Hello,

I am home from Quilting By the Lake for the week end and it has been as fun and exciting as always. I helped hang the quilt show on the 12th. We stared the morning with a big empty gym and boxes of quilts and hanging units.    We asssembled units and started putting the work up.  This shot is of Tony – a long time assistant that has followed QBL from  Morrisville Community College,  its last home,  to Onondaga Community Collage, the new home for the last five years.  By  noon the gym was starting to look like this shot.    We continued to hang and make alternations as the day went on.  There was a featured exebit of the work of one of our quilters.  It showed her work from the first year  of QBL to last year when she passed away.  It was lovingly curated and hung by two of her good friends Debbie( standing) and Andy( on the ladder).  Although the job was not complete we went  home at 4:30.  A new crew came in on Sat and finished the job.

I started giving away little doll pins that I now call  Creative Assistants to folks at QBL years ago.  They stared by my making a pin for a friend that was a copy of a petroglyphic that she had shown me the year before.  The pins have taken on a life of there own and I enjoy making them over the course of the year and them passing them out to folks that I come in contact with.   They are fun and a bit silly- they always make everyone smile.  Some folks have very big “tribes” as they add a new member every year as the pins change each and every time I do them.    ( I will post a tutorial on how you can do it too after QBL is over. )

I spent my week of uninterrupted  quilting in a class called Independent Study.  It is unstructured and undirected.  We all work at out own thing at our own pace.    These shots of some of my fellow class mates gives you an idea of the wide range of actions going on.  Everything is relaxed and enjoyable with folks working on finishing projects,  to staring new directions.     One gal even spent some of her time creating little pig dolls and enjoying the process.  Most of the gals in this class  are old timers.  We all enjoy the atmosphere.   I  can not believe I have been participating for 31 years- but that a fact….. Only my Marriage is a longer relationship.

Progress Report

I did start lots of work too.   Project 1

I am continuing to use images from the trip to Idaho as inspiration.  This is one from a rock wall at Dry Falls.  I am still playing with strips of fabric that I can wad and fold over to create texture.

Project 2     This one is of a small crack in  another stone wall.  It was in direct sun light and the contrast of the rock face and the shadow was very strong.

Project 3   This work is also inspired by a rock picture.  I used a much more traditional way of assembling this one however without the folded textures.

Project 4 Oak Leaves    

I played  silk that was fused to cotton.  I sewed the leaf vains on to the surface and then cut the leaves out.  I picked some real oak leaves( deep green) and used them as inspiration.   I learned that the side one puts on top when sewing in the vains is the way the leaf will curl when you let it hang.

The last event of the week at QBL is an auction of aprons that have been altered by the teachers.  The money raised goes to the scholarship fund .  It is always lots of fun and we all get a bit silly.  This time Rosalie Dace quilt teacher from South Africa, really went over board as she dressed her part.  It seems the IRS in response to her inquires about paying taxes had written her a letter.  On the back in pencil was a message that told her “she need not pay any taxes on any fish that she caught or sold”.   So she dressed up in wades, a fishing hat added a net and poll to illistrate her story.   Also shown in the photo are Cynthia Corbin, Hollis Chatelain and Katie Pasquini Mastopust.It was a fun week and I look forward to more of the same this next week.

I hope your week is as creative as I expect mine to be.

Hugs

Carol