North Carolina Quilt Symposium Part 1

It's now history...North Carolina Quilt Symposium is over for another year.  Congratulations to the board and the committee for such a successful convention.  It was fun to walk across the college campus and see fellow guild members, Carolina Longarm members, famous quilt teachers, and many, many students getting together through our love of quilting. 


On Friday, my DSH (Dear Sweet Husband) drove my bucking bronco Subaru to the dealership for repair of the misfiring cylinder so I could get to my workshop on time in his car.  I was there in plenty of time to get to my class with Joyce Becker on Quick Little Landscape Quilts.  I was the second person there!  Here is a shout-out to one of my peeps, Kathleen from Oak Island, who walked in the door and exclaimed, "It's Jeanne!"  like I was a celebrity.  Kathleen said she reads my blog every day.  What a doll!  I also met a quilter from Australia via Cary, NC, who was in both of my classes, and a fellow quilter from Wake Forest whom I had never met.  It is fun to make connections!


Joyce Becker was an interesting and very down-to-earth teacher with lots of ideas for making landscape quilts using printed fabrics with landscape features such as grass, rocks, flowers, mountains, and animals.  Actually, I already had one of her books, but did not realize it until I saw them on display at the workshop.  Joyce had lots of quilts to show us, and it is amazing how much more beautiful they are in person than in the book photographs.  She utilizes lots of intricate threadwork to enhance the scenes in her quilts.  Joyce does not fuse her fabrics, but starches them heavily and either uses a repositionable spray glue, or glue stick to anchor them down before stitching.

Joyce advises using a photo mat to define the area of your scene.  I like the idea of not having to back or bind the finished piece!  I decided that my project would be a scene from our helicopter trip over the island of Hawaii last February.  It is a pass between some of those steep cliffs that end right in the sea.

I begged a piece of the light sky fabric on top from my fellow student Millie, used one of my Setacolor painted fabrics for the blue and white area, and a piece of yellow-green silk for the sunlit edge of the cliff.  I did not have the right green fabric for the hills in the foreground, so I went shopping at the vendor mall at lunchtime and found some that worked just fine.

This piece needs to be refined and then stitched down by machine.  Joyce showed some techniques of adding Angelina, dryer lint, tulle, paints, and inks to create the desired landscape qualities.  A very enjoyable workshop!  I think I will definitely finish this project.

During my whirlwind lunchtime tour of the vendor mall and quilt show, I also bought an item I have been coveting for a long time...a hand-made African basket from French Connections in Pittsboro, NC. 

These baskets are very sturdy and roomy, and come in an array of colors and patterns.

I would show you more pictures of the quilt show, but alas, my digital camera has been missing for over two weeks now.   I thought I left it in the mountains, but when we went back last weekend, I couldn't find it.  I miss it terribly!  I am hoping it will still turn up.  Charlie has a very nice camera with a huge lens, but it is not as easy to carry around as my Canon, which is about the size of a deck of cards.

Next time I will tell about my class with Frieda Anderson of the mythical Chicago School of Fusing.  It was another fun day!