Last Week's Workshops

Friday I taught Session 3 of my Dye Happy class at Wabi Sabi. The topic of the day was Shibori, so students learned how to wrap a pole and prepare an immersion dye bath. In addition, we continued with some bomaki shibori. Students brought Show and Tell from the previous class, or sent photos after the class.

These are Sylvia's stunning navy and white shibori pieces.

Marion's two colour run (using the opposites of green and violet).

Marion's tray dyeing.

Sue's folded and clamped piece (looks like eggs doesn't it?).

Oh wow, Sue's tray dyed piece!

Sue's parfaits and value gradations.

Nancy's bound bean piece.

Nancy's folded and clamped work. I adore blue and white!

Nancy's flour paste resists.

Chris' value gradation.

Barb's parfaits:

I put together a colour chart of the dyes I most frequently use. All the brightly coloured swatches on this chart make me very happy :-)

Barb focusing on painting a bomaki shibori piece.

Saturday I taught right in my own community, for the Common Thread Quilt Guild. A bright and beautiful day in a nice spacious community centre.

The topic was Liberated Radial Piecing. That seems to be popular lately.

This piece by Johanna.

This one by Laura.

Sometimes I get so engrossed in the teaching experience that I forget to take many photos!

Meet Robert C. Olson, Editor of The Hosta Journal and the Hosta Named After Him

Today I am making a very special post that is a little different from my usual. As you know from my February 23 post, Hostaholic, I have just written an article for The Hosta Journal. In the last couple of weeks I have had the pleasure of meeting (on-line), and working with, three people involved with The American Hosta Society. It was the Editor of their Journal, Dr. Robert Olson, that contacted me about the possibility of an article. Cheryl Clark, a member of the Society who is also a quilter and hosta lover, passed along my Quilting Arts article to Dr. Olson. Thank you Cheryl (who, by the way, is a reader of my blog!).  I had the pleasure of working with Bob (Dr. Olson) and Janet Mills on the article. Dr. Olson and I have had some pleasant and educational (to me) chats about a variety of topics, including how one gets a hosta plant named after them. 

Dr. Olson wanted to leave a comment on my blog, but he wanted to be sure that all my readers would see it. That might not happen with a comment left at the end of my post. So he asked me to pass along the very kind and gracious message to my readers.

We at the Hosta Journal are delighted that Elaine consented to write a piece for us. Over the years we’ve displayed works by Botanical Art Schools and had photo contests, but this art form will open a whole new world to many members. We’ve seldom had an artist so adept at both photography and writing which makes her article all the more enjoyable. We look forward to sharing it with you.

And if some of you have some questions about hostas, or problems with them, please feel free to contact me. Elaine will provide you with my contact information.

Bob Olson, Editor The Hosta Journal

I thought I would give you the pleasure today of seeing Dr. Olson's garden, especially the hosta plant named after him. He says that his hosta garden "is small by collector standards".

Here is a photo of the hosta, 'Dr. Bob', "emerging and unfolding in the spring, a time of year that we all love to admire them."

This next photo is of the 'Dr Bob' hosta "in mid summer when a wild geranium chose to intertwine itself with the hosta. A concession to Nature in an otherwise rather formal garden."

I asked Dr. Olson to provide a bit of information about himself for readers. Here is a list of his accomplishments and a bio with his story about his involvement with hostas.

Robert C. Olson, MD

Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Gastroenterology 
University of Minnesota Medical School.
Past President American Hosta Society
Editor The Hosta Journal

Bob began gardening with his mother as a young boy, but didn’t return to it until he returned from service in Vietnam with the US Navy. Friends at the Minneapolis Garden Club introduced him to hostas, and it was love at first sight. At one point he had over 500 varieties of hostas, but began downsizing when his wife said the garden was looking like a “stamp collection”. She was right, hostas like other perennials look best when properly displayed. 

In 1995 he led a group of hosta aficionados to Japan (almost all hostas come from mutations or hybridization of a few species from Japan); there they hired plant hunters to take them into the rugged mountains and remote islands to search for species hostas growing in the wilds. They successfully found and brought back scores of native plants.

Now retired he enjoys his garden and corresponding with hosta lovers all over the globe as the editor of the AHS Journal.

Thank you Dr. Olson (Bob) for being a guest on my blog today. It is an honour having an article in  the spring issue of The Hosta Journal.

Oh No, I Dyed My Shoes Again!

The last week or two has been very busy at my house! Can you tell what I've been doing?  Darn, I dyed by brand new athletic shoes again ... by accident!!!  The good news is that a good scrub with dish detergent and discharge paste will take most of it out. They are going to look awfully ugly at the gym until I get around to it!

I've dyed and ironed and cut more than 50 meters of fabric.

As you can see I've beefed up the selection of warm colours in my store.

That would be the store of fabric I carry in the trunk of my vehicle when I'm on teaching trips.

Peak teaching season is beginning in earnest, and I'll be off next week on a multi-group tour, visiting four cities: Peterborough, Misissauga, Lindsay, and Toronto, Ontario.  I'll be gone about 10 days and have managed to build a couple of "down" days into my schedule.

