Classes and Quilts at International Quilt Festival

It's such a pleasure and an honor to teach at Festival! I've already got kits in the works, so I'd love to see you in the classroom. You can register here. 

Here's my schedule.

Thursday, November 2 from 2 to 5 pm: Small Stitched Landscapes (class number 478)

Friday, November 3 from 10 to noon: Mixed Media Sampler Creating Original Stencils (event number 556)

Friday, November 3 at 3 pm: All About Art Quilts Lecture (event number 563)

Saturday, November 4 from 9 am to 5 pm: Creativi-Tree Art Quilts (class number 711)

Sunday, November 5 from 9 am to noon: Techniques with Paint and Ink (class number 801)

You can read details about these workshops on my workshops page on my website. But don't look at the supply lists. They are different from Festival and you'll need to refer to the Festival website for info about kits and supplies.

I'll also have some art quilts on the show floor. (It's my year of ladders.)

You can see Rising Resting in the Personal Iconography exhibition.

Limbs, Ladders, Roots and Rocks will be in the Art Miniature category of the judged shows.

Rising Setting will be in the Matter of Time textile exhibition curated by my friend Brenda Gael Smith who will be there with the quilts!

The very very best part of Festival is the people! I get to see friends from all over the country, meet new students, connect with people who have enjoyed my book and talk with a bunch of people who love creating with fabric! If you see me, please come say hi!

Armadillo Bazaar

Just before Christmas, Jeff and I zipped down to Austin to go to the Armadillo Bazaar. (I'm just getting around to blogging about it.)

We love using our Southwest Airlines flying privileges, even if we don't get to sit together.


There is an interesting massive outdoor public sculpture in the space between the terminal and the parking garage and rental car places. I'm not sure I love it, but I love that it's there.


I think I liked it more at night.


The Armadillo Bazaar runs from 10 am to 10 pm for almost two full weeks before Christmas. It was full of tons of really great booths of art plus live music playing throughout the day. I didn't take too many picture while we were there.

But, I did snap this one of a bunch of funny faces.


We hadn't neccessarily intended to buy anything. It was just fun to get-away and browse. But several things caught out eyes and we were in the holiday spirit. Neither of us had really purchased gifts for each other, so it was super fun to buy some art to enjoy in our home together.

We started with this face made from a copper measuring cup and bottle caps.


Here it is in our kitchen. It's fun to see art in context, don't you think? I hope so, that's pretty much this whole post.


We also purchased this mosaic by artist Aly Winningham.


Years ago I purchased a solar system mobile from her. I follow her on FB and really love her style. In fact, I think I heard about the Armadillo Bazaar from her. Jeff collects tiny buddhas. They are all lined up on the ledge of the shower in our bathroom. So the new buddah mosaic joins the collection.



We also bought this piece of eco-art by Hannah and Nemo. It's made from circles cut from aluminum cans.


We chose this piece because of the little owl, turtle and polar bear faces. And the foot! It's right by the back door and the circles flutter when we open the door.


Jeff picked out the beautiful glass tray with layers of tiny bits of glass creating the tree pattern.


And here it is on our mantle.


There was a booth of artisan chocolates! These are long gone.


Near the end of the day, I said I really would like to go back to Clifton Henri's booth to buy a small print of Door Number Three. When we were in his booth earlier in the day, he introduced himself and was so engaging. I loved his door series and he told me a little about the ideas behind them.

As we looked through his work again, we decided three doors was better than one. And larger prints would be better than small. So, we've added this series to our home. We really love them so much!

This picture gives you a sense how how they look in our kitchen, but go see the images on his site. They are really incredible.


After our fill of art, we walked across the street for BBQ. I have no words for how delicious this was.


As we walked back to our car, some one told us about the Austin Trail of Lights near by. So, we just followed the crowd. There were tons of people walking. It was a beautiful night. We didn't really know what the expect and it turns out we didn't have time to enter the park before our flight home. But it was still so fun to enjoy the festive spirit ... and walk off some of that bbq.

I snapped this picture just outside the park.


As much as I enjoy all the art we bought, I enjoy it even more with the memory of all the fun we had that day.

Creating with Layers of Fabric, Paint and Stitch -- five day workshop!

Join me for a five day workshop at Quilting Adventures in New Braunfels, TX! It's called Art Quilt Collage: Designing with Layers of Fabric, Paint and Stitching.

Here's a short sneak peak video of the kinds of techniques and projects we'll be working on.

March 26 to 31, 2017 -- Beautiful springtime in Texas!

New Braunfels, TX -- Just 30 minutes from the San Antonio airport 

$1425 -- Includes five nights lodging, all meals plus class fees.

Open Studio in the evenings -- I'll be using this time myself!

What to bring? -- Check out the supply list here.

Questions? Email me at 

Deborah (at) DeborahsStudio (dot) com

or Debby at

Debby (at) quilting-adventures (dot) com

Here's that quilt pictured behind me, Waiting for the Light to Change, 20x20.

SaveSave

Quilt Festival Registration!

The last day to register online for the International Quilt Festival in Houston is Friday, October 7. (You can register for classes onsite once Festival starts if there are openings.)

