I LOVE teaching jobs that are close enough to reach by car in a day, and this trip was just a blast!  Life has been a bit hectic–we are still settling in to the new house and I am working on my studio so this was a few weeks ago in Late March.  As usual, I was so busy teaching that I didn’t take too many pictures (sigh).

A while back the Bayberry Quilters of Cape Cod invited me to give two lectures and two workshops!  What fun!  I drove down on a Tuesday (when we got another  dump of snow…why it couldn’t have done that on Monday or Wednesday I do not know!) and gave my first lecture (The Decorated Quilt)  that evening, then another (the journal quilts)  the following morning.  After the lecture, we had lunch at a FABULOUS little restaurant, Morrell’s Restaurant and Catering (in South Dennis); I had Shepherd’s pie that was so good I went back for dinner a couple nights later!

A Woods Hole back street with the typical weathered shingles and white trim

On Wednesday afternoon I was off, so I drove to Woods Hole in hopes of seeing some of the Oceanographic institute (Eli is really interested in Marine biology and oceanography) but pretty much everything that is usually open to the public was closed for winter.  It was still a lovely drive–very (well duh!) Cape Cod-ish! For the ride back I stopped here to get a cookie and latte…loved the name:

Pie in the Sky bakery

On Thursday I taught Balinese Garden, which is a pattern of mine (here) so this is –unusual for me–a project class whose goal is to familiarize quilters with the decorative stitches on their machines and some decorative threads (the fiddly ones!).  Here is my table runner take on the pattern:

The table runner I made from my pattern (still not quilted...sigh...time, I need time....)

I strongly encourage quilters to do their own thing, and this group did!  Some stayed fairly close to the pattern, others completely changed the set-up and two more totally did their own thing using their ideas for a quilt (one was jellyfish, another an Asian-inspired pond scene).  I totally loved it!

Laying out the "vine" on the background

Cutting leaves, buds and flowers

Using a more traditional wreath setting for the multi-yarn vine--so springy and cheerful!

A more traditional and lovely take on the pattern--she used a lovely echo method of outlining the main flowers

This student used a landscape printed fabric with a beach, shore and ocean as her background, and it is lovely!

One delectable stash for using to decorate the quilt and make the vine

Another version, closer to the pattern

Jellyfish...same techniques totally different subject--yeah!

Another student wanted to use some Asian-inspired fabrics and do a moon / pond scene. She adapted my techniques to her design--way cool!

On Friday, I taught a favorite class to teach:  Quilting Design.  We had a grand time, I showed the ladies that they can indeed draw (!), and learned some easy-peasy ways to draft what might seem (but aren’t) complicated patterns.  In the afternoon we used the quilt tops they brought to brainstorm quilting designs, talking about hand versus machine, easy versus complicated, and so on.  That was SO MUCH FUN, but alas I was busy crawling on the floor showing how to use the clear overlay sheet to test-drive ideas and didn’t take any photos!  I really love teaching this class because students always walk away enthused and energized and realizing they can do their own designs.  Alas, it is rarely booked, and would be even better as a 1 1/2 or 2 day workshop.  So if anyone out there wants FUN…book this one!  It looks like I’ll be able to teach it as a 1 1/2 day workshop at Vermont Quilt Festival in 2012…hope to see you there!

Remember this grim view of my new studio, upon moving in to the new house?

In the beginning, it was dark and yucky. At least the wall separating the (!!!! in a basement?) dark brown room from the white room is down in this photo.

It was at least an improvement from this, before the wall went down:

My studio. Ahem. Clearly, this is the "before" picture. The camera flash makes the room appear much brighter than it actually was. Erg.

By late March, things were improving.  The wall was down, the lights were IN…nine 2-bulb fixtures with maximum lumens (the amount of light—-aging eyes  always want MORE) with daylight colored bulbs.

French doors went in... this is before they were painted so the primer is covering up the plastic that is covering up the glass in the center of the doors. Not only do the doors keep the cats for shedding and urping on stuff -- and the dog from leaving "presents"--but closing the doors helps funnel the heat from the woodstove in the center of the basement up the stairs to the main part of the house.

Those towels you see are wet — to help lift the HORRID paint on the old floors.  I think the previous owners used some leftover wall latex on the floor, and clearly you needed a different paint formula for it to adhere to the floor.  If you got water on it, it turned to paint-mush-muck-mud-soup.  Mostly.  Then there were the stuck on bits that would mostly (but not all) come up if you got down on your knees (on the COLD cement floor) and scraped with a metal flat-edged scraper.  Oh whee.  Having fun are we?

