Off to the Smokies

Tomorrow I’m headed due North,  up into the Smoky Mountains which stretch across Georgia, Tennessee and the Carolinas.  I’m going to teach a workshop at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts which is a wonderful place.  They have classes in spring, fall and all summer long as well as many conferences and local events the rest of the year.  I’ve taken about 15 different workshops there (a good portion of my art education!) and have taught there myself about half a dozen times.  What’s really great about it is the mix of different classes at the same time.  You might have breakfast with woodturners, lunch with jewelry makers and dinner with photographers before walking through a gallery of ceramics and enamel work to attend a Power point about painting!  And that’s just the first day…   Plus their facilities are really super, no messing around in hotel bathrooms!!  Instead, the textile studio has five large sinks, a full size area for washing down screens, large print and dye tables, washer and dryer etc etc plus (best of all) a whole wall of windows looking out over the mountains.

I’m teaching a class on tie –dye – mainly arashi (fabric tied or twisted onto pipe) but also we’ll take a look at clamping and some stitching and some co-ordinating gradations.  Then we’re going to examine all the ways the gorgeous fabrics we’ve made can be used in quilts.  Jan Myers-Newbury has very generously sent me images of her outstandingly beautiful new work.  She is definitely the high priestess of this art!! Very inspiring.  Her work is very abstract and also references traditional quilts.  

 

 

I’ve mainly used shibori fabric in a much more impressionistic way, cutting out the beautiful leafy shapes and collaging them.  Though I must admit this is a bit laborious!!  There are several other well known quilt makers who work with shibori and we’ll look at many of the ways in which this fabric can be used.

I’ve got lots of examples that we’ll talk about in a fairly long Power Point.  Then it will be time to sit down, do a few value sketches and design some quilts….after which …out with the scissors and rotary cutters!!

Snip snap, stitch stitch…. and I’m hoping we’ll have a great array of quilts tops before the week is over….I’ll take pictures and post them!

I’m afraid this class is full…but I’ll probably be doing it again some time…or if I live within driving distance of your guild and you have good facilities…we could talk!!  or even a small class here…all sorts of possibilities!

If you have been, thanks for reading!!!  Elizabeth