Five Questions for Natalya Khorover Aikens

January 23, 2020
Five Questions for Natalya Khorover Aikens

Natalya’s art is an extension of her commitment to using recycled and repurposed materials, a lifelong advocacy. Her detailed works are nuanced and reimagined images inspired by the lines of the urban environment. A close examination of Natalya’s art reveals delightful and unexpected combinations of materials as diverse as vintage lace, plastic sheeting, and candy wrappers, layered and collaged with machine and hand stitching.

Natalya will be bringing her Nature in Plastics workshop to our studio from December 2-6 this year. In this three-day workshop, you’ll learn a creative way to craft an art quilt while also cleaning up our planet by using single-use plastics as your fabric. They come in a myriad of colors, thicknesses, patterns and even textures, and can sewn almost like fabric.

In advance of her workshop, we asked Natalya a few questions about her work and approach to teaching.

Q: How did you first begin creating art with the medium(s) you’ll be using in your workshop?

NKA: I was first attracted to the colors and translucency of the plastic bags years and years ago. Can’t pin an exact date on it, but I started saving them for a while before it occurred to me to start stitching them. I think I must have been looking for a specific color in my fabric stash and came across it in a plastic bag. I learned quickly that most plastic bags are very fabric like to stitch through and the multiple stitched layers are quite sturdy. I thoroughly enjoy layering the bags and getting new shades and colors due to the translucent nature of most plastics.

Q: What are your biggest challenges to creating art and how do you deal with them?

NKA: My biggest challenge is time and lack there of. How to deal with that? By taking every available minute. I am lucky to have my studio in a dedicated space in my home, so that I can leave whatever I am working on as is, and get back to it as soon as I can without having to take everything out again. I learned to work in small increments of time when my daughters were little and all I had was their nap times, and seems to have served me well. The only time I must have a long stretch of uninterrupted time for art is when I’m in the initial design stage, after that I can work in short bursts since I already know where I am headed.

Q: How has teaching impacted your personal art practice?

NKA: As I think most teachers will tell you, we learn as much from our students as they do from us. I always feel inspired by my students and that gives me an extra boost of energy in my studio.

My personal approach to art is called “go with the flow”. I let my artistic intuition lead me through the work; lack of certain materials teaches me to be inventive; time constraints lead to reevaluation and streamlining of the process or the design. The same approach helps in teaching – I am able to adapt to my students needs, knowledge levels and the time constraints of the workshop, and we figure out the best way to get the most out of each class.

Q: What advice has influenced you?

NKA: “The routine is as much a part of the creative process as the lightning bolt of inspiration, maybe more. And this routine is available to everyone…. Creativity is a habit, and the best creativity is a result of good work habits. That’s all in a nutshell“. ~Twyla Tharp (The Creative Habit)

“Don’t wait for inspiration, it comes while working“. ~Henri Matisse

“It is absurd to look for perfection“. ~Camille Pissarro

“When you’re terrified, embarrassed, don’t wanna put it down on paper, I’ve found through the years, usually you’re on to something good“. ~Erica Jong

Q: What’s one tip you have or trick you use for keeping your studio space organized?

NKA: A thorough cleaning after each major project is completed!

Five Questions for Philippa Naylor

January 21, 2020
Five Questions for Philippa Naylor

Born in Yorkshire, England, Philippa discovered a love of sewing and knitting as a child. A second-hand sewing machine for her thirteenth birthday enabled her to progress from making dolls clothes to full sized garments for herself, family and friends. After training to be a clothing designer she worked in industry for five years designing lingerie for Courtaulds Clothing. After this she moved to Dhahran Saudi Arabia with her husband Peter, who at the time was working as an English language teacher. Here she set up a business making bespoke wedding and evening dresses, and had two sons Daniel and Benjamin. A chance meeting, in Saudi Arabia, in 1996 led to a short quilting course, after which clothing became less interesting and quilting an all-consuming passion.

Philippa joins us for the first time from November 1-7, 2020 to teach her Machine Quilting Masterclass in our heated studio space. In advance of her workshop we asked her a few questions about her work!

Q: How does your personal art practice fit into your life?

PN: Oooh tricky! As much as I can which might be every day and might be weeks before I can get to it due to teaching/filming my online classes/looking after family and so much more…

Q: Has your work evolved over time?

PN: Definitely. I never stop learning and I think i get better technically and in design terms as well. After all these years I’m still totally enthused and always itching to sew and create.

Q: What’s the biggest “risk” you’ve taken in your journey as an artist?

PN: Don’t see any of this as a risk. See it all as an adventure and journey.

Q: Do you work on multiple pieces concurrently or focus on exclusively one at a time?

PN: One piece at a time. If I have a talent it is persistence. Deciding on a new piece is not hard. Finding the time is hard.

Q: Tell us a bit about how you plan to conduct your workshop.

PN: A mix. We will begin with specific tasks to build skills ans explore possibilities. The students will then take what they have learnt and develop the ideas ans techniques in any way they wish with me on hand to assist and offer technical and design led possibilities.

Five Questions for Judy Coates Perez

January 16, 2020
Five Questions for Judy Coates Perez

Join Judy Coates Perez from October 18-24 in her five-day workshop to print your own personal fabric line, then use it to make an improvisationally pieced modern quilt top! Explore a multitude of ways to apply color to fabric using acrylics inks with broad brush strokes, salt, pleating and shibori techniques. Learn the art of hand printing fabric and applying pattern.

Judy is an International award-winning mixed-media textile artist and author, who travels globally to teach painting and mixed-media techniques and lecture about her creative process and sources of inspiration. She received my BFA in graphic design from The Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of Design, but found her true passion when she began working with textiles.

In advance of her workshop, we asked Judy a few questions about her work and approach to teaching workshops.

Q: How did you first begin creating art with the medium(s) you’ll be using in your workshop?

JCP: About 10 years ago, I began experimenting on fabric with acrylic inks, because I was curious about how they would behave when used on fabric given they are very thin and runny, and are also an acrylic based paint. Acrylic inks are generally used for calligraphy and illustration on paper and other porous media, but I saw immense potential in using a paint medium that could possibly behave like a dye, but without the toxicity or chemistry involved, or harm for the environment that dyeing can cause when living in an area prone to drought, because dyeing fabric uses a lot of water in the rinsing and washing out stages.

I love the instant gratification of acrylic inks, there’s no batching, rinsing or washing out needed. Once the fabric is dry, it’s permanent.

I also found that acrylic inks work well with stamps, and are fantastic when used in combination with Japanese shibori resist techniques for creating gorgeous pattern and texture.

I like to use thermofax screens to print designs on fabric in my Tea & Ephemera and Prayer Flags class, so it was only a matter of time before I started to explore printing on the textured fabrics I was making with acrylic inks. I love the ability to use a variety techniques to create unique fabrics filled with pattern and texture that I can use in patchwork and applique. There’s endless possibility to create beautiful fabrics in such an easy way.

Q: What is your most unexpected source of inspiration?

JCP: I don’t think I have any unexpected source of inspiration, I see potential all around me and would have hard time qualifying anything as ‘unexpected’, but there are probably some people who would be surprised by some of the things I’ve used in my work over the years.

Q: What are your biggest challenges to creating art and how do you deal with them?

JCP: Time. There’s never enough time. Because I am financially self supporting with my art and teaching there is always business related tasks that need to be done that take away precious time from creating.

Q: How has teaching impacted your personal art practice?

JCP: I think my art practice has had far more impact on my teaching than the other way around. My work is always evolving and changing, and when I go off in a new direction I get very excited about it and want to share it with my students. My classes are generally technique driven with exploration highly encouraged, my goal is for students to create unique work with their own voice and vision.

Q: What’s one tip you have or trick you use for keeping your studio space organized?

JCP: Organized? HA HA Ha ha ha ha ha ha….

What’s New With Fiber Artist Lyric Montgomery Kinard?

January 7, 2020
What’s New With Fiber Artist Lyric Montgomery Kinard?

Fiber artist Lyric Montgomery Kinard joined us for the first time in 2018 and we’re thrilled to have her back for a 5-day workshop from August 2-8, 2020. This year’s workshop will focus on how to find your voice!

Lyric encourages deep personal exploration and seeks to help you gain the skills to confidently work within your own unique vision. She can help you learn to speak the visual language as only you can.

Lyric is an award winning artist with a passion for sparking the creativity that she knows each of her students posses. With playful support and gentle encouragement she will take you through your first steps on a new path, seeing the world through the eyes of an artist. As an artist, author, and educator she transforms cloth into art in her studio and timid spirits into confident creatives in the classroom.

Q: Tell us what’s new in your personal art practice!

