Tuesday, November 10, 2015

A Maximalist to follow a Minimalist

Composing in Color

It's no secret that I'm drawn to technique and process more than duplicating a quilt using a published pattern.  This composition measures 11"x22" so far.  

Saturday's "making prints out of solids" South Bay Area MQG workshop with Maria Shell, Tales of a Stitcher was an opportunity to learn to create a huge range of "fabric". It was so engaging and perfect for me.  Well, maybe if it were a 3 or 5 day retreat workshop it could've been more perfect. 
Maria Shell demo and Class Samples
As you can see from her class samples displayed above, Maria embraces a full palette. She did a demo of each method and helped us select colors that could stand on their own.  A favorite phrase that she used and that I whole heartedly relate to was "painting with your rotary".    It's almost as messy! 

My SIL didn't attend so I took my batch of parts with me on Sunday when I visited and snapped this shot while the were on her design wall. 
My collective

A Song and A Dance

November blocks for Leanne 10x17.5 and 7.5x15  Linking up to Scraptastic Tuesday - check it out.
BeeSewcial this month was like candy for my sweet tooth.  I've enjoyed getting outside my comfort zone each challenge and the last two were no exception. 

Conveying a clear message in black and white for Hillary, Entropy Always Wins and then an abstract winter landscape in icy grays for Felicity. (Reveal below)  The absence of color was a stretch. 

When Leanne, She Can Quilt announced that she was making an Improv Sampler, requesting a ruler free saturated medium tone block of any size in colors that make you wanna sing and dance - it was like she served up my favorite dish of confort food. 
Looking for the Glow
There wasn't enough time to try out everything in class especially since I plowed ahead with that first piece combining parts from half circles and curve to explore composition.  
Circles and Half Circles
I came home, stayed up late and got up early - that kind of reaction to a workshop does not happen often. I'll admit more times than not, the bits barely get unpacked and usually sit in my WIP bucket. 
Sunrise Sunday
When I tried to make plaid on my own I ran into some trouble with order getting confused with the rearranging of parts. 
Plaid-ish
I have every intention of trying them all.  Thank you Maria for a wonderful time and permission to share the picture of you and samples and to South Bay Area Modern Quilt Guild for another amazing teacher choice.  The dots and stripes sewn by my friends in class were really fun.  The next guild meeting should be a fun show and tell.  

Winter Wonderland



I think I can count the number of times I've been in the snow on one hand.  Felicity provided an image board and description on her blog post here so although my first hand experience is limited,  The icy starkness of my block, portraying slivers of trees has a lot of parts for minimalism but the limited palette sets the calm mood.  You may recognize the other source of inspiration,  my friend Renee's piece from the retreat.  
Fork in the Road
I joked (not so jokingly) that I'd surely become a shut in if I were to ever live in the snow.  Driving is not my favorite thing in dry weather and it boggles the mind how people manage without visibility on the road which was the spark for this block.
Building 
Busting out the scissors to work not only ruler-less but without my rotary for part of the process has become a little less awkward.

Pardon the fold lines in the picture - I had taken late night poor lighting shots and was in the parking lot of the post office when I remembered that I never took any good ones. So with creases in the trunk of the car was better than nothing.

I'm thrilled to be continuing as a member of BeeSewcial for 2016, making the bitter sweet of sewing the last block of the year easier to handle.

8 comments:

  1. wow. Beautiful work and I'm glad you got to take such an inspiring workshop.

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  2. Loving the improv, such great colours

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  3. Absolutely fantastic. In that first image I see an Egyptian eye - random I know! And the circle blocks placed together remind me of Terry Frost paintings. What an inspiring workshop it must have been :)

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  4. Lucky you! Those circles especially are wonderful!

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  5. Your workshop sounds so good, and the bee sewcial blocks are all fantastic, especially the ones for me.

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  6. I so wanted to take this workshop but am visiting family. Fortunately, she's coming to San Jose in February and I'm taking her two-day workshop on Abstraction of Place. Yours looks so exciting. I will be checking back to see what else you've done with it.

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  7. Wow! That looks like a lot of fun!! and I love the things you made in class! Makes me want to go in my sewing room and play! cheers!

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