ATC madness

Linn is here! Hurrah! She arrived on Thursday. Saturday was the Artist Trading Card (ATC) workshop. Although it only had 6 participants we had fun and were productive in the way that only small groups can be. We unlocked our creativity and our glue sticks/spray/etc. Linn had brought lots of stuff - fabrics including some wonderful sheers, threads - iron on and others, sequins - all types and some sequin waste, beads, paints, crayons, and and and.... It made the creativity easy.

We made individual cards rather than a whole sheet at a time. We had card blanks (watercolor paper) and separate labels to apply. We started with the crayons that are watercolors. It was a great way to jump in with both feet and create a background. The class was very diverse and our cards were very different - even if we used the same materials.

As time went on cards acquired names. I created and finished 4 and then began a series In the picture (which does not do justice to the texturedness of the cards) they are:
summer spring
autumn winter
Fire 1 Fire 2 - these are in process



Running around for turkey day and family gathering. Hope everyone's day is full of good food and good cheer!

Ornaments

First a bit of catching up. A few posts ago I mentioned creating ornaments for our fund raiser. Here is a pic of the ones I did. There were 2 of the "ornament" but one is on the opportunity drawing swag. The pattern is a free on from the Rainbow Gallery website. The button trees were not my idea, but they were quick and fun to make.

CQ Weekend

Fun - Frustrating - definitely crazy!

It was a "retreat" 3 day weekend for quilters at the local quilt shop - Always Quilting. There were about 30 people. Each person had their own machine and stuff to work on. About 1/3 were there to do their own projects, just share the atmosphere. About 1/3 were there to do crazy patch projects - templated crazy patch without any embroidery. About 1/3 were there to do true crazy quilting or at least find out about it.

Several of the ladies had signed up for Sharon B's tour classes, but had yet to be informed that the tour was canceled. We did manage to meet the original goal for the class which was to ensure that they had 4-6 blocks built and a familiarity with some of the basic stitches. I'm not sure we managed to do more although I did talk lots about design and placement of stitches, motifs, bits and bobs, etc.

While the core of the 9 1/2 people in my "group" got "it" and even ran with it, 3 1/2 opted out after the first day to do their own thing, although they did attend the "talk" portions. Everyone in our group said they enjoyed it and learned lots, but I guess I am more used to more "heavy duty" workshops where you work hard and learn lots. This was a LOT more relaxed.

Things I would do differently:
•really work at building blocks with different methods - we talked different methods but did not push it.
•do most of the talking for the first hour in the am and then again after lunch - but once they settle down. We had alternated talking design and stitches - 6 talks on each through out the time - 30 min on average for each (the syllabus was 20 pages). However, the "audience" was not always attentive as they really wanted to get on with the sewing early on. In part this is the quilt background - give them a pattern and they do it. I'm not unhappy, just need to factor in the differences. Once they got their blocks built then they were happier about the talks - they realized their value.
•have a bigger white board for drawing - I only had a 2'x3'. They could see it but...

Things that worked really well:
•having a pile of fabrics and bits and bobs that they could buy in to for a set fee
•having preprinted templates - 3 for them to play with to start. After #3 they were ready to do one freehand.
•having the print picture on fabric bits for them - we did 4 pages with around 20 Victorian motifs/pictures.
•doing the stitch learning on aida cloth and having them each have a CQ Stitch Guide. I talked about the how of the stitch and made them use the guides. After all I won't be there with them when they are at home. There were a couple who wanted more hand holding, but this method worked mostly okay.

Food was good and there was plenty of lighter fare. Atmosphere was pretty fun, but there are things we could do to make it less "serious". I'm afraid some of my frustration was showing - trying to talk over the other 2 groups when they had not settled down yet (sigh!).

Next up, the shop wants to have a regular CQ meeting time/monthly. Perhaps with classes people can take quarterly. We shall see.

Need to take more SharonB classes to learn more!!! I was able to answer most of the questions and address the issues raised, but I am not fluent yet in CQ design.

Learned lots. Made a couple friends. People seemed to really appreciate the effort I made to convey information -- even a couple in the other groups.

Final score: 5 new cq people, 3 timidly trying, 1 1/2 will consider trying cq next year -- after the current rounds of projects is done. Plus a couple more who might be interested after listening in despite the chaos.