LMK: 2019 kept me busy working on a solo show called Stone, Water, Time that exhibited for two months at the Cary Art Center. It was a collaborative effort with poet, Maura High, exploring the history and geometry of historic mill wheels in North Carolina. 20 artworks and 9 poems and two months of events including gallery walks and poetry readings.

All this along with inspiring travel around the US and to both New Zealand and South Africa to teach and share my love of the visual language of art.
2020 will be a time of regrouping, doing a little less teaching travel and spending more time developing new online courses and working on a new book on Abstract Design.

Q: What will be new or different about your workshop this year?

LMK: Every time I teach it is new since my courses are always student driven. The chance to spend extended time with a small group of students will allow us to delve deeply into each person’s own artistic explorations. I help my students to better understand and articulate their own unique visual language. We work on surface design techniques but mostly we learn the creative analysis skills that help artists compose their work and problem solve during the design process.

Five Questions for Pat Pauly

December 19, 2019
Five Questions for Pat Pauly

With works that carry a graphic, color-saturated palette using her hand printed fabric, Pat Pauly’s fiber art is seen around the world. Her textile work began in the early 1980s and was first accepted in Quilt National ’83, and has continued being shown in major exhibitions. Her fiber art’s distinction is with using a strong abstraction of natural forms and complex color combinations.

Pat joins us next summer for her ‘Glorious Prints’ workshop from July 26th-August 1st in which you’ll discover glorious ways to print on fabric using permanent textile dyes. With Pat’s techniques for applying color from scrapers to rollers to print methods, this class layers techniques on fabric that becomes one-of-a-kind. Starting with simple layers, then add on a variety of printing techniques making fabric that contains bold, graphic elements.

Q: How did you first begin creating art with the medium(s) you’ll be using in your workshop?

PP: I chanced to take a class in printmaking and after screening on paper, tried cloth. Intrigued with the result, I used it to make a quilt, then another using the printed fabric. These were successful, and I continued to make quilts after my initial printed fabric works. I made quite a few and was exhibiting them before I ever took a formal quilting class.

Q: What are your biggest challenges to creating art and how do you deal with them?

PP: Time continues to be the greatest obstacle for making work. Each piece is in itself a time-consuming endeavor, and just having a block of time to work on a piece has difficulties. I try to ignore the administrative side of my job and focus on the morning for studio work.

Q: How has teaching impacted your personal art practice?

PP: Often, students worry that I will take away the ideas they generate in class. Somehow that has not interested me, but I will do some demonstrations that are quick and free flowing. I’ve learned so much from these demo pieces and the style has worked its way back into my studio practice. I hear my admonishing to “work quickly, think less” in my head, almost as if I were guiding myself instead of my students. So, that voice helps me to! My approach to my art is to encourage students to work large, to take in composition. And I bring my finished work as examples. That seems to inspire the class work. And I’ve become more at ease with my work, and more at ease in sharing techniques for how to compose and build the work.

Q: What advice has influenced you?

PP: A colleague suggested that I continue to use fabrics that are commercial as well as artist-made. Though I’ve been using exclusively artist made fabric, I do pay attention to using uncommon pairings. Composing with conflicting patterns are enjoyable.

Q: What’s one tip you have or trick you use for keeping your studio space organized?

PP: Who said it was organized? I do clear the deck after a large project, but that is because I need the space to square the work and add the finishing. But that said, most of my materials are stored in clear containers. If I can’t see the parts, they don’t exist.

What’s New with Quilt Artist Paula Nadelstern

November 21, 2019
What’s New with Quilt Artist Paula Nadelstern

Bronx-based quilt artist Paula Nadelstern returns to our studio in 2020 with her Kaleidoscopes and Quilts workshop from April 19th-25th. As part of our Instructor Interview series for next year, we asked Paula to let us know what’s new in her world!

Q: Tell us what’s new in your personal art practice!

PN: In 2018, I received a Bronx Recognizes Its Own award and used the funds to purchase a Bernina 750 so I could finally begin the journey toward successfully machine piecing. Wish me luck.

I’ve got three new collections premiering at 2019 Quilt Market: Where in the World, Artful Snowflake and an enlarged group of Marbellas. I’ve been enjoying creating simple quilts with these complex fabrics, inspired by the pattern bumping into pattern lessons learned making KALEIDOSCOPIC XLI: The Prague Spanish Synagogue Ceiling. These collections will be available in the studio.

In December, I’ll start KALEIDOSCOPIC XLIII exploring a new-to-me mirror system in a lovely Japanese kaleidoscope in my collection. Perhaps I’ll be able to share some new design directions by the class.

Tentatively called KALEIDOSCOPIC XLII: Wheelhouse Rock, it was made over two summers for my professional guild’s exhibition of each member’s signsture style called 40×40@40.

Q: What will be new or different about your workshop this year?

PN: We’ll begin by focusing on technique, learning to detangle angles. This will lead to unique compositions and lay-outs, If students who have been in class before (or even those who haven’t) want to contact me in advance, we can talk about the direction you’d like to take this year.

What’s New with Art Quilter David Taylor

November 7, 2019
What’s New with Art Quilter David Taylor

This year we’ve asked some of our returning instructors to let us know what’s new with them! Are they conducting new workshops? Are they working on a brand new collection in their personal creative practice? First up is art quilter David Taylor, who had some very exciting news to share with us!

Q: Tell us what’s new in your personal art practice!

DT: I am thrilled to be working on my next major exhibit in Colorado for 2020 – a retrospective of my 20 years of quilt making. As I sell all of my works, there is a massive coordination effort to bring the quilts together. All of my time off the road teaching is concentrated on the exhibit. I am working with two venues – the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum in Golden and the Steamboat Art Museum in my ‘hometown’ of Steamboat Springs. The first exhibit space will open in January at RMQM and run concurrent with the museum’s biannual mens exhibit. My portion with then be packed up and transferred up to Steamboat in May and hang through Labor Day.

I am also back in the studio working on some new pieces that are confidential and will make their public debuts in 2020. “Sorry, no peeking.”

Q: What will be new or different about your workshop this year?

DT: There’s an old adage: do one thing and do it well. My workshop has not changed during my decade of teaching. I must be doing something right, as roughly half of my students during each session are repeats. As each class participant is working on their own unique image, every class presents a new challenge and a new opportunity to explore fabric.

David will be teaching his Artistry Through Applique workshop with us from May 10-16, 2020 and yes, we still have spots available! You can learn more here.

Three Questions for Susan Brubaker Knapp

January 23, 2019
Three Questions for Susan Brubaker Knapp
Returning in 2019 is fiber artist, author, and teacher Susan Brubaker Knapp. In 2014, she became the host of “Quilting Arts TV,” which is shown on more than 400 public television stations across the U.S. She loves traditional hand quilting and needle-turn appliqué, but embraces innovative machine techniques in her art quilts. This year, Susan will be teaching how to recreate your original photos as pieces of fiber art in her 5-day workshop from November 10-16, 2019.
Q: How does your personal art practice fit into your life? Do you work on it every day? Block off certain time periods for it? 
SBK: I juggle a lot of things, so I work when I can. Sometimes that is 15 minutes a day, and sometimes it is all day. I have periods where I am very productive, and periods where I am not. When my children were very little, I learned to grab time where I could. It’s a mistake to think that you need big blocks of time to accomplish things. Those 15-minute blocks add up. My studio is a small-ish room in our house that used to be a guest bedroom, so I don’t waste any time getting to my workspace, and I can (and do!) work in the middle of the night, in my pajamas.
Q: How do you approach critiques in your workshops?
SBK: I don’t do formal critiques during my workshops, unless students request them. I do provide constant feedback during class, though. Between demonstrations, I circulate through the classroom and talk with every student, making observations, offering constructive criticism, and helping guide the student to realizations about her or his work. I don’t believe it is my role to teach my students how to make work that looks like mine. I want their voice to shine through. So I try to help students figure out what they like or don’t like about their work, and either build on that or change it. 
I’m not a “it’s my way or the highway” kind of teacher. I’ve taken classes from a few of those kinds of teachers, and I didn’t like it. I want my students to try new things, and to learn, but I also want them to have fun and feel a sense of joy as they work.

Q: How has your work evolved over time? 

SBK: I’ve refined my processes and techniques since I started making art quilts, about 2006. I focus now mostly on wholecloth painting and fusible applique. I do sometimes dabble in other techniques, usually on smaller pieces, because I think it is good to experiment and wander off the path sometimes. My work is nearly realistic, and I think it will stay that way. 

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Learn more about Susan’s workshop on our website.

