My class videos are done! Road trip coming!

 

It’s a quick note today, but one with a major announcement: I reached a major milestone on Monday. I submitted all the videos, photos and handouts for my online course with Creative Spark – Yes You CAN Free Motion Quilt!. WHOOOOP! There have been many hours and months of hard work, new skill sets and time in front of my computer editing those videos. I’ve included some of the new “lifestyle” photography below:

It’s so worth it though! I am proud of the product I’ve submitted. Now the Creative Spark people will wave their wand and make it all purty. I don’t have details yet like length of the final course, cost and when it will launch, so stay tuned! I’m hanging out with some great artists and teachers – check out the other courses that are already up.

I am so excited to be building my own course, my way. There are so many things I want to show during an in-person class, but time is limited. So much of free motion quilting is about what is in your head, what you’re thinking. I address that head game with 10 “POP”s” or  Points of Perception. These are the things that can have an impact on your free motion quilting that are beyond needle and thread and go straight to the heart of quilting.

I am also excited to be doing on demand classes. We all want to be able to learn in a variety of settings – it’s great to take an in-person class, but you may not be able to do that. Live online is great too, but maybe you can’t make that date or time. Being able to offer a third way to reach students has been a dream of mine.

All of us Creative Spark teachers create our own content in our own studios. I am literally coming from my studio to your home. I think my videos are well done, entertaining and include very clear instruction as well.

And all that comes right into your home. I have been able to take classes on demand that I never would have been able to take in person. The Creative Spark platform is unique in that they are bringing high caliber courses to the student in an intimate format.

And to celebrate (it actually is a coincidence), I’m taking a 5-day road trip over the Memorial Day weekend. It will closely mimic a trip I did in 2019, from Chicago to Athens, Ohio, to southern Illinois and a final stop in my hometown, Ottawa, Illinois.

I have always wanted to attend an opening of Quilt National. If you’re not familiar, Quilt National is a biannual exhibit that is pretty much the top show in the world for the art quilt. It debuts at The Dairy Barn in Athens, Ohio (home to Ohio University). I planned this trip around the opening of the show, but as luck would have it, there is no opening reception due to Covid. Sigh.

But I will be there for the first day and will be able to attend a SAQA event held for the artists and other interested people. Since we have not had a Conference in 2 years, this will feel like Old Home Week to me. The art in the show will be cutting edge, innovative, unexpected. It’s the best of the best.

I’ll fly from Sacramento to Chicago Midway, then drive a rental car to Athens fo Quilt National. From there I will go to visit my 93 year old Aunt in southern Illinois and end up in Ottawa, my hometown where I will visit high school friends. How cool is all of that?

I chose to take a late day flight the day of my departure. I may have time to spend in Chicago – what fun!

If you even think of the Midwest as “fly over country”, don’t you dare say that in front of me! I love the Midwestern vistas. I’m a little disappointed that the crops will be very young at that time so there will be no sweeping views of mature crops. I love the sight of a mature soybean field in the wind – the green undulates with the wind and you see 50 shades of green. It really is a beautiful sight.

And when the early morning mist settles into the hollows of any kind of a field as the sun rises – that too is a beautiful sight.

My hometown sits at the convergence of the Fox and Illinois rivers and is near to Starved Rock State Park, each beautiful in its own way.

I may or may not be able to enjoy some of my cousin’s ice cream, Uncle Bob’s, famous in that part of the country:

I have some bucket list things I have to do and among them are to enjoy a fried pork tenderloin. I found this image on Wikipedia and yes, they are that big!

I look forward to a fun trip, great friends, great art, great people and the fun of traveling and meeting random people. It’s time!

I’ll be linking up:

Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday

Finished or Not Friday