What a day yesterday was for working on creative projects. In the morning I had my painting class where I worked on "Canyon Path" which actually is almost finished. I know I thought it was nearly at that point after my last class (before the holidays), but as it turned out today, I was wrong on that count. Finishing touches still remain to be done, and those will have to wait until next week when the paint is dry enough to work. Then I will start the second Canyon de Chelley painting. Painting another Canyon piece is a way of reinforcing what I have learned about color, light, and shadow during the first painting by using a similar palatte on a similar subject. It may sound odd, but I am looking forward to this painting. Since it is not the same scene (only the same canyon), it won't be tedious. My challenge will be: can I apply the lessons from the first painting to the second? If I can, those skills will become more easily retrieved because they will have become part of my "repertoire of skill sets" (now how's that for jargon!). There will be still more scenes from Canyon de Chelley that I may want to work on some day so this practice is worth it if only for those reasons.
After class I dashed home to become a quick change artist and take off with Mary Ellen for my Crazy Quilt class from 1 - 4. Bonnie is teaching it at Log Cabin (and those of you in the area already know that, right? and that she also teaches it at Gloversville?). Anyway, for a long time I've wanted to make a crazy quilt because - well, why not? One gets the chance to use extravagant ribbon embroidery and embroidery stitches, collected buttons and jewel-like beads, charms that have personal significance, photos transferred onto fabric, gloriously rich fabrics, feathers, and furbelows. My goodness, that's enough to send me into a sugar high with no food!
As expected, the class was pure joy. Bonnie is the kind of teacher we'd all love to have all the time; she's funny, kind, accepting of our differing levels of knowledge, kind, helpful, patient, kind, and encouraging of individual approaches. Did I mention kind? She started with a short history of the crazy quilt and the crazy quilt "craze" (even if you think you know it, there's always something more you can learn), talked about her experiences including her less than stellar first attempt (doesn't that always make you feel better - knowing that the teacher was a novice who had issues with whatever you're trying to learn?), took us on a tour of the shop to broaden our horizons as to what we could use and what was available (and there's a lot; my heart was palpitating!), and then gave us the background we'd need to begin our first block. Then? You're right. We began working on our first block.
What fun we had snipping and sewing as our afternoon flew by!
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