Three Questions for Maria Shell

January 9, 2019
Three Questions for Maria Shell

Joining us for the first time this year is Alaska-based fiber artist Maria Shell. Maria’s work is grounded in the tradition and craft of American quilt making. She strives to take the classical components of a traditional bed quilt and manipulate them with the hope of creating surprising combinations of pattern, repetition, and color for the viewer. In her October 20-26, 2019 workshop you’ll use solid colored quilters cottons and learn how to stitch an assortment of pieced prints including stripes, chevrons, polka dots, herringbones, circles and curves.

Q: How did you first begin creating art with the medium(s) you’ll be using in your workshop?

MS: I started sewing when I was four, but never thought of it as a career path. When we moved to Valdez, Alaska in 2000. I took my first quilt class, and it really was this sort of explosive experience for me–I could not stop making quilts. Almost 20 years later and I am still piecing quilts. I wake up every day thankful I have found my passion and that I actually get to work as a professional quilt maker, teacher, and writer. 

Q: Tell us about your process from idea to finished piece.

MS: I like to work on several pieces at once. I think of myself as bit maker. I create dozens of “bits”–which are really small pieced units that I then put on my design wall and move around. I often sketch out my ideas with black ink on paper. I know that if I can get a good graphic image on paper that I can often translate that design to a colorful pieced composition. I have spent a lot time exploring traditional American patchwork blocks as the foundation/structure for my compositions. Once the composition is completed, I quilt it on my long arm quilting machine. 

Q: Tell us a bit about how you plan to conduct your workshop. Will it be more structured with specific tasks for students or will be it be more free form with students exploring their own work with your guidance?

MS: I like to do a formal lecture at the beginning of each day which usually includes technical information and an assignment as well as ideas about being an artist and cultivating your voice. From there, I move around the room visiting with each student one on one. My hope is to meet each student where they are in their path and empower them to move forward. At the end of the week, we will do a sharing as well as individual private student lead meetings where the student is free to ask for help with whatever matters to them most–a critique, a discussion about showing work, how to create a schedule to get in the studio everyday are all common topics–whatever they would like to talk about is what we discuss. My hope is always to meet the student where they are and move forward together on a positive creative journey. 

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Learn more about Maria’s workshop on our website.

Three Questions for Denise Labadie

November 28, 2018
Three Questions for Denise Labadie

Have you ever found yourself unable to find just the right fabric or materials for your creations? Take some inspiration from one of our 2019 fiber art workshop instructors, Denise Labadie, and create your own! Denise is constantly asked about the “stone”, landscape, and sky fabrics she uses in her quilts. There just isn’t much commercial fabric with the types of colors, textures, depth, and complexity that many quilters are looking for. So during Denise’s August 25-31 workshop, participants will create their own!

Q: How does your personal art practice fit into your life? Do you work on it every day? Block off certain time periods for it?

DL: I love sewing, and art quilting. I love working with fabric, even if just to hold it. My art is not separate from the rest of my life; it is fully complementary. I work on it when I can – which is usually daily, though not always – and often until late at night (or into the early morning), but it is not “work” per se. I love just being in my studio, and with my fabric. While my art Is a high priority in my life, I thus do not force myself into a highly structured, rigid work schedule. For me, creativity is not enhanced by a fixed and imposed work environment, but by a dedicated but balanced work ethic.

Q: How do you approach critiques in your workshops?

DL: My workshops are about quilt composition and construction “best practices”. I basically try to teach the “what, why, when, and how” of both new and (oftentimes repurposed) traditional fiber art and quilting techniques. My workshops are highly interactive, are very hands-on, and are focused more on the development of participant creativity, confidence, and experiential exploration and learning than on rigid, one-size-fits-all lesson plans or patterns. 

I therefore view critiques as, first of all, one-on-one opportunities to promote the above learning and creativity objectives – perhaps suggesting alternative approaches or techniques, but always while affirmatively and positively empowering the student, not using critiques to get them to do things the “right” way or, worse, “my” way (this is one of the key benefits of not teaching via the use of patterns or rigid “rules” that must be exactly copied). And, to me, “critique” does not mean “criticism”; it instead should represent positive and empowering feedback. I will also promote group feedback depending on my feeling about the group as a whole, i.e., that they have shown and demonstrated the above type of thoughtful co-participant caring and creative support. 

Q: How has your work evolved over time? 

DL: I no longer have to explicitly “think” about techniques; they are now just friends that I intuitively call on as the need arises. I am now – compared to earlier in my career – absolutely comfortable with the “what, why, when, and how” (as noted above) of quilt construction. I have come to similarly trust my design sense: a native and experienced-based understanding of what will likely, and not likely, work. I am also far more comfortable – based on lots of hard work, multiple complementary art classes, feedback from my treasured (multidiscipline) art critique group, and the like – with the many integrated nuances of composition, color, shadowing, and perspective (all of which are central to my “style – see next question). 

Because of the above, I am a much better problem-solver than earlier in my career, so with every new quilt I now purposefully take on compositions that I would never have previously attempted, applying my skills to the solving of ever more complex compositional and/or construction challenges.

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Learn more about Denise’s workshop on our website.

Three Questions For Dani Ives

November 7, 2018

We’re thrilled to be expanding our line up of fiber art workshops into a new art form next year with Dani Ives teaching us how to paint with wool! In her workshop participants will explore the diversity of using wool fibers as a “painting” medium by diving into the world of two-dimensional needle felting.

Dani is a self-taught fiber artist and founder of Good Natured Art. Her enthusiasm for the natural world from an early age took her on a university and career path based in biology and conservation education, after which Dani worked as an educator at a zoo for ten years.  Over the course of a few years, Dani developed her distinct style of needle felting that she calls “painting with wool.”  With this style, instead of using paint and a brush, she uses wool fibers and a felting needle to create the effects of layering color, creating texture and depth.

Q: Tell us a bit about how you plan to conduct your workshop. Will it be more structured with specific tasks for students or will be it be more free form with students exploring their own work with your guidance?

DI: I hope my students come with a few ideas that they’d like to conquer. I find the best way to learn my style of needle felting is with a bit of guidance on technique and then some trial and error. There’s a bit of a learning curve for those that have never needle felted this way before, but I have all the tips and tricks ready to share. We will also have a few exercises to really practice a few techniques that will come in handy on most future projects. 

Q: How do you work through or get over the occasional creative block?

DI: Luckily, I haven’t encountered a creative block, but I think there’s a few reasons for that. I keep a running list of commissions, but I’m also constantly working on other projects. I think jumping back and forth between the two types of work helps to keep my mind from going blank on what to do next. I also keep a sketchbook that I work in every day. Often, these sketches/paintings have nothing to do with my current fiber art, and they’re a way for me to explore new mediums and subjects. Often, some of those pages end up influencing a fiber art piece in the future. Lastly, I go outside. My best ideas have come to me while I’m on a trail in the middle of the woods. I spend as much time as I can hiking and exploring. 

Q: What influences your work? 

DI: My science background tends to have the most impact on the work that I do. I’ve only been comfortably calling myself an artist for the past three years. Before that, I worked as a conservation educator at a zoo, and studied biology, chemistry and conservation education. I spent so much time learning about and observing animals and the natural world, so tending to details in my art is second nature and enjoyable. With that said, lately I’ve been challenging myself to use color rather than detail to portray subjects. It’s been difficult to let go of intricacy, but I’m having a great time learning and developing new processes and skills. 

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Three Questions for Sue Stone

October 17, 2018

Leading off our series of short interviews with new-to-us fiber art instructors is UK based textile artist Sue Stone! Sue studied Fashion at St Martins School of Art and then Embroidery at Goldsmiths College in London. She is current chair and exhibiting member of the 62 Group of Textile Artists and a Fellow of the Society of Designer Craftsmen. She’s best known for textural, figurative compositions that often feature a fish.

Q: How did you first begin creating art with the medium(s) you’ll be using in your workshop?

SS: I grew up surrounded by cloth and making. My mother was a talented tailor and I started designing clothes when I was very young. Fashion/ textiles was a natural specialism when I went to art school. I studied embroidery and graduated with a degree in Textiles/ Embroidery from Goldsmiths College, London in the 1970s. I had a long career as a clothing designer and manufacturer after leaving college but always longed to start stitching again. I returned to embroidery in 2002 and I’ve been making figurative embroidery since 2006. My recent work is mainly hand stitch sometimes with the addition of machine stitch or paint.

Q: How do you work through or get over the occasional creative block?

SS: All of my work is based on ideas and I am an avid collector of the seen, the heard and the experienced. My thoughts and observations are written in a notebook or a virtual notebook like Evernote on the computer. If I get a block I can delve into a myriad of ideas I have already collected to help me get going again. I use sampling to clear space in my mind to be able to think. The samples are never just samples. The samples spark ideas and explore the nature of marks left on the surface of the fabric by different threads, paints or crayons. They provide an important means of problem solving and a springboard from which to move forward.

