Loving Student Work

Its been a few weeks since I was teaching these classes and a couple of students have sent me photos of their completed projects. It is really gratifying for a teacher to see that completed work because you then know they enjoyed the workshop enough to spend time working on it and to complete that piece  and not add it to their pile of UFO's.

This was a pet portrait created by Joy of her cat. In the first photo you see how she had made her pattern and some of the work in progress made during the class. And then the second photo a couple of weeks later when she has finished the collage process, decided on her background and finished it with free motion quilting and some borders. I especially love the addition of the leaves.

This piece was from my Fish, Frogs and reptiles class and Penni decided she wanted to make the Triggerfish. You can see she had fun fussy cutting the butterflies and dragonfly in the first photo. Then in the finished one I love the small frog riding on the tail, the pink lips :)  and that she went to the extra effort of making all those small fish. They are perfect. She cleverly found a batik fabric to use as the water and then the addition of the spotted bubbles is so fun.

This is one of the Pet Portraits from the class I taught for Pinetree Quilt Guild in Grass Valley. This was a two day class when students had to spend the first half of the first day drawing their pattern from the photograph. Now in my 1-day Pet Portrait class we use a photocopied enlargement to work from. This lady did a great job and you can see how it changes once the free-motion quilting is added. A dramatic improvement when another element is used, texture and more detail.

The Pinetree Quilt Guild holds their annual quilt show the  weekend of May 5th and 6th at the Nevada County Fairgrounds and is always a wonderful show. The ladies from the class I taught are planning on exhibiting all the Pet Portraits together for a mini exhibit. I can't wait to see it. I will add a few photos of some of their work-in-progress here.

If this type of fabric collage speaks to you and you would love to learn the technique for an intuitive method for selecting and cutting your fabric, it looks like you need to join me for 4 days of Fabric Collage Addiction at Zephyr Point this Fall. Look up the Artistic Alchemy Blog for more details and see the fun teachers that you can hang out with Artistic Alchemy

Teaching In Northern California

I have recently been teaching to quilt guilds in Northern California. My travels have taken me to Folsom, Modesto and San Rafael. I am always happy to see the enthusiasm of the ladies to try something new. I hope they look at my colorful, non traditional quilts as inspiration to step out of their comfort zone and try something new. I tell them that fabric collage has few rules, you can't go too wrong and to embrace its freedom.

Student work Red eyed Tree frog

One of the classes they chose were my Fish, frogs and reptiles. In this class I have a variety of patterns to choose from.  These patterns are line drawings enlarged to about a 20" size. Working this size means you are not cutting out tiny, tiny pieces but working at a reasonable size to learn the technique and make some progress on the project.

Student work Chameleon in progress

I have a couple of easier patterns and these are my triggerfish and the seahorse. These hopefully will be completed in class. Depending how you wish to finish your quilt more detail can be added to the background. I did demonstrate how to free cut elements to add like sea grass, coral etc.

Completed triggerfish almost ready to be quilted.

Many of these patterns I draw are from photos I have taken either snorkeling in Hawaii or when my family visited Costa Rica on vacation. If you don't have your own photos or those a friend has taken looking for copyright free images is important.  Another good source for a pattern would be to enlarge line drawings from a coloring book. Here's a selection of more student work.

My class in San Rafael was teaching my newest class that is Love of Pets, pet portraits fabric collage. Instead of starting from scratch and drawing a pattern from a photograph students bring to class a black and white enlargement of the photo they wish to use. This is a good head start. I like the way everyones project is individual and something that they wish to make and have more connection to it that, than just using a pattern

Australian Healer Dog 

I love this ladies approach to fabric collage. Everyone has their own instinctive way of doing things whether its is very precise which takes time,  or a more liberal way of free cutting fabric. These portraits will take on more detail when they are free motion quilted.

This is a small selection of some of the works in progress from that days class. I think these students really caught the look of the pets form their photograph and adding the stars in the eyes of that first dog is classic. I did have two people work on birds; parrots and a blue jay.

Arthur the Irish Wolfhound Mix

I do hope these projects get finished and I receive photos of completed  artwork. If you are interested at taking a fabric collage class from me I am teaching a 4 day retreat with Artistic Alchemy at Zephyr Point, Lake Tahoe in September and also will at IQF Houston in the fall. Look at my teaching schedule page for more details.

Spreading my Wings

Recently I heard some more exciting news! Coming this Fall I will be teaching at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas. Last November I submitted some ideas for classes that varied from half day to full day and a sampler session. Little did I know they would choose them all.

This pattern is from my class Leaping Lizards, I know a frog isn't a lizard but its close! My other pattern is a basilisk lizard. Having attended the IQF quilt show but not attended a class there I was a little in the dark when sending in my class proposals. I opted to offer fabric collage classes with a pattern and kit for each. This seems to make it easier for people attending the show especially if they have traveled to get there. Almost all they need to bring is some fabric glue and good sharp scissors, no sewing machine required.

The Rocking Roosters patterns

These two patterns will be for my Rocking Roosters class which is a 3 hr class. Students will get to learn my fabric collage technique, start on their project and then take it home to finish it. I learned that IQF classes are kept short and so afternoons are not used for working on a project once the technique is learned but for other classes. For each class I will have 2 patterns offering choice for students with slightly different fabric selections.

Sunlit Sunflowers, 3 hr class

Class information is made available in June. At this point I have no idea how popular my classes will be or if people will sign up but I heard having a kit is a good option. 

Dazzling Dogs, a 6hr class

Two of my classes will be 6 hr classes, Dazzling Dogs and Leaping Lizards. For these classes students will learn my technique begin working on the project and also learn about how to use their own photos to translate into artwork. Bulldog will be one of my patterns and I am still working on the pattern for the second project. 

I have a lot more work to do to make my patterns ready for class and then start to gather my fabrics and put together all those kits. Its all very exciting but sounds like I need to go fabric shopping! :)