Inspiring Lecture from Roxane Lessa

Photo from Roxane Lessa’s blog

After our fun trip to AQS Charlotte this summer, I realized I’ve really got to get around a big group of quilters more often so yesterday I attended a Charlotte Quilt Guild meeting as a guest.

Lucky for me, the presenter was the awesome Roxane Lessa – a fine textile artist and art quilting coach. Roxane shared a terrific lecture on “What art quilter’s need to know before they sew” and explained how to get started making art quilts, what to keep in mind as you design, and how to actually get started if you’re feeling stuck.

Personally I’ve been feeling stuck on working small and fast. I tend instead to work very big and S…L…O…W, which is annoying and tedious. I think I do have a speed-demon-free-spirit artist within my body somewhere, but too often she gets squashed by my more dominate tedious-perfectionist-obsessive-compulsive-nit-picker self.

So I was very inspired by Roxane’s pictures of small student quilts and the progress learning and exploring ideas in color value and contrast. Most of these quilts were page size or smaller and when I asked, Roxane said she often starts quilters with ATCs – Artist Trading Cards.

Well what would you know! I’ve had a little pack of ATC precut paper sheets for years but never used them. Every time I thought about using them before I would get really stuck. What if I waste these little cards with ugly art? What if I ruin them all?

Yep, that’s my usual mental refrain. Don’t risk having fun and throwing something together. It might not turn out that good. I need to stop thinking like this!

So this morning I just shrugged my shoulders, pulled out a sheet, and started drawing. Yeah, I might ruin this stupid little card, but IT IS JUST PAPER LEAH! Making art is a risk, but it’s not nearly as dangerous as feeling stuck or hesitant all the time.

So I doodled and played and made a card I’m pretty happy with:

I plan to add more color and maybe some decorative thread. Once I actually started drawing, the decisions came easily and I stopped feeling so scared of the blank page.

So super thank you to Roxanne for your inspiring lecture and awesome art quilts! It was a pleasure to hear and even more fun to come home and put your advice into practice. Definitely go check out Roxanne Lessa’s blog right here!

Let’s go quilt,

Leah Day