Tag Archives: SGQ workshop

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Last month, I gave my first in-person lecture in over two years. This month, I traveled for my first in-person workshop since March 14, 2020. I was delighted to be invited to Lompoc, California to visit Quilters Etc. for a lecture and workshop. As much as I love giving lectures on Zoom, it was delightful to hold a mic and speak to 3-dimensional quilters! I shared my Rules and Options of Planned Improv Piecing lecture with the group on Thursday evening.

Saturday I had a group of 16 quilters in class for Improv Log Cabins. I have a new document camera to project my demos to a screen so students can easily see my tabletop from their seats. And I used a voice amplifier system to make it easy for everyone in the room to hear me. Improv Log Cabins is a bit of a choose your own adventure. Students can choose what size and scale they work, if they want to make a single log cabin or many, wonky or not... and the list goes on. I demonstrate a variety of techniques and elements that can be worked into a log cabin of any size. I thoroughly enjoy seeing what students make and the best part for me is that everyone's projects look unique at the end of the day. It was a great day!

I didn't manage to get photos of everyone's work, but here are a gallery of some of the pieces created in class last Saturday.

Beth finished a whole quilt top. And she shared photos of the finished and bound quilt before I had unpacked back at home!

Because I had a day off between my lecture and my workshop, my great grandparents used to live in Lompoc, and Lompoc is about halfway between me and my sister (it was a 4 hour drive for me and a 3 hour drive for her) I invited Jenn to join me for my day off. What a full day. We visited the cemetery where my great grandparents are buried, their old house, and the beach. Then after a brief time playing cards at the hotel we set off to grab lunch, drove to Solvang, and visited Ostrichland! I feel like we packed a much lengthier vacation into our one day together. We even got some time in the hot tub and milkshakes with dinner!

I love running across unexpected art. By L. Regalado and C. Martinez, 2016.

I have such happy memories of visiting my great grandparents as a kid. When I was in college in southern California I'd often go the long way when driving between home and school so that I could detour to visit my great grandmother.

My great grandmother lived in her home until she was 96 years old. The house looks delightful with updates to paint, roof, and landscaping.

We never understood how close the beach was to town since mom never took us there as kids!

I have fond memories of driving past Ostrichland, but this was the first time we even stopped for a closer look and a change to feed the birds.

Solvang, "The Danish Capitol of America."

It's always lovely to walk around Solvang and enjoy the architecture.

Thank you to Quilters Etc. for having me!

I'd love to visit your guild on Zoom or in person. Please reach out with any questions about my workshops and lectures for your group or guild. If you aren't a member of a group, the best way to stay in touch to hear of opportunities to sign up as an individual for workshops is to be on my newsletter list. Subscribe here.

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I've really been enjoying connecting with guilds on Zoom. I recently joined the Ocean Waves Quilt Guild in Lewes, DE to share my Rules and Options of Planned Improv Piecing lecture and teach All About Angles. This workshop is one of my Planned Improv workshops where I present a technique and set of rules to follow, with lots of options for students to make the composition their own. From fabric choices to color placement, sizes and angles of cutting, and other unique twists, I love that everyone's finished projects look unique in the end. Here are the progress or finished photos I've received from students in that workshop.

by Allison

by Linda Grigsby

by Dottie Vuono

by Kathy V.

by Trisha Moller

Quilt of Valor by Carol O.

It's hard to tell from the photos but these projects range from mini quilt to lap quilt, with a variety of sizes in between. One of the things I love about improv piecing is you can keep going until it's the size you want (or as long as you're still having fun). Students sometimes set a size parameter as part of their own initial rules, for example, planning for a placemat-sized finished quilt. The use of additional elements, borders, and strips of fabric really add to the variety of options with the All About Angles technique.

You can read about all my workshop and lecture offerings on my Teaching page. I'd love to visit your guild on Zoom.

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At the start of the month I visited Valley Quilt Guild in Marysville/Yuba City, California. At the evening guild meeting I enjoyed taking them on My Quilting Journey featuring dozens of quilts I've made from 2002 through present. I love the nostalgic trip through my quilting past as I share what I've learned over the years and how my style and technique has developed. At the meeting I was treated not only to member show and tell, but also a parade of 116 charity quilts being donated by the guild. Such a treat to see the variety of color palettes, quilt designs, and quilting motifs!

The following day, eight quilters joined me for my Planned Improv: All About Angles workshop. We got started at 9am with the A/C running to combat the 95 degree forecast. Not long into class, the A/C stopped blowing cold air (despite the control panel indicating it was still cooling) and by 11am the room had warmed up to 90 degrees. Eek! Two hours down, four to go. Thankfully, Eileen offered for us to all relocate to her house to finish the workshop. So we packed up our projects and the eight quilters got cozy around Eileen's dining room table.

Venue #1.

Venue #2.

Quilters got creative finding space to layout their units to work on their overall layout, using the couch, chair, and floor as "design walls." I'm so thankful to Eileen for a cooler venue to finish our workshop and to the entire group for being fun and flexible on the hot, hot day.

Design Couch.

Design Chair.

Design Floor.

I love teaching technique-based workshops. It's so fun for me to see everyone's project unfold as a mixture of the basic technique I'm teaching and their own design choices along the way.

Colleen added a border to her project once she got home. She used Decolourant to create the ginkgo leaf designs on her border.

Judy finished her project early so she missed the group picture at the end of the day.

Thank you to Valley Quilt Guild for a lovely couple of quilty days!