Possible madness

I was just there in May. But in less than two months I'd be off to the Crow Barn once again. I'm taking a dip in the dyeing waters with True Colors with Carol Soderlund followed by a week of Strip Piecing & Restructuring with Nancy Crow.

Last time there I got a very clear message: make pieces between workshops and concentrate on tops rather than finished quilts. So I'd started here with a black and white study. Then I got off on a tangent. 

First circle was shown here. Yes! a circle is piece-able with only straight lines. (Don't listen to naysayers calling it a multi-sided figure.) The struggle with bulky seams around a second smaller circle showed I needed a little more method for this madness. 

I draw the circles with a compass and then locate equidistant points for the tangents. Points too close together mean struggles with bulky seams. Points too far apart call the naysayers out of the woodwork.

With a little math, I pieced two more circles, one smaller, one larger.

Ooh boy, possibilities!

Supplies and more for Strip Piecing I & II

Though the supply list is complete, here are some little tidbits.

Some workshop participants brought printers for their photographs. Most just relied on their digital cameras' view screen. I don't remember anyone with a Polaroid.

All irons and ironing boards, no matter their source, are shared.

All the machines for rent are mechanical Berninas. The bobbins are easy to find. Fill multiple ones with a neutral thread – a mid-tone neutral works well. There's time on Sunday before dinner or Monday morning to handle this. Nancy prefers cotton and she does not change thread to match the fabric.

Rulers is on the supply list, but you'll need 24" one unless you're an experienced freehand cutter. For this workshop Nancy does allow you to rotary cut with a ruler.

A 4'x8' cut of flannel is adequate for the design wall. But you might want it larger.

Don’t forget to bring lots of thread, spare rotary blades, spare sewing machine needles, and packing tape.

Bring gallon size Ziplock bags for strips and ribbons when you pack up.

Nancy has a little store in the Barn. It's not always open, but if there's enough call for it, she will man it. If you forget anything, you can probably buy it there. It even carries bolts of fabrics – prints too.

If you can, get there for Sunday setup. See my previous post here about this. Do make it to the Sunday dinner too. You get to meet all the other participants – including those for the concurrent workshop downstairs - and the staff. Everyone gets to make a 30-second intro. Don't stress out over this. Basically name and where you live.

Don't stress out over the presentation of your work either. Not everyone does it. Just keep it short and sweet. It's great to see what other classmates have done and get a break from the frenetic workshop pace.

A few weeks before the workshop, Nancy will send out a list of participants and mark those looking for roommates. You can ask for contact info for roommates earlier too. A few neighbors will take boarders - she'll list them too. Last fall it was $50 for a bedroom and breakfast.

You almost have your own chef. No breakfasts but coffee and hot water is available at 8:30 am. Margaret Wolf cooks up fabulous lunches, afternoon snacks and dinner and handles the cleanup duties too. She's great about accommodating dietary restrictions or preferences. If you have a sweet tooth, she bakes awesome goodies. The dining room is open anytime you need a break. There's a never-ending bowl of chocolates if you need a fix. And Margaret is so sweet – she'll lend you an ear.

What more could you want?! Go! Just soak it all in. It'll be a great experience.

So much fabric, so little time

How to make fabric work for you and save you workshop time - a continuation of hints and suggestions as a result of my experience at Nancy Crow's Strip-Piecing I & II in October 2008.

Wash the chemicals out. Do wash and iron your fabrics. If you're building a fan deck, cut a little ½" wide strip for your card and take measurements.

You will be cutting selvedge to selvedge with one fold. So fold fabric in half lengthwise – selvedges meet - and trim at least one end to square it up. This will save you an extra step and workshop time.

Make mini bolts. Place an 8x24 cardboard template at the uncut end and flip and fold to the other trimmed end. Pull the template out and fold in half. You will end up with an 8.5x11 bundle.

Folding this way will minimize handling and save workshop time when you cut strips. Just open up the last fold and flip out enough to cut.

Nancy wants your fabrics laid out with only one bulky fold showing rather than distractions of selvedges, cuts, or multiple folds. Stack fabrics with the single fold all facing the same way and save workshop time.

Organize your fabrics into color groups. Organize each color group by value, i.e. light to dark. Finding fabrics for the exercises would be easier this way. Stack fabrics this way to save workshop time.

At the workshop, Nancy may tell you to put them in value order regardless of color. DON'T DO IT. After everyone did this, Nancy gave us permission to not do it. Maintaining a handle on a 100 fabrics - even if organized by value – is difficult. Make the module smaller - organize into color groups.

