I bought Denyse's book years before I ever started quilting and have looked and have looked at it over and over. (highly recommend) The difference about Denyse is that she's an artist first. She graduated from RISD and has the art knowhow and design aesthetic that make her really stand out among quilters.
The weekend started with a lecture out at Art Center in Pasadena and we spent about 2 hours learning about Denyse's processes and her journey and what inspires her. I came home even more excited to spend Sunday day with her in a 5 hour class that had only 10 other people with me.
(alissa haight carlton took these 2 pics of our class)
We spent the first half of the day working on improvisational piecing - where you pick pieces out of a paper bag without looking and work with what you've got - it's a great exercise in letting go and broadening your horizons. As I kept drawing out pieces, they were nearly all solids and that was a real stretch for me... here's one of the squares I ended up with. (I love them). I plan on using them to make something that I can really enjoy. Still thinking about what that might be, though.
The afternoon was spent with us sharing some design issues we had with her on current projects and getting her insight. I brought in my collages and talked about how I can't seem to bridge the gap between my art and my quilting quite yet... She helped me to get started and I love what I made from these!
I'm inspired to keep working on this - it's so far out from my current color scheme and comfort zone.... I really have some new ideas as to how I can move forward on this journey. I already have 3 more "squares" (they're not square) to add to these and I'm buzzing with ideas.
(me and Denyse with my squares and inspiration collage - you can tell how super nice she is...)
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