Quilt Camp at Ripley West Virginia.

A great week at Ripley with quilt campers from 18 states! Many, many women and men come to Ripley every October to learn new quilting techniques and to meet old friends and make new ones.

Colors were not as brilliant this year I'm sad to say, but these berry bushes at a rest stop might be the inspiration for something!







Seven very energetic quilters had signed up for my class with the focus on "Transfer Paint with Botanical Elements". These pictures only shows a small number of what was made this week- impressive!

 Maggie from Ohio had more than a little fun with the iron. She created some very interesting and complex backgrounds with her collection of leaves.

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 Beautiful color combinations.

My favorite of what Maggie did.

David from North Carolina for sure has his own color aesthetic and is not afraid to experiment. This is something I can appreciate as a textile artist. Bright colors and flowing shapes, combined with unusual color combinations, were everywhere.

Bright colors and bold shapes. Quilting should be fun!

My favorite of David's designs. This is an art piece.

Eleanor from Ohio brought her old iron which she had not used in a long time! This was so great and gave her lots of strong colors and high contrast pieces.

 Her painted papers had some very neat designs and resulted in very special background effects for her leaves and ferns.

 The black and yellow ferns is my favorite design that she made. Don't get rid of that old iron, Eleanor!

Janet from West Virginia was dong something that was out of her comfort zone, but was very eager to do so. She has taught quilting for many years, but was ready to learn something new. I enjoyed teaching it, and she ran with it. This beautiful little quilt is her machine quilted piece. I think she will make some more!

 Another of Janet's small pieces which looks great.

 And she was very productive, to say the least! Lots to take home to work on.

Judie from Ohio is a long time quilter who embraced  this new technique and experimented a lot. She claimed that she had problems with color, but this must be a good problem because she made some very colorful pieces and I love the color combinations she came up with! 

 My favorite from Judie is the big leaf in blue and purple. Also beautiful quilting.

Jeri from Ohio is an artist in her own right and very creative and talented. I'm sorry to say that my phone acted up and I lost a few pictures from this class, unfortunately that included some of her pieces. (good news is that Jeri e-mailed me some pictures, so I can show a few of her pieces). They were very creative and so well made.                                                                                                      

Lovely colors and shapes, with added textures that was achieved with  very interesting free motion quilting designs.                                                                                                                                    

And last but not least, Eileen from Ohio worked on several banners with leaves and shapes in fall colors which she plans to use at her son's upcoming wedding. She was cutting paper shapes and creating wine shapes to hang. Unfortunately she had to leaves early so no pictures, but if I can get some I will post them here.  (again Eileen e-mailed me pictures of the finished banners). A lot of work went into making them long enough to be displayed. I bet they were a great addition to the wedding!                                                                                                                                            

If you're interested in quilt classes at Ripley, check out www.quiltcampcedarlakes.com.                                                                                                                           

Impressions of Color

Last night was opening of my show at Maryville College. There was a wonderful turnout of many good friends and their friends, as well as family. I so very much appreciate the support from everyone!

Beautiful flowers from my family in Norway, to wish me good luck.       

 Great turnout of good friends and family, and small reception of goodies. All thanks to the Art department at the College. Carl Gombert takes care of everything, and makes all of it look so good.

 First time I have worked in a pictorial series. The "Ironworks" series are inspired by a photo taken by my sister, Marita. Absolutely loved working with the different colorways. Right now I am not sure which color is my favorite, just love to see them together.

This is a leaf I found in Florida. Very hard and a little difficult to get definition. But finished they are my "Brain" pieces. Had so much fun working on them and coming up with names. "Mush Brain", "Grey Matter", "Left Brain, Right Brain".

 These are huge sycamore leaves, actually it's the same one used in all 4 pieces

Most of the pieces are a combination of machine outline stitching and hand seed stitching. I dye the pearl cotton to fit with the color scheme I am working on, and fill in all background.  I love this kind of handwork and it fills the need to work at a slower pace.

 These are large sycamore leaves and some Hawaiian leaves.    

 Another favorite is the boat on the waterfront. Have a thing for the old wooden rowing boats, just something about the wood and colors. My sister, Marita, sent me this photo which had to be a quilt .

The largest piece at the show. The huge leaves are from Tennessee and Hawaii. I don't work so much in cooler colors but this is one of my winter quilts

 And one of he smallest pieces at the show, a study of leaves from my back yard. More vibrant in real life.

