Quilt Camp at Cedar Lakes, Ripley WV

October is the annual trek to Cedar Lakes in Ripley WV. Quilt camp is the gathering of about 275 avid quilters from all over the country. This is my 6th years to offer classes, and it is always enjoyable to spend 4 days with wonderful women, and a few men, exploring new directions in  quilt making.  My class this year was "Transfer paint with botanical elements". This is a very fun techinque, where you first paint papers with the paint/dye, and transfer the colors onto the fabric with  a very hot iron. You can layer and cut shapes from the paper as well as using anything flat as a resist. Pressed leaves gives great images, and are very durable, so they are great for this technique. The women in the class got very experimental and were not afraid of drying new things. Now I cannot wait to try some of these in my new works.

                                                    Everyone was very hard at work for 4 days.

 Karen Auer from Ohio added paintsticks to her transfers, very graphic and colorful.

 Caroline Chandler from Ohio with a beautiful oat plant in yellow and purple.

Alice Bark from Ohio with a large maple leaf.

The orange  dots are from pressing bubble wrap in the 

paint.

Dottie McDowell from Ohio worked with very strong imagery and colors. Very nice 3D effect.

Shari Gilzow from Ohio worked with soft greens and ginko leaves. The added treadwork brings the leaves to life.

Cheryl Davies from Ohio designed a beautiful quilt as a memorial to her mother, who had passed this year. Cheryl used special dried flowers and a bird in the right corner to represent the spirit of her mother. Machine stitching added to the shapes.

Carol Cutlip from West Virginia worked with a variety of leaves and ferns in a wonderful fall setting. She added textures from papers and machine quilting as well as trupunto.

Donna Kern from Ohio, used very soft colors with a variety of leaves. She will add stitching to outline the shapes

Ginny Diefenbaugh from Ohio made one of the brightest collection of pieces this week. Yellow, red and little touch of black set off her leaves. They are glowing!

Kay Phelps from West Virginia worked with her favorite earth tones. A perfect match for her choice of leaf shapes. (the photo to the right turned green, so not true colors, but I liked it too. You can see the texture in the transfer).

Rachel Webster from Ohio made several very interesting samples, by combining colors on the papers before transferring. This is not easy to do successfully, but she really has an eye for this technique.

Eileen Simon from Ohio worked on one of the largest transfer pieces. How fun is this? Leaves and shapes and texture all in one. The triple border picks up on the colors in the center, and frames it really well. Quilting in the center will add a lot of texture here.

Lois Hall from Ohio,created wonderful block with a wintry feel to them by using turquoise and violet . Added stitching brings the stems to life.She will add close quilting to the background, which will make the design stand out. Love this color combination.

Meredith Felix from Ohio work very successfully with strong, bright colors and large leaf shapes. The book cover (below) is a good example of  her colors and added texture with machine stitching.

I thought I had everybody represented here, but realize that I somehow did not get photos of Kay Buckley's pieces. I thought everything was on my camera, so I am really sorry I cannot show hers. She is from Ohio.

I just had to play a little too, trying out some new fabric I just found. This is a slinky polyester with a shine to it, but the colors transfers very easy and very bright. I think I can have some fun with the quilting on this.

This marks a new time and new energy from me, as I have been having several months this year with health issues, sciatic nerve and a broken arm, Now after surgery I am ready to get going, pain free.

If you are interested in the Quilt Camp at Ripley, WV check out Peg Bingham's website for info on the Spring and Fall camps at www.pegspatches.com

Paper making class at JC Campbell Folkschool

At the end of April I joined a few others in a paper making class at JC Campbell Folk School (Brasstown, NC)
This is the same place that I teach quilting and surface design.

Maggie Estes was the very capable instructor in paper making. During "Earth Week" all kinds of recycled paper was used to make the pulp. Paper was cut, soaked and blended in a blender.
Maggie did most of that, and mixed lots of pulp to be used in class.

Screens are dipped into the pulp and brought to the surface. Excess water is sponged off, and the screen turned up-side down on fabric. Many layers of these sheets are pressed. Later the layers are pulled apart and laid out to dry.

This grungy water, the end result of all kinds of colors added,  made a very nice grey colored paper, which is my favorite. Maybe I got a little carried away in the "production" of the gray paper sheets, but it was just so much fun.

We cut up some comic books that I have had since the 80-ies (not that old, right?) and had fun playing with that. Have no idea what I want to do with all the paper, but have gained a new respect for anyone who does this.

Some of Barbara's paper at Show and Tell.

Some of my paper, lots of colors, shapes and an attempt to do some printing.

Had to try some sheep. Wish I could make paper from wool, maybe my stash would shrink!

Inspired by leaves I had collected at the School, and used in a few Transfer paint quilts I made a few leaf shaped papers and a stamp to print on them. It was actually quite fun to print and add some painting finish. Now - what to do??

Thanks to Maggie Estes we were inspired and went home with some pretty neat papers and lots of ideas.

Felting at the Folkschool

Last week of February Geri Forkner was teaching a Nuno felting class at JC Campell Folkschool (Brasstown NC), and I was lucky enough to help as an assistant teacher. So much fun, and so much cold. This picture is taken from inside my car one morning going to breakfast. This is the week when I have biscuits, bacon and eggs every day, plus some oatmeal just to keep it healthy. The food is wonderful..

Geri to the left and Pat Thomas to the right. Pat is another instructor at the Folkschool, teaching marbling  on fabric and paper. Hope I can take that class soon. This week she joined us for nuno felting.

 Carol has her beautiful bright colors laid out with geometric shapes. A full table will felt/shrink down about 30-40%. The finished piece on the right. Still bright but now with lots of texture.

Christine made a series of veggies. This is the "Beet". Great to have a young person in a class, lots of energy and creativity!

Kay made several collage style pieces, this one incorporates yarns, silks, and dark and bright colors.

Jan created these beautiful flowers, which will become a bag.

Laura's very colorful collage has an abundance of colors,  shapes and textures. it is quite large too, so many possibilities for what she can use it for.

Just a few projects from this class. Beautiful colors and creativity. Lots of textures and shapes. Some of these will be used in larger projects, and some will be kept as samples.  Color and texture  are for sure the most interesting elements in nuno felting.

My big project that week.  A very long piece of hand dyed silk chiffon, cut into a cone shape.

 Laying out a very this layer of merino, about 4 oz.

 Everything is covered. Wet it down, cover in plastic, roll in bubble wrap, and roll for a couple of hours. It is physical but in a good way.

 It is sticking together enough to come out of the plastic and be worked on the table.

 Felted and full to finished size, shrinking about 35%. Next steaming and working on the edges.

Eda is being the model. This is going to the Fashion show at "The Museum at 5Points" in Cleveland TN, March 29.