Art Show at the Lucile Parker Gallery at William Carey University

My "Circle Dance" fiber art piece is pictured in the center of the invitation. This show is generally limited to watercolor, oil, and acrylics, so I am glad my fiber art is eligible. The opening reception is Tuesday, September 1, from 4:30-6:00 p.m., and the show runs through September 17.

Life Is Beautiful with Elephants

I love elephants. Last week my granddaughter Kiesha Baker sent me a beautiful hand colored framed zentangle elephant picture, with the wording "Life Is Beautiful." I couldn't agree more, and I will enjoy seeing her artwork every day. Kiesha is the mother of two precious boys and is a doula with Dallas Birth Doulas, so she helps families welcome their little miracles into this beautiful world. 

Kiesha's Elephant

 Speaking of elephants, I recently purchased a hand-dyed silk stitched elephant by quilt artist Patricia Anderson Turner from Florida. Patricia is an award-winning artist who usually makes quilts which tell a story or offer a social commentary.

"Elephant's Delight" by Patricia Anderson Turner

My Herd, each one special in its own way

Ceramic elephant by Dianne Shepherd,owner of Main Street Books in Hattiesburg

Midsummer Heat, Tomatoes, and Kittens

Where does the time go? Just keeping a few flowerbeds alive has been difficult in this near 100-degree heat in South Mississippi. I had high hopes for cherry tomatoes after my neighbor's vine climbed up and over my fence last year, giving me dozens of tomatoes. I planted one this year, and my huge vine finally produced a total of four tomatoes, which grew to tennis ball size. When they began to tempt the birds I picked my entire harvest and used them for paint subjects.

I'm enjoying an online botanical sketchbook painting class with Val Webb--just for fun. Drawing and painting have been a favorite pastime for me for years, and I love to be involved with some instruction. I rarely share these with anyone, so if you're looking, understand that I realize their limitations! I learned to stain my heavy watercolor paper with coffee, tea, mud, or pigment. Then we painted an undercoat of gouache and added Prismacolor pencils for shading and highlights--a totally new technique to me. The tomatoes above and the peppers on the right below are gouache with Prismacolor pencils. The peppers on the left are only Prismacolor pencils.

This month I finished a piece I had started in 2009 from a Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry pattern called Square Dance. Making this pattern is actually what introduced me to her Applipiecing technique and caused me to take her four-day Beyond the Grid workshop at her studio in Paducah--a dream-come-true experience! After making one block back then, I finally made the other three, added borders and quilted in a circular design. So the name became Circle Dance.

Circle Dance, 26" x 26"

And now for kitty news--Southern Pines Animal Shelter put out an urgent plea on Facebook for foster help with an influx of kittens. I picked up three little brothers who had been found and rescued. They had just been introduced to canned food and they looked like they had been rolling around in it! I bathed them and dried them--two solid white ones and one cream-colored with brown ears and tail.

I think they had lost their mama too soon and had been hungry and were food insecure, because they ate just like they kittens nurse--pushing with their feet and fighting for space. They were fun to watch and take care of (needing another bath in a couple of days!), but another shelter saw their picture and wanted them, so they were transported about 300 miles away after less than a week. It's nice to know that they had homes waiting for them once they grew enough. Meanwhile, my three grown cats are happy to be the only cats again.

 

Tarbaby

Rah-Rah and Elizabeth

Ghost Quilting Class in Hernando

I presented a program on my path from traditional quilter to fiber artist in Hernando, MS, for Quilting in the Grove guild's combined day and night groups last weekend. It was fun getting to spend time with my friend Cheryl Owens, who had moved to Hernando after many years in Hattiesburg.
I don't get many opportunities to display the counted cross-stitch quilt that was my transition from embroidery and cross-stitch into quilting, so I showed it first. My daughter Linda and I began the squares together in the 1980s but I soon saw that a "real quilter" would need to finish it. So I set out to learn to be that quilter.

Friendship Cross-Stitch by Martha and Linda Ginn

After taking lots of classes, studying lots of books, and making many types of quilts, I began a Baltimore Album style quilt, an experience that would require five years. It was enjoyable and fulfilling and I was able to document my life in the quilt I called This Is My Story, This Is My Song.

