Blog
Free motion quilters from the Camarillo Quilters Association joined me yesterday for six hours of Fearless Free Motion Fills and Frills and it was a blast! This was my first six-hours-in-one-day workshop and I was honestly worried about how that would go. Remember Mikey in the Life cereal commercial? I feel like Mikey, he liked it, I liked it! I am so relieved and encouraged that I truly enjoyed the experience and I think my students did too. There is a different skill set to develop to engage students online and I continue to develop that new skill. Of course,…
Sooo, this is what I’ve got for you this week, a 3 min promo of my online teaching and lecture opportunities. It only took weeks to figure out a 3 min video! I’ve also been working hard to get set-up on an online teaching platform that I can’t share yet. Once everything is finalized and it’s up on their site I will be excited to share! This way anyone can take my class and you won’t have to take it through a guild. They will be live online classes and I’m beyond pumped to try this. I presented today…
Okay, no sewing going on this week so let’s look at what else happened: I did take a great Zoom for Teachers class from David Owen Hastings and learned some interesting tidbits. Of most interest to me was his set-up. He didn’t go out and spend a lot of money but had great sound and light. He used an Ikea lamp for lighting, something kinda sorta like this and it worked well. He had everything on one screen – his slides, thumbnail photos of workshop participants and chat, all on a super-wide monitor. He kept all his things close…
Finally, I finished “Tea and Silk”! I’ve been working on it for maybe a month and it really should not have taken that long. I wrote about it previously here: This one was an emerging project – I didn’t have a plan in mind when I started it. When I first put the tea bags on that gorgeous silk, I swooned: My photography does not capture the sheen of that fine silk, it is luscious. I made the tea bags in one of the most fun classes ever – Libby Williamson‘s Tea Bag Art class at Craft Napa last…
NOTE #1: I forgot to do this last week: Leah French won the giveaway for Teri Lucas’ ebook. Thank you for your responses! There were 106 comments and my random number generator chose 53 as the winner. You all seem to especially like Aurifil, Superior threads and Glide. Normally I respond to every blog comment, but not for giveaways. That would have complicated choosing the 53d actual reader comment. NOTE #2: There was a temporary problem with comments last week due to a new spam filter. I’ve since fixed it and I hope I caught all of your comments.…
What a week – this will be a short post! I’ve been working all week doing videos, creating new handouts, messing with tech, buying more stuff to teach online with. All this for me is brand new. I needed to repackage and rethink everything to make teaching a success online. I only have paid tech help in my world so this has been a wild journey. Every time I think I’m ready, I’ll round a hairpin turn to discover another issue I need to figure out. Some of this has been fun, exploring and reasoning my way through. The wonderful…
NOTE: Once again I have two blog posts in one day! I’m a part of Teri Lucas’ Blog Hop for her new book with C&T Publishing, Color, Thread & Free-Motion Quilting. Comment on that post and you’ll be eligible to receive a free e-book! It is pure coincidence that I’m reviewing Teri Lucas’ book on thread and the main focus this week for me has been….thread. I have been working on this tea bag and silk piece for a week or two and I had it all assembled last week. I was going to do some fancy design in the…
Ready for a give-away? One commenter, chosen at random will receive a digital copy of Teri Lucas’ new book, Color, Thread & Free-Motion Quilting, published by C&T Publishing. Comment below what your favorite thread is – I’d love to know! Let me tell you about Teri’s book… I was thrilled to be asked to review Teri’s book! I have gotten to know Teri both online and in-person at the Houston Market. When I have a geeky question about my BERNINA or thread, needles, tension, or the sewing industry, she’s my go-to girl. I just plain-old like Teri – she’s…
It’s been a wild week again – 2 more days of wrap-up work on the house, which disrupts my studio and office, and, hired a new, faster internet service and had it installed. On the Good news front my small quilt group met on Monday – oh how delightful it is to meet in-person! I have to pull myself back because I just crave personal interaction sooo much that I’m afraid I will embarrass myself. I can’t wait until we can hug, have in-person classes, show our faces, wear lipstick and just be ourselves. I’m still working on virtual live…
NOTE: I have two blog posts this week, the second post is a give-away of two sets of Applipops. Head over to my other post to enter! Hubby and I desperately needed a vacation. There has been illness, two total knee replacements for Hubby, missed celebrating my 65th and our 35th anniversary and an unexpected death. Knee surgery is a lot of work for both of us and it is isolating. And of course there is/was the COVID thing… And the almost complete evaporation of my business. We really needed a break! A “real” vacation was not in the cards…