



My last class in Arizona, in friendly Flagstaff, was small but good. We cut freezer paper stencils, then used the Lumiere paints I supplied to paint leaves onto a dark (black) background. Next, while the paint dried (fairly quickly), I talked about special tips and tricks for sewing with threads that have a reputation for being fussy: metallic, holographic (the shiny stuff…think Mylar balloon stuff cut into long strips), shiny polyester, and more. This project is also on the cover of my book and is included as one of the activities in the back (book available here).
First, you paint the cloth:
Then baste:
One thing many of us don’t do enough is to make sample stitch-outs before diving in to the quilting. I can’t say enough how important and helpful this can be! Best of all, if you don’t like it, you don’t have to rip it out…just move to another part of the practice sandwich. Here, one student is checking out how the decorative threads look in various free-motion designs and what she needs to do to get a good stitch on her machine:
Then start stitching:
Stop a bit and muse over what next, then continue:
Then of course there are those miserable thread tails to knot and bury!
I loved the look of the copper leaves:
And then trying out different threads and stitches and stitch-lengths to outline the leaves:
Here’s a cool, silvery, feathery outline:
Thanks for being in my class!

Nothing like a creative project with kids to keep you on your toes. I've been hacking my way around imovie putting some of their collaborative work together. If I figure out how to do so, I'll post the results on the blog somehow! This big project involves these 7 to 9 year olds in some projects that give them the experience of seeing their ideas become part of something larger than they could do alone -- and also puts adults in the picture as the facilitators and technical experts to help their ideas grow into projects that might -- at the moment -- be beyond the abilities of the kids to do on their own.
Why is this important? It looks like the grownups are doing all or most of the work -- but what happens is that with the kids in the driving seat --and as the initiators of the ideas -- they get to really experience the aha of seeing something little grow into something bigger than life. This kind of powerful experience early in one's creative life can be what makes that creative path worth the obstacles ahead. At least that's how it worked for me!
And the cool thing is, the kids really do feel ownership! It's "their" work, even if the matt knives have been in the grownups' hands; even if the movie editing was mostly done by me in the wee hours after the kids went home.
"Think Like a Pro" is the name of this new program, and part of the aim, too, is to help kids see how different professionals approach creative work. The program is also a trial run on what we hope will be the next chapter for our soon to be launched afterschool curriculum in Dallas with Big Thought. Now, the challenge is how to scale it up -- how to train others to take on the commitment to making kids' ideas shine.
by Terry (terry.grant@comcast.net) at July 30, 2010 02:51 PM
These snaps were all taken in the walled garden of West Green House Garden a couple of days ago, on a lovely warm sunny day. It is a delightfully relaxing place to visit, with facilities for a light lunch too.
Tomorrow I'm off to West Dean for a whole week of book making - getting some skills and ideas. The course description says: "By using a range of interesting book structures combined with imaginative mark-making technquies, this course is designed to enable you to develop your ideas through the structure of the book, culminating in a unique hand made book or small edition." It includes experimenting with monoprint, rubber stamp, embossing and cut throughs and "will give you the opportunity to explore the relationship of the book structure to its contents".
This book is by Carol Barton.
# 124 — Brooke Atherton! Congratulations. Send me your snail mail via the contact tab at the top of my blog and it will be on the way. For those who missed out, I suggest that you go to Jane’s website — Complex Cloth — order the book, and she will autograph it for you!! Thanks, again, for entertaining me with your comments.
As you know, from my tie dyeing escapade, I am heading out of town next week. My daughter and family are coming to house and Scooter sit. So, I have spent some time today, trying to get the downstairs area cleared of my messes so that M & M have a place to play. I think they are bringing their Wi with them and they need some space.
Tomorrow, I am going to try to de-clutter my studio. It has reached that stage where I can’t concentrate on anything because of the messes. I need to get the aspen piece done asap. Once I get my leaves cut and everything attached with some final stitching, it will be ready for photography.
My fiber sketch for today was so much fun. I read recently that you can use lutradur for machine felting. So I cut a piece of my leaf fabric and felted with some of my curly dyed roving. It works very well. I like it because I am not starting with much thickness. So I will do more of this.

