It’s the third week of October already… how did that happen? As usual, I feel like I’ve been busy, but what have I actually achieved? Writing my blog does help get things into perspective so thank you for joining me as I take a brief look back over the last six weeks.
Labor Day found us up in Wisconsin with John and Joanne and all the northern Redford’s. Just missing the Tennessee branch… Yes, I know Julia and Joanne don’t actually have the Redford name anymore but I will claim them all as ours!!
We drove there and back again on the Monday but Wednesday found me headed back to Wisconsin for the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show. The Global Artisans booth looked great!
It had been a while since I managed to get to the show. I had a quilt accepted to the judged show back in 2012 and went to see it … hard to believe that was 10 years ago…
I couldn’t stay in Madison for the whole show. I left on Friday morning and drove South via Verona to have lunch with Joanne on the Epic campus. Saturday and Sunday were spent with the lovely people of STITCHES zooming three classes… and then Monday morning I left the house again to drive south to Springfield and the members of Q.U.I.L.T.S. Take a look at their website to see what that stands for…
We enjoyed Lessons Learned While Quilting on the Monday evening
Show and tell was lively and fun.
Ready for the holidays, a few months early!
I taught both my Walking Foot class and my Free Motion class over the next two days. Some people chose one or the other and some took both. Let’s hope there will be more self-quilted quilts in future Show and Tells?
I drove back after Wednesday’s class to make sure I was home for a zoom lecture with the Eastside Quilters in Washington State on Thursday. We took a Trip Around the World… a lively group… let’s just say that Catherine has instituted a no googling rule… if you attended the lecture you might know why I have added that restriction…
Onwards!
I joined the Global Quilt Connection when it was started back in 2020. It has proved to be a very useful and rewarding group to belong to, a wonderful resource for teachers and guild alike. One of the fun things that I have taken part in are the Sampler Platters and I was pleased to be a part of the September one. I taught a 15 minute introduction to adding hand stitching to your machine quilting. The time limit is quite strictly enforced and it always challenges me to distill my class down to its most essential elements. I practice more for the samplers than almost anything else that I do.
Here’s a sample of my stitching…
Walking Foot Quilting – take the scenic route, add hand stitching is a fun workshop. I taught it as a three part, total six hour class for STITCHES back in April and it will be a three hour class in Houston in a couple of weeks. I will be adding it to my classes and lectures page sometime soon 😀
Time to fly again!
I took an early morning flight to San Diego, landing before 10 a.m. Pacific time!
I signed up for the SAQA summit in San Diego when registration opened. I couldn’t remember the last time I took a class and the opportunity to sit and learn for three days seemed too good to miss.
The first day was a mix of lectures and panel discussions, followed by a visit to the Visions Museum of Textile Art, with a side trip to the Inspirations Gallery to view “Threads of Inspiration”, a SAQA Southern California & Southern Nevada Regional Exhibition. A group of friends from Washington included me in their car pool and it was a super day.
Friday and Saturday were reserved for hands on workshops. I selected Improv Blocks with Sheila Frampton Cooper. I didn’t know what to expect but it seemed like a fun class.
We started with an exercise with cut strips to be arranged on our design wall… here’s mine half way to being stitched.
And here we are all done.
I moved on to making something a little further away from what you might expect from me. I used some of the scraps from my first piece and set to stitching all sorts of curves…
Just keep cutting and stitching…
Tada!
You might or might not see finished quilted pieces in the future.
I flew home Sunday after an inspiring few days, ready to set off again on Monday afternoon!
Through the fields to Kokomo, Indiana.
Sue came along for the ride and she took that picture… I am quite strictly hands off the phone while driving!
I traveled to Kokomo to give a lecture last year and this was a return trip to the Piecemakers Guild, to include an embroidery workshop.
We had a good turn out for the all day class.
Lots of stitching(and shopping) while working on the paisley design. Who knew you could do so much with some basic embroidery stitches?
A quick dinner and then back to set up for the evening lecture.
It was great to see everyone again!
Back home past more farms and fields…
Teddy turned one and we were able to join a family Face Time to celebrate. We were talking to Steve’s parents when the invite came through so they were able to join too! (we are in the little tiny square in the bottom right hand corner)
October is often a busy month, teaching-wise but this year worked out a little differently and we had time for a purely fun trip! We planned a trip to New Orleans with our friends Trevor and Elizabeth when we were at the wedding in the summer!
A picture on their balcony before we set off for the first evening.
Our first cocktails of the trip…
Quintessential French Quarter architecture
Beignets at Cafe du Monde in the City Park. We needed the sugar after the long walk up the Esplanade!
Music in the afternoon at The Spotted Cat (and anther cocktail)
Another walk, this one along the water front…
All in all a super three days away with nothing to do but enjoy ourselves!!
Last weekend I taught for STITCHES at home… my walking foot class in three, two hour sessions over two days. It is a great format, giving students time to stitch in between classes (or not!!). STITCHES keep the class recordings available for a couple of weeks so participants can rewatch at leisure. Next month will be real life STITCHES in Pasadena but then we will be back to Zoom in the new year. I post the class on my calendar page as soon as registration goes live each month and there is often a link in the side bar if you want to join in. This month’s students were truly coast to coast with a participant from Maryland and several on the West coast with other stitchers in cities in between!
We are in the midst of Fall here with wonderful colors this year. I got a new phone on Monday and have been playing with it. I’m hoping to include some hydrangeas in our landscaping next year. I snapped this picture outside our quilt guild meeting last night!
What’s next on the agenda?
I’ve been busy preparing and packing for a busy few weeks coming up soon. I will be flying to Houston for Market and Festival next week. I’ll be away eleven nights for that one. Seven classes, all with kits makes for lots of busy-ness! Then I’ll be back for one whole day before I fly to California for STITCHES SoCal in Pasadena. Four classes, all with kits there! And then I will be home another full day before I head down to Florida and the Ladies of the Lake quilt guild.
I think I am on track with my preparation… I have suitcases lined up on the landing upstairs, complete with lists and and they are filling up nicely. My plan is to have all the kits and retail product for all the different trips sorted before I fly to Texas next week. There is some overlap of classes so my teaching aids will need to be transferred between the bags and I will be doing laundry each time I’m home!
Will I see any of you there? In between the workshops at both shows I will be in the Global Artisans booth with Richard. He’s been working hard on sourcing fresh stock and making new samples. Richard is driving between Houston and Pasadena… that’s a fair few miles!
There are some spaces in some of my classes. Follow the exhibition links at the side of the page to find out more. I bring kits so the supply lists are manageable. You know it will be fun.
But first we have a girls’ trip planned for this weekend. I’m driving to Julia’s on Friday morning to pick her up before we head to Joanne’s, and then on to Sarah… Lauren is flying up from Nashville and we will spend two days together in Minneapolis. It snowed last weekend but we are promised more balmy temperatures… Sarah has planned a full schedule…
Always an adventure!
Wow, so much fun for you and everyone else too!