Because you've used a template, the fabric bundles are similar in size and two tall stacks will fit nicely into a 17x11 box. To ship I lined boxes, which formerly held reams of paper, with a big plastic trash bag – then stacked a little beyond the brim. Even so they did crush down some. Update: FedEx no longer accepts boxes with separate lids, like the ones for reams of paper. Use boxes with the integral flaps that fold down.

During the workshop fabrics are flying. You have so many exercises and so limited time. Keeping a handle on fabrics will help.

When you cut from a fabric, put it on back on top of your stack. It'll be easier to repull a color you've already use. Plus you get a better sense of what and how much you've used so far. If you pulled out a color but don't cut from it, try to insert it back into its color group. You won't need your template to refold fabric at the workshop. Just follow the folds.

I think some limits on the palette will make the final quilt more cohesive. However, you don't want to use a color so much that you'd have none left after the workshop. You may want or need to duplicate the pieced fabric later.

Taking these measures does not necessarily mean you will not be working from 7am to 10:30pm.

52

Addendum and correction to the last post regarding colors.

Yesterday I'd said I had cut into about 25 pieces of my solids collection. That was a very crude estimate. Way off.

In preparation for the next workshop, I'd pulled out all the fabrics that I'd used at the last workshop. Didn't want to pack them in case I'd still be working on my ribbon quilt. Make that will be still working. Already enough color variety - no new colors please.

That pile looked like a half box full. 100 fabrics, 2 boxes. 50 fabrics a box. Half a box must be 25. Right? Big oops! Didn't take into consideration that some of the fabric has already gone into the ribbons and stripped-pieced fabrics. Smaller pieces make a more compact pile.

This morning I counted - 52 different colors! Not including black, white and grays. I could have used fewer.

I feel you can have a very satisfactory experience and put together a beautiful quilt with a more limited selection.

But can you see how you can easily go beyond that with the myriad variations in colors, values, and saturations? Look at how many yellow paint chips can you collect at the paint store. Albeit fabric is more limiting, but color nuances can be nearly infinite. That's part of the fun and challenge.

Culling all colors

Continuation of yesterday's post about the Nancy Crow workshop.

Nancy Crow asks for lots of fabric for the Strip Piecing I & II workshop. 60 to 100 different solids. More if you count neutrals and non-solids. If you are considering her workshop, you'd say Holy Moly! do I really need that much?

Out of more than 100 solids, including the neutrals, I actually cut into maybe 25. So did I really need them all? I could have gotten by with fewer blues and reds. Hardly used. Mostly yellows, oranges, greens, purples and black. A sprinkling of other colors. I used five out of the six yards of black. I didn't decide in advance what my palette would be. That's just what turned out.

Some got by with a more restrictive selection. If that were so, then that's what I would've worked with. Some chose a more restrictive palette. If that were so, then that's what I would've brought. Maybe either would've been easier and quicker – meaning less thought required. Because while you're there, you are busy doing. Mulling over choices is a luxury.

For a few exercises Nancy would ask for a particular color. Blue for example. But she doesn't specify a particular blue – choose any blue that'll work. For most exercises, it was my choice. So I'd pull out a piece of fabric– because it's on top, because it was on the bottom, because it caught my eye, because I've used it before, because I haven't used it yet, because I wanted to use that color, because I wanted to use that value, because I wanted to use that saturation, because I have a particular combination in mind, because . . . just because.

Then I'd pull out other colors to work with it. Here's where thought and time comes in. Sometimes the combination comes together quickly. Sometimes I'd really have to work to make it come together. Sometimes I couldn't make it work quick enough and started again. Sometimes I'm not happy with the combination, but it would just have to do because I don't have time to fuss more.

I was glad I had so many choices because I love playing with color. I could have gotten more done if I didn't love the color play so much. Love can be a liability.

So did I really need them all? Probably not. That's easier to say now after I've gone through the workshop. So what do you really need?

A full spectrum of colors. By that I mean the color wheel with primary, secondary and tertiary hues: i.e. yellow, yellow-orange, orange, red-orange, red, red-violet, violet, blue-violet, blue, blue-green, green and yellow-green. If you bring a minimum of five in each of these six groups, that'd be 30. The minimum. Of these five in the group, it is important to cover the full range of values from light to dark and cover the full range of saturation from bright to dull (or Nancy calls it warm and cool).