This Is My Story, This Is My Song

 Most of the pieces I make now are smaller than bed quilts, and I enjoy the designing process as much as the actual making. I like to encourage quilters to continue to learn new skills and to be proud of their work. We all start more projects than we finish, and I told them that it is okay NOT to finish all of those if they no longer enjoy them. Often we learn something from working on a project and it is time to move on to a more enjoyable challenge. 
After lunch I taught a Ghost Quilting Class to some of the group. They were enthusiastic and eager to try something new. Many had never used the Neocolor II wax pastels, so I suggested they experiment first on extra fabric. We had a short lesson on free-motion quilting, which was also new to some of the quilters. It was exciting to see women draw who said they couldn't and others find that rhythm of speed of the machine with the movement of the hands to get a smooth free-motion stitch. Two of them used unusual background fabrics;  another placed her focus square off-center to allow the ghost flowers to show up more dramatically.

Donna's first time to free-motion quilt

Dee used a large print for her background and will add more color

Judy used a stripe and drew in large flowers before stitching

Mary Jo extended her sunflower, offsetting the block

Pam used crayons and stitches--success!

Jo Ann's stitches show nicely on this muted background 

Hernando is a small town about 20-30 miles south of Memphis; I thought the DeSoto County Administration Building was beautiful and unusual, so I had Cheryl stop so I could photograph it. The courthouse is in the middle of the town square, and this building is on a corner facing it. All in all, a lovely town.

Free-Form Quiltmaking, a.k.a. Color Bars

Our state quilt association, Mississippi Quilt Association, holds a Workshop Gathering each June, and it is often  my pleasure to teach at this event. We always meet in a central location, while the spring and fall gatherings move about the state. This year I taught "Free-Form Quiltmaking," or what I call "Color Bars," relying on popular techniques employed by such teachers as Rayna Gillman and Dianne S. Hire. I feel a little ambiguous saying I "taught" the students, but suffice it to say I helped them discover their own creativity and gave them permission to play and experiment. Here are a couple of pieces I made last year using these improvisational techniques:

Color Bars #2--Black by Martha Ginn

High Rise by Martha Ginn

 Isabel Adams was so eager for the class that she sewed up lots of strips beforehand. We pinned these units to a display wall and discussed ways to arrange them.

Martha demonstrating the "wallpaper cut" to Isabel Adams, Missy Lee, Carla Formel

Working without a pattern or specific size pieces was a stretch for some, but they quickly discovered the joy of combining colors, sizes, and shapes to come up with interesting designs.

by Missy Lee

by Myra Cook

Georgianne Brooks, Angela Jones, Missy Lee

Nancy Losure designing on the floor

Another of Isabel Adams' exercises

At the end of the day, all the groups come together for Show and Tell from their classes; it was impressive to see the variety of creations.

The class showing their exercises

Next month I will travel to Hernando, MS, to present a program and Ghost Quilting workshop for their combined day and night groups, as the houseguest of my dear friend and former Hattiesburg resident Cheryl Owens, pictured below with Teresa Pino and Sharon Arnold.

Cheryl Owens, Teresa Pino (yes, the room was cold!), Sharon Arnold

 Good resources for these techniques can be found in Create Your Own Free-Form Quilts, A Stress-Free Journey to Original Design, by Rayna Gillman, C and T Publishing, 2011; and Quilters Playtime: Games with Fabrics, by Dianne S. Hire, AQS, 2004.

Pathways Workshop Results

It was quite rewarding to see the results of the Pathways workshop when the students showed their pieces two weeks later at our quilt guild meeting. They had completed the small practice piece, some adding borders and finishing with quilting. Missy and Joe had also made their large project from the pattern I provided.

Barb, Suzannah, Susie, Dianne, Joyce, Betty, Missy, Elsie, Ellen

Barb, Suzannah, Susie, Dianne, Joyce, Betty, Missy, Elsie, Ellen, Joe

Joe, Betty (holding Joe's extended practice piece), Martha

I enjoyed teaching the workshop so much that afterward I decided to make one of the pieces myself. I call it Pathways in Stone. It features a Mickey Lawler Skydyes fabric.

Pathways in Stone

Kittens Up for Adoption

These last 10 weeks have been joy-filled and entertaining. As the foster kittens grew and I enjoyed them and laughed at them and fed them, my friends constantly asked, "How can you give them up?" They remarked, "I'll bet you keep them." Well, my three grown cats (who were fosters a year and a half ago) have felt very invaded and frustrated, actually downright frightened of these little fur balls, so it wouldn't seem fair to them.

When the kittens reached 2-1/2 lbs. I took them for their neuter surgery, and then Southern Pines Animal Shelter microchipped them and delivered them to PetSmart yesterday for adoption.

George Clooney, Josh Groban, Christopher

Christopher

George Clooney

Josh Groban

Trying to share a chair with Tarbaby

They will make wonderful pets. I will miss them.

Pathways Workshop

The Pathways workshop on May 27 for Pine Belt Quilters went very well. I continued with the Power Point Presentation to refresh some of the information from the program two weeks earlier and to see details of how we can draw our own designs, add registration marks, match registration marks on a light box, and stitch the pieces together. Having the PowerPoint with pictures was most helpful, allowing a quick look back to compare color choices and construction methods. I am so proud of the guild's recently purchased projector, and we will all benefit from better programs by using it and the new camera. 
To get comfortable with the Applipiecing technique developed by Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry, I had the students construct a small design about 8" x 10" before starting on their larger project. They cut out freezer paper patterns and ironed these pieces to fabric and cut out, then used glue sticks to turn the seam allowances on the "over" edges. These "overs" were then positioned on the "unders" by matching registration marks.

Using PowerPoint

Elsie Harris, Missy Lee, Martha Ginn, Suzannah Patterson

A light box works well for positioning the pieces, but a quick holding up to the light helps, too.

Dianne McLendon

Joe Bingham

Ellen Hall

After working on the small practice piece, I had the students select their larger design from the four patterns I had prepared. They began deciding on the pathways in their larger piece, some adding Flying Geese, Piano Keys, Spikes, and some using solid fabric paths.

Susie Jackson

Suzannah Patterson

Some of the sewing machines had tension issues using the invisible thread, even after changing needles and trying other spools of thread, but Suzannah's little Janome didn't know it should have problems and performed like a real trooper. She had never used the machine before and we expected disaster and were happily surprised at her outcome.

Some of the students planned to alter their designs and use the Pathways in a novel way, which is always a thrill when a teacher feels like the students are taking the class one step further by adding their own innovation. We were so busy that I didn't get pictures of the finished small pieces before an approaching  thunderstorm caused us to need to move sewing machines to cars before the rain started.
I'll post more pictures later. It was a fun and successful day!

Pathways Program for Pine Belt Quilters

I enjoyed giving a PowerPoint presentation program on Pathway designs at our Pine Belt Quilters May 13 meeting. This is what I call several "pathways" crossing a background. I have been in love with this type of design for many years from admiring Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry's remarkable quilts. Of course, hers are intricately challenging pieces, but I began trying some simple designs in 2008 when my niece in Colorado asked me to make a 35" x 55" piece for her wall. She had no specific design in mind--but I knew from her professional photography skills that she loved brilliant colors. I made "Marilyn's Pathways" and she was delighted that I had captured her admiration of the mountains and Canada Geese she saw on her morning walks.

Marilyn's Pathways,  2008, 35" x 55"

Later I purchased a pattern from Caryl called "Square Dance," which taught her Applipiecing® technique for joining curved pieces, and realized this technique was the answer to many of the challenges encountered in Marilyn's piece. Then in 2009 I attended a four-day "Beyond the Grid" workshop at Caryl's Paducah studio where we learned to draw and construct our own designs. I will be ever grateful for Caryl's inspiration and generous sharing. Her website contains a wealth of information and I encourage quilters to avail themselves of her patterns, articles, and instructions (www.bryerpatch.com). Learning from her was a dream come true I will always remember.

The piece I started in her workshop and later continued and completed at home, Galaxy, is one of my favorites. The background is Caryl's gradated fabric, with the blue pieced pathway of hand-dyes by Mary Nell Magee and the two solid pathways my own (one-time foray!) hand-dyes.

Galaxy, 2011, 37" x 24"

Since then I have made several other quilts I could not have made without her marvelous Applipiecing® technique. Sharon Shamber and perhaps others use a similar method but I have only read about these.

Ribbons of Change, 2010, 25" x 29"

Ribbons of Change was made in 2010 and donated to the AIDS Services Coalition auction, and you can see Caryl's influence on my color choices of the mountain/valley pathway. She often gradates the mountain peaks and the valley peaks in the opposite direction (one from light to dark and the other from dark to light).

My guild has recently purchased a camera and projector, which makes it much more possible for members to see and enjoy a program featuring items that we no longer own.

I'm looking forward to teaching a Pathways workshop in two weeks and helping quilters make their own design, thanks to Caryl's Applipiecing®!I have drawn four designs that quilters may choose from. These can be oriented different directions, and everyone will decide on her own pathways and fabrics, so no two quilts will be alike.

Meanwhile, my foster kittens from Southern Pines Animal Shelter are seven weeks old and running to greet me when I go into the garage. They love to be picked up and purr loudly; they are getting near their required two-pound required weight for their surgery and adoption. My house cats are still terrified of them and will be glad for them to find forever homes!