On The Road Again...

1000 apologies for not keeping up with everything while I was at Asilomar -- I couldn't update my blog with my phone and was too busy to haul my laptop down to the social hall to get the wifi. I'm heading home tomorrow and will post lots of pics this weekend.

Being Artist in Residence was a tremendous opportunity and I got a lot done in my 5 days. I completed a little quilt, moved ahead on my lighthouse quilt and came up some new things I want to try -- all in all, it was a crazy, productive, utterly satisfying experience.

My class with Gloria Loughman was tremendous as well, although I still have a lot of work left to do. I love her technique for colorwash backgrounds, so I spent my time cutting and auditioning fabrics for the background above. The 60-degree diamonds were cut 3" -- the rows are pieced but I still need to sew them together. That's a lot of intersections to pin... The piece will actually be flipped 180 degrees so "Sluggo" (an Indonesian nudibranch) will be moving up to the yummy yellows. He is large -- about 30" long and I may start him at our guild retreat in April.

I hit the road tomorrow for a 9.5 hr drive (hopefully no traffic!). Can't wait to see my critters and sweetie again. More this weekend...

Greetings from Asilomar!

Hello, Everyone! I arrived at Asilomar yesterday (in Pacific Grove, on the central California coast) and got set up for my session as "artist in residence" at Empty Spools Seminars. I gave my talk last night and now I get to play for the next 3 1/2 days. How fun is that, getting paid to sew and be creative? The photo above is of my workspace for the session -- I brought enough projects to work on to last a month but won't get it all done, of course. Right now I'm looking out the window at the ocean so it is a wonderful day in my neighborhood!!!

Painting with Wild Abandon

Hello, Everyone!

This "finding your artistic voice" stuff is a challenge! There are so many things I like to do and I haven't figured out how to combine them all yet, but I keep plugging away. That sounds like drudgery, when it is really fun creating physical textures with paint for Kim Klassen's "Art of Texture" class and Jane LaFazio's "Mixed-Media With Paper & Cloth". Kim's class is primarily about using textures in Photoshop, but what attracted me to the class was that she included info on painting your own textures. I followed Kim's directions for the texture above, in colors I'm using in Jane's class!

I don't usually work on paper, but it has been a lot of fun. Maybe I don't sweat errors as much because paper isn't $10+/yd! There are definitely advantages to working on paper -- the paints spread more smoothly, and they don't run the way they can on fabric. Either way, I'm having a grand time enjoying the interplay of the colors without anything specific in mind. Wondering "what would look good here" and then just diving in is a new experience and one I'm enjoying quite a lot. Who knows where it goes, but I love taking a break from thinking so much and just playing in the moment.

What do you think, isn't this cool?

The Scramble Begins...

Hello, All!

I am getting ready for my trip down to CA at the end of next week, and I'm starting to hyperventilate with thoughts of how much I have left to do! One quilt needs binding, several need hanging sleeves, I need fabric for my class with Gloria Loughman, etc., etc., etc.!!! Breathe, Kath...

I have been cutting fabric for my "Laundry Blues" blocks (ugh, several people have their tops done already!!!) -- the sewing is easy and will be a nice break from intense creative activity. Of course I have enough cut for at least a week's worth of sewing, but I wouldn't want to sit around and be bored, would I? :-)

Anyway, I'm trying to use up smaller chunks of older fabric to make room for new stuff (some of it lives on the floor right now...). Anything that I don't use in my quilt will be cut into 5" and 3.5" squares for scrap quilts. This fabric has been in my stash a while -- it was our challenge fabric in 2003. I love my quilt and thought I'd show it to you. It has a wee bit of hand embroidery....!
Back to work, take care!

Vintage Bling

Vintage rhinestone jewelry is in, and the bigger the better -- according to the saleslady at the antique shop I visited today. I love to work with crystals and other bling-y bits, but I don't usually wear over the top jewelry. Compared to a lot of the jewels in the display cases, these are fairly subdued but I decided, what the heck, why not splurge on some fun stuff for my upcoming talks -- pretty fun, eh?