Wednesday Potpourri

Usually Wednesday is my Work-in-Progress blog, but I do not have much new to show you. This morning, I made the dough for some delicious cookies to take to school for our fair on Saturday. Judy Martin's book Cookies and Quilts has the best cookie recipes I have ever made.

Oh,yes, loaded with butter and sugar and double the chips. The fifth grade is sponsoring the Cookie Walk, and I thought I better help out since I won't be here for the fair.

I have also created a few small pieces of background fabric on the embellisher, experimented with various combinations of fabrics and yarns to make tree bark for the Grand Canyon tree WIP I have been dawdling over, and done some more quilting on the Trash-to-Treasure fabric. I need to get at least one purse made in time for the North Carolina Quilt Symposium at the end of May.

I do have a beautiful piece of new fabric. My local bee is celebrating our birthday months with Fat Quarter gifts of fabric. My birthday is not until June, but since Janice will be gone, she bestowed this gorgeous batik lame on me at our last meeting. I don't know if you can tell how the fabric catches the light with shimmers of gold. I had never heard of batik lame, but I can't wait to try it out! Janice, thank you for this wonderful fabric-it is perfect for me!

Also, I have some new books and a new challenge to tell you about. Sarah Ann Smith from the Quilt Art mail list has started a blog for anyone who wants to improve their drawing skills. The blog is called See*Draw*Quilt*Learn. We will use The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards. I also purchased the workbook that accompanies the book. Those who want to post their drawings can do so, and receive helpful feedback.

I have always been able to draw fairly realistically, but I should have spent more time at my father's knee observing his skills. (Absorbing them by osmosis?) He of course, made his living in commercial and fine art, and made valiant attempts to teach his kids to draw. He even came to my special education classroom every year and taught my LD kids to draw. But I am far from expert. Never even took art in school after eighth grade. I guess the home ec classes helped me become a quilter eventually. One thing about having an artist for a father, I have never feared trying new materials since my dad always encouraged us to use his stuff. Pastels, watercolors, inks, colored pencils, overhead projector, nice brushes and pencils, charcoals were all as familiar to me as the smell of fixative in his studio. Thanks, Dad, for encouraging me to try to make art!

My books just arrived, but it looks like I will be learning a lot. The workbook has forty exercises to develop drawing skills. It says there are five basic skills of drawing. Only five?

1. The Perception of Edges



2. The Perception of Spaces



3. The Perception of Relationships



4. The Perception of Lights and Shadows



5. The Perception of the Gestalt

Wish me luck! Better yet, join in!