Velkommen til en Fargerike dag

Fargerike Florø

The annual Vestlandstreff was this last weekend and I left for Florø on Friday, taking my first small-plane-flight ever. It was, as always, lots of fun catching up with old friends and making new ones. There was exhibitions and dinners and raffles and lots of colour and laughter.

I taught two classes, the first being the colour theory class Fargerike. The class preparation is a lot of work, but it’s all worth it. During a few hours we go from this

to this, working our way through different ways of putting colours together. No sewing, just fusing pieces together until the tables are empty.

Colour theory is rather heavy stuff with lots of terms, so I aim for making it less about theory and more about how to use it.

 

(My sample there on the wall)

After making colour wheels and putting 60 blocks together, we dived into this

practicing what we had learned through some exercises using the students favourite colours, and least favourite colour.

There were lots of laughter around the table and quite a few aha-moments as someone realized they actually loved their least favourites looking at them in a new way. Who said you cannot do serious learning in a playful way.

We finished our time together clearing all the colour off the table and talking about different ways of using the blocks, and how they could be quilted. A very nice way to wind down indeed. 

Thank you ladies, for being such great students, and have fun playing with colours!

Fargerike class

So yesterday was a fabulously colourful day in my neck of the woods. The morning was wet and grey when we started on our test drive of the colour theory class, Fargerike. For those of you who are not speaking Norwegian, fargerike has two meanings – colourful and colour kingdom, both appropriate for this class. Seriously, wouldn’t you too just want to dive right in here?

We were starting out in a quite orderly manner with each colour numbered and in the right place. There was some serious prepwork on my behalf putting all of these together.

The kits looked great spread out against the black tables and had to be photographed properly.

A few hours and 10 exercises later the students all had a working colour wheel and 60 glorious blocks.

Then I emptied my bag with scraps from cutting circles and the students practised putting colours together according to what they’d learned in class.

We used half an hour or so at end of the day to play with the blocks, trying out different layouts and discussing quilting options.

Even our classroom was appropriately decorated for a colour class. Isn’t this wall just awesome!

Choosing colours is personal, we all have different tastes, but there is always something to learn from working with a colour wheel. Knowing a few different ways to put colour together, and seeing how colours interact and change each other, are valuable tools in any quilter’s belt. It was a very informative day, not only for my students but also for yours truly getting constructive feedback regarding the class. Putting together a curriculum which is both challenging but not too challenging and at just the right amount of time is a challenge itself, so getting to do a test drive of a class that I have been planning in my head for months is invaluable.

A big thank you to my colourful students, may your days and quilts be filled with colour!