Is it possible to take a bad photo of the Grand Canyon? I kinda think not. Especially when the sun is low, the shadows are long, and the weather is perfect. My husband and I were lucky enough to visit it on just such a day. The temperatures were perfect and the crowds were light,…
Remember when I posted about making small fabric collages and then cropping them to get abstract design ideas? Well, I decided to use one of my examples as the springboard for a new quilt. I used this photo collage of tropical foliage. Using photo editing, I removed the color to focus on the design lines….
Pat Pauly is a WEALTH of knowledge, so I really learned a lot when I took a 5 day dyeing/printing class with her. First up: colors look different when wet vs. dry. Leslie’s samples served as examples. Bigger can be better. This piece, below, is about 31″ x 45″. So, Pat finally got me to…
My dyeing/print making class with Pat Pauly was amazing. She’s SO comfortable with thickened dyes and what she can do with them that it was almost hard to keep up. This was the first demo, about using stencils. She doesn’t use them with a screen, but just hangs on to a corner and scrapes dye…
In my last post, I showed you my latest abstract quilt in-progress. Here it is finished: Slightly Unexpected. I added hand stitched and padded black circles to keep the white one company. The rest of the background is pretty densely stitched. I’m happy with this quilt and anxious to try out some more abstract design. Ellen…
In an earlier post, I showed you a quick exercise for generating abstract designs. After making several “postcard collages” I decided to use one of them to create a quilt. This was the original collage. I cropped it and got this. I think it’s much more dramatic skinny like this. I played with it just…
I’m one lucky girl. I got to spend a week at ProChem taking a week long dyeing/printing class with Pat Pauly. What an EXCELLENT class room set up! I was anxious to get started, wearing ratty shirt #1. (These dyeing shirts definitely “spark joy!”) See the paper on the wall behind me? That’s because the…
Have you done any abstract work? I have and I often find it difficult to come up with the original design. One exercise that’s been floating around via Pat Pauly and others it to randomly cover an index card with fabric scraps and let that become your design. So I tried a few. Some of…
The students in my recent “Floral Improv” class, in Tallahassee, FL, produced wonderful results! After learning to make simple daisies and poppies, we talked about design and composition and they spent some time working on their arrangements. Flowers were placed first, then stems, then leaves. Next came the stitching. This is especially important with the…
My class, Double Reverse Applique, is the most popular one I teach. And with good reason: the technique is easy and the results are always exciting. I’ve taught it recently in both Boca Raton and Tallahassee, FL. Clicking on most images will show a larger view The goal: dramatic apples (and maybe even some pears.)…