Weekly Inspiration Linky Party April 17, 2015

Happy Inspiration Linky Party Friday!!

Guess what's been inspiring me lately? My very own self!! Yeah, I know, how'd that happen? I have been so busy with ideas lately that I haven't had to look to the Universe for any inspiration at all(although I've been asking the Universe for inspiration a lot, so I guess it's the Universe after all!). I have been learning, learning, learning and apparently that is just what I needed to get my wheels turning. I had some fails,  and I would do some stuff different, but the best part is I learned from everything I tried, so really it's all a win! I've had a pretty awesome couple of weeks!

I took a workshop offered by my quilt guild, Camaco Quilter's Guild from Teresa Fusco who is a walking talking bunch of inspiration, I learned a technique for raw edge appliqué without using fusible stabilizer. She is a talented lady and great teacher, if you get the chance to learn from her jump on it!

This is still a work in progress, I have quilting to do in the background.

I went to a local florist with my photography club, The Photography Club of Cape May to take photos of flowers. Most of my photos were blurry, but I know why, I should've used a tripod and was too lazy to bother. That's a big lesson to learn, what a bunch of blurry, there's only one or two pics that were half way okay, no award winners here, but that's okay!!

My photography needs work, but I learn something every time I try, so I will keep on shooting!!

 I signed up for watercolor classes at my county library,  I am out of my element and it's a big ol' learning curve, but the teacher is good at step by step direction and I can handle that! This is my first try at a daffodil, it too needs work, but that's my specialty, trying again!!!

I drew the daffodil myself, not bad for a first try at watercolor!

So what's been inspiring you? I want to hear all about it!

Go make something! Nini~

An InLinkz Link-up

QuiltCon 2015, Goodtimes!

What can we say about QuiltCon and Austin, Texas? It was the biggest ball of inspiration and love! The restaurants and food were amazing! Everyone we met was oozing inspiration and everything we saw was colorful, eyecatching and beautifully executed. Thank you for all the inspiration and encouragement we will try to put it all to good use!

Chelsey and I took some classes and learned lots of techniques for making our own fabric designs. Being in class with others is such a good experience: you learn so much not only from the teacher but from the other students as well.

Chelsey pulling paint over a screen.

Screen printing with Celina Mancurti

Mod Corage with Anna Maria Horner

Block Printing with Lizzy House

My carved block and test prints.

The lectures were abundant and the speakers were well prepared. The topics were relevant and every lecture we attended were full of great information. What a bonus and surprise to get so much encouragement and ideas for future projects.

The Art Of Teaching With Jacqui Gering

Social Media Lecture with Christen Barber

The vendor booths were full of inspiration, we love how the fabric houses draw you in with color and style!

Windham Booth

Cloud 9 Booth (NYC Metro Mod Guild made the HST Quilt!!!)

The quilts were so imaginative and unusual, I submitted a quilt that didn't make it in.  It was good to see exactly what got in, learn from what was hanging, and how to make the next quilt one they will accept!

We were lucky enough to travel with Helen at Till We Quilt Again! We had so much fun eating and learning our way through Austin. There was a (real)tattoo booth and plenty of tattooing going on!! We opted for the fake tats from C&T Publishing's booth and had tons of fun taking pics!

As you can see we had a great time. We even got to share what we learned in class with each other after delicious dinners out. So glad I got the opportunity to experience QuiltCon in Austin.

Go make something!

Nini~

Quilting in Layers Workshop....Learning New Techniques is Good!

Terry Kramzar's Quilting In Layers Workshop

Camaco Quilt Guild held a lovely workshop a few weeks ago with Terry Kramzar, Quilting In Layers, An Art Quilt Technique. There were many techniques in this workshop for me to learn, it really sparked my creativity thinking about how I could use the different techniques for making other art quilts.  There's quilt as you go, thread painting, appliqué, basting with white glue, finishing with facing instead of binding. I was out of my comfort zone using monopoly invisible thread along with metallic thread. I like learning or trying something new and the challenge it presents. I found many challenges with using unusual threads in my machine, I had to make adjustments as I went along, but an art quilt is the artist's representation and doesn't have to be perfect, it's my kind of quilting!

 I recommend Terry Kramzar's lectures and workshops for a great spark of creativity, her love of nature is contagious and understandably so! In fact any time you can learn something with a group of people you're bound to learn many things...not only about the subject,  but about the people you're learning with!

Facing instead of binding, I added hanging corners. Awesome non mitered facing tutorial by Susan Brubaker Knapp.

With facing there's no visible binding on the front, I like the look for art quilts and sometimes for other quilted projects, there's times when I don't want to add another element to the front and that's when facing works great, it's my new best friend. I'm still practicing, I haven't gotten it down yet, but it gets easier each time.

 Go learn something!

Nini~

Linking up with Anything Goes Monday At Stitch By Stitch