Hello,

QBL for this year is again complete.  As usual  I had a wonderful and creative experience.   It all got started three weeks ago now when we started setting up the show for another year.  I always find it a bit surprising how we can transform the gym into a study of color and pattern in the course of two days.

Then on Sunday we all begin with a banquet and get to see the old friends that  help pull us back year after year. Classes begin on Monday morning and then we start our real growing, stretching and learning.   I took classes this year from two fine teachers.  Week one was a Color class with Rosalie Dace and week two I worked with Valerie  Goodwin- Exploring Design Principles.

We started with  two days of design exercise.  This shot is of a technique that Rosalie taught us to achieve thin lines of color in one’s work.  The picture is of some thin lines by Sally Abrams using the technique.  We started our  final project on Wed.  I challenged myself to work with Orange and Purples and pinned all of this up on Wed eve before I left the class.  I decided it was too much to work with all of these colors and pulled back and limited myself to mostly the purples with oranges accents.   Then I applied what we had been taught about value and selected some Fuchsia of the same value as the orange to partner with it.   I went to my usual building technique and started to layout my new project.     I did insert some slender lines, but mine are not as good as what Sally demonstrated from what Rosalie taught us.

There were events to supplement our classes every night.  Monday evening after show  and tell we left the audtorium to find a double rainbow in the western sky.  The second bow is very pale and to the right , but it is there.    Then on Tue evening before the Mini Mall there was a third rainbow in the evening sky.    What a great time to be studying and thinking about color.

 

I did pass out my little Creative Assistants again this year.   Not only was I rewarded by lots of hugs and smiles for the little fellows, Rosalie surprised me with a little doll of a similar nature from South Africa.    I feel so  honored by this  gift as I know she has limited space in her suitcase because she comes to the states to teach for six mouth stretches.

Along with all the  planned stimulation there are also lots of sharing of ideas and discussions going on about all sorts of other ideas at meals and in dorm rooms.     The atmosphere is super charged with ideas.

Then we start week two.    I was in class with Valerie Goodwin and we started with design exercises using the seven design elements in paper. This first one is Rythem

 

Then Pattern.

This third  one is Movement

We then posted the results in the hall under the correct titles and  talked about them.

 

 Contrast

Emphasis

 

 

 

Then we followed up the  paper exercises with   fabric ones using her techniques  for building up the surface.

Balance

Unity

 

She further challenged us with two word contrasts as our final project.  For that she added a twist, because not only did we choose a two word combo,  but she then gave us all a second two work combo that she felt we needed.     Then it got real quiet as we tackled our individual challenges.  Mine

words were  Transition/Culminaton and Expansion and Contraction.  QBL is so full of helpful folks and it happens everywhere.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This shot is of two of my classmates Robin and Chris,  talking possible solutions.

Randy is another long time friend that was in my class and she was just across the table

from me.  It was wonderful to watch how she worked on the problems.

 

 

Of course I visited my friends and did all the other activites of QBL the second week as well.   I enjoyed   Valerie’s talk at the Schhweinfurth Art Center  too.

 

This photo is of Donna Lamb the director of QBL and the Art  Center talking with Elizabeth Busch at that event.

 

I visited friends in other classes and looked at what they were doing on Walk About Day.

It is always fun to see what is happening outside one’s own classroom.

Ethel with work from Rosalie Dace’s week two class.

 

 

The last evening of QBL we have class show and tell where folks show off the last days of work .  This shot is of Barbara with her friend Kitsy,

 in the bathroom where she changed into the dress she had created, fitted and put together in Studio Class.  She looked great at show ans tell.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Then there was the final event- teacher apron auction to raise funds for the QBL  scholarships for next year.

Dorothy Caldwell

 

 

 

 

Elizabeth Busch

 

 

Victoria  Findlay Wolfe

 

Valerie   Goodwin

 

 

Philippa Naylor

 

 

 

 

It was a wonderful two weeks and  am so delighted that I can attend.  I always get so much out of going to this conference.  For years it was the only contact I had with other quilters from one year to the next and it served me well.  I would encourage anyone who is at all interested in this art form to attend this next year.

Keep Creating

Carol