The other thing I've been working on here is finalizing, printing and packaging the pattern I created to go with my new Northcott fabric line called "Poppy Passion".  The fabric line will hit stores in April, so I need to ship my patterns to Northcott by March 15 for distribution. I procrastinated on this too long so it is now last minute. I know why I procrastinated!  As soon as I get the patterns back from the printer I will probably find an error. This happened last time even though I had the pattern proofread and tested. Fortunately it wasn't a serious error. It costs a fair bit to print  hundreds or thousands of patterns, and one can suffer a big loss if one doesn't get it right!

The pattern, also called "Poppy Passion" can be created using the Purple Passion colour way

 

or the coral bliss colourway.

I designed the pattern to be do-able for beginners and beyond. It is a simplified version of the original poppy in my "Kissing Joy" quilt:

Meanwhile, I'm teaching two workshops locally, tomorrow and Saturday. Tomorrow is Session 3 of my "Dye Happy" class, and Saturday I'm teaching "Liberated Radial Piecing" for the local Common Thread Quilt Guild.

We will be folding and packing the patterns on Sunday.

All this is to say that I have not been in the studio creating very much. However, I do have a couple of designs at the printer being enlarged. I will share more soon!

Hostaholic

Someone passed along my Quilting Arts article from June 2014 to the Editor of The Hosta Journal, published by the American Hosta Society. He (Robert Olson) invited me to write an article for their spring journal. I submitted it last week and will advise when it is published. I included a list of some of the hosta gardens in Ontario that I have been privileged to visit, and I hope they also get some exposure from it. 

Apparently your typical "hostaholic" loves to search for the rarest of hosta hybids.The angle I'm coming from with my story is that I too am a hostaholic, but unlike most I am more interested in the study of value, line and curve. I know very little about hosta varieties or growing conditions. I talked about the art end of hostas, what I look for and what draws me to them, as well as how I make my work.

The Journal subscription is available to all Members of the American Hosta Society. If there is some way I can share this article with my readers at a later date I will surely do so.

New Studio Assistant?/End of an Era

Meet Wilma! She is a new one-year-old kitty we adopted from Ottawa Stray Cat Rescue last Sunday. She was originally a feral cat, but was brought in to be spayed with the intent of releasing her after. While in care it was discovered that she loves to be petted, so she was put up for adoption. It is true that she loves to be petted and have her cheeks and chin rubbed, but first you have to find her to do that. She is very shy and loves to hide!

She does appreciate a good bed of velvet in my fabric closet, where she is living since yesterday.

We had our first face to face meeting yesterday in my studio, and I was able to pet her for the first time.

She even "kneaded" my knees for me. But it is going to take a lot of time and patience to earn her trust.

This gives me increased motivation to get into my studio!

I did not mention this before because it happened only a couple of days before we left for Costa Rica. We lost our dearest companion, Kissabelle, at the age of 17.  She was the best cat ever! Lots of personality, many classic "Kissabelle moves", and an all around beautiful cat. These photos are in memory of our beautiful times together. She was the centre of our household. We miss her a great deal, but knew there was space in our lives for another kitty needing a warm and loving home.

RIP Kissabelle.

A Trip to Montreal

It has been a busy week! On Monday night I gave my new lecture, "A Design and Colour Journey" at the Ottawa Valley Quilters Guild. Tuesday I headed to Montreal, where I gave the same lecture to the Beaconsfield Quilters Guild on Tuesday night.

To the right of me is Andrea, the Workshop Coordinator for the guild.

On Wednesday morning I gave my "From Inspiration to Art Quilt" lecture for the day guild

After the meeting we went for lunch, saw an art show and went shopping. How cool is it that I found these earrings just after talking about the golden mean/Fibonacci sequence during my Design lecture? The growth of the nautilus shell perfectly represents this concept!

On Wednesday I taught my "Liberated Radial Design" class. We had a very spacious, warm and bright classroom.  Outside it had been snowing for two days straight. We enjoyed the warmth from the sun and blue sky through the windows on Wednesday.

I had a great time with this group! Having visited twice before during the last decade, and having some members as friends on Facebook, I felt like I knew some of these ladies. But I did meet new people and make new friends too.

Heather and her piece below. She is the first student to have the centre of this design fit without a hole to be covered!

Haleh is a modern quilter, and that shows in her choice of fabrics.

Annick is the guild's photographer, and is responsible for a couple of the photos in this post.

Debby is also a teacher!

Theresa

Noreen

Suzanne

Christine

Lauma

I'm loving Lauma's soft and hand-dyed colour palette!

Vesna

Julie.  I was pleased when Julie shared her finished poppy quilt, from the class I taught at this guild a few years back. She decided to try the poppy in values of black and white.

I stayed with Helena Scheffer and her husband Dave, along with their three adorable canines. Perfect hosts! The large dog is Chloe, and I wanted to take her home! The pugs in the background are Gus and Lucy. Helena is an award-winning textile artist. I've linked to her website, so just click on her name if you'd like to see some wonderful work.

Sweet sweet Chloe!