Susan Brubaker Knapp was here last week to teach her popular Paint, Fuse, Stitch workshop. The first process was learning to paint images from photos onto white fabric. 
Some garden inspiration around the inn! It is peak echinacea season at the moment. 
Then next process that Susan taught was raw edge fused appliqué, using a sheet of vinyl to aid in exact placement of each little piece. 
We have finally arrived at the season of beautiful, temperate weather! Just warm enough, with a tiny bit of chill in the evenings. This was taken just after a 5 minute rain storm. 
This was the first painted image by one of the students who said she had never painted before in her life! She credited her success to Susan’s teaching and process! 
Susan brought a whole bunch of her work for the class to see. This is one big stack of talent here. 
The final process Susan taught was thread sketching, which is using machine stitching to emulate the look of pencil sketching. In other words, not as heavy stitching as thread painting. 
On the last day was a critic of the students work, with each person describing what they liked best about their work and what they thought needed improvement. 
Since the chill is back in the evening air, we now have in stock some fabulously soft and warm hoody sweatshirts. They come in black, navy, and blue with a contrast color on the inside of the hood. The minute I put them out most of our staff said they wanted one! 
Hand-Applique with Sandra Leichner
April 25, 2016
Oregon appliqué artist, Sandra Leichner, returned to us again this year to teach her 3-day hand-applique workshop. Her demos were full of hints and tips to make each person successful and having fun! 
These are some close-ups of some of the magnificent works that Sandra brought with her. Such amazing detail! 
Some example projects that the students had to choose from for the process of learning the specific techniques that Sandra uses. 
We also had a winner of our Early Bird Drawing in Sandra’s workshop. We had a drawing every year from the pool of students who sign up for a workshop before our workshop season begins. There are 3 possible prizes and Katherine Stevenson won 3rd prize for the year. For the fiber art workshops, the 3rd prize is a $100 gift certificate to Hudson River Valley Art Workshops. The gift certificate can be used to put towards another workshop or for shopping in our supply shop, or it can even be using the buy chocolate from our organic chocolates shop, Life By Chocolate! Such a deal. 
Sandra also bought along a good selection of her kits for other appliqué projects for further practice before venturing forth with your own designs. 
Outside the studio the Spring flowers are finally starting to put in a show. This tulip is obviously an overachiever! 
The next fiber art workshops coming up in our 2016 schedule are with Susan Brubaker Knapp, Rayna Gillman, and Esterita Austin.
David Taylor – Photo to Quilt with Hand Applique
August 27, 2014
We just had a fun and engaging week with David Taylor, the fiber artist form Steamboat Springs, Colorado (not David Taylor the fabulous watercolorist from Australia who will be teaching here next year! Although they both like and buy my Crazy Ties.)
I have long admired David’s award-winning work, having seen it all over the internet and also some of the major shows, so it was a pleasure to finally meet him and have him here to teach a workshop.
Everyone brought a great photo to work from, each different than the others. David had everyone start with the eyes. It was sort of erie to walk through the studio that first day and see all those eyes peering at you.
Joyce L was working on a cute portrait of fox. I love her fabric palette spread out around her.
Corinne had a wonderful picture of a blue-footed booby bird!
Sandy’s focus was flora rather than fauna, with this bright yellow flower.
Helene had a picture of one of her dogs.
And Korinna was working on a cat. Korinna was our longest distance winner in this class, having come from Germany!
These next couple of pictures show the progress after a couple of days.
Every day David provided demos and discussions about the various steps of his process.
The remaining pictures were taken on the final day. You can see that some people made more progress than others, but the reason is different than you might think. David told me, rolling his eyes, that everyone was having so much fun chatting, laughing and telling stories that they weren’t spending enough time focused on their work! The class even went on a field trip to a local quilt fabric shop, Log Cabin Fabrics, during class time one afternoon.
David brought several of his art quilts with him, of course, and everyone oohed and aahed and had him hold them up for pictures.
Here is the paparazzi!
This is the quilting on the back of David’s bird quilt. Simplily amazing.
One of the demos on the last day was how David puts on the binding on his finished pieces. He thinks of the binding as framing his finished work.
It was a good week all around with good food and good weather to round out the experience. We hope to have David back again in the future!
Hand-Applique with Sandra Leichner
April 3, 2013
Sandra Leichner, that award-winning, awe inspiring, appliqué artist from Albany, Oregon, was here for a whirlwind 3-day workshop.
This was one dedicated group. We had to practically drag them out of the studio at meal times!
Sandra was a very approachable, friendly, and knowledgable instructor — and dedicated. I always saw her in the studio, even after class hours.
Students could learn Sandra’s techniques using one of Sandra’s designs or they could work on their own.
This is just one of the incredible pieces designed and created by Sandra that she brought to show the class. There was amazing detail throughout.
Every day Sandra would give process demos, working with small groups of the students at a time, so that everyone could be close and see clearly what was being shown.
The following are some examples of the student projects in the works.
On the final day at cookie time, the group gathered in the dining rooms for a class picture.
Everyone loved the class with Sandra. We hope to bring her back in the future to each another workshop.
Here are couple of the comments from the students written our room journals:
