• Journal Quilts ~ Exploring Mondrian

    Posted on by HeleneKnott

    Once a month at two local shops, I hold an ongoing class called Art Journal Quilts. This class is aimed at exploring various techniques or design approaches that are more ‘artistic’ than the traditional methods/designs usually pursued in quilting. Fabric painting/printing, embroidery, 3-D manipulation, embellishment… we explore a different project each month to create quilts in a small format (which means they may actually get finished instead of floating around as UFOs).

    Some students attend and just experiment with the technique, filing it away for future reference but there are several who are quite prolific in completing their projects. I am so delighted when any of them bring a completed project in following months to show and share with the class and over the years, I have built up quite a collection of photos of their quilts. I hope to be able to add these to my blog on a regular basis. As much as I love posting pictures of my own work, it gives a better perspective when I can show the same assignment from different minds and hands.

    A couple of months ago, we played with flat piping to create very fine framing lines between pieced squares and rectangles. The resulting lines were far thinner than one could hope to create by inserting a narrow strip in the more traditional approach and also added a nice subtle dimension to the surface texture. Though this method could be applied to any pieced design, I chose to use the work of Dutch painter Piet Mondrian as inspiration, his geometric arrangement of squares and rectangles in primary colors was a natural for this.

    For those interested in joining one of my Art Journal Classes, they are held once a month at Pioneer Quilts in Milwaukie (usually the first Friday of each month) and at Sewn Loverly in Wilsonville (usually the last Thursday of each month); contact either shop for more information or to enroll. Please note that the projects and lessons will vary from month to month, the images shown above do not represent the class assignment for an upcoming class.


    📂This entry was posted in Classes Student Work

  • More Student Work (and a bit of my own)

    Posted on by HeleneKnott

    The photos of projects from my April workshop in Las Vegas keep trickling in. I must say – not only am I pleased with the  beauty and creativity of their work but also with their follow through; I always ask students to send me pictures of their finished projects but rarely get as much response as I have from the Desert Quilters in Nevada. The two images here are from one student who did two of the class projects and is working on a third that she promises to send me when it is done.

    Now onto my latest workshop: I taught my Animal Totem class to the Westside Quilters Guild  last weekend, I had a fabulous turnout for the class. I did manage to snap a few pictures before the end of the class and hope to get more as students complete their quilts. Several (more than usual) chose to hand applique their projects so those may take awhile, it seems these days most students prefer a faster method but as a dedicated member of the ‘Secret Society of Handworkers’ (not really a guild – I’m being facetious) myself, it always pleases me to see hand applique is not a lost art.  My heartfelt thanks to the Westside Quilters for a successful class.

    Some new additions to my own collection of  Small Wonders are two samples I finished for my Journal Quilts classes. I hold these once a month at two shops in the Portland Metro Area – Pioneer Quilts in Milwualkie (the first Friday of each month) and Sewn Loverly in Wilsonville (the last Thursday of each month), In these three-hour sessions we explore techniques a bit more on the artistic side than traditional quilting, Stamping, embroidering, beading, painting, fabric manipulation, embellishing… we poke our noses into just about anything fiber arts related and the students get an opportunity to learn and try techniques on small projects (I call them ‘Small Wonders’) that beats experimenting on a larger project and finding that it’s really not your cup of tea and then relegating it to your UFO pile. If, on the other hand, you do find you like the process, you now have yet another skill you can add to future projects and expand your horizons.

    Last month at Pioneer Quilts, we explored an approach to embellishment I was inspired to from a report I heard on NPR. It concerned an approach to composing music based on a sort of DNA model and what is called The Music of the Spheres – a composition in which each celestial body (or musical instrument) follows its own repetitive cycle or beat that might be static on its own but blended together with others forms a complex pattern. I wondered as I listened to the report if there was a way I could express this visually with embellishment and my artwork ‘Music of the Spheres’ was the result. The previous month we explored working with flat piping at both shops and the design approach was inspired by the abstract work of Dutch artist Piet Mondrian who created a series of works consisting of squares and rectangles in primary colors divided by graphic narrow black lines (we used the flat piping here). My instructional layout yielded an area larger than the rest of the arrangement that cried out for a motif so I hand embroidered the iconic ‘She Who Watches’ petroglyph on my sample. The last image is of yet another Bella Vista landscape, this one of Mt. Hood portrayed in moonlight.

    I will be giving the Bella Vista Landscapes workshop in a few weeks for the Crook County Quilt Guild over in Prineville, the Mt Hood pattern will be one of several pattern options.


    📂This entry was posted in * Latest Posts Classes Events Student Work

  • Another Successful Workshop

    Posted on by HeleneKnott

    Hello dear readers. It’s been too long since my last post but better late than never. I have a friend who swears it only takes 15 minutes to do a post. Maybe I am just inept when it comes to blog posts (and in all truth – I prefer designing and creating to blogging) but it took me several hours just to select, crop and optimize the photos for this post not to mention assembling them into a gallery template.

    Enough about my computer skills (or lack thereof); what I want to talk about is my workshops in Las Vegas last month. It’s always a challenge picking a class that will appeal to the greatest number of students and that is exactly what a guild and an instructor want – a good enrollment in the workshop. In this case, the Desert Quilters of Nevada chose very well. Not only did the classes fill but they filled so well that they had to ask me to add an extra class to accommodate all the students. I, of course, was thrilled to do so.

    The two workshops chosen were my Bella Vista Mini-Landscapes/Postcards From Japan and Confetti Trees. In both classes, students worked from patterns of my own design though a couple of mavericks created their own unique designs with great success.

    Often, when I teach I get so wrapped up in that process that I completely forget to pause and take pictures and it was no different in this case. By the time I thought of pictures, many students had gathered their equipment and were headed out the door but I did ask students to send me pictures of their quilts if they were so inclined and I’m happy to say the pictures have been arriving in my inbox on a fairly regular basis along with notes of how much they enjoyed the class.

    Though I will not deny that teaching is most definitely a source of income for me, it is this enthusiasm and pride on the part of my students that keeps me enthralled with the process of sharing my skills and knowledge. My thanks go out to the Desert Quilters of Nevada for a wonderful, successful teaching engagement and for sharing the pictures of their accomplishments with me to share with you.

     


    📂This entry was posted in * Latest Posts