Highlights of 2017

To any of the few people who actually read this blog, I apologize. Again. Despite my best intentions, I have this tendency to be distracted by shiny objects, squirrels, and just about anything that moves.  And I don't keep up my posting.  

Phew, now that that's off my conscience, here are a few of the high spots of 2017.

 

January 17-20.  Road to California!

If you're remotely interested in quilting and you haven't heard of this annual show, you need to check it out.  Right now!  Road to California .  We'll wait right here until you come back.

Even though this is just a few miles from my home, I make sure to save up a weeks' vacation time so I can take a few classes and attend as many events as possible.  Icing on the cake is that they have a huge vendor hall with every kind of quilting machine, fabric, and other products that you can imagine.  The classes I chose this year:

Block Printing.  We learned how to stamp cleanly on fabric, how to load the block with different colors to add dimension and depth, and leaving portions of a block uncolored  for various effects.  On the round designs, empty space looks flawed.  On the leaves, empty space adds interest.  We also looked at printing on darker fabrics with light-colored inks.

Our main project was a silk scarf.  We were given several felt pens and told to go to town drawing anything we wanted to create a background for the blocks we were going to use.  Being drawing-challenged, I just drew a series of  curves in two colors and hoped for the best.   Once done, we sprayed the scarves with rubbing alcohol until saturated to let the colors run, and laid them out to dry.  Then we stamped them with various blocks, let them dry again, and ironed.  Considering my drawing inhibitions, I was pretty happy with my finished scarf.

Curves Drawn with Markers

Alcohol Making the Colors Run

Designs Stamped And Waiting to Dry

Dancing Cranes

This was a class in using Apliquik tools to make elegantly finished hand applique.  The pattern we used was Dancing Cranes by Kathy McNeil.  This is a slow-painstaking process, but I enjoyed every minute of the class.  This is the event, though, that made me realize I needed more than bifocals to see well enough to stitch neatly.  More on that later.  Maybe someday I'll actually finish the project... I don't think I have the patience to spend more than a few minutes at a time on this.

Every year they have a special event called the Roundabout.  They invite a number of artists to set up stations in one of the big conference rooms.  The attendees can choose any station where there's room, then the artist has 15 minutes to demonstrate their tools, techniques, supplies, etc. At the end of that time, the attendees have to move to a different station.  They repeat this five or six times.  At the end, you get to shop.  This was my first year attending, and it was hard to choose which demonstrations to attend - they all looked so interesting.  The most notable part of the evening was meeting Gudrun Erla, who will have a huge impact on my future quilting.

A few days later...

Took the APQS longarm certification class again.  I had already forgotten juat about everything we learned in the first class and certainly wasn't ready to use a machine unsupervised.  I wonder if I'll ever like the results of my free-motion quilting - heavily leaning toward computerized designs.

 

  And just a few more days later...

I received my new Craftoptics prescription bifocals with magnifying scopes and light in the mail.  Now I can see to thread a needle and other fun stuff without resorting to my iphone camera.  Earlier I mentioned how hard it was to see my applique project in class.  Well, there was a man in the class who sat down and methodically arranged all his tools and supplies in his workspace.  Finally, he opened up a zipper case and took out the geekiest looking pair of glasses with binoculars attached.  But while I was struggling to see my stitching, he calmly sat and stitched quite happily.  

After the class I booked it down to the Craftopics booth in the marketplace and ordered a pair for myself.  Lucky for me I had just had an eye exam and still had a copy of my prescription in my purse.  One of the best 'crafting' purchases I've ever made.  What I really like is that when my prescription changes enough to warrant it, I can send the glasses back in to be updated for a nominal cost.  Highly recommend this company!

 

 February 18-20  The Thrill of a Twill Workshop

My friends at Studio 66 (now sadly just a memory) organized this three-day workshop with Robyn Spady.  Another fangirl moment for me - Robyn is another superstar in the weaving world and such a gifted teacher!  

The workshop emphasized advancing and networking twills, as well as covered corkscrew twills and echo weaves. We explored how versatile a single threading can be throughout the three days.  I can't recommend a class with Robyn highly enough.  We received clear instructions for warping our looms in advance so we could start weaving right away.  Her in-person instruction was equally clear, and she is such an engaging speaker.  She also spent one-on-one time with each of the students in the workshop while we worked at various phases of our samplers.

 

April 7 - Last Block of the Month Class at Becky's Busy Bee

This was unexpectedly the last month of a BOM class to make an Amish with a Twist quilt.  The design is by Nancy Rink, who has since published at least three additional  'Amish' patterns.  The format of this class was perfect for me.  All you had to pay for was a small class fee to get the first month's kit.  Every month, if you came in with the previous month's work completed, they gave you the next month's kit, fabric and all, for free. The only fabric you'd have to buy is the backing and material for the sashing between the blocks.  Of course, you can't go into a quilt store without doing some shopping so I don't think they suffered any.

The quilt is actually designed as a five-month program, where you complete three lessons each month, but ours was spread out over a few extra months.  Sadly, Becky's announced that they would be closing their doors shortly, and they gave us the remaining six kits free of charge.  Very generous, I thought.   But without the pressure to finish just that one block each month, guess what has happened with this project?  Yep, sitting in a box while my squirrel syndrome leads me on to new projects.  

Becky's actually held out for nearly a year before they finally closed their doors.  I will miss that store - friendly atmosphere, great teachers, beautiful fabrics, and the best accuquilt selection I've ever seen.

My Completed Blocks Plus the Finishing Kit Showing a Finished Quilt

May - I actually finished some yarn!

 

The blue/green yarn is some Navajo plied Merino.  I also Navajo plied some brown alpaca/silk singles I spun months earlier and misplaced. The larger of the reddish yarns is a two ply merino I actually spun and plied in only two weeks - a new record for me. The smaller is Navajo plied singles left over from larger project.

July - Eleanor Burns' Birthday Lunch and Celtic Quilting Class

Fangirl time again.  My sister and I had been taking accuquilt classes at Quilt in a Day.  This month, after her filming session , we had a potluck birthday lunch for Eleanor. She is such a gracious and charming lady, and her sessions are always lively and fun.

 

Can You Find Eleanor?

 Another fun quilting class with my sister at Annie's Quilting Den. We learned to cut and fold bias tape using a nifty little tool to use in a Celtic knot design. This is my work in progress- just a few more feet of binding to arrange then comes the challenge of adding borders and actually finishing something.

 

 

October - Getting Crafty with Food for Halloween!

Not fiber arts but I have to share this year's office treats.  Couldn't decide which of two projects (seen on facebook) to do, so I did both. No explanation needed for the donuts.  The brain is a giant cheese ball colored with green and black food color shaped in a brain mold.  Everything was eaten this year.