Lesson Two

More classwork to share. This lesson was about quick fabric sketches from artwork--the samples given were a Matisse and Lillian May Miller. Each sketch took a couple of hours to create, although with the Mt Fuji I went back and spent another evening adding thread work. Today though, I must prepare for teaching class tomorrow--Free Motion at Sew Portland, and it's full!

 

Class with Marilyn Belford

Rectangle Abstracted

I am taking a class series called "Art for Quilters" with Marilyn Belford. You may recognize her portrait quilts or her mythology series. I have been a fan for a long time. When I heard from a friend that she was teaching an online class, I couldn't sign up fast enough. Lesson one started out with a still life and abstracting geometric forms. Lesson two is a discussion of composition. Returning to the basics of art is so valuable for a quilter--after all, we work with color, value and composition no matter what style of quilting we may be doing. Here are a couple of examples from the first lesson. I love being a student. Probably the most fun part of the class so far is the one-on-one interaction with someone I admire--the somewhat scary opportunity to share my experiments with Marilyn Belford and hear her feedback and critique!

Shapes and Arrows

Trunk Show at Calico

Calico Quilters, the Portland area chapter of Maine's Quilt Guild invited me to do a trunk show in January. Due to weather and other considerations, it was postponed and postponed, but finally happened at their meeting last Monday. The focus was on art quilting, which I never tire of discussing, especially with other quilters! In addition to my pieces, I had several quilts I was holding from other members of Art Quilts Maine, so I asked the other artists for permission and a write up to share about their work, which broadened the show. I was also extremely lucky to be putting a hanging sleeve on an antique quilt belonging to a good friend. Made in the late 1800's, the cheddar yellow and indigo quilt is in pristine condition. I just knew the quilters would be as thrilled as I to see that quilt up close, even if it didn't fit the theme of the evening! Here is a link to Calico's newsletter with several photos from the trunk show (scroll down to page 6)!