A Few Days with the Fraser Valley Quilters' Guild in Delta, BC

It was a good time to be on the west coast ... while my own city and province were battling freezing rain, sleet, and snow. Sure, there were frequent grey skies, but that is because it is rainy season. Rainy season also brings the buds and flowers out. I flew into Vancouver two weeks ago for a ten day period. Two of those days were spent travelling, four were spent lecturing and teaching, and the remaining four were spent vacationing. I arrived a day early because I wanted to purchase a few things locally for my classes, as well as some groceries for my breakfasts. My three check in suitcases were packed!

My engagement was with the Fraser Valley Quilters' Guild in Delta, British Columbia. Delta is about 45 minutes southeast of Vancouver. On my way I stopped in Richmond, where I took these photos of cherry blossoms. 

Magnolias were blooming all over the place. This photo was taken in Surrey, BC. I stayed in Surrey for two nights as it was was halfway between my Tuesday lectures and Saturday workshop, and halfway between my two day Surface Design class.

We had a large and well-lit classroom in the Sheraton Hotel.

I brought along all of the art supplies, including Prismacolor Artist Pencils, Caron d'Ache Neocolor 2 Water Soluble Wax Pastels, Tsukineko Inks, and InkTense pencils. Hence the reason I needed so many suitcases.

Day 1 was about shading with Prismacolour Artist pencils as well as creating a watercolour effect with the wax pastels.

Day 2 was learning to paint a variety of values with Tsukineko Inks and then a little threadsketching with InkTense pencil added.

We all got together for a class photo together.

The west coast is very multi-cultural so I enjoyed a wide variety of delicious food. This Greek restaurant does wonderful salmon.

I think there was a Vietnamese restaurant in nearly every block of the city. It is one of my favorite cuisines!

A Teaching Trip & What's New?

I would have to say that winter is upon us! It's a great time for getting in the studio and getting things done.

Look at what arrived in the mail last week! A copy of my friend Anna Hergert's new Inspiration Kantha book. I will be delving into the book in more detail shortly and will be posting a review of it. I must say that I love the look of Kantha stitches, and think they would be a fantastic way to use my embroidery-weight hand-dyed threads!!

Just returning from a teaching trip (more on that in a minute), and recovering from a cold I caught while on said teaching trip, I've been working on finally getting my peony quilt quilted. I am teaching how to make this quilt (the other choice is Sunkissed Poppy) at a three-day retreat at Inspired Getaways December 1-3. I think there are  a couple of spaces available, so should you be interested, do check the website at http://inspiredgetaways.ca/. I even have hand-dyed kits available for you. All you need is a few supplies, like fusible web. You stay there for the three days, with all meals provided so you can focus on completing the quilt. I'll be doing a follow-up retreat in May 2018 where students get to design their own nature quilt.

So I had a lovely little trip to New York State and a visit with the Champlain Valley Quilters Guild of New York. Such a warm and welcoming group. I delivered a talk to them on the Wednesday night, and then on Thursday we worked with Tsukineko Inks and Inktense Pencils.

This group was really focused and wanted to experiment too, so I learned a lot from them.

It was really fun and interesting to have this mother-son team in the class. Kevin has an art background and is interested in taking his art to fabric.

After my time with the guild, I headed south to Poughkeepsie to visit a friend. She was sick with a cold when I arrived, and I had just started with mine. On my first day I took a drive around town, and did a bit of shopping. Poughkeepsie has many lovely old residences and buildings, and is situated in the beautiful Hudson River Valley. This tree stopped me in my tracks, and I had to turn my car around to get a photo. Isn't it stunning?

 

Since my friend and I were both ill, I decided to head home a bit early. Good thing because my cold really hit the next day. Peekaboo was waiting for me, and was on my lap within moments of being home. She spent a lot of time there while I got better.

When I finish stitching the peony quilt, I'll be starting in on some new designs. Stay tuned!

