I am inspired!!!!!!

I spent a fantastic weekend at Loxton enjoying a two day workshop with Gloria Loughman......how lucky are we to have the opportunity to spend time with talentend artists such as Gloria..........landscape quilts are something I have never really attempted before so this was way out of my comfort zone.....what a learning curve....but what fun......!!!

We covered painting on fabric.....to use as background or as parts of a quilt (say trees.....).....stitching as embellishment (and if you go to Gloria's website you will see what I mean....I took a couple of photos of her quilts but they don't do justice to these works of art....!!)...... and of course how to put the pieces together to make a landscape quilt.......I have to give a huge thank you here to Kate who sat next to me.......Kate was very generous and most of the fabrics ....hmmmm...all of the fabrics I used in my little quilt she kindly donated to me.....! Thanks Kate!!.......I have never had many hand dyed fabrics or landscape type fabrics in my stash and Kate takes classes in dyeing fabric so had loads and was willing to share....! Quilters a just the best!

Day one started with Gloria explaining some of the finer points in making a landscape quilt and covering things like colour, movement etc......fascinating stuff and well supported with copious notes (thank goodness - there was a lot to take in and notes are always handy to have when you can't remember!!) ..........then off to make a start on our quilts.........which for me was like....OMG.....where to from here.......

I started with a photograph taken in the south of the state of some wind turbines.........and made a drawing the same size as the finished quilt......no problem so far except I can't draw.........

........then it was choosing fabrics......(no problem here thanks to the ever helpful Kate next to me.).....and cutting out freezer paper shapes..................so far so good.......

Look at that hand painted "sky"........ something else we had a go at during the first day....I have bought some paints to play with at home...one day......!!

By the end of day one I had this................................coming along nicely.....pinned and ready to sew.....got the Pfaff fired up and did some of the stitching before calling it a day and heading back to the hotel for dinner and a good sleep........couldn't even stay awake for the Olympics.....LOL....

Day two and Gloria took us through using stitching to embellish......what to use where and what needles to use etc.....very interesting stuff....and I learned so much.................suffice to say it was just the most wonderful workshop and Gloria was very patient with us all!............I came away from the class really inspired! ...... I played a bit more with my little quilt and managed the wind turbines by the end of the day......and no they aren't falling over there was something under the quilt...(well that's my story and I am sticking to it!) .......... no masterpiece, but I learned a little about the techniques required to make one ........!

Gloria had some of her quilts with her and I took some photos of some of the detail in the quilts......but as I said before to really appreciate these quilts go to Gloria's site and check them out!

Here is the artist herself with Tricia at the end of day two......and still standing...pretty remarkable.....!

Thanks to Tricia for organising the workshop......! It was back to reality (and work) for me today......looking forward to the weekend to unpack properly and spend some time in the sewing room......there is baby sewing to be done!! more on that later in the week....!!! (and no it isn't for me personally!! LOL)

'Til next time..........................Lorraine