Fence post quilt

Thought I would post a photo of a quilt I recently made.  It was an assignment from last year's Master Series class.  And yes, I did get it made before going to TX in February.


 Hollis had given us a photo and we had to make a piece representing our feelings when viewing the photo.  Not the best description of the assignment, but good enough.  


I have been taking photos of fence posts for several years as I find them very interesting.  Probably because they have always been a part of my life in some way or another.  


Some posts have a great deal of character, while others are rather humdrum.  I am guessing most people pay little, if any, attention to fence posts.  If one happens to be checking for broken posts or broken wires, they might give a post a second look. In our area there are fewer posts all the time as most of the land is farmed.  When a fence line borders farm land, it provides excellent pheasant habitat.    


I made the post in layers, did some stitching on parts of the post before putting the layers together and quilting it.  I drew barbed wire, placed that drawing on the copier, fused the brown fabric to steam a seam and then ran the fabric through the printer.  It printed the image of the barbed wire on to the fabric.  After cutting out the barbed wire pieces I then fused them onto the quilt.  I stitched all of the grass before quilting, but went back over some of the grass when I quilted it to anchor that area.  

Back to watercolors

I finally got back to sketching and painting today.  I am currently taking a class from Laure Ferlita of Imaginery Trips.  Great class, only problem is that Luare posted lesson # 4 yesterday and I didn't paint until today.  I won't even discuss the Visit to the Beach class I am taking from here as well.  I have painted a few things in that one, but not very happy with them and they probably won't appear anywhere.  I can tell it has been awhile since I last painted. 

So long story short, I am not really in England, one just pretends to be there while taking the class and sketching and painting the assignments.  Thought Laure's approach was interesting to this process.  Hopefully things will improve, must stay on top of it though.  As with anything, practice, practice, practice. 

I still haven't unpacked the suitcase full of fabric that went to TX last month.  There is another thing that needs some work.   

Back from Montana

Arrived back home from Montana last night.  It is a beautiful state, but it is was a little cold.  -14 degrees when we landed on Friday.  Had to buy some warm boots as I didn't take heed of the info friends kept sending me. 

 We did drive around the Bozeman area Friday afternoon and I took a few photos.  The first one is of the Gallatin River and those are chunks of ice floating in it.  The second one is looking some direction toward the mountains.  I never knew what direction I was going the entire weekend.

We were there for our nephew's wedding, which was very nice.  Enjoyed seeing a number of people we don't see very often and this was a happy occasion this time. 

The other nice thing about the visit to Bozeman was meeting one of my Dyehard sisters, Sandra. We had a great visit, wish it could have been longer, but we did get a lot discussed in 2 1/2 hours. 

I would enjoy going back there in the summer, but drive this time instead of fly.  Hard to tell what everything really looks like from the airplane.  It was interesting from that angle though.  Wyoming had a lot of snow on the ground!!!   

 A friend wrote that we missed the heat wave today as it hit 41 degrees, but they were headed back into single digits starting tonight.  Stay warm MT friends. 

Back from Texas!!

I have been home from New Braunfels, Texas for a couple of days, getting unpacked, things put back where they belong and figuring out what day it is.  That last part will take longer than anything else.

I did get a chance to paint on the flight down and a quick sketch and painting the last morning we were there of the doors on maybe the east (?) side of building where our classroom is located.  I don't know what direction is what down there as I can't see the horizon. 

I was there for two classes taught by Hollis Chatelain.  A one day class on quilting and the annual 5 day class I am taking in her Master Series.  This is year 6, Color Challenge II.  It was great to see everyone again and catch up.  The class was excellent, many things came together and make a lot more sense now.  Need to practice and continue working on the lessons we had throughout the year.  Novel idea.  

Not sure I am crazy about the second painting of the windows.  It is loose to say the least, but that is what we are to do.  Quick capture and painting.  And I did leave some white. 

Need to get the class notes typed up.  Never a dull moment. 

   

It is COLD!!!

I have friends who grew up in Canada and who live in Canada and some from MN and ND.  They don't have a problem with this weather we are currently having, but I do!!  -12F and -40F with the wind chill factored in is too darned cold for me!!  I am a wimp and proud of it.  Come on, when exposed skin can freeze in 5 to 10 minutes!!! 

 
I did go out yesterday and I did get a perm and do my assignment for Jane's class.  We were to go out, sketch and paint in public at a coffee shop.  So I did.  I did the background and writing at home.  I even penciled in the writing before inking and I still couldn't follow the lines and messed up the 'chill' because I was 'chilled'.  The experience of sketching and painting in public wasn't as bad as I thought it might be and it is true, people just ignore you.

The studio froze up through all of this lovely weather.  Thought I had left the water dripping, but apparently not.  Hope the it will thaw out without any major hassles.

January at its end

I cannot believe it will be the last day of January tomorrow!!!  Where, oh where, has the month disappeared??? 

Thought I would post once more before the end.  I am about ready to tie myself to my sewing room chair so that I can get my quilts done for the class I will be attending in 2 weeks time in TX.  I have two that must be made from scratch, two others I would like to redo, we will see how the time goes.  Then I have to get packed for the class.  I was going to dye some wonderful fabrics to take there this year, but alas that hasn't happened either. 

The photo today is of the latest watercolor painting.  Pleased with most of it.  Should have kept the date by my name like I usually do.  I wrote '2010' instead of '2011' and had to fix that.  The blue in the box became a little darker than I would have liked.  
 

Running a little behind!!!

  Thought I should post a note before January got away from me.  Where did the month go??!!  Time seems to be moving faster.  I blame computers for some of it, I am also thinking getting older has something to do with it as well.  I forget what I am going to get between locations, have to do things over again because they were wrong the first, second and sometimes third time ---- I will stop there. 

  Between bookwork, a few trips to the Front Range, and online classes I have been busy, just don't have much to show for it. 

  I am currently taking two watercolor classes, one from Jane LaFazio and one from Laure Ferlita.  Jane's is a journal watercolor class, one where I am to leave white areas in my paintings, and Larue's is more the way I like to paint.  I have new watercolors and I am learning what they do.  Behind in both classes, but hope to change that in the next few days.
  I also signed up for Susan Sorrel's Funky Felt Pins class on Joggles.  It looked fun and something I can sit and do at night.  Behind there as well as the felt came right before we left for the weekend.
  Cleaned the sewing room, it was necessary to make the felt pins, and have no idea how it became such a disholved mess since I haven't made anything lately.  And then there are those quilts for Hollis' class in TX and it is coming up quickly.  
 The picture is of a key I drew while messing around one evening.  Love Zentangels and it was a fun way to do a lesson, however it doesn't count since there is not any watercolor paint on the thing.  The Zentangle heart does have watercolor on it.  

  I just completed working on a piece of fabric for a swap we had on Dyehards.  It was an ugly fabric swap.  We were to send a piece of fabric we felt left a lot to be desired and transform it.  I thought Mary's piece was lovely, mostly yellow when I received it. 
I was pleased with the piece I did, learned a few things and finally overcame my fear of working on complex cloth pieces.  Now if I had more time to get over to the studio and start over dyeing some of those pieces of fabric I don't care for.

  Life use to be much slower in the winter, I would sit reading garden catalogs, waiting impatiently for Spring to arrive.  I need to get the seeds ordered too, but I am not sure when I will get that done and March is just around the corner. 

  So life moves on at a crazy pace around here, even in the dead of winter.