Q: Tell us a bit about how you plan to conduct your workshop. Will it be more structured with specific tasks for students or will be it be more free form with students exploring their own work with your guidance?

SS: The workshop will start with a short digital presentation to introduce students to different ways to tell their story. The focus of the story can be a single figure or a group of figures. I will share the simple processes I use myself to make my work. The workshop itself will be fairly free form with individual guidance throughout. Students will be able to ask questions at any point. It’s very important to me that students produce their own work not a facsimile of mine. Students will have the opportunity to use their own drawings or photographs and ideas as a starting point so they can make their own choices. In short I like students to think for themselves but never be afraid to ask for help when they need it. 

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Learn more about Sue’s Every Picture Tells A Story workshop.

Five Questions For Fiber Artist Ana Buzzalino

August 22, 2018

Joining us for the first time this autumn is award winning fiber artist Ana Buzzalino! Before her workshop kicks off, Ana took a moment to tell us more about herself and her background in fiber art.

Q: What is your most unexpected source of inspiration?
AB: A few years back I fell in love with the old wooden grain elevators that still dot the landscape of the Prairies, so I set out to photograph as many as I can before they are torn down and disappear. The textures and grayish tones of the old wood, the peeling paint, the effects of time, all that gives me ample material for new work. 

Q: How has teaching impacted your person art practice? And vice versa, how does your approach to your personal art impact your teaching style?
AB: Teaching is what keeps me current and engaged. Time spent with students is time that I have to share what I know and love and at the same time, learn from them. Every class I teach, teaches me something new. I have grown in my art in the past few years and I find that those changes inform my teaching; I want to share everything I know and love: all the techniques, the tips, the tricks that allow me to work in my own style. I love to help students how to find their own voice, and this particular workshop I am teaching is one way of doing that as everyone works on their own designs. I give them, hopefully, a few more tools to be able to translate their visions into actual fiber pieces.

Q: What’s one tip you have or trick you use for keeping your studio space organized?
AB: I have just finished renovating my studio so everything is organized and nicely put together right now. I have an entire wall covered in built-ins with drawers, shelves and baskets which allows me to keep tools organized and projects together. As I tend to work on several pieces at the same time, I can set aside the ones I’m not working on at the time in their own drawers until I am ready to work on them again. The one thing I cannot live without is my design wall, which covers one wall in my studio and sits right across from my sewing table. I pin up pieces in progress so I can look at them and let them “percolate” for a while. 

Q: Who are your art heros? Who do you admire and why?
AB: I have so many … I admire so many artists in different media, such Georgia O’Keefe, Robert Rauschenberg, Sean Scully, Anne Moore, Fran Styles, and so many more painters and mixed media artists. Quilters and fiber artists such as Laura and Linda Kemshall, Hollis Chatelain, Michael James, Sara Impey, Bethan Ash, Eszter Bornemisza, Willy Doreleijers, Cecilia Koppmann, Sue Benner, Pamela Allen, and so many more. Each artist, in their own media, creates work that moves me and resonates with me. I wish I could spend one week in each of their studios, just observing … and absorbing…

Q: What exciting projects are you working on right now or big dream projects you would love to begin exploring?
AB: I am working on new samples for classes coming up, but I am also working on larger pieces that have sat percolating for a while and are ready to be finished. Plus a few more that right now reside in my head, one in particular that has been developing in the last few months which means I need to work on creating a few more pieces of fabric using mono printing, screen printing, etc.

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Learn more about Ana’s workshop with us here. 

Five Questions for Quilt Artist David Taylor

April 4, 2018

We’re looking forward to having quilt artist David Taylor back with us to round out our 2018 season! Get to know a bit more about David and his practice through our short interview with him below.

Q: Where do you draw inspiration from?
DT: My works have been the result of an emotional connection to images. When I try to force a subject matter, the results are never as fulfilling. I want the viewer to be able to see the story.

Q: What are you most proud of in regards to your art?
DT: When I have reviewed past images of my quilts, I’m often amazed at how much I’ve accomplished. Sometimes I can’t even remember the process of making them. Perhaps it’s because I truly enjoy the ‘creating.’ The more difficult the project, the more satisfaction I feel in solving issues. If the process was ‘too easy’ there would be nothing to gain.

Q: What are your biggest challenges to creating art and how do you deal with them?
DT: By far, the biggest challenge I’ve had to face is the gas explosion and fire that destroyed my studio in 2016. It’s been more than two years, and I’ve heard from other victims of home fires that this is typical. Every day gets a little easier, yet every day is a little harder – facing what has been lost. My brain tells me to move forward, but my heart is caught in the past.

Q: What advice has influenced you?
DT: I was given a nugget of insight by a consultant in my first full-time management position. I was working in a print house. The shop was very busy, and it seemed there was never enough hours in the day. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t seem to get all the day-to-day tasks completed. He advised, “Never try anything. Do it.”

Q: Is there something you are currently working on, or excited about starting that you can tell us about?
DT: There are so many ideas and plans in my head, it seems there won’t be enough years remaining to bring them all to life. The hard part is bringing what I see in my mind into the physical world.

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Learn more about David’s workshop with us here.

Five Questions for Artist Wen Redmond

February 28, 2018

Artist Wen Redmond will be teaching Digital Explorations in Fiber & Mixed Media from November 28-December 2 this year and well before her workshop, she took a moment to fill us in on her background and approach to art.

Q: What’s been your most unexpected source of inspiration?
WR: Inspiration abides everywhere! When I first started selling my work, viva a craft booth at shows, I found my work had stories, not just the construct but also the inspirations, the unconscious absorption of what I gain with my senses. As I talked, I learned about my own work and the ideas that went into it. This was the surprise! 

Q: How has teaching impacted your personal art practice? And vice versa, how does your approach to your personal art impact your teaching style?
WR: Teaching is sharing inspirations. The connection and communication one experiences when with a group of like-minded people is a precious thing. It takes time to prepare a workshop that instructs and yet allows students creativity. It takes time to gather materials. Energy required for this equals energy not available for ones own work. There has to be a balance, difficult to achieve. 

Q: What’s one tip you have or trick you use for keeping your studio space organized?
WR: Presently, I have a relatively small studio in my home. A home studio suits my mode of working. Every space is used and thoughtfully planned out. The best thing I can do is simply replace items used as I finish with them. There is nothing worst than being in the throes of creativity and not being able to find the proper tool I need! That said, I like my storage to be visible, not behind doors. Visibility reminds me of the tools I have and the possibilities of using it.

Q: Who are your art heros? Who do you admire and why?
WR: So many, all medias. So hard to nail down. I love the adventures you can have, not only making art but viewing what others have made. I love the collage works of Joan Schultz and Fran Skies, the texture of Dorothy Caldwell, Sue Hammond West, and Jill Kettulla, the photography of the Starn twins and Michael James, the grubbiness of Anselm Kiefer, the painterly work of Deidra Adams, the journals of Roxanne Evans Stout, the encaustic work of Bridgette G Mills, the paintings of Patricia Larsen, Georgia O Keefe, and abstractionists, the pottery of Paulus Berensohn and MC Richards, the mixed media work of Masha Ryskin, Seth Apter, Takahiko Hayashi, Cas Holmes and so many others, and the nameless dozens of women who made art with fabric over the centuries.

Q: What exciting projects are you working on right now or big dream projects you would love to begin exploring?
WR: I’m looking forward to returning to my art and exploring all of the ideas in my file. Some of these ideas happened as I was writing my book! I’d make a sample and get ideas for another! I had too many for the book so I saved them to explore later. Ready and waiting for me! Recently I did a short video for CT Publishing on Shiny Surfaces, an extension of that section in my book. You can find the link in this blog post. 

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Learn more about Wen’s workshop here.
 
Find out more about Wen on her website and give her a follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, & YouTube.

Five Questions For Quilt Artist Gloria Loughman

February 21, 2018

We’re so thankful to have Gloria Loughman returning for another fiber art workshop this year! Her workshop, The Textured Landscape, still has spots available and will run from August 26-September 1, 2018. Well before her workshop and in fact, right before she left on a quilting cruise – Gloria took a moment to share more about her background and approach to art with us.

Q: What was your path to becoming a full-time working artist?
GL: When I was growing up I like to play every sport available. I loved to run, climb trees, swim, sail and it never entered my head to sit still and paint or stitch. I actually failed needlework in year 7 when we had to stitch two samplers by hand and after that very negative experience I thought I would never attempt anything to do with sewing.

After finishing high school, I went to University and trained as a teacher of mathematics and physical education. Later on I went back and studied to be a teacher of students with special needs. It was after the birth of our second daughter, my husband surprised me one Christmas with a gift of a Bernina sewing machine. He now maintains it was his ‘biggest mistake’ as I set off to make cute clothing for our daughters and later on formal dresses.

