Hello,

I am still feeling the effects of Quilting By the Lake and I am almost a week away from the event.      I helped hang the quilt show  that is part of QBL.  (that was four weeks ago now)  It is always great as one gets to look closely all the work.  This piece is by my friend Randy Keenan.  This shot of her is in the dorm lounging after a hard day.

The first night we had a great lecture and trunk show by Katie Pasquini Masopust.  She was very excited about her log cabin work and it was very enjoyable.

Seeing old friends is always a big part of QBL for me.  This hand work is by my friend Sharron  Evens . She was in Independent Studio class with me all week although she was in the other room.  She is still working on her “Dear Jane” quilts, but she is now doing the boarder triangles.   She is doing seven variations on this quilt all by machine and all at the same time.There is one for each of her children.    Each is  different color pallet with a different special effect.    Over the two weeks of QBL she finished seven of the triangle units for all seven of the quilts. ( see some in the background of the second shot)   She assures me she will be done with all of them by QBL time next year so she can take a class.  It has taken four years to complete this task.    This shot of her on the floor is when she was getting ready to insert the center of this quilt on point.   She has written a note book to go along with the project too.   It is quite a task.

The really great thing about Independent Studio is how much is going on. Trina and Leona were working on two quilts based on the same photo of a Chinese Garden.  It was fun to watch it change over the course of the week and to hear them talk- sort of a peek into the two different ways their brains worked on the same problems.      I worked on a new rock /foundation piece.  I did take a photo every day  this is day 2.  The second is day 5.

The other wonderful thing about studio is we can do just what we want and on Thursday afternoon I taught a mini lesson in how to make silk paper in the women’s bathroom( it was too windy to work out of doors).  It was fun and everyone who did it walked away with a little bit of silk paper to use .

There was a new feature this year at QBL- it was a lecture/or trunk show every afternoon  after class.  The topics ranged from “How to care for your Quilts” by a textile conservator,  a talk by Donna Lamb on “Future planning for QBL” to trunks shows.   Week one I made it to two of the trunk shows.  One by Julia Graziano  and a second by Nancy Breland.   Week two I went to  Marcia De Camps’s trunk show.  She showed forty works   in forty min.

 

 

 

A second event that took place both weeks was a mini mall were participants and a few outsiders came and sold there wears at the quilt show.    There was also a raffle in conjunction with that event

and I won a prize.

There was an special show / event at the Schweinfurth both weeks as well and I found it to be really fun and exciting.   All the work was done with recycled materials.  I encourage any one to go and see it.

In between weeks one and two of QLB I went home  and did laundry and switched gears as I went off to  a new class.  On Sunday on my way back to QBL I stopped and visited the Syracuse Arts and Crafts fair.  My friend Sharon Souva   won a first place ribbon in the show.  It does look good.

Donna and Stephany were  there to greet everyone when we returned.   I took a class  with David Hornung  week two-  Color/Collage.  

This shot is of my work table day two in the morning before I got started.

It is still sort of tidy- but things went down hill from there.   Marcia worked next to me and I really enjoyed watching her build her projects.   Her style is so clean and beautiful.     Linda was across the room and    this shot is of one of Linda’s more lyrical projects.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Angela was in the class  too and she ended up doing lots of Gelli plate printing of her backgrounds instead of painting them.  She even demonstrated for David and other interested folks  how the process works.    I think David  is hooked  and will try this technique.

The last night of QBL is always a mixture of excitement and sadness.    We have a class show and tell  for all the classes.   This shot is of the folks in Sherri Lyn Woods class.     This year was the  final teacher apron auction for the scholarship fund. I really liked Judy Bliden’s  “eat out” apron .

I went back to the dorm for one last bit of talk and parting.  Sharron  made am a root beer float and it was wonderful  way to end a great week of QBL activites .

Then there was the AQS  Quilt Week going on down town too.

Saturday morning I went down and meant Cheri and her mom to check out the show at the On Center .     The quilt show was a good one and I had a hard time choosing my favorite.  Marcia’s quilt was among the quilts of friends that I spotted at the show.

I enjoyed the SAQA section of the show too.  Most of the quilts in that part were from Europe.     I really liked this wonderful piece with all the different textures the most.  

 

 

Things did not stop with the second show for me either.  The first Tuesday of the mount was this week so I had QuIG’s  and Diva meetings too.     So many folks were also QBL partisipants that we spent a lot of time talking about  what folks did.

Several folks- Liz, Linda C, Linda H and Angela were all in a Cantha class together.

The hand work is wonderful.  Angela has already started two shawls with this type of stitching in mind. It will be a while until it is done- but I really like the start of this one.     

 

Linda H is taking an on line class with Elizabeth Barton.   This is her solution to the problem for the  July Challenge.   What great movement.                                                                                                                               Linda C has finished the work she showed us last month.   I really like what she  does with small  inserted lines.

Angela is taking an on line class too and this is her  felted  interpretation of one of her drawings.

Sally did this work about Dr. Who for her daughter who is crazy about the story.

 

 

 

 

  She was busy with her embroidery too and getting ready for Christmas.     This is a part of a Christmas tree skirt.

Sue Ellen is working away on her tree series and this is the newest one. She also took a class at QBL with Cynthia Corbin and did a lot of work with purples.  This shot also shows the inspiration for the piece  she did in this class.

 

 

 

 

Liz is making progress on her Row by Row work .   It will make a great summer quilt when she is done.

Victoria  was in Judy Bliden’s  class and here is her final sketch for the next quilt she will be working on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Julia was asked to be a part of Nancy Crow’s Circles Show and this is her entry.  It is  wonderful.

Sally is moving so we made a little  box full of little quilts form all of us.     She is holding up Alice’s work here.   This second is Susan’s piece for Sally.

Anne is working away on finishing this piece for a show.  I really like the interesting   machine quilting she is doing with her work.

Noel took a painting class at QBL and she learned how to paint sea shells among other things.   This work will be fun to watch grow.

 

 

Ruth purchased this piece from the AQS show.  It is on of the Egyptian tent works that they were  featuring and selling.  I like all the wonderful color and usage of traditional  Egyptian patterns.

I have not done any work out side of QBL but I am very full of ideas.

Keep Creating

Carol