We're in the Homestretch!!

Well, today's the last day of class #1. I'll start the next one on Monday.

Now things have gotten really fun. We started our final composition yesterday, utilizing the strip pieced fabrics we've been putting together all week. This last one will be at least 4' x 6', but can be larger. Yesterday I managed to sketch out my plan for this big piece, get almost all the small sections of it up on my design wall, and have actually started sewing a few of the pieces together. I still have some details to work out, and there will be no rest for the wicked quilters today, because we have our final critique today at 3 p.m.

Yesterday we did a little field trip to Nancy's son Nathanial's (and his wife Michelle's) home/studio. It was incredible. I took photos but left my camera at the barn last night. I'll put some photos up tonight or tomorrow. They live in an old grange hall that they bought at an auction several years ago for $63,000. They've made the upstairs (where the stage is) into their studio spaces, and it's chock full of shelves and cubbyholes full of found objects that they put into their art. I've commissioned Nathanial to make a piece for me that will be the outline of a fish made from wire, with dangled found objects in it's body. I want to put it on an outside wall of my new studio.

This week has been a bit grueling, sometimes frustrating, often ecstatic, and always incredibly wonderful. I feel like I've made a huge leap in my understanding of color, value, proportion, and the energy that can be incited from the interplay between colors of fabric. And by now, I'm really settled in and acclimated, so I should really be able to get a lot from next week's class.