Two Art Quilt Collage Classes with Deborah Boschert

As I mentioned on Friday, I took two classes with Deborah Boschert over the weekend.  I had a lot of fun. They were exactly the self-care I needed. This is the palette of fabrics that I chose for myself:

Interestingly, I posted a picture of this palette to my instagram stories and asked people if they thought it was a cohesive palette.  About half the people (including Deborah) said, "No."  I find that fascinating.  To me, it looks super cohesive and fun to work with. But we are all different artists and I'm sure it looks like a hot mess to other people.  I say, hooray for differences.  The important thing is to know yourself and what YOU like.

Speaking of liking: As an instructor, I always enjoy seeing how other teachers teach.  Instead of doing live demos, Deborah shared pre-recorded videos she had made.  I found this idea fascinating!  On the one hand, it means that the demo always goes well and nothing gets left out.  On the other hand, it does feel more like an online class. On the third hand, I can see how this idea makes teaching so much easier.  The instructor is there to answer questions and offer assistance, but the basics are covered.  I've been intensely thinking about this method of teaching for the past few days.  I can't decide if it's something I want to try with some of my classes that I offer over and over again.  Something to ponder!

In any case, here's a peek at what I made.  In the first class, "Personal Symbols: Art Quilt Collage," our assignment was to create six small 5x7 quilts using a vocabulary of personal symbols.  Some of my often used personal symbols (you'll have to guess what they stand for) are a circle, a triangle, a house, a leaf, a seed, repeated lines, and the "u" shape in various directions.  You can see them in these little story quilts (and much of my work):

I think my awesome fabric selection made some pretty fab little quilts.  Here is a look at each one individually:

















In the second class, "Captivating Compositions," our assignment was to create eight small 6x6 quilts, each one representing a particular type of design and using just 5 fabrics.  I had A LOT of trouble with the "just 5 fabrics" and I think I didn't choose well.  I mostly picked these 5 fabrics because I had some big pieces of them left from the day before.  Not a great idea.  In any case, here are my compositions:

I didn't bother to add stitch because I don't really want to invest the time in them.  It was a good exercise, but I'd like to try again with different fabrics.  In my opinion you really need to pay attention to value when selecting your fabrics for an exercise like this, and I didn't. Take a peek at my eight pieces in grayscale:

Most of the compositions totally fall apart in grayscale -- it's part of the reason they don't really work in color.  As opposed to the grayscale versions of my story quilts, which look fine:

Well, lesson learned, and isn't that the point of taking a class?

Deborah is a very kind and patient teacher.  She answered all questions with diplomacy and thoughtfulness.  I appreciated the warm environment she created online and her flexibility in allowing each student to be who they are.  If you're interested in learning more about her methods, I believe that most of what she taught over the weekend is available in her book, Art Quilt Collage.  I just reserved a copy of it at my local library, along with three other quilt collage books: Art Quilt Maps, Vibrant Quilt Collage, and The Uncommon Quilter.  I like to audition books by taking them out of my local library.  Then, after perusing them, I buy the ones that I know I'll love to refer back to over and over!

Thanks for stopping by!