In 1988, I was diagnosed with breast cancer, still in my 30’s it was a tough time in our lives but as I was recovering from surgery and chemotherapy, a friend invited me to a quilting class. I loved the whole process. The precision cutting and piecing, choosing colors, fabrics and patterns, designing my own traditional quilts etc. After making quilts for our family and lots of wall hangings, I became frustrated that I knew nothing about color or design so I enrolled in a Diploma Of Art which I did by distance education. It was a really busy time as I was teaching at school 4 days a week and busy doing my course the rest of the time. I had no time for making quilts. Once I had finished, I began making my large landscape quilts and then things have just progressed from there. What an incredible journey it has been!!

Q: Do you work on multiple pieces concurrently or focus on exclusively one at a time? If the former, how do you balance that? If the later, how do you decide which one to start next?
GL: I tend to work on one project at a time although I am always thinking about the next one. I tend to work in a series whether it be technique or theme based. When I have been working on my books, I sometimes have more than one project on the go.

Q: How do you come up with ideas to begin something new?
GL: This never seems to be a problem. The problem is being home long enough to work through my ideas. I travel a lot. We love going camping in Australia, especially in the wildness areas. We also love wandering through old cities taking photographs. It has to be one of my favorite pastimes that I share with my husband. Taking photographs of old crumbling buildings, unusual color schemes that clash and I would never think to put together, close ups of unusual and fascinating textures …

So I am never short of inspiration and then it comes down to experimenting with a way of producing this image in fabric. I love art that is semi abstract and leaves the viewer filling in some of the spaces. This is what I am trying to pursue in my won work at the moment rather than reproduce a realistic copy of my inspiration.

Q: What keeps you motivated to continue making art?
GL: I just love time in the studio and then I love sharing my techniques and ideas with others. I think I will be making art for the rest of my life and as I am nearly 70, I probably should stay home more and spend more time in the studio. Because I am away so much teaching classes and camping in Australia with friends, my time at home in the studio is precious and I value every minute of it. Sometimes it is just playing and other times it is working long days on a project. Always a treat!!

Q: What’s the biggest “risk” you’ve taken in your journey as an artist? Creatively, in a business sense, or in life?
GL: I think the biggest risk I have taken was to leave my position as a team leader in a special school setting in a secondary school to teach quilt making. Our youngest daughter had just left school and we were supporting her at University in Melbourne. Financially it was quite a risk but after having breast cancer, my husband and I decided to take a chance and see how things worked out. It was a great decision. My husband is retired and usually accompanies me as we travel to so many amazing and beautiful places. We have friends from so many countries around the world and we even get the opportunity to host some of these friends at our home in Australia. We feel very fortunate.

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Learn more about Gloria’s workshop here.
 
Find out more about Gloria on her website and give her a follow on Facebook.

Five Questions for Fiber Artist Ann Shaw

February 14, 2018

We’re so pleased to have fiber artist Ann Shaw joining us for a fall workshop on designing quilts from photographs from October 28-November 3! Before her workshop, Ann took a moment to fill us in on her background and approach to art!

Q: What was your path to becoming a full-time working artist?
AS: Working full-time as a quilt artist blossomed for me after I retired from an academic career as a biological anthropologist and forensic specialist. Though I have been passionate about quiltmaking for many years, I now have enjoy the time and freedom to explore pieced pictorial quilts as a artistic medium. This style of quilting is tactile, has explicit connections to the traditions of patchwork yet poses fascinating challenges such composition, color, texture, and abstraction. For me designing new quilts and sharing my ideas and techniques through teaching and inspiring others are part of the same creative spectrum. 

Q: Do you work on multiple pieces concurrently or focus on exclusively one at a time? If the former, how do you balance that? If the later, how do you decide which one to start next?
AS: I tend to work on multiple pieces concurrently. Some are pieces are new designs that join my quilt pattern series. Other pieces are one-of-a-kind designs that explore how the technical aspects of pieced quilt designs affect the visual impact of the completed piece. And then there are the bed quilts I make for my family, often based on traditional quilt blocks……..so the walls of my quilt studio often have a number of different projects as well as piles and piles of fabric that sometimes get intermixed from project to project!

Q: How do you come up with ideas to begin something new?
AS: I am a very visual person and I enjoy taking pictures, so my pictorial quilts begin with photographic images. I am constantly working to develop my skill of “seeing”, that is looking at the world and in my mind abstracting from it elements that make an interesting composition, that tell a story. For me, attempting to capture these images photographically is the first step to creating a quilt design. I keep many portfolios of images and ideas that inspire my work. When starting a new project, I select something that inspires me or is important to me in that moment.

Q: What keeps you motivated to continue making art?
AS: Both the personal sense of satisfaction of seeing a project through to completion and the satisfaction of sharing my work with others keep me motivated.

Q: What’s the biggest “risk” you’ve taken in your journey as an artist? Creatively, in a business sense, or in life?
AS: For many artists, it is a big “risk” to share one’s work with others. Pouring one’s heart and soul into projects not knowing how it will be received by others creates both big risks and big rewards. I think it is the push and pull of those elements that makes one’s creative life interesting.

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Learn more about Ann’s workshop here.
 
Find out more about Ann on her website and give her a follow on Facebook & Instagram.

 

Five Questions for Quilt Artist Paula Nadelstern

October 4, 2017

We look forward to welcoming quilt artist Paula Nadelstern back to our workshop series next year from April 8-14, 2018! Paula’s workshop will cover unique machine-piecing techniques that are basic and intuitive, as well as both color and fabric guidelines for creating the complex and mobile reflection of a kaleidoscope – specifically for intermediate to advanced students. Get to know a bit more about Paula and her approach to art in our interview with her below!

Q: What’s been your most unexpected source of inspiration?
PN: My own fabric designs inspire me. I’m often asked if I design a specific fabric for a specific new quilt idea. If I understand the question correctly, the answer is no. First come the patterns and then come the quilts. I can’t wait to see where the fabric will lead me; I need to physically handle it to uncover its secrets. I’m as curious as if I hadn’t been part of the process.
I don’t have an art or textile design background. My degrees are in Occupational Therapy with a Masters in Psych, although I haven’t worked in the field in a very long time. Until my unplanned, unexpected apprenticeship with textile designers, everything I knew about color I learned as a kid from my prized box of sixty-four, kid-worthy crayons.

Q: How has teaching impacted your personal art practice? And vice versa, how does your approach to your personal art impact your teaching style?
PN: It’s not until you teach something to someone that you understand it really well. Breaking down your own creative act, first by identifying your personal strategies, and then by dividing them into a sequence of steps, forces you to reflect on what things aren’t as well as what they are. This exploration steers you in lots of valuable directions. It leads you to the vocabulary needed to articulate your private visual language. It helps you recognize the kinds of mistakes students are likely to make and head them off at the pass. And it awakens new ideas, pushing you, the artist, further along your creative path. 
A major distinction between the work of a teacher and that of an artist is the proximity to the creative act. The artist initiates and implements the work, investing her entire self into the art. Teaching is also creative but in a very different way. The teacher initiates by sharing an approach but someone else implements. It requires the ability to derive satisfaction from other people’s accomplishments. To be content with being the source of inspiration rather than the one inspired.

Q: What’s one tip you have or trick you use for keeping your studio space organized?

PN: I have no tips for keeping my 12 feet by 15 feet studio organized. Buy a magic wand on Ebay? If you get any good ones, send them my way — if they don’t need a lot of space or take up an inordinate amount of time. 
However, here’s how I store my quilts in a two-bedroom, 9th floor New York City apartment. In the living room, I’ve had two 12” wide by 28” high cabinets built. Placed against two walls, the one behind the couch is 92” long and the one under the TV is 72”. There is a door at each end. I roll up the quilts and slip them into the cabinets. 

Q: Who are your art heros? Who do you admire and why?

PN: Itchiku Kubota (1917-2003) was a Japanese textile artist. He was most famous for reviving and modernizing a lost late-15th- to early-16th-century textile-dyeing and decorating technique called tsujigahana (literally, flowers at the crossroads). Kubota’s grand scheme was a series of kimonos called Symphony of Light, intended to depict the “grandeur of the universe”. At the time of his death, he had completed 40 of his projected 80 kimono in the series. Kubota’s unique vision for this series involved a decorative landscape design that flowed from kimono to kimono, resulting in a panorama of seasons and views. 
I am in awe of his highly refined process creating a fluid, rather than static, surface. Each kimono offers a fresh revelation of the complexities inherent in Kobota’s labor-intensive approach. As he said in his video: he makes you see brown where there is no brown. 

