Tammy Gilley Studios

New Classes in October

Well, I'm not sure how it happened, but I've got a full dance card this fall.  I'm teaching around the Pacific Northwest, and online, too.  Fun! 

Conversation Hearts is first on the docket at joggles.com in September.  What I love about my Joggles classes is that we can all be in our jammies, and no one is the wiser.  :)  Who doesn't love a little stitching and sewing, whilst wearing fuzzy pink slippers and sipping a little somethinsomethin.

This is a fun class, focused on stitching and embellishing techniques for art quilting.  All wrapped up into a fun heart-shaped wallhanging.  It starts September 16th.

Then beginning October 2nd, I'll be teaching my Whimsical Garden quilt class at Fibers In Motion in Multnomah Village.  I taught this last spring, and it was so much fun.  But the students and I mutually decided it needed to be a two-day class.  So, by popular demand, it's back, and we'll spend two full days together.  How much fun will that be?!  

 

I love this class because we get to do some really fun design-y things.  Of course, I have templates for my blocks, and students use those.  But they also might choose to use just one or two of the blocks, or a flower from this block, a bird from that block, and incorporate a sketch of their own, that we get to interpret into an applique template. 

We do a little color theory.  We learn how to make wonky pieced blocks based on traditional quilt blocks.  It's just a whole lot of quiltie goodness and fun.

In mid-October, I pack up the pod and head to Friday Harbor, Washington to teach Treasure Nests.  Okay, really?  Teaching in the San Juans?!  Who's going with me?!!!  I occasionally have to pinch myself.

Wild at Heart Studios is introducing their first series of classes this fall.  I'm honored and thrilled and excited to be one of their first instructors.  My weekend workshop is October 23-24.  Classes are held Earthbox, which looks absolutely fab!  Lodging is available there, too.  I simply canNOT wait!!!

And Treasure Nests is one of my favorite projects.  These baskets are much fun to put together, and they make handy little vessels for storing goodies in my studio.  I've given them as gifts, too, and people just love them.  

Winding up the schedule in November is my On Pins and Needles class at Joggles. 

These felt pincushions and needle books nifty to have in your sewing room, and also make great gifts for your favorite sewing divas.  I love these little projects because they go together so easily...I have them categorized in my "Instant Gratification" file of projects.  :)

So.  There you have it.  A jam-packed schedule of crafty fun.  And just in time for making holiday gifts!  How about that?!  I hope you'll consider joining me in person or online for some stitching, conversation, and laughs.  I'd love to spend a little time with you this fall. 

Early Morning Stitching

I love early morning for a little stitchery.  Hot coffee.  Cozy quilt on my lap, sitting in my favorite chair, white, furry dog at my feet.  Something pretty and colorful to stitch in my hands.  Mmm...bliss.

 

It feels like I'm up before the rest of the world, the early morning sounds of distant sprinklers, tiny birds, my tea kettle whistling.  I love this time of the day.  The little block of time that feels truly my own.  Quiet.  As I'm stitching, ideas for new projects often bubble up, which get jotted down into the little notebook in my basket next to my chair.  Some mornings, each stitch is placed with a quiet meditation: I am a creative soul.  This is joyful work.  I am happy.

Some mornings I listen.  The answers are out there, and in the stillness of early morning, it's easy to hear them.  Could this be my life's work?  Am I on the right path?

But, always, early mornings are about the stitching.  And the colors.  And the quiet alone-ness of reacquainting my-self with my soul.

  

Quietly Stitching

This is a little piece I'm working on right now.  Lots of layers and texture and, of course, colors.

 

I've been doing quite a lot of stitching, lately.  Just not a lot of talking here on my blog.  Lazy summer days.  Do a little stitching.  Have a little nap.  Stitch a little more.  Have an orange popsicle.  It's just too nice to be inside on the computer.  Must be out in the garden stitching and napping.

I did go inside for a bit of practice on my free-motion sewing.  (I need lots more.)

At our last PMQG meeting, we got to try our hand at it.  This is my practice swatch.  It's really raw-ther sad-looking.  Things started out a little shaky, but in the end, I sort of got the feel for it, and actually had some...