Some exercises called for a wide value range of a color. Try to have at least seven values of gray and seven values of at least one color. These seven values should work as a pleasing progression of a color set. For example a blue-gray would stand out in a group of warm grays, even though its value may be correct. A red-orange may clash within a group of red-violets.

The off-whites, beiges and tans could be low saturation variations of a color family. They may be a very neutral yellow, orange or red. Just be sure you do have some.

Bring the non-solids but don't worry too much about them. Exercises using them are at the end. Unless you are speedy, you may not get to them.

If you find your choices lacking during the workshop, you may rely on the generosity of your fellow classmates for giving / trading / selling you a strip or two.

These last two posts got long! I'll continue tomorrow about shopping for fabrics.

Being there

How timely.

A friend had good questions about going to a Nancy Crow workshop. I was thinking about the hints and suggestions I gave her - things Nancy does not spell out in her information packet or supply list. Shall I put them on here on my blog?

Then I got my twice weekly letter from Robert Genn. He wrote about Irwin Greenberg and listed 100 thoughts for artists to live by. Among them: Be a brother (or sister) to all struggling artists. Don’t hoard your knowledge, share it.

With that (green) light, based on my experience at the Strip Piecing I & II workshop last fall, here are my thoughts about getting and being there.

The closest airport (CMH) is Columbus, OH. The big chain lodging options closest to the Barn are in Reynoldsburg and Pickerington. An easy drive from the airport.

If you have time to explore Columbus, check out the Short North - a great neighborhood - and the Northstar Café. Last fall I spent one night at the Short North B&B (wonderful hostess and great breakfast), walked to Goodale Park and explored the area.

Nancy names a lodging of choice which offers the lowest price for workshop participants because she entered a contract with them. It was the Country Inn and Suites in Reynoldsburg. They set aside a limited number of rooms for the Barn rate. Breakfast included. Some complained about it being noisy and less than clean. I can't say because I haven't stayed there.

The Holiday Inn Express is in Pickerington. Room was clean, comfortable and quiet. Breakfast included with room, but nothing to write home about. They offer a pay-in-full rate available up to two weeks in advance. This rate competes with Country Inn rate, but is non-refundable. It applies to a limited number of rooms so they could have booked all of the rooms with the configuration you want.

Both of these lodging options are surrounded by big-box stores including an alternative for breakfast: Cracker Barrel.

For a non big-box experience and a little longer drive to Lancaster, Shaw's Inn includes many full breakfast choices in the dining room which opens at 7am. Early starters can request a box breakfast to go. However, my roommate and I decided we needed to be at the workshop as early as possible and found the box breakfast unsatisfactory. We didn't feel justified in spending more to stay there when we couldn't partake in their wonderful breakfasts. Management was very understanding. So after 3 nights there, we moved to the Holiday Inn.

From anywhere it's an easy drive to the Barn. I need a map. Mostly two lane roads fairly well marked. Commute with other workshop participants if schedule meshes. Yes, you do need a car or a roommate with a car. In comparison to California, driving in Ohio is easy-peasy.

Tomorrow I'll talk about the workshop, fabric and supplies.

Workshop end

The final exercise: an 8'x8' ribbon quilt. Does Nancy give us this near impossible task to see what we could do?! Well we did what we could, as tired as we were at the end of an intensive week.
Here are my classmates - much relieved at the final presentation! Each of them did a knockout job!
Barbara V
Mary Ellen
Barb bjtmn@charter.net








Patricia










Lee
Annette










Marilyn










Sandy K
Gail
Janice










Maureen







Patrice
Noreen
Judy
Sue
Patsy









Carol










Anne
Didi








No photo of Karolyn or Sandy S. or Denise, our independent study particant.

The Crow process

Nancy posts exercises on the wall and gathers everyone around to explain them. They're handwritten with markers on 8.5x11 paper. No handouts.

We absorb the words when we write it as oppose to just reading a printout. But this also takes some time away from the exercise itself.

Patsy and Annette are intent on understanding the exercise.

Nancy does not drudge out the same-o same-o again and again for every workshop. She puts thought into adjusting them to make them more effective in getting her concepts across. She may even be writing out exercises just before posting. Another reason for not having handouts.

Each individual gets personal attention as she goes around the room to provide support - answer questions and help if you are stuck. Even after dinner when the workshop day has already ended, when we are all still working hard, she sticks around to make sure we are on the right track.

