Sierra Gold Quilt Guild and life around the Lyon house

NOTE: I usually let my readers know when I won’t be publishing my weekly blog post. Last week took me by surprise. I taught/lectured on Tues/Wed and arrived home at dinner time on Wed. I was thinking oh, I could put together a post by the morning. Huh? No way! I needed to unpack and decompress so that I could sleep; there was no time to write a blog post! What was I thinking? Given that I didn’t have a blog post I decided to skip my newsletter, also without warning. I have to say I was grateful for the break. Every single errand and To Do needed to be done, so forgoing the newsletter gave some time to catch up.

If you’re not getting my newsletters, you can sign up here. I publish weekly and I include my blog post, a Quilt of the Week, 1 or 2 articles of interest, upcoming events, and most importantly, a Snort Laugh of the Week. I get great feedback on my newsletter.

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I had The Best of Visits to the Sierra Gold Quilters Guild in Pioneer, CA last week! Every single person was so friendly! Pioneer is in Amador County, at about 3,000′ elevation, right in the “Gold Country” of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The sense of community is strong. The entire area is covered in pines and the views are fabulous. I pulled into the parking lot of the church that hosted the lecture and what did I spy?

How cool is that? I didn’t realize it was lupine season there. What a warm welcome!

Guild membership is around 80, so this was a great turn out for my lecture, “My Tippy Top Tips For Successful and Joyful Free Motion Quilting”:

What a happy bunch! I received a lot of kind comments on my lecture. Nice!

This guild is a garment making guild! Look at some of the creations I noticed (and there were some I missed taking photos of; sorry Sandy!):

One of the influences on the garment making of the guild is current President Anelie Belden. She is teaching an Upcycled Denim Jacket class this Saturday at the Zola Exchange.

After the lecture I had a wonderful home stay, surrounded by award winning quilts. My bedroom had a beautiful applique quilt on the wall and I slept under another. Loved that. Sue is an award winning applique artist and I got to see some of her stunning quilts. Sue and Hubby Dutch treated me to a 5 star dinner at home: Baked Salmon, a true Caesar Salad, carrots, and rice pilaf. Oh my gosh it was good! That was a treat.

Just in case you want to make your own Caesar Salad, it is worth the effort. Sue served hers in the classic wooden bowl:

I don’t take photos at home stays to preserve the privacy of my hosts. The home was just stunning – a custom home built into the hill with magnificent views. Fires are a real hazard in that area, and their home was constructed with a special light weight material that will not burn. I wish I could remember the name. Every part of the home was thoughtfully designed, a true custom-from-the-studs home, just lovely.

After a snuggly sleep, the “Start With a Square” workshop was the next day. I seem to rarely remember to take photos in class these days. I did get a shot of everyone working on their quiltette, but no detail photos. Dang. Everyone embraced the learning and there was a wide variety of experience levels from brand new beginners to highly skilled quilters.

I love how Start With a Square classes can work for the brand new beginner or the experienced quilter. I choose less-than-common designs that are useful, versatile and easy to quilt. Together we accidentally discovered an excellent motif for git-er-done quilts. Every student was so engaged and creative; it was an absolute delight to teach for the Sierra Gold Guild.

This week has been consumed with Mother of the Groom dress shopping. Oh how excruciating! I refuse to wear a fade-into-the-wall dress, but of course I do not want to stand out. I’m coping with a body that apparently is different than the picture I have in my mind😊 I have had quite the adventure with Poshmark. Just don’t do Poshmark, really, don’t. The wedding is not until Oct, but these things have to be nailed down early! I can’t believe how much time I have spent online as well as shopping in person. Let’s just say it is not going well.

But I did complete the background quilting for a large sheers quilt that I had in mind:

This one is not going anywhere soon. I started to play with some sheers on it and my idea is simply not developed enough. This may not reappear for a good while. I love the texture though:

I totally enjoyed the ruler work on this! I use the Line Tamer which makes super accurate work like this easy.

I’ll be linking up:
Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday