Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Home for the Winter .....

...with the best class of the year being last week on Cape Cod...
We saw lots of "wonderful things"!  The ladies in the class worked hard for five days, producing many abstract designs and making at least one, often two and occasionally three (!) of them!

Here are some of the results:

Sharon's sketch (on left) looked really good...
and here is the finished piece: 


 the additions of the little white lines brings it to life beautifully.....



Betty's piece if full of joi de vivre!!  Betty is one of the smartest and liveliest 83 yr olds I know and is an inspiration for all of us.

Karen's little quilt has a real air of mystery  - are these strange beings on another planet??  that's abstraction for you!


The armchair bicyclist....Linda is planning a series inspired by a lime green tricycle she saw in Italy...


Kathy is also a traveller, she worked from marvelous photos of Africa...the catch of fish being brought in at the end of the day and all the village inhabitants gathered....baskets on heads...I love the simplicity of this outline which conveys everything...a brilliant abstraction...

Linda G managed to completely block out 3 quilts as well as draw many designs...a previous teacher had warned her off having points in a quilt - so it was great to see her using points with aplomb!!!  You can use any shape, any colour, any length of stitch - don't ever let any teacher restrict you from your imagination!

and there were many more...but now I must look forward to converting this class into an online mode ...I had so much material I'm thinking the online class might even be in two parts.  But first, of course, to catch up with everything at home.  I do not know how the average quilt circuit teacher manages any kind of creative life of their own, or do anything else at all!  But I'm learning from Betty - the secret of successful old age: square dancing!  It's exercise, it's physical contact with others (hand holding is mandatory! as are hugs), it's social and it's cognitively challenging with any one of 100 or more class per minute being required of 8 people working in unison!!  And of course the quiet side of life - in the studio - in golden solitude, working with those five elusive elements....
So, if you have been, thanks for reading!   Happy Thanksgiving here in the United States!  Elizabeth

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