August RAFA Meeting

 This meeting of our Rochester Area Fiber Artists group is always a good one as many of the members have just come back from taking classes from world class instructors at Quilting by the Lake.  I haven't wanted to take classes like this for a few years as I have too much on my plate as it is and kind of know what I want to do.  

This piece is painting with dyes on fabric by one of our very talented artists (Caren B) who came from a painting background to quilting.  This was done in a class with Hollis Chatelaine and this was probably my favorite. 

This was also done by Caren and she will be adding a lot of quilting soon.  She was challenging herself with this piece.

 This was also done by Caren in a Rosalie Dace class.  Caren  usually works in the cool colors and challenged herself to work outside her comfort zone with these colors.

Donna did this felted rug using some new rather thick wool.  This was just her test piece.  It was wonderfully lush and thick and she will back it with a non-slip facing.

This is a closeup of the texture in the above piece.

 Janet did this jacket with fabrics she bought from Priscilla.  You can see both the front and back here.  This was done in a class with Mary Ray.

Janet did this piece in the Rosalie Dace course.  We all like Rosalie a lot!

Sarah did these two pieces in a class with Cynthia Corbin who is one of my all time favorite teachers.  In a different venue, I would happily take another class with her as she guides without imposing her own style.  She is very supportive in helping you find your own voice.

Sarah also took a class with Jeannette DeNicolis Meyers and created several awesome dyed pieces.  This was my favorite.

We welcomed Judy back after a long absence (her blog is on my blog list under Explorations in Quilting).  You can see the development of this piece in her blog.

She also tried (very successfully) a little ice dyeing and showed us her results!  She was very pleased.

Ann did quite a few different pieces in a Jane Dunnewold class and is now totally hooked on dyeing -- coming over to the dark side!!

I spotted Kathi surreptitiously working on this English Paper Piecing hexagon quilt.  I love this technique for some reason so loved watching it develop as a quilt for a new grandson!!  The one I have been working on uses 1/2 inch hexagons so make take awhile to get done!!

I loved this piece that Sue D did!!  This was a painting/quilting class with Katie Pasquini-Mausopaust and I am sure I would have loved it!

Another Sue set of pieces from the same class.

This was an unfinished piece also by Sue and just  lovely!

Mary and Ann are holding up this beautiful scrap quilt that Ann had just finished -- gorgeous!!

I was the featured demo person today and did demos of many of the zipper techniques that I have learned with the different bags I have done.  I tried to show them from the easiest to the most difficult but think I lost them near the end with just too much information.  They all seem so simple to me now but were obviously very new to a few of the audience.  It was fun to watch how surprised they were at how fast you could do these techniques -- a makeup bag in probably less than ten minutes and wonderful looking zippered pockets.  I think some of the ladies will make some purses after this.  They are fun to design and make.  I am going to try to get a blog together with some of the techniques.  None of these zipper techniques are the ones  you use in making clothing!!