Workshop opportunities

[This replaces an earlier post, with a shorter list.]

I recently wrote out a list of workshop opportunities for a friend who has taken up quilting, and thought I'd share it on my blog also. Some of these places offer workshops in a variety of art/craft practices (first group below). Others are quilt/textile centered. The teachers are usually very good, and a workshop is a great way to spend dedicated time. Except for those at quilt shows (3rd group), these workshops are usually one week long, sometimes two. And while I was at it, I listed the quilt museums I know about as well.

I've done two workshops at Arrowmont (mixed media, machine quilting), one at the Pacific Northwest Art School (hand-stitching), one at Ox-Bow (paper-making), and several at the Nancy Crow Barn (fabric dyeing, textile surface design); all have been excellent. 

Variety of offerings in art/craft, including quilts/textiles (workshops are either one or two weeks long)

·      Arrowmont, Gatlinburg, TN

·      Haystack, Deer Isle, Maine 

·      Penland, Penland, North Carolina

·      Shakerag, Sewanee, TN

·      Pacific Northwest Art School, Coupeville, WA (on Whidbey Island)

·      Ox-Bow School of Art, Saugatuck, MI (the summer school of the Art Institute of Chicago; open to anyone in the summer)

·      Madeline Island School of the Arts, La Pointe, WI

·      John Campbell Folk School, Brasstown, NC

·      Appalachian Center for Craft, Cookeville, TN

·      Anderson Ranch, Snowmass Village, Colorado

·      North Country Studio Workshops, Bennington, VT

Quilt/textile focused (usually one-week workshops)

·      Nancy Crow Barn, Baltimore, OH

·      Aya Fiber Studio, Stuart, FL (mostly dyeing/surface design, but some stitching workshops)

·      Maiwa School of Textiles, Vancouver, British Columbia

·      Stitchin' Post, Sisters, Oregon (Jean Wells regularly teaches here)

·      Quilt and Surface Design Symposium, Columbus, Ohio

·      Okan Arts, Seattle, WA

·      Woodland Ridge Retreat, Downsville, WI

·      Empty Spools Seminars, Pacific Grove, California

·      Grand Hotel Needle Art Seminar, Mackinac Island, Michigan

Quilt shows that include many workshops (usually just one day long):

·      Wisconsin Quilt Expo, September, Madison, WI

·      International Quilt Festival, Oct/Nov, Houston, TX (the largest quilt show)

·      Minnesota Quilt Show, June, latest shows in Rochester or St. Cloud, MN

·      Vermont Quilt Festival, June, Essex, VT

·      QuiltCon, location varies, the show to go to for modern quilting

·      Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza, September, Philadelphia, PA

·      Quilt Odyssey, July, Hershey, PA

·      International Quilt and Fiber Arts Festival, October, Everett, WA

·      AQS Quilt Week in Paducah, KY, fall and spring

list of many shows/workshops: https://quiltersresources.com/event/classes-and-workshops

Quilt museums

·      International Quilt Museum, Lincoln, NE

·      San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, San Jose, CA

·      Pacific Northwest Quilt and Fiber Arts Museum, La Conner, WA

·      Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, VT (includes a large textile collection, including quilts)

--> If you know of other resources you think I should add, please let me know.

Hand-made paper

I spent last week at a papermaking workshop at the Ox-Bow School of Art, the summer school of the Art Institute (open to non-students). I've never made paper before, but I wanted to try out Ox-Bow (it's closer to me than the other places I've gone for week-long workshops), and I was interested in trying out something new, just for the pleasure of it, and figuring there might be connections one way or another with textile work. At a minimum, I figured, I'd come out with some paper that I could use to make cards. That was certainly accomplished, and if it was easier to make paper in my own studio, I'd be tempted to continue with it. The teacher, Andrea Peterson, was excellent. If you're interested to see a couple of short videos of her in her studio, you can watch here (includes a demonstration of painting with pulp directly on the paper) and here (is a tour of her studio, showing the equipment used). The students were also a great group, about 2/3 Art Institute students, and the rest artists working in a variety of media. The facilities at Ox-Bow are very good, and the setting is beautiful. I will definitely keep an eye on their calendar for other possible workshops to do there.

The photo at top shows a few small pieces of cotton paper (about 8" square) that we made the first evening we were there. The piece on the left is plain; the second was scrunched up and then smoothed out, to get some texture; the third had a bamboo placemat pressed into it for texture.

We worked with a range of fibers: cotton, flax, abaca (a banana plant from the Philippines), and kozo (mulberry). This photo shows some cotton undyed and dyed, flax, and abaca.

I did a lot of experimentation with combining fibers, often using a mold that was about 5"x10"; my plan is to fold these in half for cards.

