The "Luminarium"

 For the last two days, I have been immersed in Ricky Tims' quilt "Luminarium," and my head is spinning!  I came home with so many new ideas.  Some to try.  Some to think about.  Some to recognize as "not me."  The sessions went from 10:30 am to 7 pm on Thursday and from 8:30 am to 5 pm on Friday.  I was glad I took my lunch each day because I needed some time to sit quietly and read, gaze out over Lake Champlain, and basically decompress.  It was intense.

I was glad to drive over with Jane and Gracie and to see Pauline, Joan, and Sarah there.  They will be people to bounce ideas off of in the coming months as we all digest.  Here are a few of his quilts.  He dyes his own fabric, and they are beautiful.

The circles in this quilt were created using some of the special stitches on his machine and a circle making foot.  He uses a lot of piping along his borders which I find very near.  It's hard to see but there are squiggly lines of couching around the circles.  This is made with a "couching foot" - a circle of clear plastic that you run the yarn or thick thread through.

Ricky had a lot of short cuts that he offered as well as suggestions about other tools and products.  Of course, he had a "shopaterium" to go along with the workshop, and we had plenty of time to "graze."  Even though I swore I wasn't going to buy anything, I came home with two yards of hand dyed fabric, two spools of thread, and a DVD about quilting and other finishing techniques.

I love the way the light shines through the squares in this quilt, but what I really took it for was the quilting - free form squares.

And it's hard to tell, but the last photo has wonky borders and very thick machine embroidery stitching around the petals/leaves.

The last two quilts don't have bindings, but rather are finished with facings.  This gives them a clean, sharp look (sorry for the fuzziness - my phone's camera leaves something to be desired).

My quilting mojo is re-energized, but I need to finish a few UFOs before I dip back into the extensive book we received.