...and now I am back! Hi. I just returned from my annual week+ of quilting and stitching and gathering with friends in my favorite place: Sisters, OR. I've been home for three days and am slowly returning to life in these parts...but, oh, how I long for those days in Sisters. I really, really heart that place and my trip this spring was especially wonderful 'cause we had great weather...almost a continuation of the super spring we've been having here on the east coast. There were a couple mornings when it was still cool enough - for me - to don a hat and gloves as I walked to class...but by 11:45 am, the temp had climbed considerably.
This was our third foray of Intuitive Color and Design, (a class taught by Jean Wells - author of a book by that same title and founder/owner of The Stitchin' Post - a wonderful quilt shop and the international Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show, held annually in July for 37 years. My friend Pat and I went last year and are talking about going again in 2013). In this year's class we again focused on color and design and I used this photo for my inspiration.
A lot of class time is spent making fabric, i.e., cutting up fabric and sewing it together again to create different shapes and combining colors based on our intuition and inspiration. I have come to the conclusion that I am very deliberate and slow as I work through my process: thinking about how I want to interpret a piece, put together color, value, create a design, add interest via texture, etc. I also know me well enough to realize that I am a big picture thinker and to see things in small detail is a real stretch, so I spend perhaps a lot more time trying this piece of fabric with that...
This is my piece on day 4 of class...trust me, it has gone through a couple more iterations and will go through a few more before I get to the point where I am satisfied that I've accomplished what I see in my mind. At this point in the process, I am focusing on the colors; eventually, I am planning to add the trees and electrical wires as design lines, probably via quilting stitches.
Whatever, the best thing is I have lots of neat fabric to audition and cut up and sew together and all the time I need. The only thing missing is Sisters and my friends... guess I'll just have to rely on memories and the photos I took. TBC...
Cheers~