2022 It's going to be a Creative Year

February 19, 2022

January was a crazy, busy month for me with in-person events that had been booked well in advance of the lingering Covid threats. I taught at Craft Napa, Road to California, a local needlearts group and then traveled to Florida for a guild retreat.

Simple Layered Stitch evening class at Craft Napa Jan 2022

Wearing masks to teach is the normal at this time, especially in California where vaccines are required also. I did miss the social aspect at these events but it was good to be around creatives doing what we love. With time to unload and repack I set off for Ontario, CA for Road to California and a 3-day Pet Portrait workshop I was teaching.

I think I had about a weeks break before repacking for a week long trip to Florida. I was invited as the “national” teacher to the Peace River Quilters retreat at Lake Pierce near Haines City. When I got up in the morning I was stunned by the beauty of the lake and the trees dripping with Spanish moss.

I was teaching two classes here; the first Sunflowers and then T-shirt Quilts. I was very happy that my students worked so hard, making excellent progress, finishing or nearly finishing their projects in one day. Tom even got to stitch on his sunflower. The retreat was really fun, I felt spoilt that I could hang out, take short walks at this beautiful location before heading to their home town of Punta Gorda for more fun.

One member of the Peace River quilters decided it would be a good idea to make a quilted car cover and little did she know what she was taking on! With a few friends and donated orphan quilt blocks they put this van cover together just in time for the retreat. It was really impressive!

Sunsets at the retreat center were beautiful. I got to look for gators, and I think I saw a baby one hanging out in the water! Leaving for Punta Gorda with the quilters we stopped for a Cuban lunch on the way. The weather warmed up from Florida’s cold snap and I was ready for palm trees and sunshine.

Back at the guilds hometown I got to present at the quilt meeting and the following day taught my Fabulous Fish Fabric Collage class. My host Becky and friends kindly took me to see Manatees at Manatee Park at Fort Meyers and then Burrowing Owls that hang out in the empty lots near their home. Everyone was so kind, fun to work with but I was happy to come home.

Once back I had a few days to apply to a SAQA exhibition. The problem was I had yet to make the quilts! For Prism Play entry quilts had to be 15” x 45” and made using the colors from one color card. I had chosen a yellow/green card and blue/green. I am happy to say I did get them made and entered on time!

If you have ever wanted to take a fabric collage class from me there are a few opportunities this year. I will be teaching for the Quiltfest Virtual Schoolhouse on May 11-14th. Wildflowers, Three Hens, Vases and Succulents. These are all 3hr online classes with kits available. Registration is now open.

Blue Lupine part of Wildflower Fabric Collage

Aug 3-4 I will be at IQF Long Beach teaching three classes Dazzling Dogs and Cats 1 day , Wildflowers and Fabulous Fish both 3 hr classes. Kits are included in these workshops. Finally I will be teaching at IQF Houston between Oct 31-Nov 5 classes TBD.

I am happy to announce I will be teaching at Empty Spools at Asilomar April 21-26th 2023 with a five day in depth study of fabric collage, Animal or Pet Portraits.

2022 will be a creative year for me as I work on new projects, catch up on the custom quilts I make and travel and teach.

End of Year Review 2021

December 30, 2021

I can’t believe its the end of the year and one of my goals had been to post on my blog more regularly and to send out monthly newsletters. Alas, these goals I did not achieve! Going into 2022 this is really something I am going to work on.

Covid continued into 2021. We all gradually got vaccinated and then boosted and coming to the end of the year the virus is affecting more people than ever. It will be part of daily life for quite some time now so teaching and presenting online to guilds and quilt shows around the country and globe is the norm. It is great to teach to an audience that otherwise I would not have been able to reach.

Hand stitched notebook/planner cover in preparation for 2022

I like to add a summary here of how I spent my time over the year. This is my record of what I achieved in quilts, classes taught and quilts donated.

Memory Quilts 46

Art Quilts 18

Donated Quilts 8

Lectures and Workshops taught online 32

Lectures and Workshops taught in Person 9

Five days and Five workshops I taught at Fall Festival Houston in October 2021

It was a hard year for Artistic Alchemy this year. Having to postpone the retreat from 2020 we went ahead with preparations for the retreat in Sept 2021 despite pandemic uncertainties. But shortly before it was a wildfire threatening South Lake Tahoe that got it shut down. Smoke levels and air qualities issues were bad enough but when the fire approached the lake we knew the event could not happen. Sadly earlier in the year we had decided this was going to be our last retreat. Currently plans for Artistic Alchemy are on hold.

Dobbins Hall at Zephyr Point Conference Center for Art Quilt Tahoe

Every year I try to make one big quilt but I didn’t achieve this goal. I received so many custom quilts to make for people that I felt a little overwhelmed. I do enjoy making these quilts as its always a challenge and I think they do make a difference in peoples lives especially when they are clothes or ties of a loved one that is no longer around. Next year I will be only taking on a few custom quilts.

