Jennie is flat out awesome! A total crazy lady, with a sense of humor that never stops, and creativity and talent that will knock your socks off. This year at PIQF, I was blown away every time I peeked into her classroom (which was right next to mine), and saw what her students were doing. My friends Dale and Lani took one of her classes, and I loved what they created. Miss Jennie captivated me as she emcee'd this year's Show & Tell event and had us all laughing until we were in pain, then late Sunday afternoon I wound up having a fun conversation with her as the festival was just about to close, and we were both headed out, dog-tired, and grateful for the chance to sit down for a few minutes.
What this woman can do with a piece of fabric, as she rolls, folds, nips, tucks, fiddles and twiddles it into a piece of art, is almost unbelievable. I could look at it for hours trying to figure out how she achieved a certain look, then realize I really don't care HOW she achieved it, only that she DID achieve it. She won't be back to teach again at PIQF until 2014, but I'll be first in line to sign up for her classes then! I WANT to add this element to my quilts! Here's a portion of her exhibit in this year's show...
"Totally Tucked", with two detail pictures...
"All Squared Up" - features eight different techniques, each block made from square or rectangular pieces of fabric...
"Tweaked and Twiddled" - a 24-section pieced square with inserted triangles flattened to form petal shapes, is surrounded by tucked and twiddled fans...
"Embellished Tucks" - the edges of tucks can be embellished with yarn zig-zagged to the edges, or by doing a satin stitch along the edges.
More embellished tucks...
"Magnolia Dusk" - uses weaving, Origami, tucked designs, and the innovative 'Fancy Fandango' and 'Floral Fantasies' designs to create an ingenious piece of fabric manipulation...
"Melange"...
"Foldy Rolly Fireworks" - all of the designs are named after fireworks...
Impressive, eh?? It just about wore me out looking at and thinking about all of the work that went into creating these quilts. But then, she has SO many more and, in addition, she's written a boatload of books! So I'm thinking this process can't be all that difficult, or she'd never have been able to crank out so much work, plus teaching... and lecturing... and traveling all over the planet... right??? Well, I'll get my chance to find out come October 2014!
