End of Year Review 2019

December 21, 2019

Its that time of year again when I like to reflect on how I spent my time in 2019 and what I achieved.

Traveling and teaching

November 15, 2019

I have been remiss at keeping up with my blog recently. I’ve been pretty busy teaching, traveling and with making Custom T-shirt quilt orders! Having recently returned from six days in Houston at the International Quilt Festival I am excited to share some of my favorite moments and memories.

The International Quilt show was celebrating 40 years of Quilt Market and 45 years of the show or Festival. They had a really impressive display of blue and white quilts, the Sapphire Celebration, that they hung from the ceiling in a huge square that displayed quilts from the front and inside. Photos did not do it justice. One quilt that they featured in the promotion of this show was Maggie Vanderweit’s quilt Indigo Party. I love its simplicity.

There were so many inspiring quilts that will have taken the makers months or years to make! As I walk around and look at the quilts on display and the prize-winning quilts, I say to myself I must try harder next year! To me the quilts look so much smaller hung at this event so my goal this coming year is to make a BIG quilt.

I loved the unusual appearance of this quilt and the bright colors. It was made by a Ukrainian quilter who won an award for her other quilt, see below. The quilts were hand appliquéd, embroidered and quilted. She made unusual binding strips that she tied in knots and layered, something I had not seen before.

I love how Natalia was in her Ukrainian national dress. She spoke little English.

Walking around the World of Beauty quilts was wonderful but there are also all the special exhibits to see. Here are a few; Better World curated by Susan Brusker Knapp and Lyric Kynard (this I tried to get into in the summer), SAQA:Upcycle was inspiring, Altar Offerings by students of Jane Tenor-Coscarelli, Inspired by Endangered Species, The Bob Ross Challenge by Cherrywood Fabrics was so much fun, Pieces of my Life by Shuzuko Kuroha and Florence in my Heart quilts by Annamarie Brent. One impressive quilt was made by Shruti Dandekar and measured 210’’ x 86’’

Coronation of Chatapati Shivaji Maharaja

As part of the faculty at Houston I taught six classes in four days. As you can imagine this is pretty tiring with not a lot of downtime especially with events happening in the evening too. I was lucky enough to have a three hour lunch break which gave me time to prep and set up for the next class, then grab lunch and head to the quiet of my hotel room. I did share that room with quilt artist Sandra Mollon which worked out perfectly and staying at the Embassy Suites was an easy walk and we appreciated the hearty, early morning breakfast and free happy-hour.

My first half day class Sunlit Sunflowers

My fabric collage classes were all well attended and I think students loved learning a new technique and working on their projects. Many even finished which made me happy. My free-form cutting technique using no pattern pieces can feel alien to some students who are more used to the rigid rules of appliqué.

Fabric inspired by Scottish pheasant hunting scenes!

For my classes I do provide kits which does help speed up the project especially if you only have 3 hours. As you can see above this student brought her own color palette and fabric for her bulldog. I love this! This year I taught my pet portrait class breaking it down into two classes; making the pattern and then working on the collage. This was a success but I think next year if I can have it as a 2 day class then all the students can attend both sessions.

The special part of being at Houston are the people you meet. Some of them were students who have been following me on social media and are “fans” and so excited to meet me! That does seems strange. Meeting other quilters who’s name is so familiar or catching up with teachers that you rarely see. Having an interview with Ricky Tims was pretty special! And then I had a real life former astronaut in my class, Jan Davies who has spent 673 hours in space. I googled her!

A pleasure sharing the classroom with an astronaut Jan Davies

I arranged to meet Shanker and Mala from Dubai who have the only quilt shop in Dubai called Classic Quilts and they are the organizers behind the Dubai International Quilt Show. It was really interesting to chat with them about how they are trying to promote and encourage sewing and quilting in Dubai. I am lucky enough to be one of the teachers at their upcoming show in February 2020. I will be teaching a 2 day workshop titled Faces where students can work from a photo of a face or I will have kits and a pattern for my quilt Nameless Afghan Girl. I received permission from photographer Steve McCurry to use his famous photo.

