LA Modern Quilt Guild

I packed a lot into my 28 hour visit to SoCal! One of the wonderful things about traveling to teach and lecture is getting to visit places as a traveler, not a tourist, and meeting other quilters.

I visited the Los Angeles Modern Quilt Guild over the weekend and hung out in Santa Monica and Brentwood, oh my! The guild was absolutely fabulous and I was thrilled to teach free motion to a Modern guild. I would love to see more free motion on Modern quilts. Literally every person I interacted with was a delight. I found Santa Monica to have a friendly, open feel, no pretense.

The LAMQG is the original, established in 2009, the founding guild of the Modern Quilt Guild. BTW, check out the coolest quilt guild logo ever on their site’s header. Brava to whomever designed that!

The food was soooo good! I dined with 4 other women actively involved in the guild and the conversation was robust, wide ranging and fun. We dined at The Beach Club in Santa Monica (!); I had new-to-me Sand Dabs and we watched the sun set. It was such a treat.

I stayed with Caroline at her beautiful Brentwood home. I was only in town from 2 PM Fri to 6 PM Sat, so not a lot of time to walk. But I did take in the sights of the Brentwood neighborhood I stayed in:

I deduced that this  lovely neighborhood started out as modest, maybe 1200 – 1800 sf bungalows, with one- or two-car garages on big lots. It used to be agricultural land! Now home owners have added square footage and landscaping, with lots of renovations visible on my walk. The housing is widely varied in style, making for an interesting walk:

The Jacarandas were just beginning to bloom:

And you don’t get leaves on the ground, you get this lovely debris:

These are Ficus trees!

We walked out my hostess’ back gate to get breakfast at a lovely cafe with healthy choices. In the same strip center was a variety of retail including restaurants, ice cream and one of Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop locations. It was closed when we went; I would have enjoyed poking around in there just for grins. I don’t usually take photos of food, but this was remarkably pretty and healthy; 48 grams of protein!!

Oh yeah, I did go to teach after all! I taught my beginning free motion quilting course, Yes You CAN Free Motion Quilt!, and had quite a few super-star students. We had so much fun; they were a lively, attentive and talented bunch and a new crop of proud and adventurous free motion quilters!!

Thank you to Kate who took the photo and was in the class. We covered free motion quilting, alliteration, assonance and…..haikus! We touched on LA history and quilt shops. And Lisa actually wrote a haiku on the spot! If you’ve ever taken my beginning free motion class, you will recognize what is going on here. I try to make stipple easier with some tricks and hints.

I know, only my students will get that.

This is the team that did all the hard work. Working from the left – Sarah just moved from Iowa and jumped right in to help on Programs. Kate was my main contact – she arranged everything, toted her BERNINA 570 for me to quilt on, and even picked me up at LAX, a true hero’s sacrifice. Next, Lisa was a big help on Programs and wrote the haiku as well as adding lots of humor to the day. And Caroline on the far right was a most gracious and attentive host. I had the most lovely bedroom I think I’ve stayed in.

It is a short trip back on Southwest, 1 hr 15 min, but we hit serious turbulence, the worst I’ve experienced, maybe 10 – 15 min of pure carnival ride. It didn’t frighten me, it just got a little uncomfortable. In the midst of it, one flight attendant got on the intercom as we were bouncing up and down and said “Well isn’t this fun?” and everyone on the plane burst into laughter, creating a bit of levity.

We got massive thunder, lightening, wind and a bit of hail at home in two storms almost back-to-back. I had this random planter sitting in the yard:

Yup, that’s 5 1/2″. I know it’s unofficial, but we got a lot of rain. In California that is a very very good thing. The Folsom reservoir is now full. Whoop!

I did my Imperfect lecture the following Monday via Zoom. It was super well-received, creating lots of questions and feedback. It is one of my fav lectures. I hope it inspires quilters to let go, have fun, embrace the imperfection and find their JOY!

Funny aside – I remarked how absolutely beautiful the weather was. I didn’t get much of a reaction. Then I realized, almost EVERY day is beautiful in Santa Monica!

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