Today I took a hand-sewn art quilt class given by the incredible Kat Campau. A lot of the other attendees were members of the Running With Scissors group. Man -- what a lot of FUN -- and what a roomful of wonderful artists and unbelievable fabrics!
This is Kat Campau. When you go to her blog you can see examples of her fabulous quilts...including some of the ones she brought to show us for this class -- Secret Life.Kat also gave us an alternative to the Secret Life theme and that was Affirmations.
Eventually I think I will try a Secret Life...but because this is pretty much my first time with any kind of quilting or sewing on this scale I was in a bit of a trance with trying to take in as much information as possible and get through some steps so I could get to parts where I knew I'd need to be shown things a couple of times. You know? But man -- what a blast!
I am very grateful that Kat is so patient and such a gifted teacher and quilter. She is so inspired and inspirational.
Okay. Here I have chosen a backing fabric, laid the batting on top of it and I am looking for background colors.
Everybody there had scads of fabrics and they were so eager to share everything and also to help with whatever a non-sewing person needed help with. I am so thankful to have so many new friends!
I got the yellow fabric from Janice, I had the green stuff and Ruth donated the pink piece.
Kat suggested the darker blue behind the eye-shaped cut out to make the eye pop more on the yellow fabric.
My quilt will be a nod to the collaborations with the Universe that take place when I work with the plaster cloth. My affirmation will be Feel the Direction(s). And (much to my delight and relief) I discovered that my guides not only engage in plaster cloth, but they sew as well...which is how "I" came up with my affirmation/theme.
The colorful hands are my collaborators and the pale blue hands on top are my hands.
Look at my messy work station...geez!
Okay...I pinned on my pieces.
SO much to learn...what fabrics work better, why not to choose batik prints, how to work around little problems that pop up...and even different kinds and sizes of safety pins! Man!
This was the table I was working at. Ruth was to my left, across the table was Deb, then Barb, back on my side of the table down at the end by the wall/partition was Leann and then to my right was Jane. Janice started out at our table, sitting to Deb's right but Janice needed to spread her work out a bit more and moved one table forward.
This is an overall shot of the room -- there were at least 20 people sewing.
Jane...one of the three non-sewing people at my table. Me, Ruth and Jane.
Leann
Janice
Deb
Barb
Jane again...just marvelous.
Deb and her completed quilt. She had started it previous to today's class.
LOOK -- I'm sewing!This is going to take a while to complete. I might change it a tiny bit...maybe not.
I want to put all of the different types of stitches that I learned into it before I forget how to do them. I will embellish it and then hang it in my studio.
I think this will be a great project to do at the Wednesday Morning at Joan's meetings.
My objective for diving into this new area is to be able to use what I learn to make smaller versions for an Art-o-mat series. I also was thinking that the more I learn how to sew correctly and make actual real life stitches, the more it will help me when I am making another set of Tookies finger puppets, etc. Yep...I always look at everything as a potential Art-o-mat series.
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