The week before the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show, is a frenzy here in Central Oregon. All the quilt shops have special hours and special classes. The Stitchin' Post (originator of the show and all around best quilt shop I've ever been to), puts on Quilter's Affair which is a weeklong set of classes featuring teachers from near and far. If you are interested in attending next year, you must pay a small fee to be on the mailing list and then send in your registration almost before you even get it just to get into your preferred classes. Next year, Gwen Marston is coming and I'm bound and determined to get into at least one class with her.
Anyway, Cheryl and I signed up for Project Patchwork with Jane Davila, co-author of the Art Quilt Workbook. This class is based on the same idea as Project Runway, which I'd heard of, but never watched. The gist is that we would get three challenges and have two hours to complete each one. My sis was a real trooper to sign up for this one with me, she had never even seen the Art Quilt Workbook and had no idea what was in store. In addition she prefers handwork, but it's hard to do hand work when you've got only two hours. She ended up trying several new techniques including curved seams, bias tape stems and her first free motion machine quilting! One of the biggest challenges was- what to bring? I ended up bringing my whole batik stash, figuring they'd all go together. I also had lots of batik pieces that already had some fusible on them to make things quicker.
The first challenge was to choose a color from a bowl with slips of paper and a letter from another bowl. With that inspiration we had to make a quilt with at least a small amount of the color and an alliterative title from the letter. I liked this challenge, but with only two hours you basically start sewing before you even know what your title will be. Cheryl got "black, T". She did Two Time Twist. I like the twist she added with hand sewing some felted wool strips on. She even managed to get her binding done! Be sure to click the photos if you want to see some detail.
I got "Blue, R" and did Running Rivers Rise. The stars were orphan blocks, so were a bit of a cheat. I tried couching on the bottom border and machine quilted the title in the right hand border. I don't think this one was very successful contrast-wise, but it was fun.
Here are some of the other students' artworks.
Challenge number 2 was to blindly choose a postcard of artwork, then create a quilt inspired by the form, composition, color or even just the title. I didn't care for the art work, so went with the title, "The West Wind". In the end it turned out I did have some similarities in color and form as well. The yellow one is mine. The quote is from Picasso, "Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life." I went with the western sun with cactus spines and wind shapes. I did some beading on the suns, but need to do more. The quote is stamped on with fabric ink. The one is my favorite of the three I did, notice there's no binding at all!
Cheryl got this lovely postcard and had no difficulty being inspired by trees. She did some rubber stamping of the letters, "NATURE". She also did some hand work with embroidery floss and beads.
Challenge #3 was to blindly choose a fortune cookie fortune and interpret it any way. There was also a special word on the back and you were to try to use the word in the quilt. Cheryl got "Love goes nowhere uninvited". Her special word was taste, which was hard to include. She made this adorable house quilt with a door that opens. The smoke is rubber stamped.
"Prosperity is a way of living and thinking, and not just having money or things". Special word- fish! This is mine. I got the house idea after Cheryl did, but mine is free pieced while hers is appliqued. I finally got the binding done! And I just happened to have some fish fabric.
"You are going to have some new clothes". This one is so cute. Look at those jeans! I also like the ricrac binding.
"We can admire all we see, but we can only pick one."
"Every man is a volume if you know how to read him."
We were completely exhausted by the end of the class! But we weren't done. We went to the Pine Needlers Quilt Show out at Camp Sherman. This is a sweet little show and well worth heading out to. Photos from that next time!