(originally posted to ravelry.com)

they’re here! general lecture last night; can’t wait for today’s workshop!! i had been worried as the shop that’s brought him seemed rather clueless about what he’s all about…f’instance they had us buy yards of 20 different shades of one colorway and precut 6 diamonds of each so we’d be “ready”. i bought 40 basic pallette 99 cent fat quarters at joann’s instead and turned those into 6 diamonds, or half of them i did and then asked kf/bm after the lecture. of course, they said no, don’t cut anything yet!! and i felt much better. he said he can’t wait to see how we mix ours with his fabrics and the shopowner piped up “oh, it’s going to be all your fabrics, kaffe, we love them!” to which he replied “then we’ll just pull some others down from the walls and mix things up!” (just as i was leaving bm whispered to me “if you’ve got any fabric at home bring that, too!” alas, i had to confess that i didn’t as i’m really a knitter in mufti.)

the room turned out to be a wedding tent out near the pool with a noisy generator powering the ubiquitous air conditioning; i saw kf sitting out by the pool near it, very still and mild, and somehow i just didn’t feel i could approach him, continuing to think maybe i’d made a big mistake raiding my savings for this weekend at this clueless shop and there he sits so still and seemingly biddable….WRoNG!

so i needn’t have feared, kf was wonderfully commanding and himself. in response to one of the few questions he said he doesn’t really plan what to do next but just flows creatively. whereupon bm couldn’t stand it and mentioned that actually kf’s diary is filled 8 months in advance and he has no cllue; kf admitted what one needs to flow creatively is to have a brandon:)

turns out he’s one of those performers who can (must, probably) turn it on and off like a current and i suppose he was simply in rest mode storing up (if you can imagine kf sitting alone by a pool outside a quilt venue and absolutely no one, including me, approaching him! on reflection, that in itself is pretty commanding, isn’t it.) first thing he did when on was call for the a/c to be turned off (thankfully, as far as i am concered.) but you should have seen the room still, i’m sure they all thought they were about to to die in an unmediated state. and then he just marked time until it did, indeed, go off, and only then then slides started.

so good to hear him ramble over the familiar images. although he seemed to sense part-way through that people were looking bewildered, which i hadn’t noticed, not looking at people (they always seem so to me) but very hard at slides, me. but the main thing i learned by example, i think, is that i, personally, need to be more intellectually aware of the things that are around me, to allow them into my mind as well as my eyes; i know from experience that they go into receptor storage without me knowing anyway, but i can’t really think about them that way, now can i. f’instance: i think of this place as being featureless tasteless corporate targetmart, but kf congratulated tampa on its appreciation of color. i didn’t realize tampa appreciated color; whenever i use any eveybody falls all over like they’ve never before seen such a thing. of course, he probably congratulates everywhere he goes on something, but still. if i had to recommend someplace to go to see something, or even just to dinner, to someone i respect artistically–anyone i’ve known, for instance, or say kf/bm, as an exercise– i wouldn’t be able to do it. i’d probably say the tampa theatre. or the columbia in ybor. lately i stay in my studio and make my own world as compensation/deflection. not that i want to change that part so much but i do need to become a bit more aware, i think. kf was sitting by the pool in the off mode and he was probably looking, not at dreadful social phenomena, but at the colors.

the lecture was wonderful and marred only by a near-total lack of audience participation, which ended things a full hour early. i don’t think there was one person in the audience under 50 and i have no idea what the rest thought–possibly entirely about air conditioning, i don’t know. i then bought some kf fabrics (i had planned to do so to augment the basic pallette fat quarters): six 1/2 yds for about $27, which i thought quite good, and i plan on allowing myself carte blanche (emphasis on the carte) no matter what comes up at today’s workshop. we’re doing the diamond pattern and i don’t want to make a quilt per se, but rather a 30” wide banner (+/- 10 ft?) of sorts for my “classroom” (probably giving the shopowners apoplexy) but i’m so psyched and relieved to find the actual kf i had expcted and more! got my glorious books from the 80s signed last night: 6 hours today, i want every second!!!!

one other thing? it’s so GOOD to hear my home accent again. genuine mid-20thC northern california via shakespeare –there seem to be so few of us left!

(videos of the final crits are on eezeye.)