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I had a fun visit to Amador County, “Gold Country”. It takes about an hour on mostly 2 lane roads to get to Pioneer, CA. The drive was so pretty – lots of flowers, a bit of still green grass and fields of grazing cattle. But no photos while I was driving! The grass has not been incinerated yet by triple digits so it almost looked like early spring. And for once, I remembered to take photos of the lecture and workshop!! This was a really good turn out and I got a strongly positive reaction to “The Beauty…
What a week! I taught at Meissner Main and at the Independence Hall Quilters in Arnold, CA and, I took a sashiko class at Meissner Folsom – whew! It was all fun. I taught Yes You CAN Free Motion Quilt! at both Meissner Main and to the Independence Hall Quilters in Arnold, CA. Meissner’s had a small and mighty class. Everyone was so well prepared, well machined and enthusiastic! It makes it easy and fun to teach such a great group. I also visited the Independence Hall Quilters in Arnold, CA for the day. I have never done this…
I have just had a blast quilting my vintage quilt top! These six things made the quilting process so much easier. You may not need these items for every quilt, but for this quilt, each one was helpful. It’s taking a LOT longer to finish this quilt than anticipated. Here we go: Basting with water soluble thread This was a vintage top and there were some challenges with wonky seams and such. It did not lay flat. I was committed to honoring the maker by not remaking it into a quilt that met modern technical standards. So I had…
It’s been a particularly busy 2 weeks! My 3-day seminar at Meissner Folsom was a great success. Seven eager students of varying degrees of experience gathered to learn as much as possible in 3 days. Unfortunately I was immersed in teaching and took only a few photos: This was the only “class photo” I took and one student was missing. One wonderful thing about a smaller class is that we can easily gather around a sample. I always teach with my camera and projector so that everyone gets a front row seat. But it is useful sometimes to have…
I’m making a run at completing my vintage quilt top in time to enter the Houston show. It’s a looooong shot but I’m trying, so I’m chained to my machine – dang! I have done the background quilting on all the blocks: And a few selected blocks (note that I have just sprayed at the blue wash out marker so it has not been completely washed out): I’m going to feather the dickens out of the sashing and border. I forgot that this quilt from Houston last year got me on this vintage kick. Isn’t this a fabulous quilt? There…
Oh what a glorious week it was ! I was privileged to spend 5 fabulous days with 14 free motion quilting students and it was a blast. We sewed and laughed and ate and got to know each other and quilted and even enjoyed a 2 min solo from our resident Dramatic Soprano. We came from diverse backgrounds with a spread of 3 1/2 decades and experience levels ran from never-done-this-before to skilled. I was so pleased that 14 quilters chose to join me! Asilomar is a spectacular location for a seminar such as Empty Spools. Quick scoop on…
NOTE: I’ll be teaching at Empty Spools next week and I may not have time for a blog post or newsletter. This week I will have a newsletter. The best way to follow me is through my newsletter – you get my blog post plus other interesting “curated content” (I just learned to call it that, snort!). You can sign up here for my newsletter. And I am active on FaceBook and Instagram too; I will be posting from Asilomar next week. It has been a this ‘n that kind of week with family time at Easter, working on my vintage…
My third quilt show in a row! I took a break and caught the San Francisco Quilt Guild Show on my way to Manteca to teach. They have not had a show since 2019. The show featured 2 artists, Joe Cunningham and Barb Strick, as well as an Exhibit of yellow quilts from Rodrick Kirakofe’s collection. The Event Center of St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco was an impressive venue that felt like an art gallery more than a quilt show. It was very well done. It’s always tricky to leave a parked car anywhere in San Francisco. I was…
I have been a proud member of the Folsom Quilt and Fiber Guild since 2000 (I think). I love my guild! We have a lot of talent in a diverse range of styles and techniques. We ARE a “Fiber Guild” also. As you will see below, we have hand embroiders, garment makers, knitters and some that defy categories. Over the years we have brought in many national teachers who have had a huge impact on me. I had 40 min before the show closed to get my photos. I had literally just gotten off the plane (from teaching at the…
This was my first time to attend the Indiana Heritage Quilt Show and it lived up to the reviews I’d heard – smaller, but packed with lots of great quilts. Many of them were not the usual suspects, which I found refreshing. It is a petite venue, yet there seemed to be enough room to get a good look at a quilt if you had some patience. I LOVE that the Best of Show was a hand quilted beauty that took the maker 7 years to complete! It was a treasure. I don’t feel that it photographs well for some…