I’m back! It’s been a very busy few weeks and I have few photos to show for it.

I was recently named Director of the Northern California Council of Quilt Guilds (NCQC), an organization that “facilitates communication between quilt guilds, teachers, and others in the quilting industry”. It has been a real struggle to get up to speed with my duties. There have been some hurdles, a change of direction, new Board members and the challenge of learning how to run a good meeting. We had a Board meeting last week and a General Meeting yesterday, each needing a lot of attention to be able to serve our members.

We are lucky to have such an organization in Northern California. I would estimate that I got 90% of my teaching gigs through NCQC during the first decade I taught. We have an in-person Meet the Teachers event once a year, a unique opportunity for guilds, teachers and shops to get together and hire teachers in real life. We also have two programs a year and another Meet the Teacher online. I have been enriched by NCQC, so it is a privilege to give back.

Our meeting yesterday (recording available for NCQC members) was all about judged quilt shows. We had representatives from the newly formed Quilt Judge Training school talk about their program and their mission “to provide training in quilt evaluation that is fair, thorough and encouraging”. I am so excited about the opportunity to learn to judge! I will be a part of their first class in March and you can sign up here if interested. Training will be held in Vacaville, CA Feb 25, 26. This is all about on-target judging, NOT the quilt police!

We also had a representative from my home guild, Dana Lahargoue from the Folsom Quilt and Fiber Guild, talk about how we run our judging room. We have worked hard to provide the right set up that benefits the judges, the guild and the quiltmaker. It was a great session –  encouraging, instructive, and enlightening. A guild can be enriched by a judged show.

I also had a marvelous trip to Santa Barbara to visit the Coastal Quilters of Santa Barbara last week. Oh I wish I had more photos!

There was a great turnout for my lecture, “My Tippy Top Tips for Successful and Joyful Free Motion Quilting”. I received many generous compliments and it was very well received. It is an educational lecture with tons of tips and advice, with some humor thrown in for good measure.

One unexpected highlight: Kitty Oliver was there and I was able to take a photo with her in front of my “Morning Breeze” quilt.

 

Kitty is a quilt judge and judged my guild’s show the year I won Best of Show (2018 I think). She remembered and immediately recognized my quilt and its Best of Show ribbon. I had to get a photo in front of the quilt:

I wish I had taken photos of “Mom’s Lily Bed” hanging at the venue. The lighting was fabulous and the silk, beads, and metallic thread just glowed!

I taught “Start With a Square” the following day. Ya gotta love how plants thrive in Santa Barbara. Just look at how the Bougainvillea surrounded the window at the class venue:

The class maxed out, which pleased me:

There was a ton of talent there and I met some famous and highly skilled quilters. The students were over-the-top enthusiastic! We all had a good time and I taught to the very last second.

I stayed over Friday night, as there were no flights out in the evening. Polly took me to a great restaurant on Hendry’s Beach, the Boathouse at Hendry’s Beach, where we received superb service, enjoyed wonderful seafood and a beautiful sunset on the water. Ahhhhhhhh!

In between Santa Barbara and the NCQC meeting I hosted Barbara Black at my home. Barbara is a personal friend and was in town to speak at my guild. Barbara is the one who made That Quilt that was the featured quilt at Houston, 2014, the 40th anniversary:

She is also the face of The Quilt Show‘s Block of the Month where she does videos and blog posts about how to best approach each Block of the Month. And if you teach, you know her from Houston where she was the Chief Coraller of Quilt Teachers (my title for her) for 20 years. I am thrilled that she came all the way from Huntsville, Alabama to speak and teach. And of course, we did a stroll around the neighborhood, had to get those steps in!

I HAD to quilt this week! I am super busy and maxed out, yet I knew if I didn’t carve out some time I would go crazy. Progress on my blue silk quilt; my photos do not do the true color and shine of the silk justice:

I used several designs from Cindy Seitz-Krug‘s book, Grids: An Encyclopedia of Grid Designs. If you’ve going to do grids, this is your book.

I am still sketchy on when I’ll post next. I should have a newsletter out this week, but probably not next week. I’ll be linking up:
Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday