Stitched DC in the Anacostia Arts Center

The DC Modern Quilt Guild partnered up and  hosted a fantastic event Stitched DC at the Anacostia Arts Center .   The show will be at the gallery until March 29, 2014 and the cost is unbeatable...it is FREE!  If you get the chance, go check this gallery out, they have other events and wonderful shops ( Katy found a sweet necklace at the vintage shop).

Today there were lectures from two ROCK STARS in the quilting world...

Laura Gunn , an incredibly talented artist and designer for Michael Miller Fabrics and possibly the ONLY person in the universe that talks faster and is more animated than me, LOL!  She is a STUNNER to boot!

The other speaker is one of my dearest loves, Katie Clark Blakesley!   Katie co-authored Vintage Quilt Revival with Faith Jones and Lee Heinrich .  Katie has an awesome blog Swim Bike Quilt and runs the charity drive 100 Quilts for Kids every year.

Katie spoke about her book and showed many quilts from the book, the traditional blocks they had originated from and how she, Faith and Lee, were able to give them a more modern look. Color, placement and size were all factors in these changes that made the quilts look so completely different.  Something that Katie has said many times ( even to me personally since I tend to be a wee bit obsessive) is there is no wrong.  In seeing the differences in the original and the innovated blocks, she is absolutely correct!  There is beauty in each!

After Katie there was a break, so I grabbed the kids and took photos of some quilts!  If anyone in the DCMQG can please email me with the artists names for these, I would appreciate it.  I thought I had gotten the pics of the cards and cannot find them :(

Then the kids decided they wanted to stay and read/play in the lobby and they are usually very well behaved, so I let them.  Doesn't Katy look thrilled ;o)

Laura Gunn was up next and WOW...this may be the only shot I was able to get that she was  still enough for a nano second!  I will be deleting all of those that may have the appearance of drunken slur face and flailing arms!

Color is Relative!  I wish I lived closer to Laura ( and Katie for that matter), she has the best grasp on color!  I am not an artist but when it comes to color, I know what I love, I know what I hate and there is a whole lot of room for in between and it can change tomorrow or in the next hour.

Laura talked about how color works to brighten, soften, dull or POP other colors. She shared this video video based on the teachings of Josef Albers. AMAZING!

Color Is Relative from Richard (Dick) Nelson on Vimeo.

I did some further reading about Joseph Albers and found this quote on Brainpickings.org
"Albers was not interested in creating a treatise on color. He was not giving you rules about color — he was giving you tools to unlock what he considered the magic of color."

I cannot find more perfect words, COLOR is MAGIC!  


We then played a fun game, that I SUCKED at because it takes me FOREVER to do anything when choosing the "right" color.

Then after it was in the lobby time

Where I saw the most FAB basket backpack on a gentleman that let me HOLD it and look inside...it was really awesome and the craftsmanship was breathtaking!

There were two shops set up in the lobby offering lovely fabric.  One was Finch Sewing Studio.  Nicole has a great variety of patterns and fabrics and there she is busy at the cutting station!

Bright Art Gallery Fabrics ready for Spring!

Bits of this and that along with patterns

and I dragged her to grab a selfie with me and she was super sweet to say yes :o)  I will be visiting her shop soon to look at patterns for Katy.

I was so lucky to spend today with these creative women that inspire me to look beyond my norm and to start pushing limits I did not know I even have.  These are friends!

The final event was Ikea for cake.  All in all a brilliant day!

SHARE: