Color Theory Class

Saturday, while Frank was dealing with illegally placed dumpsters and sewer backing up in the tub/showers, I was taking a Color Theory class!  I had way more fun than he did, for sure.

Sally Gordon has studied color and art history for a lot of years.  She set up an interactive class for about 13 of us CFAL (Contemporary Fiber Artists of Louisiana) members.


Our class packet included a wonderful little color wheel that has windows for determining what a color looks like if you add yellow, black, grey, blue and red.

Really cool instrument.







We started with the pages of white, black and grey and some color chips.  Without regard for composition, we played with how the color reacted when placed on each of the backgrounds.

I guess I have done this before but it was very revealing how the colors receded or came forward.  I have always liked black more than white as a background/sashing color.  To my eye, it makes the colors pop forward, and I like the effect.

Sally said that painters have it easy, they can mix the color they want.  As fiber/fabric artists we have to buy the color we want or create it in an dye vat.  Which we all know is not an exact science.  While shopping is fun, we still might not be able to find the exact color we need if the shop keeper did not order it!







Bebe made neat little marks on her papers.


I threw color on the paper like a wild woman.

We played with gouache colors on watercolor paper and made (I ATTEMPTED to make) color, hue and shade as well as neutrals.

I was really good at making neutrals and browns!














She taught us a secret to adding color effects to our quilt subjects.

She also brought in how the painters of the past dealt with shading and creating light effects.

I can say, I learned a lot about that...…..and if you see my work sheet, you will see I need a LOT of help yet!

Thanks, Sally!

Not Your Momma's Asterisk

Ok, so I didn't exactly use the numbers like I said.  I went another way.  More work, more stuff.  More more.  Not sure what the center will be just yet.   Maybe more white.  Maybe the circles or dots.  I will test and see.

And here is something on the weird side.  We had lunch at Chicken Salad Chick.  They have chicken salad 14 ways.  And only chicken salad.  And it's not bad actually.  I don't know if they are a chain or just a local store. 

 But they are pretty good and not any fried food and french fries.


Frank was home Wednesday so I suggested he go in the pool with Sawyer for his Swim Class.  Sawyer was not happy about that change out however.  You would have thought we had switched him out with some random stranger who was trying shatter his universe! He kept looking at and me and back at Frank and saying MAMA emphatically and pointing to me.  He screamed and cried the whole class.   And I couldn't pretend he was someone else's spoiled kid, he was all mine! 

He was curl his body up when he was supposed to be floating and he would push the ducks away when Miss Erin would push them to him to distract his tears.
 
I didn't bring my bathing suit because I didn't think it would be such an important thing, you know.  So he was kinda stuck with Papa for the class.  And he let the whole facility know he was not happy about that one bit!

I had no idea I was so pivotal to world peace!


 So we took him home, fed him some sticks and he was fine.

Print to Fabric Class

Took a class at the Livingston Arts Council today and had a great time learning with 11 other ladies.  I miss having classes with Michael, he was always one of the few guys in quilting and fiber art, so he was a well known figure.  He moved to San Antonio to be near his son after Judy died.  I think a lot of people miss him.

But I digress.

The class was taught by Judy Momenzadeh who has been in a number of the Fiber Art magazines and has recently won a nice ribbon in Houston last November.  She is very creative, very inventive and very willing to try anything!

She went over the techniques she used to create her pieces and had a nice selection of things to show us from her collection.  She even sold a piece in the class!

We worked in Photoshop and a few other programs that are either add ons or separate ones.

She also had some things like digital grounds and fabric treatments that enhance the printing process.

After lunch she had prepared two photos from us; one on fabric and one on watercolor paper.  We used Inktense Pencils and Neocolors Wax Crayons to "paint" the pictures.

Of  course I left both of mine at the Art Council......geez.  But I had this extra one somehow.  So when I got home, I showed Frank how to use the NeoColors.  He has done some watercolor in the way way past and likes it.  He was amazed at how they looked  on the watercolor paper.  He liked it!


Here is the pic we worked on together tonight.  Just using all the crayons in the pack!

Triangles, Triangles, Triangles

My class with Lynn Roddy Brown was fabulous!  She taught a wonderful new (to me anyway) method of making triangles that made  them so simply perfect.  And if you know me, I am like Charlene says, a good enough quilter.  (Charlene says that about herself and she is anything else than just "good enough"!!!)

We were asked to bring in any dark and any light fabrics.  We made our HSTs and put them on a wall.  To show her wonderful talent with Scrappy Quilts she played with them!  Again and again!

She had a trunk show of the quilts in the book.  They are even more impressive in person!  And Lynn is so funny.  She is a wonderful, patient and witty teacher.  The time passed so quickly in this class.




This is one of the quilts.  The fabrics are so random and odd but they sure do make a really nice quilt.

The other thing I took away from this class was Lynn's method of choosing fabrics for her scrappy quilts.  She is a powerful force in scrap quilts, and you just need to buy any one of her books to see that she knows what she is doing.

I have the two earlier books from her last trip to Baton Rouge a couple of years ago.  I loved her then and now even more.

If you get a chance to see her in person, do so.

Duffle Bag Class

Oh, boy!  Are you going to be impressed with me now!  I made a duffle bag.  A big one too.

my fabric i quilted it last night

Mine and Bonnie's

We had a class today at St Paul's with the ladies from Bright Hopes in Mandeville, Chris and Linda Kay.  They were fabulous.  Not big worriers like some people are.  But they handled everyone and all the questions just fine.

Melba's with Sashiko

Caroline Sewing

And these babies are BIG! 

Everyone left with a completed duffle bag.  And even though they were the exact same thing, they all looked so different.  It was fairly easy to make, you can't be a worrier or you won't ever get through it.  

And these will be wonderful Christmas Presents, Dog Club Raffle Items and just plain useful for me!

Lois'

My completed bag

I LOVE LOVE LOVE them.  Jeanette and Ann, I KNOW you are lusting after my duffle bag, huh!  Maybe that needs to be our next group sew.







glen

The long and winding road

I am of to a class today.  Pictures when I return!  You will be amazed!  Yes, you will.

glen:  In the mean time, enjoy this, an LSU Flag Quilt in the process of being made.  (It is finished and in the hands of the LSU Basketball Girl's most rabid fan!)