I've been saving paper all winter. This spring, I ran it all through the shredder and stuffed it in this bag in anticipation that I would find a way to make my own paper this summer when I could work outside. I put about half my shreds into this large plastic box and covered it with warm water to soften it.




by Cynthia St Charles (cstcharles@q.com) at July 30, 2010 06:58 AM
by Kathyanne White (kathyanneart@mac.com) at July 30, 2010 05:47 AM
by Terry (terry.grant@comcast.net) at July 30, 2010 12:08 AM
July 29. It seems the year has sped by so fast. Maybe it’s a function of age, perhaps it is that this year has been so intense. Both?
Back in the Spring I dug grass out of a side perennial border and broadcast mixed seed. This lovely Icelandic Poppy has been blooming for several days. There are more about to open.
Just North of my studio there’s a shed. This year sunflower seeds went in against the wall. Isn’t this wonderful patterning! More blooms are on the way. It will be a treat to sit at my work table and see this color, dancing. Later in the year the birds will enjoy the seed. That too will be a visual delight.
The work on the wall is going well but not photographing well. Maybe later.
The square of pieced fabric is a UFO from the River exhibition, five years ago. It has an elegant secret - shibori wadding -
All it needed was quilting, pockets, and ties -
Unrolled -
and unwrapped -
A place fr everything, and everything in its place!

Sometimes, I like to challenge myself to make a composition in 5 minutes. I reach into my fused scraps, grab piece of fabric and just do it. I don’t want to over think it. So, feeling a bit worn out tonight, I did this quicky fiber sketch.
This morning, I overslept a bit and then the game was on because I had a guild committee meeting here at 10 am. I did a bunch of errands, three loads of laundry, packed up the t-shirts to send them to New York and then did the farmer’s market run.
I always feel exhausted around dinner time. Then, I head down to my office and studio and have a burst of energy and often get some of my best work done. Today, on Face Book, I posted: A woman’s work is never done…especially if she takes time out to make art. I find that on many days, I get caught up in the day to day stuff and the evenings are my only uninterrupted time to create.
I have been cutting leaves from the lutradur. I love the color variation and the texture of the medium.
I want to say how very much I have enjoyed reading every single comment that has been left. I really am overwhelmed. Tomorrow night, I will do the random number generator and post the winner.


I’ve an entry active at 3rd Ward in New York City.
Please go to:
The Vox Populi Award is based on public voting. Take a look at a selection from the Left Turn Lane and vote for me. Winning the Vox Populi Award will help me progress to the jurying process. It’s a good thing to see art quilts in an artist’s venue.
Thank you for your support. thelmasmith
by Dijanne Cevaal (dcevaal@gmail.com) at July 28, 2010 09:19 PM
by Cynthia St Charles (cstcharles@q.com) at July 28, 2010 07:51 PM
Sam-the-golden-wonder-dog has been home with Beau and me this week.
Watching the dynamic between the two dogs is interesting, especially in the morning. Sam is approaching 11, old age for a retriever. He had a bad injury as a very young dog and the resulting arthritis slows him down. His attitude is good and he’s happy but his style is different.
Watching him with Beau reminds me of the proverb “Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill”.
Sam is a serious working/hunting dog. The closest thing to a bird is his training dummy.
Beau’s game is to steal the dummy from Sam at every chance then run around in circles trying to entice Sam to give chase.
Sam watches.
Eventually Beau, being young and NOT a retriever, gets distracted, whereupon Sam gets the dummy back and the games continue.
I am easily entertained when it comes to the four-leggeds in my life.
Working out in the patio yesterday, I dyed 10 of these…Sweet little onesies for sweet little babies.
Between Monday and Tuesday, I finished 8 new silk scarves and have 3 more waiting to finish. I need some time to decide how to finish them. I want to do more wax designs. There is only one in this group using my new “BIG sponge” stamp. I love the BIG sponge.


