Quilting in the Desert

I booked in to a well known quilt retreat called Quilting in the Desert to take a five day fabric painting class with Patt Blair. We are using Tsukineko Inks in the class. 

The first day we organized our inks and practiced using this new (to most of us) medium. Patti demonstrated dry and wet brush strokes. Later that day she also demonstrated painting faces. These little demos are very helpful. 

The first day I tackled a portrait of our great nephew Nolan playing with a bull dozer in some gravel. I know what I would do differently next time, but I think it turned out fairly well. 

The second day I began a portrait of Don on a hike as he was taking some photographs. The light and shadow in this painting are very strong. Much of his face is hidden behind the camera. He is sitting on a rock that isn't painted yet. 

Mavericks Meeting

Yvonne and I traveled to Tempe to attend the Phoenix area fibre arts group, Mavericks, meeting. This group seems to be the only fibre arts group in the entire greater Phoenix area. I am shocked that there is only one. They are a Large group and there were over 45 people at the meeting. 

A large part of the meeting was spent creating challenges for the upcoming year. After that a portion of time was allotted to help people decide on how to fix design problems in their pieces. At the last part of the meeting was sharing latest works. 

One lady shared her landscape of Antelope Canyon. It is stunning. I had been wondering how to do a landscape of The Wave, a similar sandstone formation. I may now have more concrete ideas!  

Three Hikes this Week

Lots of hiking in the desert mountains this week. 

The first hike was at Lost Dutchman State Park with the Carlsons. It was a beautiful blue sky day, but cool as we could see snow on the top of the distant mountains. 

Hike number two was Butcher Jones hike that follows the edge of Saguaro Lake. The sky was cloudy and the wind cool so we didn't go as far as we may have. Nolan liked to stop and dig in the dirt. Mostly stones on this hike. 

The third hike was Heiroglyph Trail. Don and I did this on our own, but Sunday was not a good day to go as it was very crowded. Gorgeous day tho!!  A very rocky trail that climbed 600 feet to some pools of water with petroglyphs on the rock faces. Great reward!!

Day Two - Silhouette Designs

The group of six enthusiastic participants met for day two of the Painted Fabric Silhouette Tote Bag class to design and sew the silhouettes on the two panels for their tote bags. 

Each person had a great idea for their own personalized silhouette. Many people used a southwest theme - cacti, coyotes, geckos, kokopellis, etc. but others used ivy, butterflies and mountains. 

We used reverse appliqué method to see the silhouettes on. We did not get to the steps of constructing the actual tote bag, but five of the six participants new how to do that. I look forward to seeing the finished results!!

The two day class will be repeated in February for anyone wishing to enrol. 

Painted Fabric Class

The day for the Painted Fabric class at Mad Bs was pouring rain, so we had to set up in the shop. That meant putting down plastic and setting the frames all over the store for the fabric to dry. The store was crowded with brightly coloured fabrics!!

In the class are six enthusiastic women, one of whom is Yvonne!!  They each painted their fabrics. I went back the next day and took the dried fabric off the frames, ironed them to set the colour, brought them home to wash and dry. Tomorrow we will finish the class by using the fabric to make reverse appliqué tote bags. 

Little Fixes

It has been cool and rainy in Mesa. Instead of golfing Don has been doing little jobs around the house. He fixed a burned out light in the hot tub, set up a fountain in the back yard and installed blinds in the master bedroom. Now it is time to quit raining!!

Progress on Cheyenne's Hockey Sweater Quilt

Cheyenne brought over all her hockey jerseys and T-shirts from her hockey career. We cut them into squares, backed them with interfacing, and decided on the arrangement. Then I sashed them and put them together into a quilt top. It isn't quilted yet, but here is a quick peak!