Weekend of Quilting Fun with Merced's Gateway Quilters Guild

What an honor and absolute delight to return to the Gateway Quilters Guild for a 3-day Quilting Weekend!  It was so nice to see a number of familiar faces from my last visit, which focused on fabric dyeing.  The festivities kicked off Friday night, with their monthly meeting (which was moved to a Friday night), decadent desserts, and the debut of my new Free Motion CREA-TV and Reality lecture/trunk show.  This is my unique take on FMQing through the lens of Reality TV, and is packed with quilting tips and inspiration!

The new lecture made for the perfect segue into Saturday's Pebble & Play! workshop! What a fun group, which included a large number of quilters brand new to free motion quilting!!  One quilter had recently joined the guild and was taking her first guild workshop.  Another quilter was taking her new Bernina sewing machine out for its maiden voyage!  And guess what?!?  Both were very successful in filling their fat quarter sandwiches with gorgous pebble designs!!  I just love that there is something for everyone in this choose-your-own-adventure workshop!!

Pebble & Play! Posse

Here are some action shots from the afternoon...

And more snapshots from all around the workshop space...

And here is a sampling of quilt sandwiches stitched over the course of the day...

In less than 6 hours, everyone made such wonderful pebbling progress...I can't wait to see how their skills continue as they practice, practice, practice!

The next day, we swapped out everyone's darning foot for a 1/4" piecing foot for a day of Free Styling & Spiraling!

Free Styling, Spiraling & Smiling!

We started out with square spirangles before moving onto those tricky triangle spirangles!  Check out just a few of the many spirangles "wonkified" over the course of the day using two different improvisational techniques.

And just like all these fabulous spiral blocks, my visit flew by in a whirlwind!!  Many thanks to Susan and her family for their wonderful hospitality, and to the entire Gateway Quilters Guild for a truly fun-filled weekend!!