I really do need some more practice.  But, at least now I don't fear my free-motion foot.  She and I have had a very distant and cool relationship.  We're becoming friends now.  I'm hoping we'll create some wonderful things together soon.

In the meantime, I'm back in my comfort zone.  Playing with fabric.  Adding ribbons.

Doing a little applique.

And even doing a little painting on raw canvas, adding a few rubber-stamped letters.

The idea of milagros has been on my mind a bunch lately, and I'm playing around with some new ideas.  I like the idea of integrating affirmations and creating some intention with my work.  I recently finished reading Eat, Pray, Love (I KNOW!  Been on my bookshelf for years, and I figured I better read it before I saw the movie.)  Throughout the book, thoughts and questions bubbled up for me about my own spirituality, and how I can bring that into my daily world and into my creative work.  It's a process, but I like where it's taking me.

Boldness.

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.  Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.  Goethe.

Not-Quite-So-Naughty-Bee and Some Creative Mo-jo-ing.

 
I can't remember how much I told you about this bee I'm participating in.  It's my first.  There are 15 participants, I believe.  Each of us claimed one month out of the next 15 as ours.  (Mine is sometime next year.)  When it's your month, you cut up strips, squares, whatevers, of fabric and send it to the list of 14 other participants along with instructions, links to tutorials and photos, whatever you think will help your peeps make your blocks.

 
We have a Flickr group, so we post photos of our blocks, inspiration photos.  And we talk about our blocks and our eventual quilts and basically have a very jolly time.

 
As you might remember, I'm a titch behind.  Harumph.  These are my July blocks, which were wonderfully fun to make, albeit late.  Susan was very free-spirited about her block design...basically, she wanted wonky squares-in-squares, which is sooooooo my thing. 

Creatively speaking, I'm trying lots of new things this summer.  I just wasn't feeling my creative groove earlier in the spring.  Couldn't get things finished.  Wasn't feeling the artsyfartsylove.  It was raining way too much.  Whatever the source, my muse and I just were not in sync.  Recently, I was talking to a brilliant artist friend of mine, and she said a lot of artists she'd talked to were feeling the same thing.  She went on to say (and this is why I love her so much) that she thinks "the universe just opened up a portal of some kind and new earth energies are coming through, forcing us to find the areas we should be focusing on.  It's all good, of course.  We all need to take a break and look at things differently sometimes."  (She's groovy like that.  I could sit and listen to her all day.  I think she might be my artistic-creativity-guru.)

And, I think she's on to something, because my creative juju is uber-juiced-up, and I have more ideas than I have time to bring out of the sketchbook and make real.  And, that is not a complaint...I'm really excited about this stuff.  It's like someone slipped me a creative micky, I drank all the right kool-aid, or something.  Life is pretty.  I feel creative.  La-la-la.

I'm just doing stuff.  I'm not worrying about the outcome, or how it's going, or what's going to happen to it.  I'm just do-ing.the.thing.  (Don't you love those Home Depot ads: "let's open up a big can of do-ing..."  LOVE THAT!)  Anyhoo.  I'm do-ing.  Paint-ing.  Draw-ing.  Stitch-ing.  All together.  Lots of layers.  Tons of fun!  And enjoying the journey, rather than focusing on the destination.  What a gift.  What a RELIEF.  What fun!  And so free-ing!  I feel like I've been given an unlimited hall pass to the universe, with a note from my teacher that says, "be brave, be creative, take risks, who cares."  And guess what.  I. Love. This. Mode.

Love it.

I think it's opened up an entirely new creative vein for me, and I think I'm bleeding in technicolor (of course).  

As an added bonus, My Beloved is taking off for the weekend with my brother and another friend.  They are headed to the Olympic Peninsula on their Harleys for three days.  I said, "Have a great time and be careful, Honey!", then ran immediately to collage and Trader Joe's for supplies (of the art and chocolate persuasion).  

I'm calling this my do-it-yourself-art-retreat-and-spa-weekend.  I plan to create, play music, cook yummy thing, and give myself a badly-needed pedicure.  CanNOT WAIT!!  So...until tomorrow, my friends...so long, I'm off to purchase rations. 