One technique we learned is called "inclusion." You make a sheet of paper, and while it's still wet (before pressing and drying), you can lay things on the paper, then covering them with a very thin, transparent sheet of abaca.  Here I've included (from the left) flower petals from spiderwort, pine needles, and broken up bits of a pine cone. (Click on any image to enlarge.)

close-up of the spiderwort petals

from left: spiderwort pistils, dandelion, unknown flower petals

We were able to dry most of the paper we made in a special dryer, which kept the paper flat, between blotting paper and large sheets of cardboard. What we couldn't fit in the dryer, we air-dried, which results in a crumpled texture:

I also made some big sheets (about 20x30"), all of them creating a swirl with two different fibers. (The blue below is a dyed cotton.)

detail of the large sheets

We worked with colored pulp (colored by mixing in paint) in two different ways.  The first was by coloring the pulp in the main vats, and pulling paper from those vats. This next photo is a combination of rectangles pulled from blue and tan vats, and a looser shape pulled from a red vat. (The red was a larger shape, but I didn't like it, so I put another rectangle of blue over it.) The white below is just a separate piece of paper so you can see the colors, which in person are not washed out like the photo.  I like this one a lot--wish I'd done more of this sort.

about 18x28"

 Most of this next one was done in the same way: making three rectangles of cream and tan, and then laying down other blue shapes that I dripped onto a bamboo-supported screen and then "couched" onto the cream/tan.  The red dots were made in a different way--by "painting" with a much more finely ground pulp, which was then colored. The colored pulp becomes part of the paper itself--rather than being paint applied to the surface. The problem is, it's not easy to apply with a high degree of control. Rather than a brush, implements used are spoons, squeeze bottles, syringes, or just poured from a cup. These circles are OK, but I didn't otherwise have much success with this technique.

In the next piece, the rectangles and large blue areas were couched on, but the red lines were my attempt to draw with a syringe. I was frustrated with my inability to get a steady line, and abandoned "painting" with the color pulps after a couple more failed pieces.  Some students had a lot of success with the technique, but it didn't interest me enough to keep at it.  

When I get around to making cards from some of this paper, one thing I'll try is adding stitching to the paper.  Here are some sample stitches that I did on the back of an ugly painted sheet. Two different kinds of thread, using an embroidery needle.  This worked fine on the cotton paper; I'll try a finer needle on the the abaca and kozo. I'll also try out some stamping on the paper--probably similar to what I've done on commercial paper and on linen fabric.

So, an interesting and fruitful interlude, but now I'm eager to get back to my fabrics. . .

Back in the studio

With prepping my studio for painting, putting it all back together again, and then a two-week trip to France, I was out of the studio for all of March and April. Once I got home, I spent a couple of weeks working on small projects, but then a week ago, I put Jeremy's wedding quilt blocks back up on the design wall, and have been working steadily on it since.  I start each day making a block and building up my supply of smaller units. It feels good to be working on it again, and I now have enough blocks up on the wall that I can get a sense of the overall impact.  I am happy with the direction it is taking.

The quilt will be about 60" wide (the width between the two strips of blue painter's tape on the design wall) and about 90" long (marked by the strip of tape on the heat register at bottom left). Right now I have 29 blocks, all cut to 10.5" high, but with varying widths. The blocks are not yet sewn together. I am thinking about placement as I put finished blocks on the wall, but there will be a good deal of adjustment once all the needed blocks are sewn.

I did complete one small top in early April, at a four-day retreat in Chicago with my friends in Quilters by Design:

42 x 42"

This started as a "travel appliqué" project, made with my hand-dyed fabric, and using the design of quarter-circles that I made in another quilt, described here (interesting to see how different the same design can look with different fabrics). For a year or two, I carried around gray squares with basted circles. When they were done, I cut them in quarters and sewed them back together. I chose colors based on my bedroom--this may end up as a wall-hanging for that room.

And here's an account of the small projects I completed after I got home from France:

First up, I spent time designing and basting a new travel appliqué project. I like to have appliqué to do as handwork with me when I travel, but there are requirements: it has to be relatively small, and it has to be working with complete single shapes, not layering one shape on another. I had such a project with me in France, but it was something I had done before--a repeat of a Japanese crest design. It happened to be a relatively challenging piece (many very narrow pieces), and that, along with the fact that it was something I'd already done, added up to a not very enjoyable project.  When I got home, I actually threw it out, about 1/3 completed. I was highly motivated to have another project lined up before my next trip, whenever that may be.  I decided to something along the lines of this quilt, done about 10 years ago from a purchased pattern:

I decided to go with just rows of applique, no striped borders. I sketched out a design in Photoshop, experimenting with shapes and colors, and figuring out the dimensions

I kept the dimensions as designed, including placement of narrower rows, but did further fiddling with shapes and colors. The shapes are now all basted onto rows of yellow fabric. This way, I can take a couple of rows of fabric with me on a trip. I'll sew the rows together once the appliqué is done. 

will finish at 36 x 42"

Hmm, looking at this photo, I think I may need to un-baste the orange triangles and place them a little further apart.

Next I finished up a small "structured improv" quilt that I started at the quilting retreat, using an improv method that Jill Guffy taught to us.

36 x 42"

Then I finished a round table mat for my sister, to go with some placemats I made for her last year; it just needed trimming and binding.

diameter 29"

And then I spent a few days making a large supply of luggage tags--a fun way to use up small pieces of fabric in my stash. I like to have a supply of these on hand, and I had just given away my last one. Usually I make about 10 at a time, but it always takes me a while to warm up and remember how to make them efficiently, so I figured I would just keep going, and I ended up with close to 4 dozen.

17 different fabrics

44 tags total

And soon after my return, I sandwiched up the half-circle applique project (including dyeing some gray fabric for the backing) and started hand-quilting it. Right now I'm doing a grid of ditch-quilting in the seams, and will likely add additional lines of quilting in two directions in the middle of each small square. Each day after breakfast, I do about 20 minutes of hand-stitching, before going up to the studio. Soon it will be nice enough to do this outside on our back deck--it just has to stop raining. . .