On-Line Class: The Artist's Toolkit

Registration is open for
The Artist's Toolbox

An on-line course at www. QuiltUniversity.com

based on the book

Art + Quilt: Design Principles and Creativity Exercises

Come learn the basic alphabet of the visual language, the elements and principles of good design.

I'll walk you through each element, explaining them in easy to understand language and metaphors.

We'll observe each element in the world around us both in art and in the natural world.

Finally we'll put what we've learned into practice through practical exercises.

The supply list couldn't be simpler.

Sketchbook and whatever drawing stuff you have

Glue Stick

Fabric Scraps

Registration is open now and the class fills almost every session so don't delay.
Class begins June 1st
(4 lessons, the forum is open for 6 weeks)

Student Spotlight: 5 Ways to Applique with Capital Quilter's Guild

Another fabulous day playing with my friends at the Capital Quilter's Guild in Raleigh, NC!

Student Spotlight: Apli-Punto with the Capital Quilt Guild

Spent a lovely day with friends at the Capital Quilter's Guild.

Apli-Punto to Go is a technique that looks crazy complicated.

 But it's easy enough that this is what we got done in one class.

With GREAT BIG smiles on our faces!

For Your Inspiration: Snoqalmie Falls

 Near Seattle, WA

The roar - the volume of water - the spray - it was powerfully and overwhelmingly beautiful!

These panoramic images were created with Autostitch on my iPhone.

(I truly believe that the iPhone is the funnest toy and greatest tool ever invented!)

Rattlesnake Lake

On a side note: my mother and I both have brains that don't have any long term recall. If I want to remember something from childhood (even most of my teenage-hood) I call my sister and ask her about it. I don't have many visual memories - which might seem odd for a visual artist. The sense of SMELL, however, can bring back amazingly powerful emotions, if not images. This lake smelled like pure joy!  My family spent summers camping in the high Uinta mountains and we had a very happy family. Still do.

Creative Wisdom: Begin Again

"Every artist was first an amateur."  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Spring is a time for new beginnings.

I am always enthralled with the opening of a blossom - watching a tight little bud swell and burst into a fully opened flower, full of life and color and light. I get just as big a thrill from seeing students find their creative confidence. Often they come in with just the hint of a wish - a deep and secret desire to be an artist and to create something beautiful. They are afraid to let the bud swell on the branch for fear of ridicule or failure.

A blossom needs warmth and light, time and nourishment in order to swell and open into it's full glory. I try to give my students those same things: a safe environment in which to explore, information that will enlighten them, and permission to expand into whichever form most suits their creative spirit.

"Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending." ~Anonymous

Give yourself time and permission to become what you were meant to be.

Are you holding your opportunities for growth tightly within or are you giving yourself room to grow and permission to learn? Blossoming can be a messy business with pollen and bugs and dropped flowers but that is how the plant prepares itself to expand for the next year. Give yourself time to experiment - let your wildest artistic ideas out into the light and see what happens. 

Come PLAY and GROW with Lyric this summer!

Four Fabulous days at ProChemical and Dye August 16-19th, 2012

Fall River MA

playing with paint at the VCQ

Are you are intrigued by the art of surface design but can’t choose which technique you most want to learn? Surface Design Sampler Platter is the perfect place to try a taste each! Play with paint, foil, photos and embellishments to create your own gorgeous fabrics. You will delve deeply into printing with screens, stencils, and with stamps you have carved yourself. Come be delighted by different applications of foil and  you will learn several methods of photo-transfer. Time will also be spent learning how to embellish your work with beads and as an added bonus, Lyric will teach the basic elements and principles of good design. With  good humored and gentle guidance you will work on your own textile art composition using the beautiful fabrics you have created

You can get more info and sign up here!

For Your Inspiration: Seattle, WA

I spent an absolutely lovely few days with the Block Party Quilters in Seattle last week.

The Kindness Chronicles

"Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others, cannot keep it from themselves."

James M. Barrie

If you haven't discovered the TED talks yet - you are in for a treat. Here's one that I enjoyed this month.

A researcher named Michael Norton found that money can by happiness - but only if you don't spend it on yourself.

http://tinyurl.com/78wac5g

The 101 Happy People Project

A young man is gifted anonymously with $100 and chooses to spend it on 100 gifts for others.

The 101th person is himself - it makes him happy to find little ways to help others.

http://101happypeopleproject.blogspot.com/

My friend Lindy Rex battled cancer for 11 years before passing away last week.

She made jewelry and gave it away to patients whenever she went in for treatments. She'd have sales and donate the money for cancer care and research. She loved to teach anyone who stopped by how to create their own beautiful jewelry. She helped me finish a two foot high stack of samples for my book when I was going crazy under a tight deadline. She made a quilt for a retiring school teacher. She always thought of others - and acted on those thoughts.

She brought light and love into this world and I'm sure she is still doing so in the next world.  We will miss her terribly here. I want to carry on her good works. I want to be as unselfish and giving as she was.