Q: What exciting projects are you working on right now or big dream projects you would love to begin exploring?
PN: For the past two summers, I’ve been working on a giant quilt referencing the Old Prague Synagogue Ceiling. As soon as I looked up at this ceiling in 2014, I knew I’d found a quilt idea. I am a Patternista, hardwired to see pattern everywhere and here was a glut of designs bumping into each other. I think I could work on this one quilt for the rest of my career, editing, auditioning and refining as the nuances and possibilities of the concept evolves. It will be the forty-first quilt in my KALEIDOSCOPIC series.

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Learn more about Paula’s Kaleidoscope Quilts workshop here.
Find out more about Paula on her website.

Five Questions for Artist Paula Kovarick

September 27, 2017

Interested in a new approach to free motion quilting? Join us for a three-day workshop with artist and trained graphic designer, Paula Kovarik from April 4-8, 2018.

Want to know a little more about Paula and her approach to art? Read on down for her responses to our five question interview series!

Q: What was your path to becoming a full-time working artist?
PK: I had my own graphic design business for over 30 years. From the beginning my goal was to retire from that business early so that I could pursue my own art. That happened about 5 years ago. I am still a designer but now I can design for myself instead of others. 

Q: Do you work on multiple pieces concurrently or focus on exclusively one at a time? If the former, how do you balance that? If the later, how do you decide which one to start next?
PK: I usually have more than one piece going at the same time. I find that larger pieces need some rest between sessions so that I can see the life in them come into focus. If I work on a piece without stopping to think about it I can sometimes get lost in the details instead of the whole. In addition, I do a lot of exploratory stitching on small pieces to test threads, fabrics, batting and dyes. 

Q: How do you come up with ideas to begin something new?
PK: Reading, learning, reading, learning, reading, learning. When an idea comes to me it is often just a glimmer of a thought, a thumbnail sketch or a flicker on the edge of consciousness. I try to have a child’s focus, open to awe.

Q: What keeps you motivated to continue making art?
PK: It’s in my DNA. I don’t have a choice. Though sometimes there are blank zones (often on completion of a piece), a walk in the woods or a new book or article will reinvigorate me.

Q: What’s the biggest “risk” you’ve taken in your journey as an artist? Creatively, in a business sense, or in life?
PK: My parents taught me that you create your own reality. I am still learning about risks but I know that I have what I call the “power of arbitrary decision.” If presented with a problem I seek the most efficient and direct solution — then do it. My training as a graphic designer — working on deadline, with the constraint of budget and format — helped me to focus in on what is the most important part of any communication. I look at my artwork as a process rather than a product. It’s the process I seek. Not the end product. So if I feel like taking a rotary cutter to a piece because it might lead me to new insights, I do it.

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Learn more about Paula’s Follow The Thread Workshop with us here.
Find out more about Paula on her website and give her a follow over on Pinterest & Instagram.

Five Questions for Fiber Artist Lyric Kinard

September 20, 2017

We’re kicking off our 2018 fiber art workshop series with a fun three days of playing with paint led by Lyric Kinard. In this design intensive, Lyric will offer a perfect mix of surface design techniques and instruction in the elements and principles of good design.

In preparation for her workshop, we asked Lyric to fill us in a bit more on her approach to art;

Q: When did art first enter your life?
LK: It’s been with me in one form or another all my life. Music, writing, architecture.. all were important to me before textile art found me about 20 years ago.

Q: Do you have certain themes in your work or subjects that reappear?
LK: I have a broad range of interests in subject matter, but my abstract work almost always involves circles and grids and my portraiture is usually inspired by the women in my family.

Q: If you could give only one piece of advice to a beginning artist, what would it be?
LK: Make lots of art. Lots and lots and lots of it whether you think it’s good or bad. Don’t give up or get frustrated if your work doesn’t live up to your vision – learn what you need to learn from the bad art. Your bad art is often the very thing you needed to create in order to get to your good art.

Q: What drives you to produce new art?
LK: The most honest answer would be a quickly approaching deadline. 🙂 The other answer is that my head is full of questions and “what if’s” and ideas. It’s full to bursting all the time so when I make time for my studio there is always something to play with.

Q: What show, project, or event are you most looking forward to in 2018?
LK: I want to continue an abstract series I started last year inspired by mill wheels. I still have many ideas to explore inspired by the ideas of time and stone and grinding… and of course the circles and lines.

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Find out more about Lyric on her website and give her a follow on Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, & YouTube.

Workshop Report: Large Scale Figures In Cloth with Susan Else

September 12, 2017

Fiber artist Susan Else visited our studio for a very different kind of workshop crafting figures out of cloth!  Here’s a few things her students had to say about their experience;

“Wonderful. The instructor was excellent. Class description was perfect. I learned so much about workshop no with fabric in a 3-d way. I also learned new techniques and about new tools.“

“Susan was excellent. The convenience of living, working, and eating on site was fabulous.”

As always, we’ll share a few of the images we captured here on our blog, but encourage you to also check out the full gallery on our Facebook page. You can also scroll back in our Instagram feed to see what we captured during the class.

And of course, our video for the week, found on our YouTube channel!

Workshop Report: Subject to Interpretation with Joe Cunningham

August 30, 2017

We were so pleased to welcome Joe “The Quilter” Cunningham to our studio for the first time this year. His workshop came with insightful activities that gently pushed and encouraged all the students to think creatively and with fresh ideas about quilting and quilt blocks. Here’s a few things his students had to say about their experience;

“Very enjoyable week with Joe and his guitar! I commuted this time, next time I’ll stay, lovely place!“

“I have done a workshop with Joe before. I really like his teaching style and the general feel of his workshops.“

As always, we’ll share a few of the images we captured here on our blog, but encourage you to also check out the full gallery on our Facebook page. You can also scroll back in our Instagram feed to see what we captured during the class. 

And of course, our video for the week, found on our YouTube channel!

Workshop Report: Fractured Landscapes with Katie Pasquini Masopust

July 12, 2017

We welcomed back fiber artist Katie Pasquini Masopust last month and watched her amazing students tackle some stunning fractured landscape pieces! Here’s a few things we heard from the students about their experience;

“Way beyond expectations!! Excellent!.“

“I learned about ways to use value to bring dimensionality to my work, learned the importance of variety in my fabric stash, and learned the fun technique of fracturing to add an element of design to my work.“

“Instructor, meals, staff were all excellent!”

As always, we’ll share a few of the images we captured here on our blog, but encourage you to also check out the full gallery on our Facebook page. You can also scroll back in our Instagram feed to see what we captured during the class.

And of course, our video for the week, found on our new YouTube channel!

Five Questions for Fiber Artist Esterita Austin

May 22, 2017

Fiber artist Esterita Austin returns to Greenville at the tail end of our season for a workshop exploring her original technique utilizing fusible web to transfer original painted imagery to Organza using metallic acrylic and textile paints. In preparation for her December 3-9, 2017 workshop, Esterita took a moment to answer a few questions about her approach to fiber art.

Q: What do you want your work to do?
EA: Inspire quilt artists to try a new expressive technique that can add new techniques to their quilt tool box.

Q: How has your style changed over the years?
EA: I started quilting making traditional quilts. After having taken a few art quilt workshops I began being more spontaneous and designed my own. I was still using cotton fabrics. Eventually I began using a variety of fabrics other than cotton, as well as using paint to further enhance my pieces. Eventually my pieces sequel into pure paint which I then transferred onto transparent organza. I have now found my niche combining painting and quilting. Sometimes it takes a while to find your voice and sing on key!

Q: How do you come up with a profitable pricing structure for your pieces?
EA: It’s just a gut feeling. I don’t want to price my work out of the market. If I want it to sell I will put a reasonable, or what I think is reasonable, price on it. 

Q: Do you have a motto?
EA: Technique is only a tool for expression.

Q: Are involved in any upcoming shows or events? Where and when?
EA: I have three shows going on now until mid June in Ohio in conjunction with QSDS and Dairy Barn. One is “Pushing the Surface 2017” at the Johnson-Humrickhouse Museum in Coshocton, Ohio. the other is “With These Hands” at the Ross Art Museum in Delaware, Ohio.

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Learn more about Esterita’s workshop with us here.
Learn more about Esterita on her website. 

Workshop Report: Abstracting from Nature

May 15, 2017

Quilt Artist Jane Sasaman returned a fiber art workshop inspired by the natural world and filled with big, bold, and beautiful floral designs! Here’s a few things we heard from the students about their week;

“Yes, the workshop exceeded my expectations, and they were high! Jane is a wonderful, supportive instructor!“

“Jane is an extraordinary teacher – sensitive, experienced, and supportive!“

“Overall this was amazing from pre-registration through departure. Thank you for providing such a fun, affordable, challenging retreat. 

