QSDS 2019 and three more pieces for the Wall of Ancestors

(Above:  A composite image from my two-day HOT workshop taught for QSDS [Quilt and Surface Design Symposium] on the campus of the Columbus College of Art and Design.  Click on any image to enlarge.)

For the last week, I've been in Columbus, Ohio ... the place I was born, the city where I went to college and met Steve, and the location I still consider to be "where I'm from".  It was WONDERFUL!  Over the weekend, I taught HOT, my two-day workshop exploring heat activated techniques for creative stitch.  This an opportunity to share my approach to the artwork I sell through galleries.  Everyone always manages to make at least two finished pieces ... mounted and matted!
 

 (Above:  Composite photo from my five-day SECOND LIFE workshop.)

Before teaching HOT, I spent five days with a group of super talented stitchers who transformed more than half the stash of vintage and antique linens and garments that I brought.  I also brought a large plastic tub of yarn, a box of anonymous photographs already backed with fabric, a pile of raw materials for a dry felting machine, wooden spools, buttons, and two sizes of picture frames with glass.  (I bring EVERYTHING to my workshops. There's no supply list or need for participants to bring equipment or other materials.)  It was fabulous to see both 2D and 3D creations taking form. 

 (Above:  The Key to Good Intentions. Framed: 11" x 9". $60.)

The first exercise is to create a tagged key.  The second demonstration is to create a unique Christmas ornament from an old, wooden thread spool.  Later, everyone helped make cording from neglected skeins of yarn.  Then, as a group, we turned the cording into a fiber vessel.  By the last day, we had all sorts of artwork hanging on the design walls.  Everyone at QSDS enjoyed seeing what the workshop produced.

 (Above:  The Key to the Past.  Framed: 9" x 6". $60.)

I always finish my demonstration pieces.  For me, it is important to "work like a professional artist", not just make a random "sample".  I am still working on a grave rubbing I made during a quick field trip to Franklinton Cemetery, the oldest in the Columbus area.  (I also bring a broken, late 19th century tombstone ... in case the weather in inclement, making a field trip impossible.)  I made several Christmas ornaments in addition to these two framed keys shown here.

 (Above:  The winner of our workshop's raffle donation.)

We filled the fiber vessel made in the workshop with vintage materials.  Then as a class, we donated it to the QSDS scholarship raffle.  The winner was very, very pleased!

 (Above:  Best Housekeeping Seal of Approval, The Wall of Ancestors.)

Steve flew to Columbus on Wednesday of last week.  He had a great time on a rental bicycle, exploring all our old haunts and attending the Columbus Arts Festival.  He helped me pack up the cargo van and then drove us home.  We arrived late last night and found the water soaked ceiling of our guest bathroom on the floor.  Evidently, there's a new leak in the roof.  Fortunately, no artwork was damaged but we have minor construction in our future.  It will have to wait though!  Tomorrow we are flying to NYC for two days.  We will see ABT's (American Ballet Theater) production of Le Corsaire starring guest dancer Brooklyn Mack.  Brooklyn is from Columbia and we've watched him since he was just twelve years old.  He enjoyed plenty of publicity about two years ago when partnering Misty Copeland in Swan Lake.  It was the first time a major company featured two African-Americans in the lead.  We also have tickets to see the Whitney Biennial.

 (Above:  Couldn't Get Enough of the British Invasion, Wall of Ancestors.)

Before I left for Columbus, I started these three pieces for my Wall of Ancestors.  I finished them earlier today!  The images came in an amazing box of old pictures sent to me by a lovely lady who saw my installation Anonymous Ancestors while it was on view at the Eastern Shore Art Center in Fairhope, Alabama.  I am so grateful for this donation.  My mind is spinning with ideas for the literally hundreds of other images in the box.

(Above:  They Named Me Lassie. I Was Not a Collie or a Girl, The Wall of Ancestors.)

I couldn't resist this dog photo.  It reminded me of two Sunday afternoons as a little girl living in Columbus. That was the day we visited my Grandma Lenz.  Twice we came back with a kitten.  Both times we named the kitten according to whatever was shown later that night on the Wonderful World of Disney television show.  So my family once had a boy cat named Thomasina and once had a girl cat named Hans Christian Andersen.  LOL!