Fast Friday Challenge 2--Notan

 The thing that I LOVE about challenges is that they take you places you wouldn't have gone on your own.  This month's challenge is an example of that.  Notan is a Japanese concept that uses the contrast of black and white to demonstrate positive and negative spaces.
I had heavy weight  12 x 12" black paper and drew a freehand design in a light colored pencil.  I then carefully cut along the lines and reassembled the pieces into their original positions on a piece of white posterboard.

I then flipped each cut piece onto the white poster board and--voila--a work of art!  I am told that this can be as addictive as making zentangles but I'm going to try to restrain myself.  I am going to use this design to make a wall quilt but am not sure if I will use black and white or two other highly contrasting colors.  Stay tuned.

Blue Ridge Parkway's 75th Anniversary

Some of you may remember that I participated in the creation of a special quilt to mark the 75th anniversary of the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Well, they have recently published a post card that is available at the Folk Art Center on the Parkway.  I made the block with the fox and owl (double click on the image to actually see it).  It was a lot of fun to be part of this project and it's really neat to see it "in print."  The Parkway itself has been in its glory for the past couple of weeks with the annual showing of leaf color. (of course, the leaves in my own yard haven't been half-bad . . .)

Quilters of South Carolina Retreat 2011

 This weekend was the annual Quilters of South Carolina Retreat at White Oak Conference Center in Winnsboro.  There were over 300 of us there and the classes offerings were varied and well received.  I taught 2 classes--Introduction to Applique and Quilting Freemotion Feathers On your Home Machine. 
I had some of the most wonderful women in my classes.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the Applique class; however, many of the students signed up for both classes.  You can see from this first picture, that they dove right and started right to work.  This was a 1 1/2 day class and it was non-stop.

 And I'm very happy to say that they were so very successful and enthusiastic.  I started them off slowly with easy shapes but by the end of the weekend, each of them had acquired new skills and felt that they would now be more willing to use freemotion quilting in their work.  How about this first example.  She went beyond the scope of the class and added a background pattern similar to the one in my quilt that was hanging in the class.  How beautiful.

Gaynelle is showing the original pattern that I provided for the class and she accomplsihed quite a lot on her piece.

 Another example of a beautiful sample. (I think it was Robin's)

 Mary Sue spent a lot of time practicing on her motifs and did a great job rounding out the edges of her feathers.

 I found out that Emma hadn't been quilting for very long but you never would have known it because of the precision with which she quilted her design.

And look here!  You can even quilt feathers on a featherweight.

 Donna who is in the art group to which I belong proved that she is very "arty."  She decided to ignore the pattern and do her own thing, playing around with the motifs and injecting her own pizzaz into them.

 Mary provided a lot of good natured commentary throughout the day but also managed to complete a great part of her quilting design.

And Nancy, who was already quite an accomplished quilter, produced an exquistite piece.  Note the tiny stippling.

All in all, this was one of the most wonderful classes I have ever taught and I feel as if I made some really great new friends.  Each person in the room contributed to the success of the weekend and I certainly am looking forward to seeing more of their quilting in the future. 

Asheville Quilt Show 2011

The Asheville Quilt Show was last weekend and this year it was in a new venue--the Ag Center.  Now, many people might think that moving from the beautiful Arboretum to this location could possibly be a mistake: however, as far as I'm concerned, it was a good decision.  The show was in a new building, there was plenty of places to park and all of the quilts and vendors could share the same space--without any crowding.  While it's true that thee weren't any lush gardens around, it's also true that most people just wanted to see the quilts.  Any move such as this requires a certain amount of time to settle into being the "norm" but I think most people appreciated the benefits.
So--here are a few of my favorite quilts.  This first one is Golden Chrysalis by Terry Williams.  I have seen a few of the quilts by this artist and they seem to have the same sort of theme but each one plays around with light and color in an imaginative way.  As you can see, it received a well-deserved first place.-

 This next one is Lotsa Merry Berries by Nicki Vick.  I love Christmas Quilts like this one that can also just be a winter quilt.  It was beautifully made.

 This is Fourth of July in Margaritaville by Christine Regina.  I love the colors.

 And this one was made by a friend of mine, Sue Weaver.  It is Gradation and, although you can't necessarily tell from the photo, it's a miniature.  This was the first time ever that Sue had won a ribbon and she was quite excited--and it certainly was worthy of the honor.  If you enlarge the picture and look in the 4 corners, you will notice that there a tiny tubes of woven fabric that make up the squares.  You have to have really dexterous fingers to do that.

Connie Brown made this quilt, Tiffalipa.  The interesting thing about this particular quilt (other than the fact that it well done and eye-catching) is that she and I sat next to each other in a class taught by Phillipa Naylor earlier this year and we each finished our projects.  However, they don't bear any resemblance to each other.  She fell a lot deeper into the creative pool than I did and REALLY made it her own.

 Heartwood is made by Marge Edie--a quilter who is incredibly talented in the math side of quilting.  This was a replica of the top of a box she carved for her husband as a wedding gift many years ago.  I was a member of her art group while she was in the creative process of making the math of the angles and the colors of the wood come together into a thing of beauty.  She really succeeded--partially because she also has the gift of perseverance.  She kept at it when things didn't fit right until they did.  And look what she ended up with!

 This quilt, Compass Fantasy, by Renate Jaeger won the Viewers Choice Award.  She said that it had 3,700 pieces.  Man, talk about perserverance!  The original maker and designer of this quilt is Judy Mathieson and it was on the cover of The Twentieth Century's Best American Quilts.  If you want to see more of Judy's work you can visit her website ttp://web.mac.com/jackmathieson/Judy_Mathieson/Welcome.html

This last quilt I'm featuring is Dresdan Plate Fantasy by Velma Frady.  No reason.  I just liked it.

And, Oh, one last quilt I liked--MINE!  I received Best of Show for Summer Soiree.  Needless to say, I was very surprised and a very happy camper.

Fast Friday Challenge

 Recently, I joined an internet art group named Fast Friday Challenge. The idea is that on the last Friday of the month a challenge will be issued and a quilt should be made within a week.

One of the objects of this is to free your mind of all of the "what ifs" and JUST DO IT.  This challenge was based on 35 master paintings.  Each of us was free to choose the painting we wanted and use the color palette from it in a quilt.  I chose James Tissot's Croquet as my inspiration and I almost immediately thought of the little leaf drawing I had done several years ago.  (And that's the beauty of doing drawings and collecting pictures and putting them in a place where you can find them later).  So, I took this drawing and enlarged it to the size I wanted and then decided on the rest of the layout for the quilt.

 As you can see, I choose a circle for the center and went out from there.  Since I had a fairly limted color palette, it was challenging to decide on the placement of the colors.  I have named my piece Strolling Through The Garden.  When I had to come up with a name for it I felt that there was a certain feeling of pathways so,thus, the name.
When I got to the quilting stage, I decided that it was a good opportunity to try something a little different from what I usually do so on the outside border I used circles but finished off with curved lines.  You can double click this picture for a better view and the last picture is a closeup.
All in all, I really enjoyed this challenge.  I ended up with a wallhanging that I really like--one that I never would have made otherwise.
Hmm . . .I wonder what's coming on the next one?