Jane will be hard to top! Jane is remarkably generous with her time, talent, and knowledge, She brought many of her wonderful quilts to show. She has a great ability to teach her techniques and inspire individuality. Great at giving, tips, help, and suggestions. 

The whole Inn staff is warm, helpful, and welcoming, You have created such a special place!“

As always, we’ll share a few of the images we captured here on our blog, but encourage you to also check out the full gallery on our Facebook page. You can also scroll back in our Instagram feed to see what we captured during the class and watch the video in our Facebook Video Library.

Five Question for Quilt Artist Sue Rassmussen

May 10, 2017

Instructing since 1988, quilt artist Sue Rassmussen will be joining us for a three-day workshop at the end of the year on Machine Quilting In Depth. From November 29-December 3, spend an immersive long weekend learning to create designs while quilting – and yes, we do have machines available to rent while you’re here!

In advance of her workshop, Sue took a moment to fill us in on her approach to fiber art and a bit on her current projects.

Q: Where do you draw your inspiration from?
SR: I find inspiration for my quilting designs in textures all around me, from literally watching and drawing the movement of ants as they do their search for food to fissures in boulders to bark on trees. If we all take a minute to look around us, we will recognize that the world is filled with texture and designs. It’s only a snap shot away. A perfect example of this is several years ago we were visiting Yellowstone National Park. I asked my husband to pull over so I could take photos of the beautiful birch bark in the grove of trees. I must have been taking pictures for 10-15 minutes, and when I turned around there were five other campers parked, all crowding around my husband who was trying to explain that, no, there were no animals there but that I was taking pictures of the bark. None of them came to even look at the wonderful designs in the bark. Their loss!

Q: What are you most proud of in regards to your art?
SR: I love working with photos of animals (and flora) and transforming them into realistic (or not) quilts. I enjoy the machine quilting process because it adds a secondary layer to quilts which equals more interest and texture.

Q: What are your biggest challenges to creating art and how do you deal with them?
SR: I think finding more time, not getting sidetracked by the computer or the television, and believing that this is an important and justified use of my time.

Q: What advice has influenced you?
SR: One of my first teachers and now friend, Margaret Miller, once said to me “Why use one fabric when you can use five?” and then two seconds later said to me “why use only five fabrics when you could use twenty?” and from that moment on I have been shopping for variety of fabrics. Using a wide variety of fabrics in my mind just make the quilt more interesting and challenges me to think outside the box.

Q: Is there something you are currently working on, or excited about starting that you can tell us about?
SR: I have been collecting silk fabrics for some time and because I don’t generally use solid type fabrics, this is a bit more challenging for me, but fun! I am beginning a ‘landscape’ with these wonderful fabrics. Lately I have been moving into more art quilts and I love to just play with all my scraps to create a collage background to to do something with.

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Learn more about Sue’s workshop here.

Learn more about Sue on her website.

Workshop Report: Quilt the Environment with Repurposed Materials

May 8, 2017

Art quilter Deborah Fell joined us for the first time a couple of weeks ago for a small but mighty workshop filled with the most creative uses of found and reused materials! One student even managed to reuse the wrappers from our soap bars and tea tags in her pieces.

As always, we’ll share a few of the images we captured here on our blog, but encourage you to also check out the full gallery on our Facebook page. You can also scroll back in our Instagram feed to see what we captured during the class and watch the video in our Facebook Video Library.


Workshop Report: Painting with Thread

May 3, 2017

Our first fiber art workshop of the year kicked off on April 2nd with an instructor coming to us all the way from Australia, Pam Holland! This was a detail oriented workshop as nine students worked to paint pictures of their own pets, beautiful birds, and more under Pam’s guidance.

We’ll share a few of the images we captured here on our blog, but encourage you to also check out the full gallery on our Facebook page. You can also scroll back in our Instagram feed to see what we captured during the class and watch the video in our Facebook Video Library.

Five Questions For Fiber Artist Rosalie Dace

April 10, 2017

Coming to us all the way from South Africa in late autumn is fiber artist Rosalie Dace. From October 29th-November 4th, she’ll be instructing her workshop on African Cloths, Colors, and Quilts. In advance of her workshop, Rosalie was kind enough to share a bit more about her approach to art.

Q: Where do you draw your inspiration from?
RD: Inspiration is everywhere! I am in awe of the natural world and the richness it offers. How other artists respond fascinates me, whether they be painters, sculptors, weavers, writers, musicians, architects, or anyone else engaged in creating. Human experience and vision is always a source of inspiration. With this, comes the inspiration and expression of my own life.

Q: What are you most proud of in regards to art?
RD: That I have managed to create a body of work that reflects a personal history in textiles is amazing to me. Non of it existed before I made them. I am also proud, (and a bit scared!) of being involved in assessing other people’s visual work. I am proud of helping my students develop their creativity in the direction of their interest, and having them believe in themselves.

Q: What are your biggest challenges to creating art and how do you deal with them?
RD: My biggest challenge is often the start of the work when I have to move from the excitement of the possible, and actually do the work. From there, the challenge is the battle of wills of what I think, and what the work wants to do anyway as it becomes itself and takes on a life of its own! Keeping going when I feel lost is always a challenge.

Q: What advice has influenced you?
RD: Just do the work! I think Michael James says that in his book. Picasso also said, ” I get an idea and then it changes.”

Q: Is there something you are currently work on, or excited about starting that you can tell us about?
RD: I am continuing work on a couple of different things that may seem unrelated at first (one on windows, one of maps, and plans among others), but they’re actually all about identity and place.

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Find out more about Rosalie’s workshop here.
Learn more about Rosalie on her website here.

Five Questions for Quilt Maker Joe Cunningham

April 5, 2017

Another new-to the Hudson River Valley Fiber Arts Workshops instructor this year is quilt maker Joe Cunningham! Joe began making quilts professionally in 1979, after a ten-year career as a musician in Michigan and will be teaching our students unique ways to use both piecing and appliqué from August 13-19, 2017 in his Subject to Interpretation workshop. To welcome him to our cadre of instructors, we asked Joe five short questions about his approach to art.

Q: Where do you draw inspiration from?
JC: As a student and lover of 19th Century quilts, I draw a lot of my inspiration from them. But I also stay in touch with current events, and use them as thematic material. Ultimately, though, I end up using everything I have ever seen, thought, or felt as source material for my work.

Q: What are you most proud of in regards to your art?
JC: I suppose the thing I am proud of is that I have figured out a way to make human-sized blankets that look at home on museum walls.

Q: What are your biggest challenges to creating art and how do you deal with them?
JC: The biggest challenge for me, aside from pesky technical challenges that are always there, is to find a path in my work where I am not over-thinking it, and where I am not under-thinking it. I am trying to let the content of the piece express itself through me with a minimum of mediation, with a maximum of fidelity to my concept Sometimes it is hard to judge when I am veering off that path. Another way to say it is that my challenge is to stay open and free and true to my original idea.

Q: What advice has influenced you?
JC: Seeing in my artist’s sketchbook this quote: “If it looks like art, it must look like someone else’s art.” My wife, Carol LeMaitre, has helped me stay on track over the years by reminding me that I am not here to please anyone else with my work. William Wiley has told me that I don’t need to worry about anything by making my own work, whatever it looks like.

Q: Is there something you are currently working on, or excited about starting that you can tell us about?
JC: I am currently in the beginning of a new series of quilts inspired by the Clovis people of 13,500 years ago. They invented spear points so elegant and effective at killing mammoths and mastodons that they drove them extinct. Also I have just begun working on a book about my work of the last 20 years.

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Learn more about Joe’s workshop here.
Learn more about Joe on his website or follow him on Facebook and Instagram.

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Five Questions for Fiber Artist Susan Else

April 3, 2017

We couldn’t be more excited to be welcoming fiber artist Susan Else to our fiber art workshop series for the first time. From August 20-26, 2017, Susan will be with us instructing a workshop on constructing large scale figures in cloth. In advance of her workshop, Susan was kind enough to share her perspective behind making art.

Q: What do you want your work to do?
SE: I want my work to engage viewers. I see making art as a conversation, and a sculpture would not be finished for me if no one were to see it. Because cloth has so many domestic and comforting associations, I often use that “safe” surface (as well as humor) to draw viewers into my work, where we can think about more challenging issues.

Q: How has your work changed over the years?
SE: Wry commentary has been part of my work almost from the beginning, but as the years go by I find myself more and more drawn to “serious” topics; wars, recessions, mortality—you name it. At the same time, I’m in love with the pure beauty of color and pattern, so the work has become a balancing act between the two impulses.

