Tag Archives: scrappy squares

9 Comments

In April I had the honor of presenting at two Meet the Teachers events in California. First, I attended the Northern California Quilt Council event about an hour from my house. Later that week I flew down to Long Beach to attend the event hosted by Southern California Council of Quilt Guilds. The general idea of these two events is similar, though the Southern California event is larger scale. In both cases, the participating teachers have a booth or table space to display their workshop offerings and promotional materials. Each teacher is allowed three minutes on stage to give a short spiel on their workshop and lecture offerings and there is time for guild representatives to circle the room and speak one-on-one with the teachers.

I attended NCQC Meet the Teachers in 2017 as an observer with my guild program chairs. It was helpful for me to have an idea of how the event is run so I would know what to expect. That information, together with insight from my friend Mel, was very helpful in preparing for attending as a participant this year. Some teachers had a much more elaborate setup than I did, but I had all the necessary items covered. I brought sample quilts, postcards that included photos of my workshop offerings, and a signup sheet for my newsletter. The one thing I'd definitely add next time is a quilt stand for hanging a quilt behind me at my table.

On stage the volunteers hold up each teacher's class sample quilts while the teacher gives their spiel. (Quilt holders are the best!) I shared about my two Planned Improv workshops, Scrappy Squares and All About Angles, as well as my three lecture offerings.

At my table I had a few more samples for people to see. And I gave the 30-second version of my spiel to the guild representatives who came by the table.

For the Southern California event, I traveled with my friend Mel Beach. (Thanks to her for snapping a few pictures of me!) You can read more about the fun we had in her recap of the events.

A great big thank you to all the NCQC and SCCQG volunteers for hosting Meet the Teachers! It's such a great opportunity and both events ran so smoothly. Also, thank you to all of the guild representatives (some of whom traveled quite a distance) for attending the event, and for stopping by my table to chat.

I'm curious. For those of you who live outside of California, are there organizations hosting events like these in your area?

SaveSave

SaveSave

4 Comments

Last month I had the pleasure of teaching Planned Improv: Scrappy Squares to each of my guilds. I had a great time and the quilters enjoyed learning my technique for some improv design... with a few rules. I led a 6-hour workshop for BAMQG, followed by a presentation and demo for Quilting 101 with SCVQA.

The first portion of the workshop includes some design work. Here's a look at some designs in progress.

 

Many of the BAMQG quilters, including Jaye, Diana, Joelle, and Michelle-Nicholle, finished their slab in class.

 

Since both of these classes were with guilds I belong to I got to see some progress and finishes at the November guild meetings. Sue, Marty, Mary C, and Mary M brought in their finished quilt tops for show and tell at BAMQG.

Mary C even made another Scrappy Squares slab as her contribution to November's colorist for Color My Quilt.

 

Bobi, Sandie, Patricia, and Sally showed their quilts off at the SCVQA meeting. Sally added ties and made her quilt into a sewing machine cover!

Thank you to BAMQG and SCVQA for having me. I had so much fun!

I was a classroom teacher for 11 years. I taught middle school math. This is the 8th year I've been out of the classroom and it felt so great to be teaching in front of a group again! My second workshop offering is in the works and I look forward to teaching to more guilds in 2018.

SaveSaveSaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

4 Comments

I'm teaching my new workshop, Planned Improv: Scrappy Squares, twice in the next week. This Saturday I'll be teaching for Bay Area Modern and Tuesday I'm presenting at Quilting 101 with Santa Clara Valley Quilt Association. I'm so excited!

The technique for this workshop developed out of my work on the piece I made for the combination of the Greenery challenge and my guild square and rectangle scrap challenge, both of which concluded in May. I had two initial sketches, one of which developed into my Greenery quilt top, and the second of which was just pieced into this new 30" x 31" quilt top. I wanted to be able to share this variation at the workshop to show an alternative layout inspiration. This design is also different since I chose to use a single fabric for my background pieces. The possibilities are endless. ;-)

Thanks for visiting!

SaveSave

SaveSave