My interest and fascination with Hawaii comes from two trips there, The islands are so diverse and the nature is so varied. The lush areas just so impressive, not just the size of the leaves but also the shapes. I could make hundreds of pieces from the inspiration of Hawaiian botanical life. And pretty soon I will have !

This Hawaiian inspired piece is appliqued, rather than transfer paint, and was made after many photographs of  leaves on O'Ahu.

Love to work with these colors, and the surprises that will occur is always  an "opportunity" to do something different, never a mistake. After I get my feet down on the ground again, I have many pieces of fabric,  a box full of leaves, lots of painted papers, ready to be something, very soon!       

"The Impression of Color", exhibit at Maryville College , August 2018

Everything is packed and ready to go to be hung at the gallery. two years of work in four rolls of quilts! That puts things in perspective..

Opening reception August 3rd, 6 PM - 8 PM.
Location: Denso Gallery at the Clayton Center for the Arts, Maryville College, Maryville, TN.
Please join me if you can!

Show runs through August, opening hours are 10 AM - 6 PM, Monday thru Friday.

Beautiful space for any art, and I feel so fortunate to be able to show what I love to do.  I have called the show "The Impression of Color". These pieces tell the story of my love for colors and how each color can influence each other. Layering of color is done  very intuitively and I am not bound by any rules when I  do this. Most of the pieces are done using "Transfer Paint" techniques, but there are also several pictorial pieces inspired by photographs. Both the "Ironworks" series and"the boat" are from photos taken by my sister Marita.

These are three pieces from the show, inspired by leaves found in Tennesssee and Hawaii. Many more at the show.

Transfer Paints with Foothills Piecemakers Quilters in Greenville, South Carolina

Going to Greenville, SC to Foothills Piecemakers Quilting Guild, for two days in June, was so fun.Wonderful to meet quilters from my first time there, back in 2016. The workshop this time was Transfer Paints, and had the opportunity to spend two days playing with paints, colors and many different fabrics. I am always so impressed of what comes out of a workshop, and all the creativity that emerges from very enthusiastic women .I am more than a little inspired when I go home.           

Have to show this little demo piece, because I truly got some real "red" color for once. Red is difficult, and very often show as pink. One of the women in the workshop, Mary, brought in some excellent polyester fabric that was just outstanding to work with, and I think that the fabric has a lot to do with this bright transfer. Mary was very generous, so I have a few more pieces of this fabric, ready to play next week. Cannot wait!

Usually the first day is spent mixing colors and painting papers. Some real interesting stuff going on. About 25-30 papers are usually enough for each for the next day transfers.

These two pictures are very good illustration of how this process works. Mary has transfered a base layer of yellow, and places several leaves on top. The leaves will act as resists, and as the  next color, red, is added on, the leaves will leave a yellow impression. Stronger colors will also give  more defined shapes.

Mary will add stitching to finish this piece.

In addition to bring us great fabrics, Mary also has a great sense of color. Strong, bright colors give wonderful definition, especially on the mimosa leaves below. You can see each individual little leaf. She is ready to pick leaves in the fall!

Nan  was able to transfer quite a bit of texture from the papers. She worked with grass and straw like plants and got some very detailed results, which she plans to finish with adding stitched details. They will make beautiful small landscapes.

This small collage piece has got lots of potential. Nan used leaves and paper stencils.

This is the finished "Miniature landscape" quilt, that Nan started in the previous workshop. She has added stitching, paint and embellishments which truly have brought this arched trail to life. Beautiful!

Martha did not stick to one paint color on the paper, rather played with many colors at the same time. That is how she created the striking collage effect below. Very random, yet keeping the movement with stencils and leaves moving across the fabric.

Janine fell in love with some of the paper stencils, and made many small designs using the front and back of the stencils. As the paper stencils also will pick up some of the colors from the transfer, she manipulated them with her color use. The one below is both her and mine favorite.

Debbie got a few unusual colors to work very well together. The "purple" and bright green combination could have turned out bad, but this one works! Strong imagery with lots of details will result in something beautiful when she adds stitching to define the details.

Debbie showed her "Miniature fabric postcard" she started in the earlier workshop. She finished it by adding detailed stitching and a border/frame. The barn is so life like! Debbie's first quilt

Gayle also did many multi colored painted papers. That doesn't always work well, but here the unusual markings and color combinations takes on a life of their own. These fabrics will be very fun to use, and I can imagine adding words in a few places.

So much fun to see what creative women can do! Hope to get some time to work next week, got some new ferns and leaves pressed and ready to go. Also want to test out a few new paper products, so I might have to crank up the heatpress.