I am super excited to be teaching these three workshops. (I'll also be doing two samplers and a lecture. Check out my full schedule here.) Let me know if you have any questions. I'd love to see you in any of these workshops. The best part is... you don't have to bring anything other than scissors! All materials provided!

246 Small Stitched Landscape on Tuesday, November 1 from 9 to noon

Create small fabric compositions full of texture, color and stitching inspired by nature. Each student will design four 4x4 inch art quilts that can be mounted as an inspired grouping. Learn intuitive tricks for design and composition. Explore several hand embroidery stitches. Combine various fabrics for maximum effect and detail. Composition and some stitching will be completed in class.

This class is going to so relaxed and fun! I'm going to have tons of nature-inspired fabrics and threads to choose from and we'll start Quilt Festival week stitching with new friends. 

265 Head, Heart and Hands: Developing Your Creative Voice, Tuesday, November 1 from 2 to 5 pm

Learn to fully utilize your head, heart and hands in your creative process as you develop your own unique and original creative voice. Prompts, lists, exercises, mind-maps and lots of Q&A will generate lightbulb moments for understanding your art. Students will share finished quilts and discuss themes, possibilities and potential in each other's work. "He who works with his hands is a laborer. He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman. He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist." — St. Francis

This is my newest passion! Helping artists understand, develop and focus on their own personal unique voices! You will come away with new insights about yourself and where to go with your art.

309 Creativi-Tree Art Quilts, Wednesday, November 2 from 8 am to 5 pm

Create a small art quilt with a delightful tree using a simple formula plus interchangeable patterns. Explore layers of design and hand stitching. Try colorful, surface design printing. Super fun, uncomplicated process makes this a great project to explore the possibilities of fabric, paint and stitching. Students can add machine stitching at home.

This workshop includes a variety of super fun fabric kits to choose from. It's amazing to see how many unique trees are created by different students... even though we all work through the same steps!

Texas Hill Country

We've been traveling a bunch this summer including a great trip right here in Texas.

We took a road trip to the "hill country."


We started with a stop at Colorado Bend State Park.


We've all got our summer hiking shoes -- Keen sandals!


I really wanted to hike to Gorman Falls. And it did not disappoint.




It was hot and the hike was pretty rugged.


A rest was needed.


Driving further south and west, we made a stop at Dairy Queen where we discovered they have discontinued the Snickers Blizzard. We made due with Reeses and cookie and dough, but why would they do that?!


We also had a fun time watching these odd ducks and geese in the parking lot.


Our next stop was Enchanted Rock. Another hike I'd read about and really wanted to do. It's a giant pluton batholith. Basically a huge mass of granite pushing out of the earth.

Just rock and sun. I think that's Claire at the top.


These pictures make it look somewhat deserted, but actually there were several hikers, school camp groups, people of all ages.



This is the back side of the rock. We hiked to the top, then criss-crossed our way down, then all around the base. It reminded me a little of Devil's Tower.


We stayed in Marble Fall where we had to have pie at the Blue Bonnet Cafe.


We also visited a Texas home and garden decor shop. Where I did not buy this stuffed squirrel who just caught a fish.


Our last stop was Longhorn Caverns. We love cave tours. Honestly, the best part of this one was the excellent video about the Civilian Conservation Corps which built most of the buildings around the caves. Plus prepared the caves themselves for tours. Isn't this a fabulous old stone lodge?


The entrance to the caves is wonderful too.


As we made our way back home, we stopped at an amazing BBQ place.


We got to meet Robert and Penny. They were charming. Robert prepares the meat and Penny makes all the desserts. Both were delicious!

Texas is so big and there is still so much to see and do, but this was a great trip.

Visit to the Frank Stella Exhibition

Our local Studio Art Quilt Associates group arranged a docent-led tour of the Frank Stella exhibition at the Modern in Fort Worth.

Aren't we an awesome looking group?!



This exhibit is unique in that it covers such an incredibly long span of time and work -- 60 years. Such a long productive creative life. And he's still creating! I wish for the same when I'm 80. (Not the solo museum exhibit, just the continued creativity!)

It's somewhat organized chronologically. Here are some early works. I am stunned by the power of yellow in this picture. In my mind, it jumps out more than anything else. (Maybe that's why I rarely use yellow in my work.)



There were several examples of maquettes, sketches and notes in the alcove where Anselm Keifer's Book with Wings is normally displayed.



I love looking at artist's notes! Here I even love the yellowed edges and the way the graph paper lifts off the backing in this frame.


We quilters appreciated this star painting.


But the most interesting thing about that star is this edge treatment. He couldn't figure out how to neatly wrap the canvas around the frame, so he just sliced it and left it frayed and uncovered.



I have spent so much time trying to make nice clean edges on my wrapped canvases and I still haven't mastered it even though I've pinned several examples on Pinterest. Should I just give up?

His more recent work includes giant three-dimensional structures of various materials. If they touch the ground, like these two, he calls them sculptures.



If they are wall mounted, like this one, he calls them paintings.



I liked the way the silver and red stripes of the "painting" mirrored the red and white stripes of Debbie's shirt.

I'm not sure I really loved his work. I liked the early work more than the later work. I was struck by the fact that as he became more successful he had the resources and connections to hire apprentices. I think that's part of what allows an artist to work bigger.

But I loved being there. And I loved going with a group of artists.