Traveling Teaching Adventures with Mid Valley Quilt Guild

Last week I had the pleasure of visiting with the Mid Valley Quilt Guild, a vibrant guild located in Salem, OR. This guild is so active that they offer a day and evening meeting for their membership, both of which were packed with announcements for their upcoming programs, philanthropy efforts, and spring quilt show. I especially got a kick out of their "What Were You Thinking?" quilt show category, inviting members to celebrate the challenges and/or problems encountered during the creation and/or construction of their quilt, with equally fun awards including a "Bless Your Heart" (aka Nice Try) award for quilts that didn't completely recover despite great efforts!

In addition to offering two meeting time slots, their meetings are hybrid with several members logging on remotely via Zoom. Below are some photos of the tech set up at the Scottish Rite center venue. 

I presented my Fun & Games in Quilting lecture for the morning meeting which was a packed crowd requiring more chairs to be brought into the hall. It was fun to see several members playing the various quilted games I set up around the perimeter of the room including Memory Match and a Bullseye Toss game, and the fun & games prize pack was won by a young quilter in attendance!

After the meeting I joined several of the board members/volunteers for a lovely lunch before heading out for an afternoon of visiting the local art supply shops with Erin. Of course I found a few goodies to incorporate into my mixed media play: little labels, a pack of textured papers, and these awesome Pentel Arts Sparkle Pop Metallic Gel Ink Pens with ink that appears differently on dark vs. light backgrounds, which you can see in my test swatches below. 

Additional art inspiration was discovered throughout my journey including this modern hotel carpet design and carved columns. 

Thank goodness for this welcome basket which helped power me up for the evening meeting where I presented Challenge Yourself with a few familiar faces from the morning along with quite a few new faces!

The following day was Intriguing Interleaves where everyone made terrific progress on their projects. We had one member complete the construction/quilting in class and I've received more photos of finished projects via email and social media!!

Many thanks to Mid Valley Quilt Guild for the warm welcome. Special thanks to Erin and Marsha for being fabulous co-hosts during my visit. Erin met me in the mornings to get me and all my suitcases to the various meetings/workshop, while making time to visit art supply shops. And Marsha for meeting me at the Portland Airport which involved battling some seriously heavy rain and traffic, while providing excellent conversation thorughout my visit.  

I'll close by sharing two fun discoveries in Terminal E of the Portland Airport...

I was immediately drawn to the vibrant rainbows and messages of love in the "Everyone on This Planet is Family" art installation by Larry Yes. It was happy, hopeful, and filled with LOVE!

Don't forget to look up to see "The City and the Sky" permenent sculptural installation by Jacob Hashimoto. I was fascinated by the layers of pattern and colors that changed as you walked below the piece! It was turning dark outside so my photos do not capture the magnitude or brilliance of this installation so be sure to click the link above to see photos on Jacob's website gallery.