Q: How do you come up with a profitable pricing structure for your work?
SE: A friend once told me to charge enough that I wouldn’t be sad when a piece sold, and I still think that is good advice. The truth is that very few fiber artists are able to make a living from their work alone, so teaching and day jobs (and spousal income) often fills the gaps. Making sculpture multiples is the usual ridiculous amount of time it takes to create textiles, so I have never had the expectation that my career would be particularly profitable. However, I grew up in a family of serious artists who made work with the intention of selling it, so I don’t have much difficulty parting with pieces once they’re finished to my satisfaction.

Q: Do you have a motto?
SE: Play. Take risks. Never believe that it’s impossible to figure out the mechanics of implementing the vision in your head. My entire career has been one long process of figuring out the technical aspects of something that no one else was trying to do. I’ve collaborated with a number of engineers and practical makers to get the work done.

Q: Are you involved in any upcoming shows or events? Where and when?
SE: This year I am working hard to complete a twelve-piece installation called “Without a Net,” which focuses on the old-fashioned circus and sideshow. Many of the twelve works are mechanized, lit up, and include sound, and together they will create a total experience for the viewer. The circus is a great venue for exploring the confluence between the splendid and the macabre, between fantasy spectacle and gritty reality, and between the celebration of human prowess and a fascination with (and exploitation of) human peculiarity. The installation will debut at the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles in 2018.

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Get more details about Susan’s workshop with us here. 
Learn more about Susan on her website.

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Five Questions for Fiber Artist Lisa Binkley

March 29, 2017

Instructing one of our long weekend, three day workshops this year is fiber artist Lisa Binkley. Her August 26-30 workshop on Layered Surface Design will give special attention to the interaction of beads and thread with fabric patterns. Lisa kindly took a moment to take part in our annual instructor interview series to share some of her perspectives on her work.

Q: Where do you draw inspiration from?
LB: Nature, poetry, and the materials I use (fabrics, embroidery threads, and beads).

Q: What are you most proud of in regards to your art?
LB: I’m proud of the quality of my craftsmanship and the thought that goes into each piece of art I make.

Q: What are your biggest challenges to creating art and how do you deal with them?
LB: One of my biggest challenges is that I like to stick in very fine detail, so one quilt or embroidery may take six months or longer to create. I’m working on learning to stitch faster, but I still feel proud of the work I make.

Q: What advice has influenced you?
LB: My husband is a professional illustrator, and his feedback about composition has been very helpful. I also found Jane Sassaman’s* suggestions in her book, “The Quilted Garden” extremely helpful.

Q: Is there something you are currently working on, or excited about starting that you can tell us about?
LB: I’ve been dying a lot of my own fabrics the last few years, and I’m excited about a series I’m undertaking to start with white cloth and end up with pieced quilts that are entirely botanically dyed and printed by me and then intensely hand stitched with beads and embroidered threads. I’ll bring some with me in August!

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Learn more about Lisa’s workshop with us here.
Learn more about Lisa on her website or follow her on Facebook and Instagram.

*A fellow Hudson River Valley Art Workshops instructor! Jane’s workshop begins at the end of next month from April 30-May 6 and is entitled Abstracting from Nature. Learn more about her workshop here and read Jane’s interview with us here.
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Five Questions for Quilt Artist Katie Pasquini Masopust

March 15, 2017

Instructor and author Katie Pasquini Masopust, known as Katie PM, will be returning to the Hudson River Valley Fiber Art Workshops program from June 11-17 for her popular Fractured Landscapes workshop. We still have a few spots available in Katie’s, open to all levels, workshop and so we’re happy to share more about Katie through our 2017 instructors interview series.

Q: Where do you draw your inspiration from?
KPM: I draw my inspiration from the landscape around me as well as from my paintings and photographs.

Q: What are you most proud of in regards to your art?
KPM: I am proud of my work. I try to have strong compositions, inspirational subject matter, sophisticated color schemes, and good technique. I am proud of some of the awards I have won. The Silver Star at the Houston Quilt Festival, the Quilts Japan prize at Quilt National. My quilt, Rio Hondo, was chosen as one of the 100 quilts of the 20th Century.

Q: What are your biggest challenge to creating art and how do you deal with them?
KPM: My biggest challenge is getting time in my studio. I travel a lot to teach and write books and do many things that take up my time, but I am happier working on my quilts in my studio.

Q: What advice has influenced you?
KPM: Do the work. Keep working and coming up with new ideas and inspirations.

Q: Is there something you are currently working on, or excited about starting that you can tell us about?
KPM: I am working on a fabric line for Free Spirit based on my paintings that I am very excited about and working on a fiction book with my brother. A murder mystery where the clues are in the quilt, I made the quilt.

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An image of Katie’s ‘Rio Hondo’ quilt can be seen in her online gallery here.

You can find more details about Katie’s work on her website and follow her on Facebook.

Five Questions for Fiber Artist Jane Sassaman

March 8, 2017

We couldn’t be more excited to be hosting another workshop with contemporary quilt artist, fabric designer, author, and teacher Jane Sassaman. Her April 30-May 6 workshop is entitled “Abstracting from Nature” and will focus on abstraction of flora and fauna and translating those ideas into fabric.

With her workshop coming up at the tail end of next month (and yes, we still have spots available!), we asked Jane five questions about her approach to art.

Q: What do you want your work to do?
JS: Most of my quilts are symbolic statements about the cycles and spiritual forces of life. By using colorful fabrics cut into dramatic shapes, I try to express the energy and mystery of our amazing universe – from the miraculous beauty of a single blossom to the complicated powers of the soul. I want to snap us out of our mundane routine and remind us that we are part of the bigger “cosmic” picture.

Q: How has your style changed over the years?
JS: Appliquéd collage has continued to be my method of composition. I love to play with shapes and let them react to one another. I am always looking for shapes that “speak” my language. Once I find a good shape it is always available, it becomes part of my dictionary of design. At this point, I have a nice collection of motifs that rotate through my work. The motifs are personally symbolic. A spiral, for example, is the shape of growth and movement, it is self- perpetuating. A dandelion is naive, innocently tenacious, a powerful life force. 
And fine craftsmanship continues to be very important to me. Good craftsmanship adds credibility and enhances the makers intent.

Q: How do you come up with a profitable pricing structure for your pieces?
JS: I have a price per square inch and then I add an emotional value. I’m not sure it’s really profitable (even after all these years) considering how energy intensive they are. But we have to give every piece complete consideration, no matter the time involved. It is amazing that the love and attention invested in a quilt is recognized by the viewer, often subconsciously.

Q: Do you have a motto?
JS: This will sound corny, but I did a cross-stitch in 4th grade that said “Seems the harder I work, the luckier I get”. How’s that for a Midwestern work ethic? But it seems to be true for me. Good thing I LOVE to work… quilting and designing.

Q: Are you involved in any upcoming shows or events? Where and when?
JS: I am having a retrospective of my FreeSpirit fabric quilts at the AQS Shows in Lancaster, PA and Grand Rapids, MI this year. I have been designing Fabric for FreeSpirit for 16 years and it will be fun to share so many of the FreeSpirit quilts I’ve designer over the years. I am also having a show with the fabulous Betty Busby at the Visions Art Museum in January of 2018! Such an honor!

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You can find more details about Jane’s work on her website and also follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.

Five Questions for Textile Artist Pam Holland

March 1, 2017

Our first fiber art workshop of the season kicks of with world traveler, photographer, author, illustrator, AND of course, textile artist Pam Holland.

Pam’s April 2-8 workshop will focus on her custom developed technique of painting with thread and still has a few spots available! 

In preparation for her workshop, we asked Pam five questions and here’s what she shared with us.

Q: Where do you draw inspiration from?
PH: My inspiration comes from the images I take as a photographer and the travels that I undertake.

Q: What are you most proud of in regards to your art?
PH: I guess I would have to say that winning best in show in Houston {at the International Quilt Festival} was the most amazing event and my current project, the creation of The Bayeux Tapestry as a quilt.

Q: What are your biggest challenges to creating art and how do you deal with them.
PH: To be honest, it’s easy for me, I have no challenges at all. I create intuitively and I enjoy the opportunity to teach others to do the same.

Q: What advice has influenced you?
PH: Not anything really…I’ve worked through the process of teaching and creating myself. I teach very different than others, and I prefer to take ownership of my own ideas.

Q: Is there something you are currently working on, or excited about starting that you can tell us about?
PH: I’m creating a major project, The Bayeux Tapestry to Quilt. I have been working on for 11 years now. It’s 236 feet long and an exact recreation of the Tapestry. However, it’s a quilt rather than a Tapestry of course.

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You can find more details about Pam’s work on her website and also follow her on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and Vimeo.

Learn more about the original Bayeux Tapestry here.