I'm back and #MakingfaceswithMelissa

I unexpectedly took a long break from blogging due to a family illness and death.  The love of my life became ill in the autumn and subsequently passed from this life in late December.  I decided that I needed to mourn privately and not write about it publicly for a variety of reasons.  I am grateful to my family, close friends, quilting buddies and customers who have supported me through this process.  The process isn't by any means over, but I am in a better place than I was a few months back.

This past Friday and Saturday I was fortunate enough to have been able to attend a lecture and participate in a #MakingFaceswithMelissa workshop along with my lovely sister in law Peggy.
Peg came to visit on Thursday and we had a bonus event that evening with the Brownstone guild to hear the fabulous Paula Nadlestern talk about her Kaliedoscopic quilts.  The slide show and process she uses were well worth the price of admission.  She is pretty entertaining as well.

However, the highlight of our weekend, was the Melissa Averinos workshop and lecture.  This talented artist was able to openly discuss her life and her process for making various quilts featuring faces.  I, for one have never been able to draw a face.  Eyes, maybe but never a good face.

Her slide show and lecture review how she came to where she finds herself today as an artist and a quilter.  It's very apparent that her life has been far from perfect, but she is so talented and funny it was a pleasure to sit and listen to her talk about it.

Saturday's workshop was the best workshop I have ever attended in my life.  That is saying alot because I have been to so many over the years, that I rarely take them these days.  We went through the process of learning how to draw a face and then convert that into a fabric image.  That's oversimplified of course, but I was so amazed that a roomful of 21+ quilters would all be able to follow and make these wonderful facial images in fabric.  Even more surprising to me was that almost all of them were self portraits.  I guess that makes sense, because we see our own faces multiple times a day in the mirror.

Here are four of the images that Peggy and I created.  Mine are on the left and hers on the right.

I believe everyone had a wonderful time as evidenced by the online feedback and the huge smiles on everyone's faces in the group photo below.

You can also see many of the wonderful pieces that were created under the guidance of Melissa Averinos.  I love my NJMQG and want to thank them for hitting a grand slam home run with this workshop and program.  

If your guild is looking for a phenomenal workshop that is different than most being taught out there, be sure to check out Melissa Averinos.  I guarantee you will not be disappointed and everyone will be able to draw a face even if they aren't able to before class.  

Special thanks to Melissa Averinos for being such an inspiration and a good hugger!

#NJMQG  

#MelissaAverinos

#MakingfaceswithMelissa