As of 10:30 tonight, 95 people have left a comment, hoping to win Jane’s book. It was so much fun reading all of your comments today. On Friday, I will use a random number generator to announce the winner. So if you are just reading my blog today, you still have time to leave a comment on yesterday’s blog for a chance to win Jane Dunnewold’s new book, Art Cloth.
I was so tired after dinner tonight that I thought I could not possibly do a fiber sketch. I printed out my leaf templates on freezer paper and played some solitaire on the computer. I went into the studio to iron the freezer paper to the painted lutradur and I suddenly wanted to use some of the lutradur for a sketch. I titled it summer. By the way, I cut out some leaves and the lutradur is going to be perfect.
This morning, I washed out the dyeing that I did yesterday. Got some great results with the t-shirts. The fabric was less than spectacular.
I used a cool black dye for this shirt – you can see the blues that have shown up.
For several of the shirts, I used chocolate brown and teal — I really like this combo.
Here is another version of the teal and brown for Mia.
This is some cheese cloth that got dunked in the black dye. I like this.
This is another piece done with teal and chocolate brown. I think this will bee really cool for discharging.
I love this wacky piece. I hung the fabric on the clothes line and poured various leftover dyes on to the fabric ala Robbi Eklow. I love a piece of fabric like this that can be cut up and used in compositions. There are many fabulous elements to this.
Joining me in the studio was my faithful assistant, Scooter. He remains calm, cool and collected through it all.
I’m so bad…I haven’t blogged in forever. I guess I can just take you through what I have been doing the last couple of weeks… in pictures.
I went to Terra Haute to an exhibit that a friend of mine was in. We went to a place she had once gone to school and I saw interesting things to photograph such as this structure.
Interesting glass close to where we parked…
Then made lots of fabric beads and made earrings from them…this pair sold…
I’ve been making liner bags to go in Kay’s basket purses…a little collaborative effort…
I made ciabatta bread for the very first time…it turned out great…I love it…
We went to my family reunion…outdoors at a state park on the hottest day of the year…
That’s my brother…he was not a happy camper…
We left on Friday to go home for the reunion and were having AC problems at the time. Well, it’s Tuesday and we are still waiting for the repair guy. Lucky we are staying cool though.
Back to the “dye studio” and scarves and onesies this week…
Took this while the scarf was drying…
Pole-wrapped and dyed, stamped and a rubbing applied. The rubbing plate design was made on a piece of cardboard with hot glue. Great way to make rubbings.

by Terry (terry.grant@comcast.net) at July 27, 2010 11:39 PM
WOW! Cambridge, England textile artist Sandra Scott stitched the quilt in the photo. WOW! Sandra shares on her blog that her "work is a reflection of who I am as a mother, wife, teacher and artist. I enjoy experimenting with new art materials and gadgets." Take a moment to visit Sandra's blog and give a shout out to this sistah quilter in England! Enjoy!
What does breakfast look like around the country? The world? Your house?
I'm working/playing with a group of 7-to-9 year old creative thinkers this week at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Connecticut in the second course of our New World Kids program -- it's called "Think Like a Pro," and introduces our young alumnae of NWKs to a more indepth look at their own creative process as well as a look at how different people in different fields approach creative work.
One of our projects -- combining social media, the theme of home and an installation designed by the kids -- has to do with collecting breakfast photos.
Here's the email that the kids came up with (with a couple of additions) and your instructions. Feel free to copy the request and send it out -- we want to see the diversity of what we humans eat each morning and the more, the better. Deadline for submissions is THIS THURSDAY at noon, since our exhibit (online and inhouse) goes live on Saturday. We'll send any who contribute a link to a site with all the photos.
Hello friends!
We are collecting breakfasts from everywhere. Please email us a photo of your breakfast for our exhibition.
Email it to: mybreakfast@me.com. We need it by noon on Thursday. (We'll send back a link to the results!)
Thank you from the "Think like a Pro" class at the Aldrich in CT, USA! (Be sure and tell us where you eat breakfast!)
Here is an example:

More about the program, for those interested (from my colleague and co-author Susan Marcus' letter to the kids' parents):
“TLAPro” is the second step on a path that we see as building a real literacy in creative thinking skills. It is designed much the same way as we teach any literacy...by first learning a symbol system, in the case the Sensory Alphabet. This was “New World Kids.”
Next we start “scaffolding” thinking skills on that foundation. It’s the same way that the traditional alphabet leads to reading and numbers become the tools of arithmetic.
Also at the heart of the NWK approach is the belief that learning should be learner-centered, that the development of individual potential should be priority one. We believe that creativity is “basic.” We know that it can be nurtured in all children...and at this time especially...it is important to give kids the “creative thinking tools” to create a meaningful life and deal with an unknown future.
To get at individual styles we use the Sensory Alphabet as a lens to discern the constellation of strengths that we see in the patterns of each child’s creative work and behavior. Activities are carefully designed to bring out these patterns. We then share them with the parents. And you have all been a part of that. What we know from many years of applied research with kids is that these patterns of strengths don’t change. They are as indelible as a fingerprint. There is a great deal of research that supports this view, e.g., Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences that has now grown into “differentiated instruction” in some classrooms — and in the last decade this idea is strongly supported by neuroscience.
In TLAPro, the basic idea is to get kids working out of their individual strengths in conscious way. At about 7yrs old, this capacity for reflection begins to unfold developmentally. We are beginning to exercise and build these new capacities. We share the info we gave you all at the end of NWK with the children (in a simpler form, of course) and give them different formats and media to reflect on those ideas.
We keep the Sensory Alphabet and the creative process in mind as we work/play. This week we observed different ways that “pros” think and use the tools of their professions. We heard how they solve problems and create. The children had the opportunity to try out those ways of thinking, use media and solve problems “like a pro,” in fact, like several diverse pros. And the important part we reflect on at this time is...which one is most fitting for my their natural strengths? Which one did they resonate with? Gave them the most ideas? Now they are beginning to get a grasp of the notion that some things might be difficult and hard to imagine, while others will be easy and engrossing — and that’s OK.
There are several other “strands” that run through TLAPro:
• We are building reflective (metacognitive) skills by playing with different ways of envisioning information through infographics. (This is what you’ve seen coming home.) It is a basic kind of visual literacy that will serve them in interpreting visual information and later, being able to create their own. This will be a needed skill in the future and is an underpinning of “digital literacy.” At this stage, we’re observing, collecting and playing.
• We are playing with different ways of taking notes and reflecting on the experiences of the day.
• We are expanding the array of digital media that they are using to solve problems and create. Again, in simple, playful and creative ways. We’ll demonstrate these for parents on the last day.
• We are experiencing working both individually and consciously, as a group. This week, it was very simple and spontaneous. Next week we will go deeper.
Next week will have a different structure. We will divide children into three small, like-minded groups to work with a Pro that is most like their natural way of thinking. We’ll have a 2D group, a 3D/builders group and a group that will work with social and kinetic sensibilities. We will be working with the theme of HOME and using several of the exhibitions now on view at the Aldrich as jumping off points. There one day of collecting ideas and trying out beginning thoughts, then two days of working with the Pros to complete a real piece of creative work. After that, we will work together to design a presentation for the parents that includes all the results. We will also experience documenting our work and putting it into a digital format. It will be a full week!
I have had a busy day and am feeling great. I made a trip to Target this morning to buy more t-shirts. I had some left over dye and decided to dye some shirts for my M and M and Mr C hinted that he would like one, too.
I scoured the shirts and got everything dyed by early afternoon. I had enough dye left to use up on some fabric. I had mixed up some chocolate brown, teal blue and black in addition to the red, blue an yellow that was left from Saturday.
I bought some light weight lutradur at Fabric Depot on Saturday which I think will make nice leaves for my latest aspen piece. I painted it with Jacquard Dyna-Flow this afternoon. I love the colors. I will make leaf patterns with freezer paper and spend tomorrow night cutting and cutting.
Tonight, I am feeling rather tired and achy from all the standing and walking the dog so I decided to start working on Allegro, by next organza pocket piece. Since I need to make the background quilt before I attach the pockets, I have to know the exact measurements. For the 12 by 12 piece, that was easy. Here is my start. I think it might be easier to work it out on graph paper.
The darker pockets will fill in around the white pieces. I am trying to decide if I need to paint more of the white pieces.
Now, I have an extra copy of Jane Dunnewold’s new book, Art Cloth. It is a fabulous how to book from the queen of surface design. Leave a comment and I will do a random drawing on Friday.
As part of my travels and teaching for the Arizona Quilt Guild, I got to present a lecture at their semi-annual meeting. They hold one meeting in the southern part of the state, and one in the north. This one was in Flagstaff, in northern Arizona, and MY how beautiful and friendly a town! I TOTALLY fell in love with the place, mostly because of the people! We were booked at the Radisson, which had totally cool artwork and “stuff” to decorate. Here are two neat pieces:
That second one, especially, gives me some cool ideas for an art quilt…hmm…..
And then there were these carved doors….WOW:
Talk about inspiration for quilting and applique designs!!!!
I gave my lecture at this meeting, and boy was that a challenge! My laptop DIED two days before, and I was scheduled to do a presentation using the laptop. SHRIEK! AND, even though I had the presentation on a thumb drive as insurance, we couldn’t find anyone on such short notice (that hadn’t already left home) that had a MacBook with Keynote installed, and no Mac stores anywhere nearby to rent one! Fortunately, I had almost ALL my journal quilts with me (the topic of the talk), as well as my digital projector and video camera (which I use for live demos in class). My intrepid host Tari Hammons came to the rescue. I figured out that we could just hold the journals under the camera and project them “live” to the wall! So I did the talk, flagged pages from my working sketchbook that I happened to have with me to share for that part, and Tari just swapped things out in order. PHEW! The group was MOST understanding, and it worked in the end. But I hope never to repeat THAT experience. THANK YOU, Tari! for your help…you helped save the day! Here’s me, doing the talk, looking more together than I actually felt: 
(The long delay in blogging all this is due, in part, to having to reconstruct my life on the new laptop, which took two weeks to get built and sent from Apple in China….. thankfully, I had backed up fully the day before I left on the trip and had been saving for and planning on a new laptop later this year….so all is well in the end, but sheesh!)
The meeting was the usual guild thing, and this time outgoing President Lynn Kough was presented with this spectacular quilt made by board members…WOW:
Wish I had a better picture… the quilting (by the woman on the right, and I’m SO SORRY I didn’t write down her name…she’s the new Pres. of the guild I think) was GORGEOUS!
There were vendors, too (yippee!), and one had this lovely way to use up bolt-boards and display batik selections effectively:
Finally, here are two pictures from downtown Flagstaff… The cathedral:
and this cool tree-sculpture on the Northern Arizona University Campus (between my hotel and downtown)…when the wind blew, the leaves clink and tinkle and dance…way cool:
What a wonderful, friendly, art-friendly town! I don’t think I could ever live that far from salt-water, but if I could, Flagstaff would be very high on my list of great towns!