She'd tell you what's on her mind without apologies. I overheard her say "take that fabric off the wall. It's too bossy!" She did forewarn us she can be blunt. But she is also very giving. If she likes what you're doing, she'll give you loads of positive feedback.

So it's true – Nancy Crow is a demanding instructor. She demands your time, your attention, your critical eye, your good craftsmanship, and your best efforts. She gives back in return. With her fabulous eye and her outspokenness, she gives you real feedback. When it's nice, it's great, I love it aren't enough, go to Nancy. She's a rare treasure.

Lagging behind at the Barn

I spent a week at Nancy Crow's Timber Barn for the workshop Best of Strip Piecing I & II. Rumors: her workshops are for masochists; she demands a lot of work; you'll be working from 7am until 10 pm; she doesn't pull any punches; she tells you like it is; she's very demanding. Didn't know really what to expect, but I was prepared to work hard.

It's been a hard day's night and I've been working like a dog. The workshop officially starts at 9am, but the studio opens at 7, and my roommate Annette and I would be there before 8 - one morning even the first at 7:04. The workshop officially ends at 5pm followed by dinner at 6. Many of us continued working until we couldn't anymore or until the studio closes at 10:30. One morning with so much to do, I keep putting off coffee or restroom breaks until lunch. Thank goodness Margaret made lunches, dinners and snacks. Who'd have time to cook?

Cut and sew, cut and sew, who's the slowest of them all? May have been me. Make bigger strips for more footage! My scale just naturally evolves. Let crooked seams be! But I am particular about my work and took apart sections to re-sew. For the final 8'x8' ribbon quilt top, let expressionism rule! But I am a minimalist. I haven't figure out how to let loose yet.

When I look at my notes now, the exercises sound so simple, so doable. Yet I didn't get to them all. I got done what I got done. I'll get to the rest on my own time.

Here I am at my final presentation. The end of an invigorating week.

So after all this, I would love to take more workshops with Nancy. And I would recommend her for every art quilter too! I am so glad I did this and now regret not signing on for the second week.

First time at the Barn

Thank goodness I had Annette to direct me down so many two-lane roads. I'm not sure I can find it again, even after driving back and forth for 6 days. My usually good sense of direction abandoned me in Ohio.

The studio barn is separate from the house and a working barn. It's surrounded by trees, shrubs and vegetation. Expressions of artistic hands and eyes - sculpture, prints, and the arrangements of items – signify it as an artistic shelter and retreat.

The studio was already abuzz with activity. Everyone was setting up. With only half-an-hour before dinner, I focused on finding my place.

Some participants had reserved specific spots. After a quick glance around the room, I picked an empty corner. Good and bad. Everything was only a few steps away: exit door, kitchen, dining room, restrooms and stairs down to the wet studio. So everyone passed by. But no other workshop participant nearby. My closest neighbor, Denise, was there for independent study and Nancy would occasionally sit at the facing table for some paperwork. It was my quiet little corner.

We had great help setting up. Three men who did the heavy lifting, raised tables, located electrical, and just made sure everybody and everything was okay. Nancy's husband and son were among them.

After supper, all the key players – Nancy, her husband, John Stitzlein, her son Nathaniel Stitzlein, the wet studio instructors Claire Benn and Leslie Morgan, and the chef Margaret Wolf, introduced themselves, laid down the rules and outlined time frames. Then we, the workshop participants, got a minute to introduce ourselves.

John encouraged us to take walks around the farm – in its fall glory: leaves turning color and trees loaded with red apples. The weather during the week was just perfect with some crystal clear days, gorgeous cloud formations, and even some very light sprinkles. Temperatures were still warm with just a hint of winter. Little did I know he meant that day. Heavens, no time later!

Haves and have nots

Despite the economic doom and gloom, I sent my money in for the Strip Piecing I & II workshop at Nancy Crow's Barn in October. With that done, I am now stressing about plane tickets, lodging and supply. Yes, I am a worry-wart!

At least I have the fabrics - 100 solids, including off-whites, tans, black, white and grays. I would be in a total panic if I was trying to find, buy, wash, press and fold all these in one shot, let alone one or even two months! There are still some color gaps though.

It's harder to find more colors. At the stores, I pull out my handy dandy little fan deck. 'Cept it's not so handy and not so small - I am juggling a deck with a 3x4 index card for each solid. Like my baskets, my deck is divided into six color categories, then arranged by value. I feel a bit self-conscious but how else to separate the haves from have nots?