QuiltCon is a great quilt show, but it is also offers the most amazing courses and lectures. When I was looking at the options, I didn’t want to do any sewing. I just wanted to go to lectures and immerse myself in all the quilts.

Two classes caught my eye– Advanced Quilt Photography with Michelle Bartholomew and Kitty Wilkin and Adobe Quilt Design with Daisy Aschehouge. And, well, they didn’t involve sewing.

Adobe Quilt Design

I had never used Adobe Illustrator. I had a meager understanding of Photoshop, which my daughter had on her computer, and I used Adobe InDesign during a one-month trial (I didn’t renew).

We promptly began at 2 p.m. Pacific Time, thus 5 p.m. Eastern Time, and I felt like it was late in the day. Perhaps that explains my unraveling during this class. The pace was very fast and thankfully my fellow classmates at my table pulled me through it. When you say, “I think I’m going to cry,” quilters dive in to rescue you.

Daisy had nice instructions on each of the things we were doing such as Making Quarter Circle Squares and she had a lot to cover in three hours. But I like to take written notes as I’m going and I couldn’t listen to the next thing and take notes at the same time. By the end of the class we were learning how to estimate yardage for strange/irregular shapes. I patiently listened, hoping it would all make sense in the morning.

A week later, at home, I opened Adobe Illustrator. My chicken scratch made sense enough that I could open and create something new. With Daisy’s written directions, I made a Quarter Circle Square. I played with it until I had a quarter circle with rings in it. My guild is having a design challenge this year and I picked Modern Traditionalism from the bag. I want to use quarter circles in a new way and I want to explore color. I want to use shades of the same color. I gravitate to pink but this time I wanted to use red.

Once I’d made my quarter circle with rings, I copied it three times and tried hard to make all the circle/squares line up, but the gridline background kept showing through. So I added a blue background and misaligned the circle ring blocks.

My lack of precision led to this. I just love it.

Thank you to my classmates and to Daisy.  You were patient beyond what you needed to be.

Advanced Quilt Photography

This class appealed to me because I only use the auto setting on my digital camera, most of the time. I had learned to set the custom white balance when I used a tripod for photographing quilts on the barn in my backyard. I didn’t change any of the  settings when I was taking quilts. It’s a miracle they were as successfull as they were. I used a manual camera for years. I bought this digital one in 2013. I wanted to improve my digital skills.

The class was sufficiently slow for me. I learned so much and they had wonderful outlines to follow. It will take sometime for me to adjust all the settings each time I take a photo. I am very excited to photograph all my work. I’m waiting for an overcast day