This is painting the part of the room that had been white and was the previous owner's son's painting studio. WIth that jade/aqua on the floor--with many assorted drips and drops of other colors of unkown paints..

And painted:

one half done....waiting for the paint to cure up hard so I can move the furniture to the other side and paint the second half.

You’ll notice the number of boxes is down, the amount of stuff hither and yon is up……

The other half of the room while the first half is painted. That wall on the left will end up being a closet. We will have hanging doors upholstered into design walls to cover up all that visual clutter. And notice...the TV works--the DirecTV is hooked up!

THIS is why you always want to schlep a camera with you….. was heading from Hope to Camden to pick up the teenager at his girlfriend’s.  This is what I saw as I went down the driveway:

And this slightly zoomed view:

Then, as I went down the last hill on Route 105 into Camden, the most enormous moon I’ve ever seen (even larger than that huge one a month or two ago) loomed up over a rooftop.  I promptly called the teen and said I would be a couple minutes late, I needed to drive down to the harbor and take some pics….here’s the best of the bunch:

And going back UP the driveway at home, this breathtaking moon and clouds!  Be still my beating heart!  How did I get to be so lucky as to live here?

Just pictures today, to show that spring really IS coming to Maine, despite the fact that snow is on the ground on April 13 (but melting!!!!).

At the bottom of the driveway this tree has silvery fuzzy buds (no, not a willow)

Catkins from last fall still hang, but the knobby bits are swelling

Near the "elbow" in the driveway are six large shrubs of pussy willows. Must cut some to bring in to the house! Daddy always had a vase of pussy willows (dried) in a vase on the old phonograph

On the eastern side of the propery, this tree is looking crunchy...yes! Don't you just love the delicate tracery in the twigs and branches?

This tree is trying so hard to flush into green....soon! by mid-May we'll be about halfway leafed out.

As I promised on Friday, more pictures!   A while back, Kris C. asked in a comment for more detail photos in general…of  course we ALL want more pictures, so here you go–ask and it shall be given!  And I’ll try to include more close-ups in the future.

Here's the overall quilt

The detail photos are large–you should (in theory) be able to click on them to see them a bit larger and therefore see more of the quilting.  All of the color on this quilt comes from either the cloth or the thread–no paint or pencils on this one!

Clothed in Color, detail 1

and another:

Clothed in Color, Detail 2

And a few more…these are cropped sections so I’m not sure how well they will display on the internet at internet resolution….

This feather is in the background to the left of the figure. Thanks to Photoshop Elements I lightened the color a bit so you can better (I hope) see the stitching. The background quilting is a checkerboard in some areas (you can still see the chalk mark guidelines) and freeform small vine in others.

Another feather in the border, along with words facing both forwards and backwards. The words include the things that are the good and the not so good that make me the one caught in the space between: mother, daughter, wife, quilter, tired, artist....

And a close up of the hand:

Hand by the shoulder in yellow, orange and green

Once again, great comments from my readers lead me to add a PS:

Kris…believe it or not, the “nested “V” is really easy…..  think of it as free-motion multi-stitch zigzags…..   I’ll do a row or two of nested Vs in one color on the edge of the arm (darkest), ditto on the opposite side in the next-to-lightest (or whatever color is suitable for the way the light falls).

For example, on the arm I’ll use maybe 4 or 5 colors….depends on the value (light-light medium-medium-medium dark-darkest tones) on that part of the arm.  The trick is learning to see what is there and then break it down into colors.

Sometimes, I use my thread stash as a guide.  If I have four colors that blend well but not five, then the color shift must be done in four colors.  You’d think with the gazillion threads I’ve got I’d have plenty, but when you really start sorting out tones, it’s amazing what you DON’T have LOL!  I’ll sometimes alternate a row or three of two colors to try to blend it, letting the eye “moosh” the colors into a seemingly smooth transition.

I can’t recommend “The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain” by Betty Edwards highly enough, or a drawing class in general.  Learning to actually SEE what is there, as opposed to what you think is there, is wonderful.  Also fiddling around with the filters in Photoshop Elements (just the cheapie version is unbelievably robust) can teach you to figure out where the lights, mediums, darks and deepest darks are.   I was surprised when in a drawing class 20 years ago someone said the darkest part of the face is the line between the lips.  It actually is, but I’d never noticed, and now I believe nostrils aren’t far behind!

Thanks to all who take the time to comment on my blog… I learn so much from all of you and your questions and comments!