Back in Rochester -- a RAFA Day

Well, it was such a sunny day, I couldn't come home without stopping by the outlet which is more frozen than I have ever seen it. Only a few square yards of open water today! However, there was quite a crowd of ducks and geese -- Canada and domestic.


It was good to be back to my old RAFA compatriots for much inspiration! Lots has been going on while I was gone including a juried show this summer in Cazenovia (http://www.theart-quiltexperience.com/). Several of the group members have been instrumental in bringing this about. We have also been invited to have our own exhibition concurrent with this one at the gallery in the Cazenovia Library. Have to get working on a piece for this as it has to be smaller than I usually work and has to be for sale.

There was quite a theme today of felting. Several members have been getting together regularly and doing both regular felting and nuno felting and shared a lot of beautiful pieces!
This is a closeup of a scarf that Anne has done. Her colors are beautiful as were the combinations from all the other felters.

Val shows one of the nuno felted scarves that she has done. Our workshop after the meeting was a demo on nuno felting from Donna Patrick who has been instrumental in encouraging a lot of us in this medium.

Sue Carter shows is wearing a new felted vest and holding her original class piece. She is much happier with the new vest -- it fits beautifully as she tried some new techniques.

I finally got to see some of the indigo dyed pieces that Donna did in her Elin Noble class last summer. I liked this one a lot.

Pat Faulkner shared a piece that has been part of an exhibit at the Quilt Museum in Paducah. It features several of her hand painted background fabrics. Horses are a pretty constant theme in Pat's pieces!

Julie shared a couple of pieces of snow dyed fabric (this has been the year for snow dyeing in the northeast). She has used silk with Procion MX dyes rather than the cottons the rest of us have used. They were very vibrant pieces.

Caris Burton has produced an amazing number of nuno felted scarves recently. This is one of them in bright reds.

Another....

And yet another -- love these colors!!

Julie spent a day at Margaret's and snowdyed (a new verb...) several tshirts.

Besides the indigo, Donna also showed a new felted jacket she is working on in luscious colors as well.

I am told that Anne is the fastest felter in the group! Here she is in an absolutely stunning vest she made -- of course she would look good in a burlap bag.

This is a slightly fuzzy picture of Anne's second vest -- more subtle.

Just wouldn't be a blog without a duck -- this is one of the old familiar Oldsquaws with their super long tail feathers and high contrast coloration. I didn't have a coat on so was only there for a few minutes on the unplowed parking area so didn't get much!

Of course with the theme of new ducks wouldn't be complete without this picture of a Common Goldeneye which is a common duck but not one I have seen here before. They were awfully far away and I was very coooollllddd.

These wild domestic geese were very vocal and almost attacked me (I am sure for food which I didn't have).