Tim pulls off a winner!!

Tim Tourellott is a long time friend and quite the creative soul. Already an excellent art quilter, this  media mixer project which began on the Road To Panama cruise was a new/different path I 'think' will stay with Tim for a while.
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Tim said this was great fun .... and enjoyed the different directions both he and Wendy(previous post) went in the very same class.  Tim says he didn't think too much or wait too long for ideas to come  because he knows he has a tendency to over think things. Tim's surface design elements include napkin tissues, handmade papers, rubber stampings, stencils, colored pencils. 

Per Tim, "It's strange when you think about how a napkin can jump start your creative process again in a whole new direction. All of these ideas are now flooding in about my next project ,but more importantly the "What ifs?" ..... are now marinating in my head. "

I LOVE the red accents AND the hanging system Tim!

The addition of Chinese coins on the border are a nice touch.  ...and the purposely 'one off' from a satin-stitch edge finish WORKS!   Keep it going Tim.  Great class and cruise.

Wendy on the Move

Is this not a beautiful piece??!!!!!!   My mixed media class aboard the Westerdam was filled with interesting pieces and students.  One in particular was Wendy Ross ( referred to by some as Miss Montana).  Wendy arrived on board with a gift for all participating on the quilting cruise: a felt needle booklet with the Montana Quilters  logo printed on cotton and attached. NICE Wendy... Thank You!

 This was a mixed media technique class using napkins, tissues, handmade papers, stamps, pencil drawings.... pretty much whatever!!!!  A neutral piece of fabric becomes the 'canvas.'  The faces and background text is Wendy's ink stamping. Birds, flowers, butterflies, and leaves are largely tissues affixed to fabric. Some Shiva paint stick work added... and Wendy's original pencil drawings of small flowers and ghost-like butterflies were added.  I am so grateful and pleased when students send me a  photo. Wendy wasted no time getting this finished and photographed.  So cool.

For Wendy... this class produced both a great result and as well or maybe more importantly some key learnings about objectively seeing and evaluating composition.  While I seldom if ever specifically post back and forth conversations re: work, with Wendy's permission, I am noting our dialogues re: learnings as you might relate.

Wendy's initial note read something like this... I don't know that you will remember; as you walked about the room as we were working on our individual designs... you had commented about a couple of green triangular patches that took precedence in the center of the piece. My buddy Tim next to me taught me to take a photo of the piece to help me critique - I did and saw immediately what you were talking about. (THANK YOU, Tim!) Ugh! I peeled it off and retouched the areas with Shiva paint. One thing I have learned since coming home:don't be too hasty! Instead of  slapping 'stuff' on a piece of fabric, I will fall back on Tim's advice and use my camera to preview and review and if necessary move things around until I lose that restless feeling!

Tim was absolutely right.  "Photos tend to come with objectivity about shapes and value."   

I sent the following back to Wendy.

DANG.. the real learning is always in the struggle. That restlessness you speak of is normal and your words to self about "don't be hasty" are valuable. I DO remember the 2 green triangles. Tim's advice is very good and I will tell you how I noticed them.... I was on the opposite side of the table and thus looking upside down essentially only seeing the shapes/values... not the individual elements so much. We can easily be seduced by individual elements sometimes inhibiting our ability to see the WHOLE.   I've always said... We all know when the composition feels right... it's a bit of a struggle figuring out when it doesn't feel right.  Now you have 2 "why am I restless tools!")

Now, I can only hold my breath til a photo of Tim's finished piece arrives. I know he's quilting it now.  ;-)  Happy quilting all! 

Knowledge and Skill Building... Filling Station At Sea

After years of teaching Painted Quilt Art, I wanted to set people free to get tops quilted.  Fear stops us all so easily.   A full class of  cruise students participated in the first ever Filling Station class.... which first provided students with demo'd samples of specific free motion stitches that visually stabilize, harmonize, and / or move your eyes on a quilt top.  20 machines all humming like crazy playing and practicing many of the quilting stitches shown on more recent posts.  Each went home with samples ( a sort of stitched library)  of different stitches they NOW know how to do and  as such will assuredly be more comfortable tackling their own art quilts back home.  Machines on this cruise were provided by a Janome dealer. These were high end machines with lots of great features/tools for quilters.

One proud student with her sample ' stitched library.' Not mandatory, but perhaps helpful was the use of different color  threads for each type of stitch... e.g..  

visually stabilizing... ( mostly straight or right angled stitch patterns) 

visually harmonizing... (mostly curvy happy stitch patterns) 

move your eyes patterns ...  (stitch patterns that usually include sharp angles) 

 One incorporated many inspired stitches visually suggested on the ships elevator doors. I had the same inspiration in viewing the ships metal doors.... just no time to play as a teacher... but maybe something in the future.  as always... sooooo many ideas, so little time.... a quilter's burden, I know!