I was thinking about the sky, and buildings reflecting the sky
and clouds moving across the sky
and even skies that aren't blue -
In the back of the book, hidden in the folding cover that can be used for storing loose bits of paper, were the notes from several courses I'd all but forgotten about, including one of a series of drawing courses at the V&A about 10 years ago -
We drew faces (and feet) in the sculpture court; I wish I could remember the tutor's name....
Today we went to Cambridge, home of world famous Cambridge University. Cambridge is a lively cosmopolitan city that attracts a lot of overseas and local visitors. After lunch , we went punting on the river. Fortunately, we had a proper punter and did not attempt to do it ourselves
The punters has to watch out for low-flying bridges.
The university really goes for the ivy league look, to emphasise that it's the 3rd oldest university in Europe.
The river winds through the university grounds.
There were several dozen punts in action, so things got hectic in places.
Hard to believe this is a student residence!
The Bridge of Sighs - which connects a student residence with the exam rooms. Aptly named.by Shirley Goodwin (shirley@tillia.co.nz) at July 26, 2010 08:16 AM

Congratulations to the African American Quilt Circle (Durham, NC) for winning a 2010 Indies Art Award for their extraordinary community contributions! The award is from the local community newspaper. The guild has about 60 members. Click here to read the newspaper story. Enjoy!by Dijanne Cevaal (dcevaal@gmail.com) at July 26, 2010 02:32 AM