Still at it!

It seems like just yesterday that I last wrote here, but I see it's been a week. A busy week. I've had meetings every night, and this afternoon I had my third drawing class. I feel that I need to develop skill in drawing if I'm going to be designing my own patterns and preparing hand outs for classes. This class has four weeks of drawing and then four weeks of watercolour instruction. Today we worked with charcoal--and I hope I never have to use it again. I didn't like the way the pictures looked when we were finished, and I hated the mess it made not only of my hands, but of my clothes as well. I'm really looking forward to the watercolour classes. I'm hoping that they will help me develop an eye for transparancies that I can use with fabric and other fibres. I've always loved the look of transparancies in quilted things and would love to be able to make them myself.

My boxes are coming along quite nicely. I've been making stumpwork leaves for one box. These are worked with densly stitched overdyed silk thread--a single thread at a time. I've chosen a colour that is reminiscent of maple leaves in fall- oranges and deep pinks and dark greens-- and plan to call the box, "Maple Leaf Box". It will be made of a very deep red Dupioni silk. The other box will be embroidered and based on a warm, dark brown Dupioni silk. I'll be using several different threads for that one, but I've painted lace motifs to applique under the embroidery. It should be quite nice.

Tonight I have a satellite group meeting. This is a small group of other fibre people who get together once a month to encourage each other and to share skills. This group is primarily quilters. Last evening I went to a similar group of stitchers, and I also belong to a group of embellishers. They sure keep me busy, but I don't think I could be nearly as productive without their encouragement and support.

I guess that's what all of my efforts are about, sharing ideas and support with groups of like-minded people.