Saturday night I got back from speaking and teaching at Berrien Towne and Country Quilt Guild. They meet at a lovely retreat center in Bridgman, Michigan. I felt instantly at home because everyone was so friendly.
On Thursday night they had their guild meeting. I showed a PowerPoint presentation of a number of quilt artists who have made quilts with people. I wanted to show some of the wide variety of techniques that have been used to create portrats. Then I did a trunk show of just my people quilts. At the end they had a show-and-tell time, which is always my favorite part of any meeting. It’s fun to see what everyone makes. I admit I was a bit jealous of the 59 people in the guild who were participating in a friendship triangle exchange. It was great fun watching all the activity!
On Friday, eight brave ladies took my drawn and painted portrait workshop. We took time to just play with various media to see what each person liked best. We started with dry media like Pigma pens, crayons, and colored pencils. In the afternoon, we played with wet media like fabric paint, acrylic paint, ink, and watercolor pencils. Since everyone was new at this, I encouraged them to pick just one non-skin color so they could just concentrate on learning how to use the media and how to shade an object so it looks three dimensional. I can’t believe I forgot my camera on Friday (arg!), but here are some of end results from people who also took Saturday’s workshop. I think they turned out terrific!
On Saturday, we had eighteen ladies who took my fused portrait workshop. This is a fun workshop and there is always a lot more cheerful chatter going on. Here are a few of those results. A few ladies decided to spend time cutting theirs with lots of details, so they didn’t quite get finished, but you can definitely see that they’re going to end up great. Somehow, despite my best intentions, I didn’t get pictures of everyone’s quilt. Sorry! (If you have pictures of the missing quilts or a picture of yours finished, please email me.)
What a group of talented ladies! I can’t wait to see what they do next ๐
Comments
11 responses to “Berrien Towne and Country Quilt Guild”
Couldn’t tell who had more fun – you or the ladies! Loved reading your account!
It was probably a toss up ๐
WE ALL had a wonderful time. WONDERFUL Instructor, good mix of fun students and mmmmmmmmmmm food!!!! We all felt so accomplished at the end of the classes. A few comments that were made was that we felt bad for the people that thought this was beyond them to take this class. Maria, thanks for taking us step by step in such an understandable method!! THANK YOU SO MUCH.
Thanks, Cindy!
Wow…looks like they had a great time and really learned alot…need to talk to Miami Valley about the painting class…or let me know if you are doing it locally…
My protrait is on my UFO Challenge list, so I have to get it done…back to my free-motion practice…want to be ready when its number comes up…
It would be fun! I don’t have it booked locally at this point in time.
Thanks Cindy for the link.
Amazing talent and I so enjoyed looking at all of the beautiful quilts.
I am impressed [as always] with you and the others who have made with their hands such treasures that will someday be given and treasured by future generations. True artists ALL!
Love, Stess
Maria,
Great workshop! Maria you’re a very talented and a great teacher.
We all had such a fun time in the workshops and the lecture, and we were all pretty amazed what we created with your help. I’m very proud of how my portrait turned out.
Thanks again!
Sandy
Thanks, Sandy ๐ I think you should be proud of your portrait, too! It’s so much fun seeing how everyone’s turns out. Hope everyone in the guild likes them at the next show-and-tell!
Had a great time and amazed at my project at the fused portrait workshop. I already manipulated another portrait on my photo software for another project……thanks for such a great class!
Great! I hope you’ll send me a picture of your next project, too!