My return flight from
filming TQS in LaVeta, CO arrived in San Francisco around midnight and the very next morning, I was heading south to Morgan Hill for a jam-packed day of quilting with the
Piece by Piece Quilters. First up was a full day Walking Foot WOW! workshop.
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| Walking Foot WOW! with Piece by Piece Quilters |
Despite the heatwave, these quilters were an industrious group as they added beautiful, modern quilted texture to their quilt sandwiches!!
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| Modern Texture Galore!!! |
With over 20 different designs discussed, there is so much variety to everyone's samplers!! However, in this last workshop, Parallel Lines and Matchstick Quilting was a very popular selection with more than half the class filling in one or more blocks with this modern design!
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| Love All Those Modern Lines!! |
Of course, there were quite a few fearless quilters who embraced the curvilinear designs that can also be achieved with a walking foot, incorporating them into designs that are usually comprised of straight lines/rays. The curves add such fabulous texture and energy to these designs!!
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| Courageous Curves |
And I am always delighted to see quilters add their own twists to the designs. Strips of blue tape are used to mark out many of the designs. One resourceful quilters (left green image) used small tabs of blue tape to serve as markers for her design. Another quilter stitched out a grid using non-parallel lines, which adds so much interest!!
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| Deft and Daring Deviations! |
After class, we grabbed some dinner and then it was time for their General Meeting. I laid out my quilts and set up the A/V for my lecture/trunk show and then had a chance to connect with guild members before the meeting began. When it came time for my presentation, I went to resume my presentation and nothing! I tried powering up the projector again and still nothing. Turns out there was no power running to the projector or my laptop!! We tried running the powercord to a different outlet and still nothing. It looked like all that Walking Foot quilting may have blown a circuit or two. Had this happened a year or so ago, I would have been in full-blown panic mode. But I have to credit my
Comedy Improv training for helping me to stay cool under pressure. I just started improvising and luckily after a minute or so, a member was able to locate a working outlet and we were back in business!!
Many thanks to the Piece by Piece Quilters for being such a fabulous group of quilters!! You certainly kept me energized!!
Beautiful classwork. It's fun to see how your students improvise on your score. And good improvisation on your part, too. It's scary to have the A/V blow.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ann...I am a huge fan of improv--whether it is taking classes, student designs or in response to A/V glitches! I think everyone should incorporate more improv into their lives!!
DeleteIt was a wonderful day. The class was a lot of fun, Mel. I certainly learned a lot. You are a very good teacher. The General Meeting, despite my few minutes oa panic when we could get the power to work, was terrific. You are certainly creative...how many people are inspired by the back of a portable space heater? I'm looking forward to talking another one of your classes.
ReplyDeleteI so enjoyed my all day quilting visit with you and your guildmates! I am so glad you learned lots of new modern texture to add to your quilt tops!! Creative inspiration is truly all around--including our bathrooms!! Glad to have inspired you and I hope our quilting paths cross again soon!!
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