Fealing Lin Workshop Day 1

This morning it was "up and at-em" very early.  I had a beautiful drive to Boone in the frosty air, with mist rising up from the New River and setttling in the valleys.  When I got there (in 48 minutes) there were two men from Cheap Joe's waiting in the parking lot to help carry our workshop supplies.  I loved that idea...wish it could happen at a quilt workshop when you are toting sewing machines, tools, fabric, rulers, irons, and what-have-you!

Each student gets their own worktable with their own trashcan.  We were each gifted with a Cheap Joe's water bucket, 

pencil, and a free copy of Palette Magazine.

Fealing Lin is a soft-spoken, gentle person with a sense of humor and tons of talent.  We each had to bring our own enlarged drawing of a face on a sheet of watercolor paper.  She helped us each (26 people) with our drawings.  Then she did a demo of the first layer of watercolor washes.  These just blend and drip on the paper with no worrying about shapes or features.

I decided to use the same drawing of my granddaughter Lily's face that I had used previously for a more traditional portrait.  I liked the rainbow of colors.

After that dried, Fealing showed how to start building up the layers of color.  By now my Lily is looking a little like Children of the Corn with no eye color!

By the third layer, the planes of the face are added and some of the features are beginning to be worked.  At this point I did not like my portrait, as the poor girl looked like she had two Wooly Worm caterpillars for eyebrows and maybe two black eyes!  I was getting tired, so I left soon after 4:00. 

There is a Bernina shop just across the highway that I spied when I left.  I went in and selected some red fabrics to start making the quilt top from my gifted red and white sampler blocks.

Then I met two of my brothers and their wives for dinner at Pepper's in Boone.  That was a lot of fun, and I enjoyed catching up with them.  It felt kind of funny to go there because it is right next to where my father lived in Boone, and we often ate lunch there with him.  Miss you, Dad!

I came back to our cabin with an aching back but looking forward to tomorrow's lesson.