Summer Fun

Projects from some of my classes I'll be teaching at the Summer Fiber Retreat in Asheville July 15-17!

Detail from one of my quilts embellished with needle-felting and wet-felting

I couldn't resist this morning, the gorgeous day beckoned me to come play outside, and so I gathered up some of my felted projects and spirited them away to the back yard to take a few photos. Here's one I shot of some of the projects I'll be teaching at the Summer Fiber Retreat in Asheville July 15-17 at the Biltmore Square Mall, I can't wait to get back to Asheville again! The Winter Retreat was a blast, even with the snow piled in little hills everywhere and having to navigate the ice, we had so much fun and I made and met so many new friends. I know summer will be even better, the mountains in summer are definitely calling me, and Asheville is such an art mecca in itself! I know I'll come back refreshed and inspired by all the creative energy that will be there. If you'd like to join me, you can get more info at www.friendsandfiberworks.com

Last night I took some of my inspiration/obsession and shared with my quilt guild, I hope they enjoyed it as much as they seemed to, I know I did. My son helped me put together a new PowerPoint presentation, so I was able to show so many details from my work that I hadn't been able to before, what freedom! Here is one of the quilts I took embellished with my Wild Wooly Flowers and needle-felted sunset, so many fun things you can do with felting and fibers!

Wild Wooly Workshop with Lake Norman Quilters

What a fun and super-talented group, the gals from the Lake Norman Quilters Guild

These wild women all chose rich spicy colors for their blooms!

Mine's the biggest!

Puttin' on the glitz!

Getting the layout just right

The Lake Norman Quilters Guild invited me to teach my Wild Wooly Flower workshop in conjunction with my Wild Wooly Wearables lecture a couple of weeks back, and the girls truly wowed me with their creative spirit! Not to be outdone, these gals all picked rich spicy colorways for their big juicy flowers, and they truly felted some show-stopping blooms! They learned several techniques, including how to make pre-felt, how to felt dimension in their blossoms, how to create the curling tendrils, and how to make wool beads. I know these very clever ladies will put all their newly found skills to creative use in the months to come, and I hope to see their blooms on display at their wonderful quilt show this weekend! Here's a few pics we took in class, what a fun group and so talented too.

Carolina Fiberfest 2011

Lisa and Angie having fun in the Friends & Fiberworks booth!

Aren't they the cutest? Young alpacas, only a few months old, they were just adorable!

These gals all made big beautiful flowers!

Her first felting experience, turned out awesome!

Getting a great layout is key...this one looks right on!

These gals were a barrel of fun and such a help, too!

As usual, things have been such a whirlwind around here, but I haven't forgotten what a great time we all had at the recent Carolina FiberFest in Raleigh a couple of weeks back! I was so fortunate to get to teach a couple of my felting classes there, the gals in my Wild Wooly Flower class were a real hoot and made some absolutely gorgeous flowers! Here's a few pics from the weekend, forgot my camera for the wool beads class which is a shame, they turned out so pretty too and finished their bracelets right there in the class. We all had a great time, even ran into my friends Lisa and Angie from Friends and Fiberworks in Asheville, NC, they had an awesome booth there! And I made some new fiberlicious friends, too, look forward to seeing folks at the Summer fiber Retreat in Asheville July 15-17 at Biltmore Square Mall and also SAFF this fall. Oh, and I couldn't resist these young alpacas, aren't they adorable? I thought they were getting friendly, but their owner said they were getting ready to fight...maybe this is how alpacas come out instead of shaking hands...?

NC Quilt Symposium, the Wearables!

Once again, the Capital Quilters' Guild in Raleigh hosted a spectacular quilt symposium, and of course one of my favorite parts was the Wearable Art Challenge and Fashion Show. This year was no exception, as Roberta Morgan coordinated a fantastic assortment of wearables by Lyric Kinard, the wearable and accessory entries, and many of Roberta's own spectacular work. I was so blessed to win the top honors in the Accessories category with my "Tangled up in Blue" nuno-felted scarf, this is the perfect size for just a touch of something around your neck or wrapped around your hair as an accent piece. I also entered my "Divine Devore" jacket with hand-felted sea anemone pin. And I had the privilege to even get to model one of Lyric's phenomenal ensembles, the green jacket with circle skirt is hers, shown in the photo with Lyric (in her awesome green shirt!) sharing about her beautiful cutwork skills. Lyric also did a great job narrating/commenting about the show, here are a few pictures a good friend snapped for me, enjoy!

NC Quilt Symposium, the Quilts!

NC Quilt Symposium in Raleigh this year was a feast for the eyes! Great vendors, beautiful quilts and wearables, and it was wonderful to re-connect with old friends I hadn't seen in a while. We were so busy I didn't get to even see all the quilts, but here are a few of the winners and some of my favorites from the show. The Capitol Quilters' Guild hosted symposium this year, and had so many special treats for us! One of these was the Apron Challenge, where all were invited to make and donate an apron to be auctioned off to raise $ for a local food charity. They were all adorable, one of my customers made one from my #168 "Cook 'n Craft Apron for Mommy & Me" pattern, it's the 3rd one from the lower right side of the aprons photo in the cute doggie fabric with striped pockets, love it! All in all, the show was so inspiring and the classes sounded great too.

Rami Kim

From time to time you meet a kindred spirit who is so down-to-earth yet so creative and talented, and you know that God has blessed you with a special moment in your life. Such was the case when I met Rami Kim! Our guild invited her to speak and do a workshop in April this year, and I had the good fortune to spend the day with her and a few of the guild members, what a great time we all had! It was a total girls' day out as we enjoyed lunch and then headed for Mary Jo's in Gastonia where we shopped for batiks, silk and of course, wool. I found a pattern I really liked and discovered Rami had made it up a couple of times and thought how versatile and cute it was in several different fabrics, also that she is also a lover of wool! Rami was an absolute delight to hang out with, funny and playful and not at all boastful about being a best-selling author, TV star and multi-talented award-winning teacher. That day she was just one of the girls looking for great fabrics and sharing funny stories. After doing some fabric shopping we headed to downtown Concord and splurged on chocolate and some delicious Cuban coffee, then did a little shoe shopping (the bead shop was closed, bummer!) Then dinner and we headed to guild, where Rami shared her talents and awesome creations in a wonderful program on wearable art and accessories (also funny stories about the evolution of her studio in CA.) I was among the lucky to get to model one of her incredible jackets, now I don't normally think of myself as a "ruffles" kind of gal, but after wearing Rami's beautiful lavender jacket I am re-thinking that, it was gorgeous and felt like a dream on! All in all it was a magical day spent with everyone, and I look forward to seeing her again next summer when she comes back!