Symposium Classes

Quilt Symposium Manawatu finished last Wednesday, it was a week of learning, exhibitions, shopping, lectures and fun with friends.

I took two classes - the first was a 2 day class with Betty Busby painting silk.  Fortunately there were only 7 of us in the class which meant we had plenty of space.  I'd never tried painting silk before, the silk was easy to paint and we had a lot of fun. Everyone in the class produced amazing pieces.  Now to find where to buy it.  Betty is a great teacher and is also a fellow 'Redirecting the Ordinary' artist. 

painted silk

The second 2 day class 'Earth, Wind and Fire' with Rosalie Dace. I picked 'Wind' to create a peice based on wind blown trees.  I'd taken along pictures of sunsets, trees, etc but on the day decided to tackle 'wind'.  
 
There are some windblown trees near Foxton that seem to be going towards horizontal. The idea was not recreate an actual picture.  I started on the left with piecing rectangles then sort of moved to piecing small pieces, including curves, a la Gwen Marston.  It even has some silk from the previous class.  Now to add more stitching, then quilt it.

These tutors were fantastic, thanks to Helen and her team for all their amazing work  organising a great week of classes.