Naughty Bee

I've joined my first online quilting bee, The Fresh Modern Bee, which I'm so, so excited about.  However, I've been about as bad a beekeeper as I have been a blogger.  I just finished my June blocks!!  It's AUGUST!!  Ack!

But, better late than never.  The June blocks are for Amy's string quilt.  I've never done foundation paper piecing before, but it's really quite satisfying.  (Please note the pile of unattended paper work, conveniently shoved to the side of my workspace.  I'll deal with that later.  I have July blocks to do next!)

Anyway, paper piecing.  Fun.  Loved it.  And these little blocks (8 of them) went together very quickly.  

Don't you love her fabric choices and palette?
 

Once the eight blocks of strips were done, we were to sew four of them together into one block, like this.  She provided 1" strips of Kona Cottons in stone to set in the middle of the block.  When the four blocks go together, they make this nice little on point square. 

I think it looks like a garden path.

So enamoured was I by this process, that I've decided I NEED a string quilt of my own.  (Thanks Amy!)  After packaging up Amy's blocks and some other goodies (good sucking-up gifties for being so tardy), I sat down at my workspace, continued to ignore the pile of stuff, and started marking my own blocks.  Fun!  

Now, it's off to whip up the July blocks.  With any luck, I'll get caught up in August.  :)
  

Well. Hello There.

Seriously?  It's been how many weeks since a truly wordy post?!  Quelle domage!

What can I say?  It's summertime.  We've been out and about.  Enjoying the sunshine when it has decided to make an appearance.  Driving with the top down.  Reading good books.

 

And, I've been working on some projects that I can't really talk about yet.  Aaaannnd, because I work part-time managing a gallery downtown, what little studio time I've had has been spent working on these projects, so I have had absolutely nothing new to show you.  (Fortunately, I am finishing up the last of the secret projects for awhile, so I can start just playing in the studio, which is really my favorite thing to do.  Of course, you'll be the first to know when said secret projects can come out of the proverbial closet.)

In the meantime, here's a little quilt I've been working on.  It's made from Jennifer's So St. Croix fabrics, which I love, love, love.  I'm working up a free pattern for this one, so stay tuned.  It goes together in a jiffy, and the quilting technique is what I call "primitive stitching", because it's very big stitches, with embroidery floss. 

 

The quilt was inspired by these antique sari cubes from Sundance catalog.  I absolutely fell in love with them when I saw them!  And when Jen's fabric arrived last spring, I knew exactly what to do with it.  What do you think?

 

I am forever cutting and pasting, pulling pages out of catalogs and magazines, then adding them to my inspiration books.  Do you do that?  I love having a visual potpourri of pages and ideas to get the creative juju going.

 

Sometimes it's the colors in a photo I'm drawn to, sometimes it's the product itself, sometimes it's elements the product is made up of that catches my eye, as in the sari cubes.  I saw them, and thought, "that would make a fantastic quilt!" 

 

Sometimes (many times) I can't put my finger on what I love about a photograph, I just love it.  So, out of the magazine it comes, and into my inspiration book it goes, safely tucked away for future dream sessions.  I'm so, so, SO excited about having a little bit of time in the next several weeks to work on some of those dreamy ideas.  Fun!

Let's Make Something Together

 

So...I've got some fun classes coming up.  Thought I'd share.  In the hopes you'll come play with me.

Treasure Nests is truly one of my favorite classes.  It's such a fun project.  And I love seeing what everyone comes up with.  Each nest is truly unique to it's creator.  So. Totally. Fun.

This class just keeps on going and going and going.  I get requests for it often, which, of course, I love.  I've got it scheduled twice in the next few months, so you've got options.  And they couldn't be more different. 

I'm teaching Treasure Nests online at Joggles in July. 

And "live and in person from San Juan Island" at a Wild Heart retreat in October. 

I hope one of those venues appeals to you.  It would be so fun to get to know you better.

 

And, as promised, we've scheduled an encore of my Whimsical Garden quilt class at Fibers in Motion in October. 

So. Excited!   
  

Math. Problems.

Me + Color = Good.  Great, in fact.  Love color.  Love playing with palettes.  Love, love, love.  But, you already know this about me.

