by Sandra Bruce
A couple of days ago all 4 of us AA-ers were fortunate to be together taking a workshop by Judy Coats-Perez. My head is still reeling with all the fabulous techniques we learned and spending the day with Judy.
But first, Judy came to the Pine Tree Quilt Guild the night before to give us her very interesting presentation. She had a few of her quilts hanging, which I photographed with my phone, not doing them justice! I encourage you to look her up and view then online. Here is my favorite, “Primordial Sea”. I love the sea creatures and flora of the ocean! It is painted on silk and very expertly quilted. Here’s a photo and closeup:
Wow! And here’s another one, “Moon Garden”, which I remember seeing at PIQF a few years ago. It is black paint on white fabric, with some doosey quilting, which shows up on the back almost like another quilt altogether.
Yowza! We knew after her presentation that we were in for a fun-filled and informative day, and we were not disappointed.
Next morning, we 4 shared a table and our supplies with each other. I started out with this simple piece of fabric.
The first technique was Thermofax images screened onto the fabric with fabric-friendly paint. Then, images either hand-drawn or copied from a printer onto tea-bag paper….yes, you read correctly! 
The collage-ish part started here. Finding what Judy calls “ephemera”, bits of paper to add in, using all kinds of paper including cocktail napkins, ticket stubs, pattern paper, to name a few.
Here’s Judy doing a demo on how to paint on top of the teabag images, that have been affixed to the fabric with medium.
Here’s my finished piece, ready for quilting, can’t wait!
Here’s Christine, working on her piece.
Heidi, photographing hers.
Mary, with her finished piece, she’s happy! I think I need to give her my “paint splatter” rubber stamp!
Here’s 2 of Judy’s pieces. Love them! The second one was made from pieces she cut out of samples from classes, that she assembled, stitched together, and painted over again, with the bird image.
At the end of the day we laid them out on the floor to look at each other’s work. Every one was different and filled with wonderful images and such a variety of creative ideas. Happy day for us, indeed!
Hard to believe it’s June already…….the spaces for Zephyr signups are filling up! Please consider coming to take a workshop from one of us, we guarantee a very creative-filled week with others who will inspire you. It is one of the highlights of my year. I have 2 spots left, and will be teaching polymer next year so now is the time for a Matrix experience. I would be truly happy for you to sign up for any of the workshops….Mary’s, Heidi’s, Christine’s, or mine. Check out the workshop descriptions in this blog for more info! Whether you are interested in color, wearable art, fabric manipulation/painting or my Matrix technique, there is something for you. We also welcome Independent Study ladies who want to work on their own projects in a beautiful, peaceful location with other like-minded sewists and artists.
For now, I’m signing off, time to work on my latest Matrix quilt. I hope you enjoyed looking at Judy’s work and our endeavors in her workshop.
gorgeous! thanks for sharing – k.
On Fri, Jun 10, 2016 at 10:27 AM, artisticalchemyblog wrote:
> artisticalchemy3 posted: “by Sandra Bruce A couple of days ago all 4 of us > AA-ers were fortunate to be together taking a workshop by Judy Coats-Perez. > My head is still reeling with all the fabulous techniques we learned and > spending the day with Judy. But first, Judy came to” >
🙂
Interesting techniques. Her work is fabulous. I like your work. We had Joe Cunningham here last Month and had lots fun. He is a hoot and his class was very freeing.
Hi, Betty! Thanks! Yes, I want to meet Joe one day, I hope we cross paths.
Amazing stuff….and that’s putting it mildly.
Hi Raedean! 🙂 Thanks!