Back from Quilting by the Lake

Well, another successful week at Quilting by the Lake (QBL). The class was all that was promised and more and I feel like I have made a breakthrough in my work. The class was called Black Fabric Sketches and was taught by Cynthia Corbin, a quilt artist from the Seattle area. Two of her close art quilt collaborators are Jeannette DeNicolis Meyer and Ann Johnston, two of my favorite teachers. Cynthia likes to dye also and the
t-shirt she wore the first day of class she had dyed!

The first day we were introduced to a technique created by Cynthia in response to some classes she had with Nancy Crow early in her career. The technique basically is to take a whole piece of cloth and to basically draw a sketch with your rotary cutter. Obviously, you don't do too detailed a sketch. The lines then separate the whole piece of cloth into sections which you then use as pattern templates to cut out fabric and put the jig saw puzzle back together. Using these pattern templates, you can make a series of pieces trying different combinations of colors, or values in each piece seeing which you like best. It is fast and fun. If you don't like the resultant piece, you then do the Cynthia "cut, cut, mix, mix, put, put" technique (cutting them up, mixing them up and then making a new design more to your liking).





We only did straight lines on the first day and made many different versions of the same or similar simple or complex designs. The second day, our cuts were curves and on the third day we pieced in skinny pieces where the lines were.






The last two days of class were to make a final project that would be done in two days and would be good enough for a quilt show!! Quite a lot of pressure but it was good. I took one of my Yellowstone pictures, did a quick sketch and was ready to be off and running on Thursday.

Thursday, I cut two black sketches to cover 1/2 of the whole picture. I managed to somehow get the first half almost done on that day despite taking an extra long lunch to visit with my friend Sue from Albany. Thursday night was our free night and I did some piecing in my room but was too tired to do much.


The weather went from okay to pretty hot and very humid by Thursday. It was very, very nice to have nice air conditioned dorm rooms to go home to. An added burden was the fact that the regular dining facility was closed so we ate in the un-air conditioned snack bar in the Student Activities building. While the food was almost as good as usual, the atmosphere definitely wasn't! We have gotten spoiled in previous years. Again, that air conditioned dorm room was wonderful!!