wall hanging.

I'm also immersed in Level 2 of my Photoshop course. We're learning how to remove distracting elements in our photos. In this photo I took of the Alhambra in Granada, Spain, a few winters ago, I was always bothered by that piece of metal construction equipment in the lower right side. Also in the lower left there is a black post.

I was able to remove both and now I like the photo much better. I'm told it might need a bit of straightening though, and I certainly know how to do that.

 But for now it's back to my dyepots and ironing.

The Art Quilt Series Ottawa, Session 2 and New Work

Yesterday was Session 2 of my 5-day Art Quilt Series, running five Saturdays between January and March. I am having a lot of fun with this eager and relatively small group of eight women.

In our first session two weeks ago we learned about creativity, composition, design, and colour. At session 2 we started with some colour exercises involving acrylic paint.

Then students were put to work for the rest of the day creating a "Seat of the Pants" design, cutting everything for their art quilt free-hand.

 Not everyone finished, but most pieces were well on their way. Lynn did finish her Bird of Paradise.

Beth finished her abstract Canada Geese.

Wendy's Southwestern rock formations were coming to life.

Virginia was blocking in the major shapes of her landscape.

This is a really fun and gratifying class for me to teach because everyone is creating something different, and I look forward to what each student will come up with. Below is my start on a Seat of the Pants composition that I created while demonstrating to the class how I might do such a composition. I'm liking the direction it is going so I am going to finish this one before the next class.

In our third class, which takes place in February, I will be teaching the class how to create their own patterns and build the quilt from there. This will be a more planned design. I'll be sure to share photos.

I also completed a new pen and ink drawing. I photographed this beautiful stairway in Provence in 2015. I absolutely loved seeing it come to life with pen and ink.

Want to Learn to Design Your Own Art?

2017 is quickly drawing to a close. This is the time of year when people start thinking about plans and resolutions for the new year. What is it you want to learn in 2017? Have you always wanted to design your own original art quilts? If so, you might be interested in my "Art Quilt Series", a 5-day workshop running across 5 Saturdays in January, February and March 2017. If you've ever thought about taking this class, do it now! There are still a few spaces left, and it probably won't run again in Ottawa for several years (last time was 2013). Now would be the time to take it when it is so close to home and you can sleep in your own bed, and avoid the cost of accommodations, travel, and meals when you take it elsewhere.

For dates, details, and price, go to the Workshops page of the Ottawa Valley Quilters Guild.

Do you want to see what we did in previous classes? This link will run you through all my blog posts about previous classes. When you get to the end of one page of posts, click on "Older Posts" at the bottom of the page to get to earlier posts.

I would like to specifically draw your attention to this post. I laid out information about the class in a lot more detail the last time I taught it in Ottawa in 2013.

One change we've made to the class for the upcoming sessionf is that I will be teaching free-form piecing on one of the five days instead of dyeing. Why? Because many members at the OVQG have already taken my dyeing classes. However, I am flexible to the wishes and needs of the class and we can discuss that at the first class.

Let me also reassure you that you do not need to be an artist already to take this class. This is a great class for people who want to break away from using other people's patterns and designs.

Let me share just a few of the design exercises students completed in this class. You can see more by running through the links above.

Josée

 Janey

Barb

Monique

News (Shows, Articles and Workshops)!

Checking in tonight to share news and some photos of recent workshops.

I learned yesterday that "Encore" was accepted and will hang at the National Juried Show of the Canadian Quilters Association in St. Catharines, Ontario in June. In the mean time, it took a little detour today. I shipped it, and other work, as well as a lovely stack of hand-dyed fabrics, to the office of Quilting Arts Magazine in Massachusetts, whether they will be photographed for an upcoming feature article about me. Stay tuned! The expected publication date will be the June/July issue, but I will let you know when the date is definitivelyconfirmed! I am very happy to be showing "Encore" in Canada and in the US (in Quilting Arts Magazine) before it travels to Europe for the "Crossing Oceans" international group show.

Sunday I taught Part 5 of my Art Quilt Series here in Ottawa. A few students brought some of their design experiments. This exercise was about working with value (while also keeping other Elements and Principles of Design in mind).

Isn't Barb's blue dog just the coolest?

Monique's Chinese lanterns are so graceful.

Inez chose to depict a milkweed pod. Great choice of complementary colours.

You could walk right into Mary's forest scene.

Ruth's dynamic close-up of a portion of sunflower focuses on the green area below the flower. (I can't think of the technical name of that part of the plant right now?).

Monday I was off to Perth, Ontario, to teach "Liberated Radial Piecing" for the Lanark County Quilters Guild. It was great to spend time with this group again. What an innovative and relaxed group of quilters.

We had a wonderfully large and bright classroom. I actually got some exercise while moving around between students ;-)

Most students in the class had worked with free-form cutting and piecing methods before, so there was no one intimidated by trying this.

The process starts with making a series of strip sets, all cut and pieced without rulers.

After that, wedges are cut to form the radial design.

Bev brought her finished poppy quilt that she started in my workshop at the Ottawa Valley Quilters Guild about a month ago. She did a fantastic job with the values!

I know I've been quiet this month. We had a two-week trip to Spain to celebrate my husband's retirement. I will share some photos shortly. 

Teaching travel is gearing up, and I'll be off to visit the Windsor Quilters Guild next week.