A fun weekend and surprises!

The opening for our exhibit went great.  Lots of fun but we did miss Mary (who was not feeling up to par) and Carol (who was out of town on vacation).  There are always quite a few folks  who come to the opening...OK, so a few are college kids looking for free food and drink...but that's ok!  Last year we actually had some college students who where quite interested in the art work and our processes...didn't find any of those this year!  Kinda funny but there was another huge! event taking place this weekend on the street where the art council sits!  You'll see a picture in this post!

Blurry!!!

I didn't realize how blurry this picture was too!

And look who else joined the quilters!

 Flint has a bike event every year and the past two years it has taken place the same weekend as the quilt weekend.  We did have two women who came to the exhibit and hubby's were looking at bikes and they were looking at quilts!  Guess that worked for them.

And when I got home Friday night look what was in the mail for me!!  A surprise from my Q Buddy, Susan!!!  THANK YOU my friend!!!

So cute!!!!

While I was sitting waiting for herds of folks to come see our work!, I was able to start the 'first cut' on my 2nd Tiffany piece for our exhibit.  This is the peacock design I showed on my blog that I'm doing.  This is the bike of the piece.  The black is on the front, which is what I'm cutting away to create the leading.  There are different shade of greens and blues, which you can't see!  But you will!

So this was the first cut and I managed to get this piece appliqued..almost to the point.  At least I've made a dent!  Figured I wouldn't get to this until the winter.  I want to finish up my Road Less Traveled for the online challenge for the Art Quilts Around the World blog.  So off I go to get some laundry started and some work (ok not really 'work' - sewing!) done!

A Color Study:  Underwater Fantasy

Created by

The Aussome Study Group

Orange - Mary Andrews

Yellow - Lois Ann Fulton

Blue - Robbie Payne

Green - Karen Kiley Olson

Red - Carol Tamasiunas

It's been quite a busy week!!  Our Aussome Study Group's opening, for our art quilt exhibit, is next Friday.  Hence, this past week or so has been dedicated to picking up quilts, getting sleeves on quilts, making all the labels for the wall at the exhibit...and other busy work!   The group quilt picture above is one we did back in  2008 and was juried into the IQA show in Houston (you can read my blog post on it here).   This piece will be on the main wall as you walk into the Art Council bldg.  I think it will draw a lot of attention.  If you can click on the picture and look at each quilt detail, I think you'll be impressed.  Lots and lots of different techniques and materials used.

The quilt picture above doesn't look like much but under this 'stack' are 39 other art quilts from our groups Inspired by the Master exhibit.  The IBTM exhibit are all consistent in size - 16" x 20" but we have a variety of sizes for each of our six individual exhibits.  Actually we have 95 quilts to hang!!!  I'm hoping we can hang all of them but you never know.  The majority of mine, for example, are 8 1/2" x 11" (my beaded pieces) and some of the other ladies have small sizes as well.   I think the exhibit will be really interesting as we have so many different techniques/mediums we each work in.

We always have a good time at the opening...usually meeting for dinner ahead of time and then the 'meet and greet'.  The Art Council bldg is always packed, and I mean packed with folks coming to see the art work.

In between quilts, I finally got a chance to get 75% caught up on my Watercolor lessons with Val Webb.  I do enjoy working with the watercolor...not good at the 'drawing' part but learning a lot and figure I can always trace any letter(s) I might choose to work with!  There's always a way, right!

Lesson in creating a trinity knot

A Uncial inspired letter

This is a fun lesson to do.  A painted watercolor background that we add botanical elements using a Crow Quill pen and white, opaque ink.  The only problem I'm having is getting the ink to flow from my pen.  Sometimes it works great and other times all I get is a scratch on my paper.  I'm only pulling the pen towards me but still...gets frustrating because I'm enjoying this process the most.  Reminds me of doodling/Zentangle type work.

So busy week this week...we're hanging the quilts starting on Tues.  We should be finished by Friday!!  Let's hope, right!