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I missed last year’s show due to a teaching trip so it was good to be back. As is usually the case, I didn’t have a lot of time to see the show but I think I was able to see it all. I even bought a few goodies: Isn’t that adorable? I love it when someone makes my bag for me! I intended to use this as my machine mat but it doesn’t work with my knee lift – dang! Love what this Jane Sassaman fabrics did when fussy cut for the Bobby Dazzler pattern. Gotta love a Big…
Until I sat down to write this post I did not realize that I had done a lot of playing over the last few weeks. I even completed a project! Some of this may turn into nothing, but I think I’ve got the start of some pretty cool projects. First, my completion. I may or may not be in a jean jacket embellishment phase… I started here… with some gorgeous wool hand-dyed by Linda Waddle. For this type of work, the more mottled and strong the colors, the better. This piece had both qualities in spades. I created the design,…
It’s bedtime and I haven’t written a post! I simply forgot. But hey, at least my frig is full! It’s actually even more full than when I took that photo, and there will only be 5 of us! It took a few days of this and 5 trips to the grocery store in 24 hours to fill that frig. But there was some trauma along the way: I ran out of chocolate! So I hit Trader Joe’s at around 1PM the Tues before Thanksgiving and there were 4 lines to the back of the store. Even I will not go…
This is my final post for Houston. My photos loaded oddly and are not all nicely grouped by category and I was too short on time to arrange them properly. You will still enjoy the quilts out of order! SAQA had an exhibit, 50 Years of Innovation. I loved that exhibit! It was filled with iconic art quilts, several of which were instrumental in bringing me into the art quilt movement. The Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento had part of Quilt National 2003 and it blew me away! I had never seen such quilts before. Several of the quilts in…
Okay it’s time for the quilts! The quilts are already hung by Market so I took Sunday to primarily look at quilts. I knew I didn’t have much time and there was A LOT of quilts! I roamed the aisles rather briskly and snapped photos of anything that struck me. I knew I would end up chatting with friends and visitors so I kept up a good pace to see all the quilts. Of course there were a good number of photos that were just lousy. As always, if I have previously published a quilt or if it has been…
Houston 2019 is a wrap! This year was my smoothest ever and I didn’t forget anything major – that’s a win right there. It is hard to convey in words the excitement of being at Market and Festival. It’s the world’s stage of quilting and there is a lovely feeling of unity that pervades both events. We are united by a love of quilts and what divides us fades for just a bit. I was thrilled that my energy did not flag. It is a brutal physical experience and stressful at times. I didn’t sleep but an hour or two…
NOTE: I won’t be publishing a blog post next week and I will not publish my newsletter for 2 weeks – I just ran out of time. I’ll be having fun and working hard in Houston! The Pacific International Quilt Show was a whirlwind for me this year! I worked the Studio Art Quilt Associates booth for the first 2 hours and then blasted through the show at warp speed. I had some people I wanted to connect with and saw many others there that I was delighted to chat with. As a result I probably missed some entire areas.…
I got good news yesterday: my classes at Houston filled so well that I was invited to teach next year, my seventh year! Yippee! I’ve been preparing for Houston and that makes for a dull Jenny. I do lists, lots of lists. And I practically empty my closet to put together comfortable teaching outfits. I create an Excel spreadsheet of each day’s choices because if I don’t, I forget what I slated to go with what. It seems silly but it makes getting dressed effortless. I haven’t put together all my outfits yet, that takes much of a day. I…
My class last Saturday at the Quilt and Fabric Art Festival was a blast! The class was full and we filled our day with quilting, discovery, laughs and learning. I was so pleased with the outcome – I must show off the work of my students! Keep in mind, I did not count exactly, but around 5 students were brand-spanking new to free motion quilting, another 6 – 8 were fairly new and the rest had quilted a few projects. I was blown away by what was accomplished in class. I do wish we’d had more time together as it’s…
The River City Quilters’ Guild decided to take a risk and opened their show up to entries outside of their guild, making it a regional show. It was retitled to the Quilt and Fabric Art Festival and relocated to a cavernous space at the McClellan Conference Center. Additional vendors were added as well as a roster of 9 teachers offering workshops over a 4-day period. Sandra Mollon was the Featured Quilter and it was a fantastic show! This had to be a significant financial risk to the guild and I hope they hit it out of the park. They…