But spring is truly here.  Proof?   Go on a dog-walkies midday and spot the FIRST FIDDLEHEAD of the season!

Who says Washington, DC and the rest of the National Capitol Area don’t have a sense of whimsy?

Yes, it is that time of year again, the Peeps contest at the Washington Post!  This is as fun as the “alternative definitions” contest that comes in the doldrums of summer.   If you want to fritter a bit of time away enjoying creativity with peeps (those sticky marshmallowy Easter candies shaped like peeps (baby chicks), bunnies and whatnot), visit here:

Washington Post slide show of 2010 Peeps Show

and for the related article, click here.

Now…back to prepping for next week’s teaching trip…more quilty stuff soon…I hope!

I LOVE woodblock prints, etchings, lino-prints…. I love and am always inspired by Dijanne Cevaal’s work, which you can see on her blog, here (and then follow the links there to more eye-candy).  Well, last year when I was beyond over-busy, I learned she was teaching an online lino-cutting class.  I promptly wrote and asked her to let me know when the next one began.  She did, and on Monday we received our first lesson.  Here are my first rudimentary attempts…

I have cut easier-to-cut surfaces than linoleum, such as MasterCarve (the Rolls Royce of rubbery media) and Speedy-Cut.  But I knew I could learn from Dijanne, and just reading the first lesson was a wonderful tour of antique textiles, textile printing history (did you know that Fauve artist Raoul Dufy also designed couture textiles?  I hadn’t!), and lots of useful tips.

I also learned while working on the first exercise that my Speedball lino-cutting tools are VERY SHARP, and how deep is too deep to cut safely (thereby causing the blade to skitter out of control into my left index finger…OUCH!).  Yes, Dijanne warned us, but I –as usual– appear to have had to learn the hard way that THAT was TOO deep!

The picture at the top is four efforts at printing on cloth.  I used one of three different types of linoleum (wanting to try out each one before buying a bunch) I ordered from Dick Blick, a major discount art supply house here in the US.  I actually don’t much like the one I used here… it is like sawdust plasticized.  I hope I like the other, but harder to carve (?) lino better… the other yellowish one certainly feels smoother, and the quite hard gray even better.  Anyway, here I decided to be uncharacteristically methodical, and tried all 8 of my blades (I have two different carving tools, and luckily each one came with a slightly different assortment of blades, giving me four “V” and four “U” shapes/sizes).

I did a test-print (I used Jacquard textile paint in blue on a piece of aqua hand-dyed) on paper first.  Clearly, I need to refine how much paint I get on the lino-cut and how well.  My sponge roller is in need of a new sponge, since the last time I used it it accidentally dried with paint in it.  Ooops.

I’ve got two more exercises to do for this lesson, and I’m really looking forward to the next two lessons!  However, I’ll wait for my sliced finger to heal and also work on a MAJOR project that is due and needs massive amounts of work NOW… back in a bit with more lino-cutting!

The new year arrived with a doozy of a snowstorm here in Maine.  It was GLORIOUSLY beautiful, so I’ll let the photos do most of the talking.

From the porch…

The back porch is screened, so the coating is the fine fluffy stuff that blew sideways through the screen:

Paul and ‘Widgeon, our pug who is trying out his brand new blue coat:

I LOVE the crests of snow that collect on the branches like tracery in the vaults of medeival cathedrals.  Fortunately, I got this photo before the winds arrived:

Our driveway is between the stakes…under about 13-16 inches of snow!

Got any idea what this nearly-buried thing is?

It’s our neighbor’s stone wall….

It hasn’t been cold enough long enough, so the running brook (aka drainage ditch) is still not frozen:

Usually we get wind with heavy snow, so this is the first time we’ve had so much it started sliding in large quantities off the porch roof—the view from on the porch:

and from outside:

We’re in for some wicked cold this weekend, so sounds like time to quilt to me!

OH MY!   It isn’t often that I get a book and immediately want to go run dig out my dyes and cloth and start playing!   The sad news is that three-plus months later I STILL haven’t had time (and now it is winter, the basement is too cold to dye, etc), but boy do I want to!  That is what Melanie Testa‘s Inspired to Quilt has done to me, and that is a very, VERY good thing!  You can order it from Melanie, Interweave or Amazon.

I’ll also be honest… Melanie’s art and quilting inspire me, blow me away, make me think—all of these are wonderful things!  The book, published by Interweave, is well laid out, with great page layout, graphics and color inside, truly enhancing Melanie’s work, words, and instructions.  No boring white pages here, but creative inspiration all around.

One of the things I need to do a lot more is play, work in a sketchbook, and suss out different ideas, images and concepts.  I am usually so overwhelmed with stuff “to do” that I never give myself this freedom.  It is work, Work, WORK all the time, and then scramble to make any quilts at all.  Mostly for the past couple of years it has been samples for the book or classes, and not nearly enough creative development time.  Now that this book has sat for a while waiting review here, I think I need to go through it again, inspire myself all over again, and more than anything, follow Melly’s example and work with my sketchbook. The book covers:

• The Fabric Foundation
• Technique Application
• Creating Quilts Inspired by your Journals
• Sandwiching and Quilting
• Embellishment
• Finishing
• Smallworks, Series, and Exploration

One of the things I like best is how the illustrations show how Melly builds her cloth and designs, from white to finished, as in the example above of the leaves.  The same goes for this bird, where progressive washes of color create the image, just as she did in her sketchbook:

I love that she shares her notebooks and sketchbooks:

One of Melanie’s signature techniques is to screenprint and dye a sheer overlay fabric to work with the base fabric.  She has detailed information on dyeing, printing, creating stamps and screens–plenty of information to get you going without having to buy a separate book on surface design (tho it may whet your appetite for more!).  The photo below shows four steps in creating the transparency layer that brought the sketchbook work on the left to life…

There are several projects that are just plain fun (merit badges for grown ups, including one that is a hippo–I love it!) and help you try out these techniques on a small scale to get a feel for them. I particularly like how she combines hand stitching with machine, and there are also many examples to inspire.

In sum:  If you are or want to be an art quilter, and are willing to just do it on your own, this is a great book for you whether you are a beginner or moving on to (or at) advanced!  There is plenty of instruction, more than plenty inspiration.  If you want your hand held…well….. buy the book anyway!  Be inspired, find out if Melly is teaching anywhere that you can reach, and give it a go.

Definitely need to put this one back on the (re-) read pile by the sofa before tucking it onto the shelf….or into the DO NOW pile!