zenAgain Conference

zenAgain Conference

Newport, RI

November 13 - 16, 2016

Spending several days with other Certified Zentangle Teachers (CZT's) is a good way to re-energize. Maria Thomas and Rick Roberts, founders of the Zentangle Method, and their staff put on a first class event. We drew tangles, learned some new tangles - Noom (named after the Super Moon which occurred while we were in Newport), Waybop, Drawings (pronounced like Draw Wings), and Icanthis (I can this).

It was fun to sit with different CZT's for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Always fun to share different things we are doing, different groups we are teaching for, and different ways we are using Zentangle Art.

I'll let my photos tell the story....

Arrived at the Providence, RI, Airport, took a shuttle to Newport

View from my room at the Hyatt Regency Newport

The Marina was on the other side of the road into the Hyatt

The Hyatt sits on Goat Island -  there used to be goats there

Hyatt Regency Newport on Goat Island

The Conference started with the new 3Z tiles - equilateral triangles

Used the new tangle, Noom, on the 3Z tiles

Mosaic using the 3Z Tiles

Molly Hollibough introduced all of the Zentangle Staff

When the music played, we stood up - something new was coming

Mosaic from Molly's Meditation class

Tangles on marble tiles

The new Color Wheel of Tangles

Loved the tangled art inserted into this old frame

Tangled Art by Maria Thomas

Dinner with Bonnie Browning, Margaret Bremner, Chris Letourneau

Photos in the CZT Gallery

My quilt, book (Zentangle Art To Go), jewelry, and foiled cards... and more

Zentangle Art by Margaret Bremner

More in the CZT Gallery

More Zentangle Art by Maria & Rick

Tangles on a denim jacket

CZT Gallery artwork

And more from the CZT Gallery

Using an iPad for document camera

Wednesday afternoon, some of us went to the Newport Art Museum

Caroline, Suzanne, Bonnie, Leslie, Sandhya, Izumi in the Art Museum

The theme for the week was "Just Wing It" and I earned my wings!

zenAgain - Tour of Newport, RI

zenAgain Conference

Newport, RI

November 13 - 16, 2016

I enjoyed attending the zenAgain Conference in Rhode Island this week, and especially enjoyed sharing my room with Suzanne McNeill (former owner of Design Originals and author of hundreds of books on Zentangle art and publisher of books on many other crafts). We stayed at the Hyatt Regency on Goat Island in Newport Bay - a beautiful site for an event.

We started with a tour of Newport on Sunday morning. I'll let my photos tell most of the story.
After our tour of The Breakers, we hopped off the trolley downtown and enjoyed a tasty Lobster Roll for lunch.

 I'll do another blog with more photos from the conference.

We filled two trolleys to tour Newport and The Breakers

The Bay was beautiful as we drove to The Breakers

Opulence is the word I would use to describe The Breakers

Check out the fireplaces and gold everywhere

Another huge fireplace. This one is marble.

Everywhere you look, you see designs

Check out the designs on this hand-carved marble bathtub.

This design would be good for quilting or tangling.

More designs for borders.

Designs on the ceilings.

Another design on the ceiling.

And this one is on the floor.

I really liked this floral wallpaper.

A detail of the floral wallpaper.

View from the second floor.

UNESCO Creative Cities of Crafts and Folk Art Workshop - Icheon, South Korea

Mary Hammond, Executive Director of the Paducah Visitors Bureau, and I went to a UNESCO Creative Cities of Crafts and Folk Art Workshop in Icheon, South Korea. At the Workshop, the cities shared information about their city and the Crafts/Folk Art for which they received the UNESCO designation.

Here are photos from our trip. Hope you enjoy getting to see some masters plying their crafts. We, of course, shared quilts during our presentation.

Click Here to view photos from the UNESCO Creative Cities Workshop in Icheon, South Korea

Today is Saturday, June 4, and it has been a while since I wrote a blog post. We have completed four AQS QuiltWeek events so far this year - Phoenix, Daytona Beach, Lancaster, and Paducah. And, now we are working on the last four show - Syracuse, Grand Rapids, Chattanooga, and Des Moines. Keeps us hopping!

I also flew to Icheon, South Korea in May with Mary Hammond from the Paducah Visitors Bureau. We attended the UNESCO (United National Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) for the Creative Cities of Folk Art and Crafts Workshop. I'm going to write another blog so I can include photos from that trip.

Since the first of the year I have been busy working on my next book, Zentangle Art To Go. We are finishing the layout of the book now and it should go to the printer next week. Can't wait for you to see some of the fun things I have done with Zentangle designs, both drawn and quilted. Meanwhile here is what the cover looks like... you'll see gold on the cover and wait until you see the gold foiled project inside... yes, that is a teaser.

What a Surprise!
I received a large envelope from Frankfort, Kentucky and in it was a lovely Memoriam Certificate for Wayne from the Kentucky House of Representatives from our State Representative Gerald Watkins.

You can click on it to enlarge.

Another wonderful gesture to show how much Wayne was loved.

Wayne's Quilt

The holidays are over, and I had a great visit with my Mom and sisters in Iowa and Illinois. It was fun to spend a few days with each of them. And weather being what it always is – unpredictable – was just that. Even though the predictions were for decent weather, we had rain, sleet, and snow, all in the same day. They had quite an ice storm in Cambridge, Illinois where my sister Marcia and her husband Don Ekin live. They lost power on Monday morning and didn't get it back until early Wednesday morning - the whole time I was there. Luckily they had installed a whole house generator in their new home so we had all of the comforts of home - lights, heat, hot water, etc.

At Wayne's Celebration of Life, I displayed a quilt that I made for him years ago that had photos of his early childhood years, his first car, our wedding, some Viet Nam photos, celebrating 25 years at Penneys, etc. The photo of our wedding was much talked about - we were really thin 52 years ago when we were married, and my dress was the fashion of the day - lots of lace. In fact, I wore a hoop skirt underneath it. Anita and Dick Shackelford were at the Celebration, and Anita took the quilt home to add some quilting to the frames around each of the photos. Our photographer, Charley Lynch, took a photo of the quilt for me so we can preserve the images on the quilt.

You see, I made this way back before we had printable fabric to print our photos on. I used the old method of using photocopies and Mod Podge to secure the photos to the fabric. I have no idea how long those photos on the fabric will last.

Here is the photo of the whole quilt.

The plaid fabric used in the sashing was a woven plaid from India that had been used for a promotion at the JCPenney store, and I used colors in the plaid to make frames for the photos that were all different sizes. I knew I couldn't match the plaid both vertically and horizontally, so what did I do? I cut the plaid on the bias. Yikes, what was I thinking?! When I basted the layers together, I basted it every four inches in both directions to keep those sashing strips from stretching. That worked! The cornerstones in the sashing in the cotton fabric gave some stability to the sashing too.

Thank you Anita Shackelford for quilting the frames. I had stitched in the ditch along the sashing and again around the photos. We can call this quilt all done now.

And now you can all enjoy this quilt of the life of Wayne Browning too!