A Teaching Trip & What's New?

I would have to say that winter is upon us! It's a great time for getting in the studio and getting things done.

Look at what arrived in the mail last week! A copy of my friend Anna Hergert's new Inspiration Kantha book. I will be delving into the book in more detail shortly and will be posting a review of it. I must say that I love the look of Kantha stitches, and think they would be a fantastic way to use my embroidery-weight hand-dyed threads!!

Just returning from a teaching trip (more on that in a minute), and recovering from a cold I caught while on said teaching trip, I've been working on finally getting my peony quilt quilted. I am teaching how to make this quilt (the other choice is Sunkissed Poppy) at a three-day retreat at Inspired Getaways December 1-3. I think there are  a couple of spaces available, so should you be interested, do check the website at http://inspiredgetaways.ca/. I even have hand-dyed kits available for you. All you need is a few supplies, like fusible web. You stay there for the three days, with all meals provided so you can focus on completing the quilt. I'll be doing a follow-up retreat in May 2018 where students get to design their own nature quilt.

So I had a lovely little trip to New York State and a visit with the Champlain Valley Quilters Guild of New York. Such a warm and welcoming group. I delivered a talk to them on the Wednesday night, and then on Thursday we worked with Tsukineko Inks and Inktense Pencils.

This group was really focused and wanted to experiment too, so I learned a lot from them.

It was really fun and interesting to have this mother-son team in the class. Kevin has an art background and is interested in taking his art to fabric.

After my time with the guild, I headed south to Poughkeepsie to visit a friend. She was sick with a cold when I arrived, and I had just started with mine. On my first day I took a drive around town, and did a bit of shopping. Poughkeepsie has many lovely old residences and buildings, and is situated in the beautiful Hudson River Valley. This tree stopped me in my tracks, and I had to turn my car around to get a photo. Isn't it stunning?

 

Since my friend and I were both ill, I decided to head home a bit early. Good thing because my cold really hit the next day. Peekaboo was waiting for me, and was on my lap within moments of being home. She spent a lot of time there while I got better.

When I finish stitching the peony quilt, I'll be starting in on some new designs. Stay tuned!