Do You Like Being In New Territory When You Are Making Art?

     Have you taken a workshop and found yourself floundering when before in workshops you felt completely comfortable? Well, I'm in Pat Pauly's workshop these past two days and the first half of the first day I jumped right in, but I also felt like if I was earning a grade I would get a big fat "F".  I kept asking "What should I do next?" and just couldn't see my way forward. But then, I suddenly got it and started having fun. We all started with sets of strips of fabrics that we had prepared at home. Here were mine.

My fabric sets pinned on my design wall in the class

     Then Pat showed us various ways to slash them with the rotary cutter (w/o a ruler) and ways to sew the pieces together again to get interesting chunks. We slashed and sewed for several hours and pinned our chunks to our walls.

Pat critiquing and suggesting ways to combine chunks

     We circulated to each students' wall and Pat pointed out ways to connect the chunks to make the compositions work well. If they weren't working, she suggested how to slash to make them work better.

Day 2 after doing other exercises

     I decided on the above basic composition but still have to slash some pieces off in the middle before I connect the chunks (they are still only pinned together).

Proposed general idea after day 2

     Looks messy to me at this point. We'll see what I can do with it on Day 3. I figure I can always either add on, cut off, rearrange, or something else. And there is no due date for when I have to have it done. One thing I like is the colors and the textures. Someday, I will end up with something I like from it even if it is something very small. It has been a worthwhile and exciting workshop for me. I have learned some very valuable and innovative piecing and cutting skills and there is still one more day to go. The experience with Pat Pauly has been fun and lovely. The facility at the Atlantic Center of The Arts in New Smyrna Beach, Florida for Focus on Fiber for our class is top notch! Amazing class space, wonderful lighting, a great chef for our three meals a day, and beautiful scenery all around us.

     I'm linking this to Off The Wall Friday where you can find other art quilt blogs. Please make comments on their posts to let the artists know you stopped by. Thanks for visiting.