Diva Demos for NCQC

 

I am a Board member of the Northern California Quilt Council, and we we are a laison of sorts between teachers, guilds, shops and others in the Northern California quilting industry.

When I first began to travel to teach in 2010, almost 100% of my gigs came through NCQC’s Meet the Teacher events. We do a great job of connecting those in the quilting industry in Northern California and beyond.

We are a FUN Board with wildly varying areas of talent. We decided the name of this year’s January meeting was the “Diva Demos” and we each would wear a tiara in homage to our tongue-in-cheek Diva status. Note our tiaras in the above photo! Not all Board members were in this photo, but just know that each of us has some talent that we share with our members.

It was a fun day, even though it was lightly attended:

Several other attendees came later. I’m sure you’ve heard that Northern California has been slammed with major rain/wind storms, one after another. In some areas of our reach, citizens were under flood watch or evacuation notices, so we did not expect a robust attendance. A “normal” meeting would attract maybe 150 attendees. We were small but mighty!

We had a great start to the meeting:

Colleen Pelfrey wrote and sang an original song about the Diva Demos. It was so much fun to start the demos this way! We billed it as “The World Debut of Colleen Pelfrey’s “Diva Demo Ditty”.

I enjoyed each presentation:

Linda Schmidt talked about the “Secret Life of Trees” and shared her tips and methods for creating trees and leaves in her art using Lutrador, a heat gun, paint and a few other non-quilty materials. Linda’s work is widely exhibited and is simply gorgeous using her unique methods.

Roberta Burke showed us the best methods for making Log Cabin quilts. Roberta is a pro Log Cabin maker and knows all the tools, tricks and tips. Not being a hard core piecer, it never has dawned on me to pay attention to warp and weft and how that can make a difference in the quality of your block. I know who to go to for Log Cabin advice!

Youngmin Lee shared her Saeksilnubi technique, a Korean method of colorful quilting that adds tremendous texture, somewhat like boutis. She makes her own cording by wrapping her father’s mulberry papers (used to practice calligraphy on), into cords which are hand stitched into each piece. It add delightful texture to her work.

I forgot to get a photo of Youngmin’s work. The above photo is from her IG feed here. Her work is exquisite.

Collen Pelfrey demo’ed Notan, a Japanese art form. She had several examples and created one Notan sample on-the-spot:

This quilt of Colleen’s used Notan blocks:

I demo’ed “Safe Spaces for Newer Free Motion Quilters:

I so want newer free motion quilters to find places to land that feel “safe”, where they can improve their free motion quilting techniques without worry. I showed some fun, easy projects that beginner and lightly experienced free motion quilters can do and be proud of their work!

Here’s a giggle:

No, I did not have a tiara in my stash. Are you surprised?😊 So I went to Amazon to shop. The least expensive ones seemed like they could easily break and reviews said they were uncomfortable. I chose this one, not expensive at all, but made from metal and had a larger width than most, which makes it more comfortable.

Look how it was packaged: it was assumed that I was a bride! It was exquisitely presented in a lovely pink box, elegantly wrapped, with a sticker on the box top that said “Best Wishes Just For You”! I giggled. I guess this will be my Lifetime Tiara. Who’d a thunk I would ever have a tiara?

I’ll share at:

Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday