Houston International Quilt Festival 2018: The Classes

Nearly three months after I returned from the 2018 International Quilt Festival in Houston I am finally writing about the five classes I took.  For the first time no sewing machine was used, any sewing was done by hand and I loved every minute of it (or nearly every minute).

Unfortunately the cold I left NZ with seemed reluctant to leave me and I ended up taking it back to NZ. Most days I managed to participate at full speed but Tuesday was a struggle, when I seemed more intent on dripping my way through a box of tissues than learning. Luckily the tutors were highly skilled, able to adapt to the different needs of their students and let me putter along at my own pace. So without further ado here are the IQF classes of 2018.

Fun and Easy Fabric Printing with Lisa Louise Adams

On Monday (all day) Cath and I did different classes. I printed fabric whilst Cath created a tree of life with Jane Sassaman.

Lisa Louise Adams was a knowledgeable, enthusiastic tutor and it was a pleasure to do a class with her. The technique she taught was based on the ancient Hawaiian art of ohe kapala. In the morning we made our printing sticks and stamps, using them to print onto fabric in the afternoon. It was amazing how much more impactful the stamp was with texture added to the large uncut areas - creating the sea around the turtle in the stamp below was particularly effective.

The art of Lisa Louise Adams; middle demonstrating carving the Speedy Cut for the stamp

The students art - mine is top left

More of the students art

Silk Shibori Beaded Necklace with Glennis Dolce

There are some tutors at Houston who we have taken many classes with over the years. On Tuesday morning we enjoyed another class with one of our favourites Glennis Dolce. The techniques Glennis teaches are varied from indigo dying to creating brooches / necklaces with her silk shibori ribbon.

This time we beaded a piece of the shibori ribbon to create a necklace, adding more or less texture by ruching the ribbon over the silk cord. We could choose the ribbon/bead colour from a number of kits provided for the class. I wanted the red ribbon but wasn't so bothered by the Christmas bead selection so I did buy some other beads at Houston and will probably undo my class effort and start the beading again.

My class piece

Collar (top left) by one of the students using Glennis' shibori ribbon other pieces by Glennis

Collar (top left) by same student other pieces by Glennis

I also indulged at Glennis' booth buying some more shibori ribbon and my extravagance this trip a gorgeous red silk shibori wrap.

Needle Felt Landscape with Vickie Clontz

On the Tuesday afternoon Cath and I were looking forward to hand needle felting a picture. The tutor gave a very fulsome explanation of how to hand needle felt, how to hold the needle, how not to injure yourself etc. What she omitted was any guidance / advice / tutoring on how to achieve the shading and look of the picture. The three pieces of guidance given were: (1) how to achieve the sky with the sun; (2) pictures always have a touch of red in them; (3) how to create the flowers.  The rest was left entirely to us to interpret.

At the end of all classes at Houston students complete a feedback form - one copy goes to the tutor and the other to the IQF Education team. I am not saying anything here that wasn't included on the feedback form. If it had been a technique I was interested in exploring further I would have been more proactive in seeking out the information I wanted. At the end of class I left all of the class materials behind including the foam pad, which didn't need to occupy space in my suitcase on the way home, and just took my "finished" picture. I use the word finished loosely, this is as much as I will ever bother to do to it.

One thing I would say about hand needle felting, it's a great way to expend any aggression, vigorously stabbing a needle into a helpless piece of wool felt.

Japanese Furoshiki Wrapping Cloth with Becky Scellato

Thursday morning was a quiet relaxing opportunity for some hand sashiko. Great tutor who set the scene then kept an eye on all of us as we progressed at our own pace offering assistance and encouragement. I loved the little oasis of peace she created for us amidst the hustle and bustle of IQF. Becky also had some great examples of Boro stitching on display, with sashiko incorporated into some of her Boro patches.

Furoshiki wrapping cloth. Bottom: left class sample; right my class piece.

Japanese Boro stitching by Becky

On Thursday afternoon I had signed up for the mixed media forum but on the day I was too tired to take a meaningful part in what can be quite a fast paced event moving around to look at the different demonstrations. Instead I spent a very enjoyable afternoon wandering around the quilt exhibition whilst Cath participated in Beads are a Blast with Melody Crust.

Beaded Bliss with Katrina Walker

Just like Glennis Dolce it has become something of a tradition to take a class with Katrina Walker. We have done many techniques with her over the years and all have been a lot of fun. This year was no exception. In the morning we dyed our silk scarves and in the afternoon we beaded the ends of our favourite scarf.

I was a bit obsessed with the colour scheme of my shoes and dyed my scarves to match!! I decided to bead the scarf that remained predominantly off-white as the beads were a clear glass. I loved this scarf and really enjoyed dropping the dye on it from a pipette until the end when I added the red, which became too dominant coming out in splashes rather than droplets like the other colours. The red/blue striped scarf is square and I am very tempted to try and incorporate it into a scarf top.

We used Colourhue dyes which are instant set and require only tap water to dilute the concentrated liquid to the desired shade. They are not great when you are trying to get different depths of colour but give fast results and were fantastic in the Houston class setting.

Katrina had a packing disaster for the first time getting her dyes to Houston so we used lots of the dye in class as she didn't want to ship the bottles home again. The class kit came with two long scarves (the beaded one and the blue/yellow one) and we could buy extra scarves from Katrina to continue soaking up her unwanted dyes!

My beaded bliss and dyed scarves

Cath who does a lot of beading was an absolute whizz at this finishing both ends of her scarf in class whilst I had a few problems counting the very simple design and didn't quite finish one end. Even now the longer drops are not longer apart from the second on the left which looks like a mistake rather than the intended pattern. My inability to count in this class wasn't as bad as an Embroiderers' Guild class to English smock a Christmas decoration where I never got past the first row (well I did but had to keep reverse stitching). At the end of the day I gave my pleated fabric to a class mate as I never needed to see it again.