Fun Week Teaching!

As usual, I’m behind on my bog posts. With that said, I have had the best week teaching.

 Last Saturday, Brenda Keith, with Quilt Shop in the Oaks in Abilene, came with three other wonderful, funny and absolutely awesome ladies for a dye day. These ladies were great, open to learning new things, making a mess and cleaning it up before they left. I truly enjoyed the day of dyeing, showing them new methods, laughing and feeling like I was a new part of their sisterhood.

Thank you Brenda, Maria, Cheri and Terrye for the fun day! I can’t wait to get Show n’ Tell pictures!

Yes, it was HOT. We did our best to stay cool while we were ice dying

Yes, I had to get in on the dying action by making a "sample" piece.

Yesterday I had another great day teaching at Must Love Fabric in Grapevine. My ladies learned my favorite piecing process, Wave Piecing. Yes, this is the method I used on my quilt “Prism Refraction” that won an Honorable Mention at the Dallas Quilt Show this year. I had 11 ladies, some I new already; the others are now new friends.

We spent the day getting past needing a straight edge and being able to cut with a flow. This method is so freeing and you are able to channel your “Inner Improv”.

Thank you ladies for the great day and wonderful conversations. I was on a “teaching high” all evening.

Sewing with Sadie

Today was one of the best days in the Studio. My Sadie girl came over and we started on a new quilt for her bed. This is Sadie’s second quilt, but the first one this large. I was amazed at how well she did today. Picking out her colors, staying in the same value range, and then piecing her strips. 

As the day went on, her confidence grew and we tag teamed with Sadie stitching and I pressed the seams so she could continue piecing.

Sadie set a goal for herself to have 4 feather blocks completed before it was time to go home. Look at her accomplishment!

I think we will have another award winning quilter in the family.

Stay tuned; we have another date set in a couple of weeks to work on her next blocks for her quilt. 

Where Has the Time Gone!

What a busy year I am having! So busy that I think about blogging and then in the evening I’m too tired to think, much less make sense in a blog post. So, I told my self last night, blog in the mornings while you are having your first glass of green tea. Perfect.

What has kept me so busy you ask? Besides the normal caregiving duties with Mr. Wonderful, I have revised my “To Do” list a couple of times. The marker board in my studio has gone from listing shows to enter to a list of things to get accomplished, because the list keeps growing and I can’t keep up.

Waves of Color

Reflections in the Sea

In April, the Dallas Area Fiber Artists had their annual show. My petit-point piece, Waves of Color, came in Third Place. The other exciting news is that my piece, Reflections in the Sea, sold!

Angel of Mercy

Last month, I entered, and was accepted into, a SAQA Regional show in Abilene, TX. Texas Quilts: Art in Stitch. Very excited about this show. The quilt that will be showing is Angel of Mercy.

To add to my list of “To Do’s”, I pulled a group of friends together and we put together 13 quilts for Jeff’s neurologist office for The Longest Day

. Last year they had caregivers write on muslin blocks with the idea of a quilt.  Well, it turned into 13 smaller quilts to be hung in their exam rooms and hallway.

As if I don’t have enough to do, I decided to start teaching beginning quilting classes from the house. This way I can share my love for quilting and also be here to care for Mr. Wonderful. These ladies Rock! And we have so much fun. Right now they just have one more class and then we are going to start a Sampler Class. I’m almost done with my sample quilt and have had a great time deciding what blocks they are going to make.

I’m also writing curriculum for a “Quilt as You Go” class and have bought a couple of patterns of Modern Quilts to teach.

In a week I am having my first Dye Workshop and the class is full! We are going to try various ways of dyeing, such as gradient, ice dyeing, traditional dyeing, and Shibori. It should be a fun day and people that are coming are from various groups I am involved in and neighbors. I’m looking forward to posting pictures after the class.

Okay, I think I have caught you up on my busy schedule and I am going to make more of an effort to blog in the mornings before life gets me too tired to make sense! There is so much to tell you, but I’ll save some of it for future posts.

Don't forget, if you are trying to keep up with me a little more often than my blog posts, follow Studio Jules Art on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. I can usually take a quick picture and post a few times a week!

Happy Creating!

Jules

Cheesecloth Workshop

Well, I decided to start teaching. It’s part of my heritage, but I don’t want to teach school, I want to teach fiber arts techniques (play time) and projects. One of my fiber arts passions is painting cheesecloth and using it as a texture medium in my art quilts. So, I invited some of my fiber arts buddies over for a first run on my first workshop and we had a grand time! Here are some of the pictures I took during our day together.

Katina Hronas, Carol Reagan, and Barbara Kirksey talk about auditioning applique' fabrics and painting cheesecloth

Denise Spillane and Sherrie Tootle work on creating paint mixed media

Carolyn Skei works on her 12 x 12 art quilt

These are an awesome group of ladies and they gave me great feedback of what to add to my supply list and what to change in my pattern and procedures. They even gave me some great ideas for some other classes to develop and teach. I can’t say thank you enough to these artful women for spending the day with me getting messy and having fun. Here is a picture of my class sample.



If this workshop interests you, pass my name along to your workshop coordinator with your guild or art group. For my workshop I supply a project kit of a pattern, instructions for the project, cheesecloth to paint and a bonus of some of my hand dyed cheesecloth.


In my last post I mentioned that I would post pictures of my dyed fabric. Last week I was so busy getting ready for the Saturday workshop, I didn’t have time to take pictures. But their coming, I promise!