Another Good One

     I haven’t even finished sharing with you about my class yet and I am on to the next one. I spent the last two days at a workshop sponsored by my local quilt guild. We are very spoiled and have had some great teachers come the past few years. I really didn’t know what to expect but jumped right in to a Velda Newman workshop. And I wasn’t a bit disappointed. Velda makes very large quilts- the last quilt she has worked on for 21/2 years and it is 180 inches long….Just beautiful pictorial quilts she has made from hand dyed fabrics and then hand painted them. This is one of her fish quilts:

Another pretty one stretched across the steps:

Another one :

            These were amazing and exquisite and that doesn’t even begin to explain it to you. She hand dyes the fabric then hand paints each piece. Awesome and amazing. She is definitely inspired by nature.

     The first workshop day was on how to create texture and form with in a quilt. She made everything look so easy and simplified how to do a few techniques-making leaves, flowers, tucks in fabric and some machine quilting techniques.

                                                 Velda’s  flowers, leaves and vegetables

    The second day was using bleach as a discharge technique. Lots of fun doing many techniques. We went outside to play in the steaming hot weather. (I would definitely invest in a respirator if I do much of this). In the afternoon we moved on to using acrylic paint as a wash for the fabric. Also tried using various watercolor pencils and crayons to shade in areas. Lots of information in a short period of time. Good stuff. She kept us very busy and was a great teacher. Calm, knowledgeable, talented and willing to share and help you learn.

   So I know you are asking yourself -what am I  going to do with all this stuff? I don’t know-yet. I can see myself using some of the discharge techniques. It’s just a great way to try some of this stuff without having to buy the supplies and realize you hate the technique.

  I am just a professional student. All that worry about what to call myself and I am perfectly happy being a student. Makes the mistakes easier to explain:).

Happy Sewing, my friends.

A 2 hour dentist appointment awaits me at 8am. I feel like it’s my punishment for playing the last two days….