Empty Spools Seminars at Asilomar starts tomorrow 04-09-16

Well, it starts for me, this is the fourth session already this year.  I am so looking forward to Sue Benner's class.  I have taken classes with her before and she is a great teacher.  I finished fusing the fabric scraps until I only have a small piece of Wonder Under left.  Guess I'll have to buy some to take to class. 

Rain today again and rain predicted for tomorrow.  Hope it isn't raining when we are unloading our stuff for class and also our sleeping rooms.  Been there, done that, and it is miserable.   

I do have to stop at Back Porch Fabrics and the Monterey Peninsula QGuild quilt show is on at the Chataqua Hall, so I would like to stop there also.  Registration is at 3pm, so I'll have lots of time.  If I can find a parking spot!

 

Back Porch Fabrics - 2013

 

Back Porch Fabrics - 2013  Owner Gail Abeloe facing camera in middle.

 

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Friday Feet 04-08-16

 

If I wore this type of shoe I would love these - blue and yellow, what a deal.

 

I spent part of today fusing scraps to WonderUnder for the class with Sue Benner.  Since it is a landscape class I'm thinking I will need lots of little pieces.  Hope so, the scraps are not large.  I also brought along my boxes of already fused scraps.  Hope I have what I need.

 

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Drive to San Juan Bautista, CA 04-07-16

No pictures today - I took some of the wildflowers in the hills around Gorman, but the weather was not good and the images are too hazy to see the flowers.  Just as I was driving out of the garage the rain started and it rained until I was over the mountains and down in the central valley at Grapevine.   We welcome the rain, but driving in it with heavy traffic is not fun.  Fortunately, after Grapevine there was no more rain or traffic for me.  I had to stop several times, so it was about a six hour drive, but I arrived before dark.  Always nice because Mary's house is in the hills in an oak woodland - winding, dark, steep road, better in the daylight. 

I will fuse some scraps tomorrow and do some computer work and maybe take a nap... or two.  Gracie the black lab will be here with me and, like all ageing dogs, she mostly sleeps all day.  I am excited about my class with Sue Benner at Empty Spools Seminars, which starts on Sunday, but I need some more pre-fused fabric so I don't use up class time applying the Wonder Under to my scraps.  I have quite a few already fused, but  not enough.  We are supposed to make three to four small landscape quilt tops and I  need to have a good supply of fused fabric to work with. 



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Wordless Wednesday 04-06-16

 

Mt Vernon, WA   04-07-15

Monday Browsing 04-04-16

Great traveling exhibit from SAQA “My Corner of the World”:
http://www.saqa.com/memberArt.php?ID=3492

Art Quilt Elements – currently showing at the Wayne Art Center, Wayne, PA:

http://artquiltelements.org/

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Re-visit a quilt by Wendy Huhn 04-03-16

I posted this quilt soon after I added it to the Collection back in 2011.  I hang it on my wall, but have not taken it to do a program because it has a wooden base and is hard to display with the other 12x12 pieces. 

Wendy Huhn quilt posted on Blog 07-03-11

The textile part of this piece is the round section surrounded by beads.  The square part is Masonite (or something like that), painted and with painted dots to match the background on the textile part.  I purchased this from the online auction of the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, so I had not seen it "in-the-fabric" before it arrived at my house.  I like this work very much, but I was disappointed that it is, in essence, "framed" so that it must have special storage and cannot easily be carried as part of the programs I do.  When buying online or from a catalog I sometimes forget to check every tiny aspect of the quilt and thus have ended up with about ten that must be boxed and are not easily transported. Oh, well!

"The Unanswered Question" - Wendy Huhn - Dexter, Oregon  2010  12" x 12"

Hand embroidery on cotton, plastic screen, glass beads, plastic sequins, painted wood base.

I enjoyed meeting Wendy at a Visions gathering and am impressed with her great techniques.  She uses all kinds of surface design and most of her pieces I have seen are done with paint, transfers, dyes, screens, discharging, stamping, and many other techniques.  I was not aware that this piece was hand embroidered until I received it.  The rings on the fabric are couched, the solid areas (tiger, stump, wooden horses, man) are split stitch with an outline of stem stitch.  Then there is the tiny seed stitching on the rabbits.   I said something to a friend about the crow made of screen and she didn't understand what I meant - she had not noticed the bird!  I don't know what any of the figures mean and Wendy doesn't care if I understand.  I like that about her designs - each viewer can interpret them in the context of their own imagination - their own experiences.   I like the imagery and don't care what any of individual "creatures" means.

 

I assume this is her original framing technique, I've not seen it elsewhere, but then I don't usually buy framed works.  The keyhole slot to hang the piece on the wall doesn't work for me, so I have put in a looped cord with a large knot I stuffed into the keyhole.  I think this is not one of the quilts I sometimes hang backwards!

 
I'm glad this "Unanswered Question" is in the Collection, but it will not be traveling very much.  A shame, because the needlework is quite wonderful. 
I hope you will take the time to look at Wendy's website - it is very colorful and there is a large gallery of her work (clickable thumbnails).    
http://www.wendyhuhn.com/