Boot Camp at the Barn

Wow, the summer flew by so fast!  The weather was amazing here in Bellingham.  Typically we get nice weather for a month or so, with rain interspersed here and there.  This year it was sunny literally every day except one, and quite a bit warmer than usual.

That made for some chaos in the garden, but lots of produce too!

Summer Bounty

And now I have just returned from "The Barn."  If you're an art quilter you probably know that "The Barn" is where Nancy Crow works and teaches.  It felt like a pilgrimage, visiting a significant spiritual site you have previously known of only through word of mouth. It was fun seeing Nancy in her native "habitat."   It's a beautiful facility and the food - provided by Margaret Boys Wolf - is fantastic.  Every lunch and dinner, plus a mid-day snack is ready and waiting for you to sit down and eat.  How spoiled I felt!

This is the only meal I remembered to photograph before eating

The class I took at the barn was Design Boot Camp, with Terry Jarrard-Dimond.  It was wonderful to meet her after following her via her blog for quite awhile. I knew as soon as I saw the announcement of the class that I would have to take it.  I feel very strongly that if I can learn good design/composition, everything else will follow.

Here's a photo that she posted on her blog, of me hard at work. On the wall, you can see the beginning of a piece that I am very excited about.

The assignment was to make sketches from a wire "sculpture" that we created, and then to develop them, or parts of them, into compositions.

Here's a view of my sculpture

And a view of the artwork in progress

Now, I just need to get back into the studio and work on it!