A Week of Workshops in Whitehorse

It is a beautiful weekend here in Ontario and yesterday I found our crocuses in full bloom in the garden! I returned from the Whitehorse, Yukon Territories, late Thursday night and am so happy I brought spring with me ;-))

While there was no snow left in Whitehorse, I took this photo somewhere near James Bay. Loved the way the river curved across the landscape. Air North is a fantastic airline! Spacious seats, ample and decent meals, and a very generous baggage policy. 

The day after my arrival, I gave a lecture for the Kluane Quilters' Guild at the Yukon Beringia Centre.

There was a good turnout for the lecture as it had been well publicized and all the guilds in the area were invited.

On the left is the guild's Treasurer, Darlene, and on the right is Dianne, my billet during my workshops.

On the first two days I taught Liberated Radial Piecing and Reflections (free-form curved blocks).

This is Dianne's gentle giant dog, Spud. As you will soon see, I really went to the dogs on this trip!

On days 4 and 5 I did a two-day In Full Bloom class. About half of the class decided to design their own floral quilt and about half decided to use my patterns.

Ruth worked diligently and had finished her flower by the end of the second day. By the way, Ruth is the owner of a lovely quilt shop in Whitehorse called Bear Paw Quilts.

Judith used my peony pattern and is thinking of turning it a different way than mine.

Louise is doing a fantastic job of my poppy pattern, and she pulled all the values together herself, proving that you don't need a kit to make this piece (OK, I threw that in there because I have too much dyeing of kits to do ;-))

Deane finished my wild rose pattern.

On the last day I taught my Surface Design 1 class where you learn how to use Prismacolor Artist Pencils and Caran D'Ache Neocolor 2 Water Soluble Wax Pastels. Wendy was in her element!!

These are just a few photos of what students worked on. I stayed a few extra days to do some sightseeing in the Yukon. That will be the subject of my next blog post.

Surface Design at Wabi Sabi

On Friday I taught my last class for 2014. For the last three Fridays I've been teaching my Surface Design class in the dye studio at Wabi Sabi. Last weekend I also had a trip to Kingston to teach my "Hosta Leaves" 101 class. There was such a fabric shopping frenzy (both hand-dyes and Northcotts) that I failed to get photographs. But back to my Surface Design class. The concept behind this class is that in each of the three days students are introduced to two Surface Design products and ways they can be used.  

Day 1 of Surface Design was learning to design and cut your own stencils from freezer paper, and then using them with Shiva Paintstiks and foils. Students also learned two other foiling methods (stamping with foiling adhesive and fusible web method).

Foiling in these two photos by Ruth 

Foiling and Shiva Paintstiks by Christine.

In the second class students learned about ways to use Prismacolor Artist Pencils and Caran d'Ache Neocolor II Water Soluble Wax Pastels. They started by shading a flower with artist pencils (starting with one single piece of fabric). I don't typically use artist pencils to create an entire piece, but occasionally I use them to tweak my shadows and hi-lights. This exercise gives lots of practice in how to do this. This is Sylvia's begonia.

Christine's rose

The Neocolor 2 Wax Pastels were used to paint a picture, and then give it a water-colour look by adding water. After it is dry, you can go back in and put some more definite lines if you like. Tulip by Christine.

On the last day, students learned how to paint using Tsukineko Inks and aloe vera gel to control value. Here you can see Christine and Nellie working with Tsukineko Inks.

Ruth, Lois, and Barb. Barb is also working with Tsukineko Inks.

Sylvia

Mary's peony with Tsukineko inks

Barb and Mary beginning work with InkTense pencils and blocks. These pencils and blocks become very intense when you add water. It also enables a more free looking design where the colour seeps beyond the line of stitching (I like to stitch something that looks like a pencil drawing and then fill in colour). 

Barb created this design using an on-line snowflake generating program.

Lois added happy colour to her machine doodles.

Nellie's work with Inktense pencils.

Of course anyone who knows me, knows that a great lunch is part of a great class. So it was lunch across the street at ZaZaZa Pizza.

My husband and I have been packing hosta patterns this past week. We had a little help from Peekaboo :-)

I hope to get in the studio this week!!