The Carson City Quilt Guild, Stunning views and a SAQA donation piece finished!

It’s been a great week since I last posted. I had a wonderful 3 1/2 day visit to the Minden, NV guild, the Carson Valley Quilt Guild. Oh so sad, I had to drive by Lake Tahoe on my way:

Where does the lake end and the sky begin? They don’t call it “Tahoe Blue” for nothin’!

While there, Christina from the guild took me on a hike. What I really want to do when I travel to guilds is hike, walk or see art. This was really all three:

I did no color correction on any of those photos by the way. People love living here – I see why!

The Carson Valley Quilt Guild hires 2 National Teachers a year and I was there for 2 workshops (Start With a Square and Trapunto by Machine) and a lecture. Start With a Square was my first workshop and I only took 2 photos, sigh. The class was held at the Western Nevada College and even with 18 students, there was plenty of room to spread out:

I only got a shot of Nancy’s quilt. I took a video at the meeting where everyone paraded their work and I screwed it up. Dang! I was super impressed with the work in class. Every one made a great piece in their own way. That is what I hope for, for each student to find their own way to express themselves via free motion quilting.

Apparently there were nearly 100 people in attendance for my lecture:

What a friendly bunch! Their quilt show is coming up June 4 – 5 and there was much discussion about the show. Katie Pasquini Masopust will be featured! Apparently the venue is excellent; I am going to try to make the show.

I did remember to take photos from the trapunto class. I am developing a new take on trapunto called “Trapunto Revival” because I want to revive the technique. It can enhance any genre of quilt but most think of it as for traditional quilts. If you click on a photo, you will see a larger version:

 

Once again, each quilter put their own spin and combination of quilting designs on the class project, a panel I designed for the class. What fun! Love that texture and dimension!

While I was there I was able to visit with an old friend, Anita, who moved from Shingle Springs, CA to Minden about 6 years ago. She was recovering from knee replacement and could not make it to the class or lecture:

It was wonderful to have a visit! I almost forgot that Anita had bought one of my quilts about 8 years ago and it holds a special place in her home:

I was touched. Anita is a skilled artist so it is a real treasure to know she has one of my quilts.

On another note entirely, I was up against the deadline for the SAQA Spotlight Auction, a fundraiser for the upcoming Studio Art Quilt Associates Conference (virtual). I won’t be attending the conference this year as I am teaching in Paducah, but I still wanted to make my contribution.

I used hand dyed silk organza and silk taffeta with wool batting and a cotton backing. I drew out my design on copy paper and then created a sandwich of backing, batting, silk striped top and the drawing:

I quilted through all layers twice:

That perforated the paper enough to make paper removal pretty easy and quick. All framed up it might look something like this:

I kinda like this concept and think I will do more along these lines.

I’ll be posting at:

Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday
and
Finished or Not Friday.