I hope I have caught you up on some of my activities and projects I have been working on. We only a few more weeks till Christmas and I just have 3 T-shirt quilts to make! That feels good. I will be spending the end of next week and weekend traveling to Rhode Island and teaching to the Narragsett Bay Quilt Guild. I’m prepping for that this weekend and looking forward to that trip although traveling form California I’m going to be in for a bit of a temperature change.

Two Amazing Weeks

September 18, 2018

September has been a month of travel for me and also a month of firsts. Artistic Alchemy held their fifth annual retreat at Zephyr Point at Lake Tahoe and it was my first year as one of the teachers. I then traveled to Cleveland, Ohio to record three segments for Quilting Arts TV with Susan Brubaker Knapp. As a long time subscriber to the Quilting Arts magazine it was amazing to be hanging out with the staff and other quilt artists.

The Artistic Alchemy Retreat started on Labor Day. As all the traffic was heading home from Lake Tahoe we were driving east which was perfect. About 40 students attended the four classes, and the open studio option, spread fairly equally between the four teachers. Sandra Bruce had very eager students learning her Material Matrix technique, Mary Boalt inspired us all with the wonderful painted and stamped canvases her students made and Heidi Emmett encouraged her ladies to make numerous wearables in the upcycling part of the workshop. I was teaching Fabric Collage Addiction and my students created a varied collection of collages from patterns they made from their own photographs they brought to class.

Fun times at the 2018 Artistic Alchemy Retreat

Having three and a half days was the perfect amount of time to work on one project continuously. I did a couple of demos each day, shared a selection of my work, answered many questions and encouraged students to try free motion quilting. After dinner every evening students gathered to hear the teachers spotlight whilst sharing of some of their work, student show and tell and raffle prizes. Luckily this year I was able to collect some giveaways from various individuals and companies that generously donated fabric etc for us to share.

I want to thank…. Windham Fabrics, Marcia Derse, Uppercase magazine, Moda fabrics, Turtle Hand Batiks, The Warm Company, Terial Magic, Dharma Trading, Nancy’s Notions for generously sending gifts for our lucky attendees.

One of my favorite parts of this retreat was the location and the perfect weather. Early in the morning I would take a stroll to the dock to enjoy the lake and give myself a chance to wake up. Then a walk before dinner was a good opportunity to get some fresh air and stretch my legs after a day in class. The fact that all your meals were provided, food was good, plentiful and varied and you did not have to worry about washing up, was a great boost.

My workshop this year was Fabric Collage Addiction and I just want to share some of the work of my eight students. At the retreat we can have up to 12 students, so these small class numbers allow for plenty of one-on-one time.

After 3 days at home I was then heading off to Cleveland, Ohio with a large suitcase and three projects in hand. I was to record three segments for Quilting Arts TV series 2300 and 2400 and was lucky to travel with the Pixeladies who were also recording on the same day.

We arrived at the studio on Tuesday to get the lay of the land and meet the quilt artists recording that day. I took the opportunity to work with Jeanine from Bernina and set up the sewing machine for my 3 segments the following day. I was first on the line-up and so organized my first project, making upcycled tote bags from food wrappers, in the studio.

Working with Susan Brubaker Knapp was like a dream come true and I surprised myself by not feeling nervous when recording began. I think figuring out the timing was the hardest thing but plenty of practicing at home helped me out there. I was pleasantly surprised when the segment filming wound up and I had covered everything I intended to.

After my first taping I had a short break while Enid Gjelten Weichselbaum recorded her two segments, then I was back on. My second project was making travel journal quilts and finally fabric collage pet portraits. Having plenty of samples to talk about helped fill the time after I demonstrated my collage and did some free motion quilting. Finally it was lunchtime and I was able to relax. I throughly enjoyed my time and experience at QATV. What an amazing oppurtunity.