 

If I could be locked in a room for a day with nothing but a bunch of markers and a pile of paper, or a basket of fabric and a needle and thread, a box of chocolates, and an unlimited supply of diet Dr. Pepper, I'd be a happy, happy girl.  You probably suspected as much.

 

I love having one piece of fabric that I adore, and adding other bits to it to come up with a beautiful quilt.  I am blissful when auditioning fabrics, trying out color combinations, and sketching blocks with my No. 2 pencil on tablets of gridded paper.  I bought this Kaffe fabric a couple of summers ago (the blue sky with red and orange sunny-flowers).  And I've been craving a little pinwheel-whirlygig motif for a quilt.  I raided the stash for some go-withs, and this little quilt top blew in.  The pinwheels were really fun to whip together.  When I had the blocks all arranged and stitched in pretty little rows,  I decided I wanted to finish it off with a foxy, boxy little border.  Because that's how I do things.  I make it up as I go along.  I fly by the seat of my pants.  I cut and stitch and hope for the foxy-boxy best.  However...

  

Me + Math = Not-so-Good. 

Ack!  Look at that little snip-snip-part-of-a-foxy-box.  Rats!  I hate when that happens.  I know there are lots of you out there who love the giant QUILTINGMATHPROBLEM.   You love figuring out how a quilt will go mathematically together.  I envy you.  I never liked math.  My mom had to draaaaaaaaaagggggggggg me to the dining room table to do my math homework.  She had to bribe me with chocolate and treats to flash multiplication flash cards at me the night prior to a timestabletest.  And when it came time to learn how to balance a checkbook?  Fuggedaboudit!  My constant refrain: "When will I eeeeevvvvveeeeeeerrrrrrrr really need to know all this in real life?"  Uh huh.  When you're making a foxy-boxy-quilt-border, that's when!  (Wherever she is now, Mom is laughing her a** off, and I can hear her saying, "see what I mean?" between giggles.)  So.  The future of this little quilt?  I'm taking it to a new quilter on Monday, because it's perfect enough for me.  However, I'm thinking I might give it another whirl (haha) and actually DO THE MATH because this would be a pretty fun pattern, n'est-ce pas?  Stay tuned. 

 
  
 

I Went to a (whimsical) Garden Party...

 
Yesterday was my Whimsical Garden class at Fibers in Motion.  Me-oh-my, what fun we had!!  We laughed, we stitched, we laughed.  If everyone else had half the fun that I did, they left happy at the end of the day.

Here we are, getting settled and ready to get crack-a-lackin' on our quilts.

Here's Carol.  She's traced my template for one of the blocks, and is interpreting it with her own palette into a block of her own.  Loving it!

Elizabeth is working on the Ginormous Tulip block, and I LOVE her fabric choices!!  You can see my original sketch there on the left...it started out with a bunch of little dots for buds, but I think this was one of my last applique blocks and I was ooooooooovvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrr dots, so I subbed in lollipop flowers.  Elizabeth did the same eventually.

Oh, and here, Elizabeth has added in her "grassy knoll".  Too fun!  I wish I could relate to you, dear readers, how much I love teaching.  I. Ad. Ore. It!  If I could spend every day of my life teaching a class or taking a class from someone else, I would be a happy, happy girl.

No.  I did not rub the camera lense with Vaseline for dramatic effect.  I simply don't know how to focus my camera.  So sorry, too, because I wish you could see better the large and lovely heart that Pat is machine-appliqueing onto her block.  Fab.

Here's Sandy, auditioning fabrics for the road in her block.  Sandy and Pat, both such clever girls, really came to class to learn applique, not necessarily to create Whimsical Garden.  I was tickled pink that they chose me to help them add some new skills to their quilting repertoire. 

 

Okay, this is Nancy's felted-flower-wrist-corsage-pin-cushion.  Dar. Ling.

I had to shoot two angles, because it is so fun!

There's Nancy-all-a-blur.  A whirling, whimsical dervish, all her very own self. 

 
What fun!  Sadly, we really didn't have enough time.  Everyone decided this needed to be a two-day class.  LuAnn concurred, so we're going to offer it again in the fall.  Stay tuned, I'll have dates confirmed soon.