Pointless Sisters, a park and SAQA meeting

What a week! The printer died, the new one wouldn’t load and my email went down…right before I left to teach a workshop for The Pointless Sisters. As a teacher, I have to be highly organized. I  don’t procrastinate. I create lists, summaries and reminders for each gig and I print them out shortly before I leave. I wait to do that because things are constantly in flux. So wouldn’t you know, the printer died without warning right before I printed it all up.

Keep reading, there are more photos below…

There is an even greater amount of prep when I teach a How Do I Quilt This?  workshop. Students submit images ahead of time, and based on their experience and preferences, I design a quilting plan for them. It’s a fabulous workshop, a ton of fun and it takes a lot of research and pondering to get ready. And there is no telling if the student will like the plan I’ve designed for them–remember, no one bats a 1000. I was 80% prepared when everything blew up. I was distressed to be stripped of my time and tools right before this workshop!

But the show goes on. I did my best and it seemed to go well. I certainly could have been more organized and prepared. I hate to go in feeling unprepared! The Pointless Sisters is a very talented group of 50 artists. They are quite prolific and both challenge and support each other. I needed to be on my toes.

Of course I did not take one photo! During the morning and part of the afternoon, I worked through 8 pieces of art with their makers. The level of talent was exceptional. In most cases I was confident in my choices and for a few, I was not. I have enough experience and confidence to know it would work out and indeed it did. The group contributed some excellent observations and advice and together we created a plan that appealed to the maker(s) of that piece. It is a wonderful experience to teach this type of workshop! I was thrilled to be asked to do this workshop for such a talented group.

These last few days have been a whirlwind of wonderful things. I traveled to the Bay area the day before the workshop to get settled in and get ready for the workshop. The drive to Santa Rosa was gorgeous-sweeping views of the rolling hills and marshes with lots of interesting roadside grasses and weeds to swoon over.

I stayed at a member’s home and had the. most. delightful home stay ever. Again, no photos, sigh. Geri’s home was beautiful and restful, nestled in the woods in a bucolic and private setting. She hosted a dinner party in my honor and invited 3 delightful Pointless Sisters to join us. It is not often that I am gifted with such a gracious and lovely meal with robust and stimulating conversation. I was purring as I headed to bed that night.

The following day I was to be a panel member for a  SAQA meeting, so I decided to spend the night in the Bay rather than drive home and back again. I made a reservation the Walnut Creek Motel 6 for the night. If I’m going to stay at an inexpensive hotel, I prefer Motel 6 over anything else-their floors are vinyl and their bed spreads poly. I think it is much more likely to be clean than fluffy duvets and carpet! Amusing fact-the Motel 6 was across the street from the Maserati dealership, giggle. I found myself some excellent Thai food and called it a day.

I am a early riser, like really early. I had time to kill before the 11AM SAQA meeting. I google the area and discovered a park nearby-yippee!

Castle Rock is a large regional park along Pine Creek, adjacent to the Diablo Foothills and also to a lot of grazing cows. When I arrived it was a little nippy at 39 degrees.

I had not intended to be hiking on this trip so I was outfitted in my cute little perforated booties, nice jeans and a spring green light rain coat. To say I stood out is an understatement. My feet were freezing with that perforated leather!

The sun had not yet risen over the hills. It was quiet, a wee bit foggy and so peaceful. The only sounds (besides my clicking boots) were cows mooing, coyotes rejoicing over a kill and birds.

For some reason this guy eyed me with suspicion-was it the clicking boots or the bright green street coat?

As I walked the sun began to rise over the hills…

eventually giving way to full sun and some warmth, for which I was grateful.

Lovely, no?

Beautiful in its form.

Age is beautiful!

I did not investigate to find out who lives under that old tree.

The base of that heritage oak was a good 4′ across. What a beautiful tree it was!

Really, how does this guy thrive with such exposed roots?

I looked it up-this is a Cantharellus californicus or California Golden Chantarelle. It was 24″ across. I have never seen such a thing. Can you imagine how this blinding orange form stood out?

So far, two unexpectedly delightful experiences-a dinner party and a beautiful hike. So what’s next? The Regional SAQA meeting:

Not everyone shows up in this photo but there were around 50 members in attendance. The Northern California/Northern Nevada Region of Studio Art Quilt Associates is vibrant! We have quarterly meetings that are well worth the drive, where ever they might be. This meeting was in Danville and the feature was a panel with 4 teachers: Mel Beach, Kris Sazaki, Deb Cashatt and myself. We were asked about our experiences teaching and there was a lot of interest in the group.

And this is just another reason why you might want to join SAQA-Show and Tell:

Show and Tell at SAQA meetings is amazing-there is so much talent. I think there were about 18 pieces shown at Wednesday’s meeting. Here Mel Beach is showing a challenge piece that she did, as I recall, in a week! She used computer parts to depict Silicon Valley. It’s just the coolest quilt. If you are an art quilter and you’re thinking about joining, write me and I’ll give you the scoop.

By the way, if you miss photos of this guy, sign up for my newsletter (upper left top corner of this page) and you’ll receive a weekly newsletter with different content from my blog and, my most popular feature, a Zeke of the Week photo. Geez, whenever I meet my readers, they want to know about Zeke!

I’ll be linking up with Nina-Marie on Friday!