Owl-Create Playshops: Finding Your Center with Jen Strauser

This month at Owl-Create we invite you to Find Your Center with long-time Owlly, one of our founding community members, The Dizzy Quilter, Jen Strauser. While you can bet Jen will be stitching her way to Find her Center, stitching is not required for this playshop.

Learn how Jen uses the practice of stitching mini landscapes as a mode of reflection, of remembering, and feel empowered to make it your own through whatever medium whispers in your ear. This is a playshop for your own creative re sourcing. You get to listen inward to give form to a landscape in process. To let the inner atmosphere be witnessed through the motion of mark making through your desired medium. The project goal is to create a small landscape piece.

Creative Re Sourcing is about listening for your creative impulses and knowings, so that you can respond to the world around you with a feeling of trust and security. You may know what practices and tools support you in connecting with that centered creative power, or you might be thinking, "that would be amazing, but I have no idea where to start." You might even be questioning your capacity for committing to such an idea. If so, then the antidote is PLAY!

That's why Owl-Create hosts playshops that introduce various tools that our creative collaborators use in our own practices and creative recovery. Each playshop offers a practice and a tool that we'll explore in the sandbox together.

No experience is needed.

A replay will be provided to all ticket holders.

Learn more about the organizer.

Meet Our Guest Facilitator -

Jen Strauser is a quilter and teacher. She splits her time between New Jersey and Florida with her two dachshunds, Oscar and CJ, and her family.

The quilting bug bit her in 1999, when she started watching Simply Quilts with Alex Anderson. Much like the show, she explored a variety of techniques. She loves everything about quilting; the feel of the fabric, watching the little pieces turn into beautiful quilts, but most of all, she loves the texture.

Creating scrappy designs and using up stash are two of her favorite parts of quilting. She is always amazed when she can pull a whole quilt out of the scrap bins and not make a dent in the stash.

Her quilting has won awards at the local and national level. Several magazines have featured her work, and she has students from all around the world.

Recently Jen has fallen in love with Kawandi Style quilting and spends a lot of time hand stitching. You can follow her adventures at Dizzyquilter.com.

LEARN MORE ABOUT JEN STRAUSER

Check out Jen on Instagram

Supplies List -

Please remember that the following supply list is a suggestion. The project goal here is to create a small landscape piece. 4" x 5" is Jen's favorite size. Below are her recommendations for fabric & stitching supplies, but bring the materials to achieve the goal in your preferred medium. Optional for all mediums - think of a landscape image that has meaning for you. A special place from your past.

Suggestions for Stitching -

• Background - 4" x 5" approximately
• Scraps of fabric to create landscape features
• Thread for stitching - Perle cotton, embroidery floss, or anything you have that will glide through fabric. Too thick is a problem, but too thin is easy to solve.
• Needle that will work with your thread
• Scissors

Elizabeth's Suggestions for Collage -

• Base/Canvas - Index card, piece of cardstock, recycled box - your choice
• Magazines, found images, scraps of paper
• Markers
• Glue stick
• Sealer - Mod Podge or diluted all-purpose glue
• Foam brush
• Scissors