September was a Whirlwind

I don’t know where September went! There were so many different things going on, I didn’t have time to sit down and write a post.

On a professional level, the biggest news was turning in the manuscript and quilts for my next book! I’ve been hunkered down at my desk writing, and in the studio creating demos and step by step images, for most of the summer.

I’m fortunate to have a beautiful space to work looking out over the lake–although sometimes it’s a little distracting.

The quilts for the book have been shipped to California to C&T Publishing for photography. It’s always a nail biter to have so much of my work in transit all at once, but they arrived safely thank goodness!

Stay tuned for more updates when a title and cover are chosen–that’s done by the publishing company.

I’ve been having a blast teaching and lecturing live via Zoom over the last few months. It’s wonderful that we can use technology to continue to share and create in these turbulent times.

We live in a four story townhouse and the Internet isn’t great in my first floor studio, so I set up panels from my artist booth in the living room to teach and lecture. We’re hopefully getting an upgrade this week so I’ll be able to move back to my studio for that.

I’ve taught and lectured all over the country in September, from California to Chicago to New York state. Below is some of my students’ work from the North Suburban Needlearts Guild of Chicago.

Bill used solids to create a wonderful graphic design.

Lisa chose to cut up some lovely fabrics she hand-dyed to feature in her blocks with a very different effect.

This is one of the reasons I love to teach Improv classes–each student is taught the same techniques, but ends up with something completely different from his or her neighbor and different from my work as well.

I taught Artful Improv to the Tompkins County Quilt Guild in Ithaca, NY last week and they did some wonderful work as well.

Pat had an idea of what she wanted to accomplish in class and used an oversized Improv block with stripes for her composition. She did a great job with the orange sparks of color in her cool blue color palette.

This is the view I get as the teacher in class! Melissa working on her composition–auditioning different elements to decide what has the “wow” factor.

I also lectured to several groups in California. It’s a little different to give a lecture at 9:30 or 10 at night since I’m on the East Coast, but it all works out.

Another fun thing that happened was seeing Sen. Mazie Hirono being interviewed on MSNBC standing in front of her collection of art quilts. The green one with the stripes that’s just behind her is one of mine! I met her at an art show several years ago and she purchased that piece–called Intuition. It’s good to see it again.  I’m honored to have a quilt in her personal collection and grateful that she has chosen her art as the backdrop when she does interviews now. The quilt on the far left was made by Diane Perin and I don’t know the artist for the middle one.

On a personal level, my older son Phil got married two weeks ago! They scaled the wedding back to a family only event in the bride’s parents backyard and it was lovely. They seem very happy too.

I spent much of the month designing a table runner for the head table at the reception and a queen sized quilt as a wedding gift. I haven’t made a quilt that big in a very long time, so it’s taking a while!

The runner was made from scraps of the bed quilt, since that one isn’t finished yet. And the runner was finished at midnight the night before the wedding! I’m always biting off a bit more than I can chew.

It wasn’t really a surprise, since I wanted to make sure the quilt would be something they would like and enjoy. Both bride and groom had input into the final design and I was able to put a section of it together to give to them before the wedding.

Finally, my quilt Homage to Matisse was accepted into the Fiber III national juried exhibit of fiber art at the Liberty Town Arts Center in Fredericksburg, VA. You can see a slide show of the exhibit at https://libertytownarts.com/2020/10/01/fiber-iii-a-national-juried-exhibition/

It was quite a month, and October is shaping up to be a busy one too–without the wedding, of course! I’m continuing to teach and lecture live online via Zoom and my on demand class is still available if you’d like to do a self directed class with me on your own schedule. Here’s the link: https://coursecraft.net/courses/z911Z/splash

Thanks for reading to the end!