Last week I was in Houston for the International Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas. It was my second year at the show, and my first year as a teacher. Needless to say I was very excited to be there and looking forward to meeting all the amazing people who attend.
I was teaching as part of The Silk Experience staff in our dedicated classroom at the show. Maggie Backman has organized a group of classes every year to feature silk oriented projects and lectures. There were many different types of silk related classes offered this year. Basic silk dyeing, garment recycling, silkscreening, ink jet printing, ribbon flowers, shibori dyeing, and needle felting were just a few of the classes available. Japanese quilting star Noriko Endo was a special addition to this year's staff and her students made the most amazing art landscapes using dyed scraps, threads and netting with thread painting. Those classes will be offered next year, so if you missed out this year start planning now!
One of the most amazing things about the people who attend the classes is the incredible range of backgrounds and interests they have. In our Tuesday "Sleeping Beauty: A Silk Pillowcase Extraordinare" class, we had a NASA engineer, journalist, mathematician, artists, nurses, teachers and many more occupations. Obviously all had an interest in quilting, but their choice of expression through quilting art also varied a great deal, from traditional patchwork to wearable art.
The number of classes offered on any given day at the Festival is quite staggering; they take up an entire floor and in this location, that's a lot! If you have never attended the show, my first piece of advice is to wear very comfortable shoes and to start 'training' for the show by taking walks around your neighborhood. The George C. Brown Convention Center is easily one of the biggest buildings I've ever been inside and just covering the sales floor, let alone the quilt exhibits, classrooms, food court, etc. is quite a hike.
Another fun offering that I had the chance to participate in were the Samplers. One was a traditional "Sampler" and the other was a "Mixed Media Miscellany". In either case, teachers of various disciplines are stationed around the room giving more or less informal demonstrations of various skills, techniques and/or projects. This is a great opportunity to check out new teachers and get an idea of what classes you might want to take the following year. As a teacher, it's a great way to see what levels of interest there may be in something you're interested in teaching.
My specialty at this show was teaching needle felting using non-woolen materials to create designer
'fabrics'. In this case, my students were using silk roving and fabrics and needle felting them into a silk noil base to create a freeform design. They also used silk batting behind to give their piece extra dimension and texture. It was so much fun, and every project was so different! I really look forward to sharing this process again. One of the students commented on her evaluation sheet that she was planning to use the techniques she learned for her art quilts. I hope I get to see the results! I was so busy with my students that I forgot to take photos - I did manage to take photos of a few in progress during a break...
Another work in progress. The photos really can't do them justice.
Hi Katrina!
It was great to meet you in Houston and nice to read about your class. You are right about the shoes and training.....it was about a mile from my classroom to my booth!!
Still getting things back in order here and hope to get a [ost and some photos up this weekend.
Posted by: glennis | November 07, 2008 at 02:11 AM