All About Shape - 2

Terry Jarrard-Dimond's class at QBL2 at Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center:

Our last morning of class we reviewed the work we had done so far. Terry is standing between my piece on the left and Val's on the right.











Val was working hard to complete more of her piece before she had to leave for her flight back home.

My piece shows some other iterations that I was auditioning.












Denise Kooperman from Trumansburg did these two interesting pieces.




















Linda and Julia were practicing their best Trick or Treat faces, complete with sound effects!

All About Shape class

Terry Jarrard-Dimond's class at QBL2 at Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center:

Val Zeman from Long Island (on the left) and Joanne Batchelor from Ottawa (on the right) also had their tables at the front end of the room.    In the "small world" category, Val and I met in a dyeing class eight years ago and discovered we have friends in common.








Terry's assignment was for us to cut several shapes out of paper and then select interesting shapes from them to create a composition.

The shapes were sewn to the background using machine applique.

Val used some wonderful hand-dyed fabrics, and the beautiful greens and purples gave her a very rich-looking composition.















Terry made sure she spent time with each student at their design walls.

QBL2 at Schweinfurth

I'm packing up to go to the Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center in Auburn, NY, for their QBL2 session of classes.

I'll be taking Terry Jarrard-Dimond's "All About Shape" class, and her supply list said to bring LOTS of fabric, along with the usual sewing supplies. I'm happy to be using Bill's Yukon to cart all of my things!









Our classroom is upstairs in the Museum, which provides plenty of space for everyone to have a table and a design wall.
















I moved into the front corner and had plenty of room to spread out my supplies.








Terry was already there and set up the afternoon before our class started.

The Last Harvests

The tail end of the harvesting is upon us, and we've experienced an exceptionally long growing season this year.

This is some of our Italian flat-leaf parsley that has been washed and was spread out to dry on an old screen.









Suki appeared and supervised the "putting-by" process, where the leaves are removed from the stems and then put into plastic bags for freezing. The parsley will be added to soups over the winter.













We have been enjoying our late fall crop of spinach.

















And without a hard frost, there were still a few raspberries and a few more statice and straw flowers for drying.

Studio Visitors

Diane Miller came with Beth for her first visit to the studio. She's talking to Jeanne about the sample quilt that Jeanne is making for her up-coming quilt retreat at Stella Maris in Skaneateles, NY.










Priscilla has just about completed the piecing on her quilt top that is made of batik panels from Nepal. She plans to quilt it in two sections and then sew it together.











Beth's dog, Rufus, came along for the day and came in the studio for a couple of quick visits.



The pieces that I made for the Exquisite Corpse exhibit are on the wall while I consider making more squares to go with them.










This guy and three of his smaller friends were on the studio door on a warm rainy night. I think they were tree frogs, or spring peepers, although it's certainly not spring and they weren't making any of their peeping noises!

Gourds on Display

One of the goose-neck variety has fled to the safety of the upper shelf of our wall bookcases.

World-traveler Priscilla opines that it looks more like a cobra snake rising out of a basket.  We're sure she has seen the real thing many times!!

Here some of Marcia's quilts, that are coming back from and going out again to juried shows, join some of Mother Nature's color creations.

Double clicking will bring a real close-up into view.  Both wall and table display interesting examples of color choice.

Each individual gourd contains wonderful combinations of pattern, shape, and design.  Together the group demonstrates nature's majesty and variation.

The shades of green are great and the melted-candle look of the large samples on the right and rear are some of our favorites.  Looking at all our gourds reminds us of enjoying sunsets -- much to admire and ample time to linger in view.

A Jet Trails Day

It's hard to top an October day in Western New York when warm temperatures and a clear sky prevails.  We were working hard putting the perennial gardens to bed for the winter.  Striking examples of jet trails were keeping us company.









The lack of high-altitude winds allowed the exhaust vapor trails to hold their shapes long after the planes had passed.












As the sun lowered in the western sky, more eliptical and crossing patterns entered the picture.  We wonder if some of these are traces of miliary maneuvers, chasing each other or speeding to designated intersecting points in the sky.

 

The patterns grew more hectic and frantic.  The number of individual planes jumped to double figures.  Hope we aren't under attack!

Studio visitors

Beth and Priscilla were here for a sewing day, and I made a bit more progress on my latest jacket.

By the time I remembered to get out the camera, Priscilla had already finished working on her newest jacket.

Beth was organizing the hexagon pieces that she made while at her beach house in NC. This is one of three hexagon quilts that she is finishing up.








Priscilla made some more progress on her quilt that is comprised of batik panels that she purchased in Nepal.














Beth is working on the 2nd hexagon quilt. Once she was satisfied with the layout, she pinned the pieces to a sheet of flannel so she could take it home to start sewing the blocks together.

Priscilla's fabrics that are next to Beth's blocks are beautiful hand-dyed pieces from Elin Nobel that are being considered for the next new jacket.








And a couple of days later, Jeanne Beck and Jeanne Simpson were here for a work session. As a follow-up to our class with Becky Howdeshell on design elements, we each worked from one of the assignments Becky had given us, to see what more we could do with it.

Closing Camp for the Winter

We made a quick trip to Chase Lake to bring back the Jeep for storage here and to make sure everything was tucked away for the winter. 

Our garage at camp can hold two cars, but will be used primarily this winter to store my brother’s kyacks.

Bill took a picture of me trying out the camera features on my new iPhone 4.

I’m very pleased to get such great pictures from my phone!

Suki Sightings

Suki always likes to be part of the action, so if something is going on in the studio, she likes to be with us. 

Here she's keeping Jeanne Simpson company.








She also likes to be in boxes or help hold down the top of Priscilla's sewing supplies case.

 

Suki's favorite toys are rubber bands, and she will amuse herself for long periods of time by throwing them up in the air and then chasing them.  We've tied a few bands together, which makes them a little easier to find after she's scattered them around the studio.