All in all a positive weekend.

Running Fast - So What's New?

I commented this weekend to friends that I was "running fast"/juggling and they replied "so what's new?". Guess a lot of my life is like that. Just so long as I remember what is important -- friends and family, I guess I'm doing okay.

Shortly after my last post, I received a call from my cousin that her husband had died and they were having a memorial. Would I come? So off to Beaverton for the weekend. It was way better than I expected as a visit. We will see if the seeds that were planted are fruitful.

Came back to do my EGA local chapter meeting. Fun needlepoint stuff with wierd threads. Sometimes you just need to do something different!

City wide garage sale on the 29th - whew! Put out lots of stuff and lots went away. We excavated in the storage lockers and brought home about 2 dozen boxes of stuff. Some of the china I knew I wanted or is slated to go to various people - it is all washed and cleaned now. The other stuff was washed and put out for sale. Enough stuff went away that we packed down with one less box. Still no nibbles on the furniture (sigh). Will try to do another garage sale in Oct to make more stuff go away.

Put together my computer "slide" show of "Thread of Time: A Look at Needlework Throughout History". Had to put a cap at 1650 forward in order to do justice to the prior time pieces. It ran about 1 hr 15 min and I did some shortening as we moved through the presentation. Learned enough about powerpoint to do the presentation and then purchased a projector to do the presentation. Figured since I hope to do the show several times in the next year or so that it would pay for itself.

Then off to my Regional EGA weekend set of meetings - finance, board, Presidents, and Regional. Did lots of info collection to prep for the training I'm doing at the February meeting.

Missed GWW as it was opposite the EGA weekend of meetings. Will miss October Crown next year as it is opposite the EGA weekend of meetings and it is the weekend that if all goes as planned I would become Regional Director - presuming they still want me after the Feb presentation. Might be able to do GWW next year. I enjoyed the classes the last time we went.

Spent this last week catching up and having a house guest. We played a bit and then cooked like crazy in prep for Oct Crown -- 18 lamb hand pies, 24 chicken and leek hand pies and 20 apple handpies. We bought foccacia at the farmers market and Anne bought some yummy bread. We had lots of food and unfortunately lots came home. We ate well.

It rained on Friday - not bad but enough that everything was damp/wet. It stopped early evening and Saturday and Sunday were dry.

Friday evening, Will squired to Brion of Bellatrix. It was awesome!

The fighting was great. There were around 80 fighters in the list and only one unbelted was asked to cross over to the belted ranks to even the fields. The one unbelted was a woman whose partner won fighting for her. Did the needleworkers meeting. Did the Arachne's Web meeting. Presented the Kneeling carpets -- lots of awed sounds. Now to do the history of them for the history website. Received a Grant of Arms for the project. It is very nice to have one's work appreciated.

Meanwhile -- painting on our house will begin this week. This weekend we are supposed to do a Garagae Sale. Next week is my EGA meeting and all my ornaments for the fundraiser need to be finished -- 5 button/bead felt tree ornaments are embellishd, 2 of 3 of the needlepoint ornaments are stitched. Need to finish prepping for the 3 day CQ weekend - need to get at least 4 squares stitched and embellished.

Plus goldwork -- while Linn is here she is teaching a goldwork class down in San Jose. There are still slots open for it -- November 24. A lady contacted me since she was interested in goldwork. I told her Linn might be able to do a class and it seems to be happening.

So yes I am running fast. I'll post photos of the ornaments and the blocks in the upcoming weeks.

Fun Upcoming Workshop

Actually for me it will be a fun 2 weeks. My mentor Linn Skinner will be coming to the San Francisco Bay Area. Since she is here we are a taking advantage of her presence and scheduling workshops and classes.

First up is a workshop on making Artists Trading Cards (ATCs). Full details of the workshop can be found here . It is play time!!!

Then we are off to a medieval feast and then a stitching afternoon. We get to relax for a couple days and then it is Thanksgiving. We are doing the full feast with all the trimmings.

Then Linn will be doing a class at Always Quilting on some lesser know Victorian Crazy Quilt Stitches - tentatively set for Nov 23 in the afternoon. Then on the following Tuesday, Linn is giving a lecture/slide show & look at examples on 19th C. School Room Samplers.

It will be full few days with lots of stitching and laughs.