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.

Do You Take Workshops To Learn New Techniques?

     What is the criteria important to you in choosing a workshop? I hardly ever take real workshops from well known teachers. I just can't justify the cost of flying to the destination plus adding in the cost of the hotels and food and the class. But Pat Pauly is going to be in my territory at the annual Focus on Fiber event and I've always admired her art so I signed up for her three day class called Slash and burn. It starts on the 18th. My friend from elementary school is even flying in from Chicago and staying at my house and we are commuting each day the 45 minute drive to the all day class. Here is her website where you can see her art and the workshops she offers. Pat Pauly 
     To prep for the class, we had homework. We had to sew two fabric sets. One set of five similar fabrics in strips from 1 inch to 5 inches until it is at least 3/4 yard wide (sewn from selvedge to selvedge). And another set of five different fabrics sewn the same way. For my similar set, I chose light colored fabrics. For my different set, I chose fabrics that would coordinate with my light set.            Originally, I planned to monoprint all my fabrics so that I might end up with a quilt that would fit with my body of work. But then I calculated what was needed and it was four yards selvedge to selvedge and I realized I didn't want to monoprint that quantity all at once. So I only monoprinted one of the light colored fabrics and purchased all the others. Here's a photo of the finished sets. They are folded in half in the photo so you are only seeing half of their total length.

light set and different set of fabric strips side by side

     In addition, we are supposed to bring 1/4 yard of each fabric uncut plus some extra fabrics. I'm  very curious to see how it all ends up. I'm wondering if I'll be able to print any imagery on the fabrics when it's all sewn together or stitch any imagery or appliqué rocks or fossils. (As you know I am prone to do.) I'm linking this to Off The Wall Friday where you can find other art quilt blogs. Please make comments on the artists' posts to let them know you stopped by. Thanks for visiting.