Two guilds and an unexpected adventure

 

I had a lovely week with visits to 2 guilds! I began the week with a Monday flight into San Diego for a visit with the El Camino Quilters in Oceanside (far north San Diego County) for a Tues AM lecture and Wed half day workshop. It is a beautiful area, even though it was “June Gloom” and overcast much of the time I was there. I didn’t realize what “far north San Diego County” meant; I thought I might be able to visit the Visions Museum in San Diego. Not! It is quite far from Oceanside.

The plane trip to San Diego was a bit exciting; my seat mate (completely full flight, he was center seat and built like Shaq), grabbed the barf bag at the beginning of the flight and kept it. About 30 min before we landed he grabbed my bag. Oy. I didn’t know the issue, but he was as polite as one could be clutching a barf bag:-) I had 2 serious coughers very near me on the flight home. I am still well; dodged a bullet!

I used Mon afternoon to settle into the hotel, find my way to some excellent barbecue, and see a few sights:

El Camino Quilters is a large guild, well in excess of 200 members. They are a very active guild – I counted 20 tables for this and that activity. They even have regular bus trips here and there to buy more fabric! Great idea to pass on to other guilds: Members bring a special dessert at will. The guild sells raffle tickets and it’s a win-win: guild made $90 and 3 members took home a yummy dessert!

My lecture was very well attended. It took 3 photos to cover the crowd for my lecture, “The Beauty of the Imperfect”:

I received many encouraging comments on my lecture. Finding beauty in imperfection is a subject that resonates deeply with many quilters. It is a very encouraging lecture; I show the imperfections in major Best of Show quilts as well as my own. We ALL have imperfections!

I was surprised at how many people I knew in the guild. I did get one selfie with Connie from my 2023 Empty Spools class:

That is one of the joys of teaching, running into fellow quilters almost wherever you go! I regret that I don’t have a photo of Kris, Program Chair, who made sure everything was ready for my visit and did a stellar job promoting the lecture and workshop.

I had an adventure that afternoon! During lunch with the workshop chairs Diana and Connie, Diana floated the idea of coming to her house for the afternoon to dye fabric!! Whaaaaat? I was game, and off we went. Diana has just a wee bit of experience dyeing fabric. Although her old company Rainbow Fabrics closed in 2019, Diana used to dye 1, – 2, 000 yards of fabric a month back in the day!

We “sprinkle dyed” half yards of fabric. I still had my “lecture dress” on, so Diana lent an apron to me. Diana had lots of PFD fabric and tore half yards for us to dye. We wet each piece, wrung dry, then scrunched each piece up. We very unscientifically sprinkled big salt shakers filled with a mixture of Procion dye and soda ash upon the wet scrunched fabric to cover, and left it overnight. I was quite suspicious of the Halloween colored one on the far left.

Diana rinsed them all out, pressed them and brought them to class the next day!

Lookie dat! That “Halloween” fabric is gorgeous, as are all the others. I did not understand that “blue” (or whatever color) dye has several colors in it to make that color. So when we “sprinkle dyed” them, the colors broke and all of a sudden “blue” had bits of fuchsia and green. Who knew? You real dyers out there are probably rolling on the floor at my description and awe of dyeing.

My partners in crime, Diana left and Connie, right:

The workshop the next day was a half day: “Straight Line Ruler Work”. Oh but there is a backstory to be told… Many months before my visit, Kris and I discussed a plan to replace the contracted full day class of beginner free motion quilting, with a half day ruler work class. I did not change the contract and completely and totally forgot about the conversation.

The DAY BEFORE my visit, I realized something was up because she wrote about having the afternoon off, and mentioned that the machine I was borrowing would have a ruler foot. Hmmm, why would I need a ruler foot for a beginners free motion class?

I immediately picked up the phone to clarify and was horrified at my mistake. You don’t just decide to have a ruler work class on spur-of-the-moment! You need enough rulers (takes a week to ship) as well as pre-printed panels to work with. I scrambled and fortunately had just enough rulers, but only 7 of the pre-printed panels:

I NEEDED those panels for class; we could not do the project without. So whadayagonnado? I hand drafted and drew 11 panels and made 18 sandwiches, putting me up until midnight. Let me tell you, every teacher has done something similar and you just make it happen.

I was thrilled that the guild was able to get 18 students in that class! I have not taught Straight Line Ruler Work to a guild before, only at major festivals. Very few guilds could fill a nichey class like ruler work, especially one with a $36 kit fee, PLUS you need a ruler foot which will be at least $90! Some students already had one, but many had to go out and buy one. So I was so pleased that there was that much interest.

The class was held at Quilt in a Day, such an iconic location, and celebrating its 20th year.

I’ll bet this classroom is familiar to many of you!

Class photo, and in all fairness, I asked them to be silly:

A few had left at this point, but I was just delighted to see that much interest in ruler work! We had fun and everyone was flipping those rulers around by the end of 3 hours. The ruler itself is unique and straight line ruler work is so practical. Once you start using this particular ruler, you will find so many ways to use it in your work (like stitch-in-the-ditch!).

I was home for 2 days, just enough time to unpack and get ready to meet with the Antelope Quilter’s Guild (“Small But Mighty!”), a 50-ish member guild in the Sacramento area. The are indeed “Small But Mighty”, as this smaller guild garnered 14 students for my Yes You CAN Free Motion Quilt! class and that is impressive. Every member (and 2 guests!) was prepared, engaged and ready to learn how to free motion quilt some of their own work. We made great progress and had great fun doing it.

We had plenty of space and I saw every single student make significant progress throughout the day. We birthed a bunch of new free motion quilters that day! There was a lot of news going on in the outside world yet there we were, quilting! I love teaching that class and seeing new quilters being born.

It really is a privilege to do what I do. I meet wonderful people wherever I go and we are united by the love of quilting. What a blessing.

I’ll be linking up:

Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday