Remember those “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” books?
This is my version of that…
If you show a girl a quilt, she’s going to wonder how it’s made. When she wonders how it’s made, she’s going to take a Block of the Month class to see how it’s done. Once she’s signed up for the class, she’s going to begin making a quilt herself.
Center Block from the Flower Pots Quilt Designed By Kim McLean
When she starts to make a quilt herself, she’s going to think about how she can make it uniquely hers.
Detail of one of the Center Blocks
When she begins to make it uniquely hers, she’s going to incorporate all the stitches she learned in the Craftsy class given by Sue Spargo that she wrote about a few weeks ago on the post, Change.
Detail from Flower Pots side panel
Once she begins adding all those stitches she learned…
Almost finished Flower Pots Quilt!
she’s going to want to start designing her own blocks…
Rhino Block designed and stitched by Ariane Zurcher
The artist’s retreat will be life transforming and will give her all kinds of ideas for new pieces that she wants to design and create…
Manhole Cover at Onondaga Community College
While she marvels at all the things she’s seeing and learning she will be reminded of other things she’s already working on…
Detail from Flower Pot Quilt Border
One of those things will be manhole covers! Who doesn’t love manhole covers and if you love manhole covers, wouldn’t a quilt inspired by them be even more fabulous?!
So it’s probably best to give a girl her first quilt while she’s still very young so she has plenty of time to learn and do all of this!
Merlin overseeing the work.
Coming next week: pots! Not flower pots as in the quilt, but real pots, thrown pots, hand painted pots… gotta love pots!
I just returned from a two week long artist’s workshop, where I studied with the fabulous and fabulously talented artist, Rosalie Dace for five days, followed by five days with another fabulous and extremely talented artist, Lorie McCown. The workshops are part of the Schweinfurth Art Center‘s yearly summer program – Quilting by the Lake, also known as QBL. Though there is now no lake, there was one at the place they first began doing these workshops more than thirty years ago, and not everything produced is quilted, though it depends on the workshop you signed up for.
Here’s a run down of my time at QBL.
Day 1 of Rosalie Dace’s Workshop entitled Skin Deep: Panic! and the realization that perfectionism is creativity’s executioner.
By the end of the first day I have a couple of ideas, but am definitely struggling.
Day 2: I begin repeating something Rosalie had written on one of the large boards propped up on one of two easels in front of the class. “DON’T PANIC!” This becomes my mantra for the rest of my time at QBL.
Day 3: I hate everything I’ve created thus far and have the rude awakening that my expectations are a killjoy. Around the middle of day 2 and into day 3 Rosalie encourages me to use machine stitching, which definitely pushes me out of my comfort zone. I proudly show Rosalie the machine stitching I’ve done (and am devising ways I will hide it after showing her) she applauds my efforts and then drops a bomb by suggesting I add two more lines of machine stitching so for every one line there are now THREE and a little part of me dies inside.
This was what I had done by the end of Day 3, beginning of Day 4. People would wander by and remark, “Ohh, pretty” or “oh the beach! I love the beach” or just, “water!” It was around this time that I came up with the title: “It’s deeper than you think” and then proceeded to muddy those serene waters by incorporating many of Rosalie’s great suggestions.
Day 4: Go with the flow. I’m a fiend and machine stitch everything I can get my hands on. I am one with my Bernina and life is good.
While working on the “It’s Deeper than You Think” piece I begin playing with the other study, which began with a cream colored background. I decide I have to lose the brown fabric, it’s a sink hole and is bringing everything down, including me. It morphs into this, with sticks and stones and leaves that I found on my way to class that morning. I entitle it, “And Yet, You Are Here” (I will refrain from explaining the title as I trust all of you to come up with your own interpretations!)
Day 5: I finish the “It’s Deeper Than You Think” piece and reflect on all that I learned, not just technique, but about art and the making of it, and was reminded of the often painful process and cycle of creating. Whatever genius idea I have, usually showing up in my mind at some absurd hour in the middle of the night, loses it’s luster by daylight. By afternoon I’ve decided it’s the worst idea I ever had and by evening I’m questioning the meaning of everything. Needless to say this usually spirals down into a kind of personal horror, like a set list with all the songs you’ve ever hated that randomly play loudly on a loop. Relief comes in the middle of the night with yet another stroke of genius and the cycle begins again. But, as Rosalie reminded me more than once, “It’s okay. Don’t panic.” And with that mantra in mind, I can sit with the discomfort and “keep swimming.”
It’s Deeper Than You Think
Rosalie is a force, brilliant, funny, kind, welcoming, encouraging and oh so very talented. It was an honor to be in her class.
I had the weekend to play before I began Lorie McCown’s class called “Connections.”
A brief summary of Lorie’s fantastic 5-day workshop.
Day 1: I got this. I’m an old pro at this point and nothing is going to phase me. Lorie mentions that machines are optional and encourages us to use hand stitching (I promptly ignore her), immediately decide I’m going to resurrect (with Lorie’s okay) the other piece I started in Rosalie’s class, “And Yet, You are Here” and machine stitch the whole thing. Lorie encourages us to think out of the box, explore materials we otherwise might not have thought of. I’m open to this idea, particularly as I’ve already given my inner rebel some freedom. She shows us examples of her work that are powerful, emotionally laden and visually compelling. I decide I’m going to use paper and maps and whatever else I can get my hands on that evoke the title – “And yet, you are here.” Remember I am now one with my Bernina. All is well.
Day 2: I’m not going through the angst I experienced the week before, so things are coming along nicely. Lorie is terrific, gives lots of encouragement and suggestions and wonders aloud whether I might “go bigger” and then asks, “What do you think?” I’m totally on to her, but do “go bigger,” because, well, why NOT go bigger? and anyway I’ve already demonstrated my anarchistic streak by ignoring her whole hand stitching thing.
Day 3: I announce that I’m thinking of using silk ribbon and Lorie suggests I use it as a way to tie in the idea of “And yet, you are here” by tacking it down in various places and then bringing all the various ribbons to the “X” so they converge. I love this idea and dive into my silk ribbon stash.
Lorie discusses various backing options. I decide, since I don’t have the canvas I’d prefer, I’ll back my piece in wool, which I have a great deal of. Still very little hand stitching, almost everything is machine stitched because I’m clinging to my whole – I’m a rebel – schtick.
Day 4: I’m letting “And Yet You Are Here” simmer for a few days and decide to begin working on a version of another idea I had in Rosalie’s class.
This is what it looked like in Rosalie’s class.
And then I added to it.
In Lorie’s class I took this concept and did this.
Which then became this
Day 5: I can be a rebel with hand stitching too! The night before, I worked until 10PM and was in class by 7:30AM. I’m determined to work in some of my ideas for this piece – holes and slashes with stitching around them. The piece now looks like this… it’s still a work in progress, I intend to do much more stitching on it and you’ll notice I hand stitched everything on this piece. I’m calling it – “Life #1” and am thinking of making a series. Lorie’s all over the “series” idea, which you can see if you visit her website, and I encourage you to!
A few close ups
Thanks to Quilting by the Lake, the Schweinfurth Art Center, Rosalie Dace and Lorie McCown, but more than anyone I am forever grateful to my husband, Richard Long, who said when I broached the idea of going away, “Absolutely, you deserve it.” And when I asked, “Are you sure?” He didn’t hesitate, “I got this,” he said. I know how much he had to do so that I could go. What a great guy! And what an amazing twelve days I’ve had!
You’ll notice it’s been awhile since I’ve written anything here, but not for the reasons you think. It became necessary to give up my studio when we made the decision to pull my youngest child from school and began homeschooling. That was over two years ago. We felt we didn’t have a choice. There is nothing, absolutely nothing I can create that is more important than my daughter’s education. We are all happier as a result.
Which leads me to this blog. Just over a year ago, last May of 2015, to be exact, I signed up for a Craftsy class. Do you know about Craftsy?
WHAT?
YOU DON’T???
Craftsy is fantastic. There, I even added the link for you to go check them out. No, I am not being paid, nor do I, in any way, get anything for writing about them. This is my opinion and experience. Okay, so I took a class on Craftsy called: Embroidering Texture and Dimension by Hand by Sue Spargo and it changed my life. I loved the way Sue used stitches on layers of wool and fabric. I loved how she created something so different from what I was used to seeing. She didn’t “embroider,” not in the way I was used to seeing embroidery done, but instead created a whole new three-dimensional textile. I was utterly enthralled.
I knew nothing about quilting. When I signed up for her class I did not know that her work was considered quilting. In fact when I took the class I wrote her and asked what all the stitching was in the background, was it done by machine or hand and when and how did she do that and, by the way, why and how was it all so puffy looking? Someone helpfully suggested I take a beginning quilt class and my first thought was – “huh, I didn’t know a quilt could do that!”
But back to Sue Spargo’s class. It began with a download of one of her lovely designs, a butterfly sampler, but as I have a strong independent streak, I decided to design my own piece and use what I learned in her class on my design.
A few weeks before I found Craftsy and Sue Spargo’s class, my husband came home with a photo of a West African Long Tailed Hornbill that was perched on a railing at the Central Park Zoo. He, the bird, not my husband, though my husband is also fabulous, was so captivating I decided to use his image in my piece. Here’s the photo my husband took.
A West African Long Tailed Hornbill. Look at him!
C’mon, admit it, he’s adorable. So here’s what I started to do and you’ll notice I got way too involved with everything BUT the bird, which was the focus… and again, this is something I also tend to do – do everything but the thing I’m trying to focus on. Look, squirrel!
The Beginning
He began to take shape…
I gave him some much-needed feathers on his head, because he was getting cold, I could tell.
A little hair/feathers/plumes, whatever are good, but he definitely needed more…
More, more, more and while we’re at it, let’s toss in some black beads. I am a jewelry designer after all.
There, that’s better
And some more circles, because honestly who doesn’t like circles?
Circles can go anywhere I always think and I wanted to try my hand at all the different circular stitches from Sue Spargo’s class.
And if one or two circles are good, well many, many circles can only be better, right?
Okay, so maybe I got carried away….
And here it is, the final piece. As an ode to my beautiful daughter I call this piece Thunder Bubbles.
I used every single stitch Sue Spargo taught on this. It really should be called, “Thunder Bubbles Sampler.” Because I knew nothing about quilting I didn’t know that you should leave an edge so that you can bind, face or otherwise somehow finish it off. I also took a hand quilting class at the local quilting shop and did my best to hand quilt more circular shapes. I didn’t know to iron in between, so the back isn’t as flat as I would have liked and the weight from all those drizzle stitches on his head pulled the batting and backing fabric into a kind of crater. Anyway here’s the back of my very first hand quilted piece!
Next week I’ll write about where all of this has taken me and what I’m doing now.
circles, because honestly who doesn’t like circles?
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