This class seemed to be quite a success.... Due to my traveling/competition schedules, I  seldom  get to teach  locally but will teach a class on this subject in Oct 2014 ( Oct 11- Orange Quilt Bee- Orange California) orangequiltbee.com... for contact info.      Not on their site yet but the date confirmed. Call them if interested.
Other quilting cruises with varied instructors can be viewed on World of Quilts Travel site.  (  see link list on the top left.)

Cruising The Canal

Soooo  exciting....  navigating the locks of the Panama Canal.

 The story of this canal is like a good book read.. in fact there are many books about it. I won't rewrite it here... but will express the fascination of traveling through it. Pretty flag, eh? Our quilting cruise travels originated in Fort Lauderdale so we entered from the Caribbean where we first needed to rise up to the level of the lake and canal beyond. We enter the first lock with the guidance help of a masterful captain/crew and rail-based "MULES" found on each side of the channel. You can see another large ship and even a tug in canal locks beyond us. Everyone it seemed was fascinated with the engineering/operation of these locks.

This was mostly an all day trip which began  on deck with Coffee and Panama Rolls for a 6:30am start. We are about the enter the first lock in the photo below.  Anyone want to know how to make Panama Rolls?  I managed to get a recipe from our ship's Culinary Arts Chef.  ( Click on any photo for enlarged views.)

A long slow trip trough the lake and canal until finally at the Pacific side where we need enter a new lock this time to drop to sea level. The lock in the distance is about to fill adding appx. 30 feet of water level ( by gravity) at 3 million gallons per minute... it flooded in like a category 4 white water river... (unbelievable).

Once filled, gates will open, we will enter and then the fill levels drop to sea level for gates beyond to open.
Totally fascinating.

 Most know a much larger set of locks is under construction to allow the new giant ships /cruise liners of today to pass through. Those locks appear a long way from completion. News at eleven, as they say.

Inspirations of Cartegena

Well.. I was a bit concerned early on about visiting anywhere in Colombia because of the history of crime there... but not so in beautiful Cartegena.  "One dollar" bought me a photo op of this beautiful young woman.

The streets of Old Town are both clean and picturesque.  This sidewalk cafe might someday appear in a painting.  The teal tablecloth against the red brick color building create much 'energy' / interest.

Vines decorating buildings are old and enormous.

An interesting but uncomfortable visit to a place of imprisonment during the spanish inquisition. Not to be catholic brought torture to even Christians of other denominations. The  exterior walls themselves were a fascination to me but I'll skip photos of the interior means of torture.

Fascinating learning...   low income people pay no taxes.... higher earning people ( eg. over $50K annual US equivalent and multiple property owners ) do!   We visited 2 textile shops... truely lovely specialty fabrics but very little algodon...( cotton ) of interest to American quilters on this tour.  We are lucky to have such lovely fabrics available to us in the U S.     Right now though.. I'm sorry I didn't buy some of the heavier woven silks in Cartegena. :-(

Classes on The Panama Cruise.

What a great teaching trip originating in Fort Lauderdale... to Colombia. Panama, Costa Rica, Mexico mainland and Baja. 5 classes taught on days at sea.  Day one....a warm up class of painted tropical applique done by students ( on sateen ) in a color of their choice. This is a complicated looking applique that would take significant time using traditional needle turn... but all students completed these in 1  short day

Road To California Show owner Carolyn Reese  took her first quilting classes in 20 years. I think she had fun!

 California Girls Tobi (L) and Kathleen each did a great job on their piece.

Our last night of fun/ farewells included an ugly fabric musical chairs-like game where 1 lucky?
( unlucky?)  quilter won all the fabrics. It was a real hoot to watch and play.

This cruise was  well organized by  Worldofquiltstravel.com....  with many more cruises in the planning.  Check them out.

Out of A Box

Ideas come from almost anywhere... in the case of the following, I bought this box of stationary a while back because I liked the refined feeling it gave me. I knew it would be an inspiration for something in the future. The future is now so I best get with it.

I'll be interpreting that feeling I had in mixed media on fabric..  for now mostly the use of tissues to be adhered to cotton background.  First from my rather large tissue assortment, ( napkins, hand towels, etc etc ) I chose elements I wanted to use and cut them out. At this point... there are 3 layers of each element... but I will eventually eliminate layer 2 and 3 using only the printed top.

I particularly love this yellow bird and cage.

These elements get rearranged multiple times til I am happy with the arrangement.

The next step... one by one.. remove the second and third layers and 'glue' them to fabric using matte medium . You notice the edges of tissue start to become transparent when the matte medium is added to the back side. This is a delicate process that usually involved a fine pin separating the layers  before medium is added to the fabric and tissue applied atop medium. 

I then used an apricot color Prismacolor pencil to scribble texture here and there. Now to let things really dry.  I can heat set the pencil marks but definitely NOT the areas with matte medium. 

Click on Images for enlarged view.   Some subdued background stenciling will be added in open areas when all is dry and then quilting will be yet later! Happy Quilting all!