Finishing up

I've had my new MAC about a month or so now and I'm still in the novice stage.  Hopefully I'll be able to download two photos of a project I've been working on for over a year.  It's an original design of what I envision an African plain to be, though I've never been there.  The piece was begun in a class with Teresa Fusco, whom I've mentioned before--one of my favorite teachers.  I'm constructing the camel (and a few more animals that I haven't started yet) using techniques I learned in a three day workshop with Susan Carlson in Harpswell, Maine last summer.  Hopefully I can successfully post them.  Not sure where they'll appear--before or after the text.

New computer

Hi.  I just purchased a new computer.  An IMac.  I'm not a big fan of laptops so this is a desktop.  I'm slowly learning the ins and outs of using it.  If anyone  can offer any support, that would be great.  My next step is to download my pictures from my old PC to a thumb drive and then upload them to the Mac.  Anything I should be concerned about or process I should try.  Totally different but I'm loving it so far.

Shameful...

Shameful that it's been so long since my last blog post.  Since August we've had some life altering situations occur here in central Pa.  Mainly the destruction of the house that my daughter rented from me in Bloomsburg, Pa.  Flood waters lifted it off its foundation and tilted it toward my neighbor's home.  Total loss.  My daughter and her family lost everything, except fortunately their lives.  In any case the house has been demolished and we're moving in.  Because of the destruction in the area there are no homes to rent so they're renting rooms in a local apartment complex built for college students.  At least it's a roof over their heads.  I'll reserve my comments on FEMA for a private conversation...

Anyway, I have been quilting.  Again, I'm never sure in what order my photos will appear but I'm working on another Susan Carlson influenced piece that will go on a wall hanging that I started about two years ago with quilter Teresa Fusco.  I have most of the background done and I'm working on the animals that will be added.  The first is a camel.  Hopefully both will appear.  

And, btw, if you live a flood prone area, please, please, please, get flood insurance. 

Sebastian's progress

Still working on my project from Susan Carlson's class.  I thought perhaps the tail could use some outlining so I couched some rayon cord around it.  Question--should I continue with the cord on the underside of his belly?  And, any ideas for his tongue?  Thinking of something that I can curl at the end as if he's catching something.

Serendipity quilt

Just came back from a two day workshop with Susan Carlson  http://www.susancarlson.com/Welcome.html in Harpswell, Maine.  Great fun.  Fantastic venue!  The chameleon is the creature I decided to do.  Need advice on background.  Blue (dramatic) or green (as if he's in the wild).  What do you think? 

Also need help on adding links, but that's for another day. 

Trying again

This is my second attempt to write a new post on my blog.  In about a week I will be going to Quilting by the Lake near Syracuse, NY.   I have never submitted a quilt to a show other than my local quilt guild's show but QBL always has a quilt show that runs the same time as the classes.  This year I decided to be brave and enter two recent quilts.  This is not a juried show just an opportunity to showcase you work. 

In a previous attempt at adding a post to my blog the entries came in reversed.  I have no idea what will happen this time.  In any case, the yellow one is based on the class that I took last year at QBL from Sue Benner.  I loved this class!  She's a great teacher.  The other quilt represents the work I did from a workshop with a fellow quilter in my home town.  I had just bought the book by Edrika Huws and decided to use her technique for construction.  She hand sewed her pieces together.  I glued mine.    Anyway, here they are.  Who knows which one will appear first. 

I know I haven't blogged in many months. Not that I have not been doing things, but you know how life gets in the way. In any case this is a piece that I made in a mini workshop that my friend and I decided to do together. She worked on her piece and I worked on mine. They're totally different. I will have to get her to send me a photo of her work in progress so I can show you the difference. We kind of modelled the sessions (over 3 days) by working in the morning, having lunch, coming back and working in the afternoon. She has a huge dining room and we each set up a workspace at each end on which we worked. It was great!

I decided to use scraps from my scrap bin only and I managed to do that--except for the border which is the piece hanging down. It was a great learning experience. As it turned out the background fabrics all read as medium and when I started designing the flowers I discovered that the fabric that I thought would work absolutely just vanished into the background. So out came the little red filmy thing that I used to determine values and I had to make sure what I was selecting read as a light. The composition is supposed to represent a dilapidated garden fence with nasturtium flowers and leaves hanging from it. The leaves have also proved to be a challenge. I'm doing to texturize them before applying them to the background by sewing very tiny pin tucks up and down and diagonally to represent the veins in the nasturtium leaf.

I used the technique for the background from a video I'd send of Ellen Lindner's work when she was interviewed by Bonnie McCaffrey. You kind of scrunch up your pieces into the open blades of a scissors and then cut. I leaves a jagged edge which I liked a lot. All of the fabrics, as I said, came from my stash. I may change the placement of two of the flowers (the orange and the yellow) but am not sure yet.

I'm writing this blog from the picasa set up which appeared after I'd uploaded my photo. I have no idea what it will look like. 'Til later, Sally