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It’s been an up and down week. After months of dithering, I took the chance and tried to remove the blue wash out marks from my WHITE SILK quilt with cotton backing, cotton fabrics and wool batting. How’s that for a complicated mix. Oh, did I mention, there were several bleeders in there? I have talked with and written some of the best dyers and competition quilters I know about my dilemma, so I got solid advice on how to proceed. BTW, the whole very hot water + Dawn thing works for cotton, not silk. It all started out so…
I’ve got two posts again, on very different subjects, other post here. Dang, I had to go to San Clemente in March: San Clemente is the southern most city of Orange County and is known for its Spanish colonial-style architecture. It is unbelievably beautiful, even for SoCal cities. The vibe is gentle and laid-back, all the store owners offer friendly greetings and I didn’t get the tourist feel at all. I had visited 2 years prior and knew I would be tempted by the shopping on my afternoon off: I got off light with a few bracelets and a gauzy…
I’ve got two posts again, on very different subjects, other post here. What a treat – a real live quilt show with no masks or distancing! It was my first and what a joy it was to visit the Valley Quilt Guild‘s show in Yuba City. The mood was joyous, as we were all waiting for this moment. The VQG has not had a show for 3 years (I think) and they had a bumper crop of beauty and creativity. Please note, I may have missed some wonderful quilts. I talked to so many people while I was there…
Two posts this week, the other one is here. Yes, same photo to start this post – it captures the beauty of Asilomar. The Asilomar Conference Grounds are described as “A refuge by the sea”. It is a stunningly beautiful location, right off the beach in Pacific Grove, California. It is a protected parcel of 107 acres of a diverse, breathtakingly gorgeous and ecologically fragile restored dune ecosystem. Asilomar was built as a YWCA Leadership Camp built in 1913 and is architectural significant, with historic structures designed by renowned architect Julia Morgan between 1913 and 1928. I stayed in “Hearth”:…
Two posts this week, the other one is here. It. Was. Magic. I was already contracted for Empty Spools 2023 when Suzanne Cox asked me to teach as a replacement for Cindy Needham who was unable to teach this year. It was late in the game and I scrambled to get ready. Teaching at Empty Spools was a Beyond Bucket List event for me. ES is an iconic bastion of the quilting seminar world, a 37 year-old tradition now owned by Suzanne Cox and Gayle Wells. The standards are high and there are many students who have attended for years…
I had a grand time last week in my “Blooming Sheers” class at Meissner Sewing in Folsom. Every single student remarked at how fun they had. I am always thinking about great free motion quilting classes, what would that look like? I think this is a winner. One of my class samples for “Blooming Sheers”: Even the debris in the classroom was vibrant and pretty! I wasn’t sure if my students were going to be able to source colorful sheers or printed sheers, so I brought some of my stash along and I’m glad I did. Everyone appreciated the…
What a fabulous week! I taught a group of 12 from the South Valley Quilt Association at the San Damiano Retreat Center in Danville, CA. It’s been a while since my car looked like this and it felt great to be back at it! I wasn’t sure what all I might be teaching, so I brought the kitchen sink. The drive down was divine! It wasn’t until I began my drive that I realized that it was already spring. Of course I don’t have photos because…well I was driving. Trees were blossoming, the hills were velvety and green, the mustard…
It’s not been a very Instagram-worthy kind of week. I’ve been prepping and putting together a goodie bag for my students and getting packed for the weekend ahead. I’m stoked about teaching at a retreat center for the South Valley Quilt Association. The group has not gathered together in 2 years and everyone is excited about meeting in person. The retreat center has a strict safety protocol so everyone feels comfortable meeting. I feel honored to be leading such an event. I’m prepared for a lecture on our first night and then 2 days of free motion quilting fun. I…
It’s been an interesting week. I took a great class from Cristina Arcenegui Bono from Spain – online of course. Gotta admit, I am getting tired of zoom, but sometimes it is so worth it to take teachers you would never be able to take otherwise. And it was worth it to take Cristina’s Pictorial Quilts class last Friday. If her name is not familiar to you, please click on her site and see the quilts she has made. Her pictorial quilts have ribboned at Houston and are just spectacular. I wanted to know how to do that! Okay,…
Soooo, I’ve been working on this quilt for over 2 years and…..I just finished quilting it! I’m not ready to reveal the whole quilt. That might be silly, but I have decided I don’t want to show the whole thing until it juries into a show. The idea of the quilt is that it is made with white silk dupioni with inserts of randomly pieced strips of varying widths. In addition, there are big ole honkin trapunto’d bubbles scattered across the piece. I love it. I think it is a very joyful piece and it makes me smile. I could…