Monday, November 19, 2012

Jennie Rayment - My favorite teacher from whom I've yet to take a class...


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...


"Out of Africa" - created using African fabrics that have been manipulated into Origami hexagons, tucked-up bands, and a petal pattern with multiple Origami twists in the border...



"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!

Friday, November 16, 2012

A Rant...

It's time for me to stop doing my slow burn and get back to blogging, no matter how frustrating the process may be. My computer is moribund... dying a slow death because its hard disk is almost at capacity, and performing any kind of task - e-mail, web-crawling, photo manipulation, Google searches, FaceBook, and, especially blogging, takes For. Frigging. Ever. My husband, the former Mr. Whiz-Bang Apple Guru, purchased a new iBook Pro over a year ago, and, in theory, after setting it up for himself, was to give me his current machine, reconfigured for my needs. Alas, for reasons that render me nearly homicidal, and which I have no desire to dump on my dear readers, this has never transpired. The new machine still sits in its box, and the FMWBAG is still using the machine I was supposed to get, and I'm still stumbling along using this pathetic, tired, overworked, filled to capacity, irritating, INFURIATING PIECE OF SHIT.

By not blogging, I'm saving myself a ton of frustration in dealing with a cranky computer, but, in the meantime, am amassing an equal tonnage of frustration by not being able to keep my blog updated. So, as of right now, I will, once again, stuff my irritation and begin working on my next post... no matter how long it takes. It may be several days before it appears, but I just wanted to give notice that it WILL appear, and this blog will be back in action in a day or two.

End of rant.