Below is a compilation photo of some of the quilts that I did make for people. One donation quilt was for the Social Justice Sewing Academy remembrance quilt project made for a family of a man who was killed through police intervention. I also made two quilts for a man who lost is wife in a motorcycle accident.

A few of the custom quilts I have made this year

I made some custom pet portraits and also some new samples for new classes I plan to teach in 2022. I hoped to make a dent in the 15+ collage quilts I have ready to free-motion quilt and finish but didn’t! My Coursecraft Love of Pets Online workshop still continues to be popular and I would love to write some more workshops.

Some of the animal quilts I made include custom pet portraits and a SAQA donation quilt

My family and I did get to take a few road trips this year visiting Cayucos on the Central California Coast, Crater Lake in Oreon and The Redwoods on the Northern California Coast. Visiting the Fern Grotto was incredible. And not forgetting a big family week on Kauai in October. Its been over two years since I visited my family in England so a trip back home is overdue.

Oct/Nov I had three weeks of crazy travel. A relaxing weeks vacation in Kauai which was wonderful staying on the North Shore next to the ocean. A day at home then I flew to Houston to teach for five days at the Fall Festival. I met some amazing, enthusiastic students and the energy at Houston is always great. Then a night at home before driving to Lake Tahoe to attend a Pat Pauly fabric printing workshop at Art Quilt Tahoe. It was a crazy busy time but I enjoyed it all!

Going into 2022 I am making preparations for a busy January of teaching; Craft Napa, Road to California and Peace River Quilt Guild retreat in Florida. I recently had a hand stitching article published in Quilting Arts magazine about the Crazy Covid Stitching I’ve been doing. This is the mediative work I do in my downtime and is a workshop for Craft Napa.

22 is my favorite number. I was born on the 22nd, as a child I lived in a house number 22 and our phone number had 22 in it. So this is how it became my favorite number. I have a feeling its going to be a good year.

Self Portrait 2020 20” x 20” Made in 2021

Best wishes for 2022. Let’s hope its a healthy, creative and hopeful year.

Back to School and the End of Summer

September 10, 2021

Its been a while since i wrote here but life has been busy and when I put pressure on myself to write a post and it doesn’t usually happen. I have good intentions of blogging more. I’ll give you a quick update of some of the things I have been up to recently and exciting new offerings coming up.

MY Sloth for the 2021 SAQA Benefit Auction

This small 12” x 12” quilt is my donation this year to the SAQA Benefit Auction. The Studio Artists Quilt Association holds this fundraising event every year and its always fun to see what my quilt will sell for and who buys it. I usually purchase one small quilt a year from a quilt artist.

Sandra Bruce, Heidi Emmett and myself AKA Artistic Alchemy

This was the week for our annual retreat at Zephyr Point Conference Center but due to the Caldor Fire near South Lake Tahoe it was cancelled. This was a shame but with recent fires the air quality had been horrible at Lake Tahoe and ladies were cancelling left and right! We did get together this week to divvy up the giveaways and raffle prizes to those that missed out. Our generous sponsors were C&T Publishing, Quiltfolk Magazine, Mistyfuse, Marcia Derse, Turtlehand Batik and Dharma Trading. Thank you.

This year I decided to make a Temperature Quilt. If you haven’t heard of this it was started by members of the Modern Quilt Guild. Everyday I record the high and low temperature for that day. I chose a Drunkards Path block with the high being the main fabric and the low is the corner. I started this on April 1st and try everyday to add the next block rotating it depending if the temp went up or down. My plan is to add grey tones when it rains. Check back for my progress!

During Covid I have taken to hand-stitching in the evenings and it has mostly been along the theme that is pictured above. I have made a large piece that I call my Crazy Covid Stitching 2020, a sampler strip stitched on linen and these two projects; a journal cover and small purse. Its a class I plan on teaching in the future and I’ll be making kits that will be available in my shop soon.

Much of my time has been spent teaching or making custom memory quilts and so my collage work has taken a back seat. Recently I did get to finish this portrait of Rigby. Coming up in October I will be teaching Pet Portraits at the International Quilt Festival in Houston and also a 3-day Pet Portrait class at the Road to California event in January 2022.

Foothill Quilters Guild Block of the Month

I have never done a Block of the Month before and when I heard my local guild was going to be using scraps and making quilts from the book Little Handful of Scraps, I decide to join. Little did I know it was making miniature quilts! And this means cutting, sewing and pressing all has to be super precise and perfect. Not something I had really strived to do before, “perfection is over-rated!”. I have learned I have to slow down, embrace this way for quilting and try my best. You never know I might learn something!

This photo I took as one of my sunflowers was opening up. I call it my ‘Shy Sunflower’. Pattern available in my shop. They now are looking shriveled and dry as summer comes to a close. The weather is still hot, we had some rain last night but I feel Autumn is on its way.

Check out my shop for other patterns and kits I have for sale, my calendar for my teachings schedule and teaching page for classes that I can teach to you guild or group either in person or on Zoom.

Thanks for reading along.