Rhonda Bracey: At Random

Tuesday 6 March 2012

Another busy day! And again, I was running on very little sleep. I’m not happy that I’m four days in to my trip and still have jet lag. I’m usually well and truly over it by now. It’s not that I’m tired during the day — I’m not; it’s just that I can’t get to sleep at night until well after 2 am and I’m barely getting 4 hours sleep, sometimes less, and often very broken sleep. I feel wrecked.

Today we continued working on our projects, so there’s not a lot to report except that we’ve all made a lot of progress from yesterday! This is a LONG SLOW process, and while the end result may be sensational, I probably won’t use it much as it takes WAY too much time. But it’s good to learn a new technique as it will always get incorporated into another art quilt at a later date.

Lunch was hamburger, char-grilled skinless chicken breast, salad, and hamburger buns (if you wanted to make your own burger — I passed on the bun and dessert, just sticking with the meat and salad). Dinner was oven-roasted stuffed pork loin with broccoli and some other sort of vegetable gratin thing that had corn in it, salad, and cheesecake.

After dinner, two of the instructors — Vikki Pignatelli and Lenore Crawford — did a ‘retrospective’ of their work, which was most interesting.

I decided not to work on my piece tonight (yes, quite a few of the ladies will sew well into the wee small hours), but instead get these blog posts and photos loaded, catch up on email, and have an early night in the HOPE that I can drop off to sleep as readily as I do at home 😉

Click on a small photo to see it larger. You can see my project’s progress from morning to the end of the day.

Monday 5 March 2012

Phew! What a day!

After sleeping a broken 4 hours last night, I woke after 7:00 am and rushed around like a mad thing to get showered and to breakfast by 7:30 am. With all the chatting (these ladies are REALLY friendly), I didn’t leave breakfast until well after 8:30, just enough time to clean my teeth before the workshops started at 9:00 am.

For most of the morning, Lenore was in charge — we had a slide presentation from her about the changing emphasis in her quilting, the techniques we were going to learn, and some more pictures of her amazing quilts. After a short break late in the morning, she discussed each person’s chosen photo and the good and bad elements of each — where we might be likely to have trouble, where she suggested we paint instead of use tiny bits of fabric, etc. It was really enlightening seeing other people’s photos and hearing how Lenore would tackle each one.

After the break, she demonstrated the first steps in drafting our pattern from our photo, making it all look too easy!

Lunch was really healthy — lots of salad veges, raw vegetable sticks, some optional chopped meats (turkey and ham I think), optional dressings, and two soups. Oh, and brownies for dessert, but I was good and didn’t have one! My aim is not to put on any weight while I’m in the US, which is always much harder than it sounds.

In the afternoon we got started on our pieces. I got my pattern drafted onto plastic, then freezer paper, then on to the muslin base.

And I chose my sky fabric and ground fabric, and some of the other fabrics. I fused the sky fabric to the muslin using MistyFuse (excellent stuff!) and I cut out my first pattern piece. Tomorrow should see us doing much more as we’ll have the whole day to work on our projects.

After we’d finished for the day, there were drinks and lots of laughs in the courtyard, followed by dinner (skinless chicken breast, wild rice, and stir-fried veges — another healthy meal; there were also two soups to choose from, and carrot cake for dessert).

Tonight was ‘show and tell’ of student pieces started in previous years at a Quilting Adventures Seminar. Wow! What a selection, and what talent and creativity on display. Each piece was held up and the person who made it explained a bit about it, such as which class/tutor they had, which year, anything special about its creation, etc. Kim also got me to show the quilt I’ve bought with me for another purpose, and that got a lot of oohs and ahs — and a big belly laugh too! (can’t tell you much about that quilt yet…).

The only dampener on the day was the inability to connect to the internet. I’ve supposedly got WiFi connection, but it’s not working. It finally worked on my phone, but still not on the computer, so I won’t be uploading these blog posts and photos until I get connected. The guy at the T Bar M Resort was most helpful, and has offered me a workaround if I can’t get connected tomorrow.

One final thing… I am blown away by the contrast in the welcoming nature and friendliness of the Quilting Adventures team, and all the students. While I enjoyed most of last year’s 3-day Eleanor Burns Quilting Academy, one of my big complaints was the lack of a general introductory welcome, and a lack of group activities that brought the group together as versus something that was another ‘talk at’ type session. These Texan ladies have really shown how wonderful a workshop can be (an experience like I’ve had at retreats that Michelle Pearson from Handcrafters House in Midland, Western Australia has organised). This personal touch has NOTHING to do with price. You can’t put a price on being friendly and welcoming. These things cost nothing, but when they’re absent, it’s noticeable.

Even after only a day and a bit, already I’d come back in future years if I was in the vicinity at the time one of their seminars was held.

And now it’s time for bed!

Click on a small photo to show it larger.

Sunday 4 March 2012

I found the venue for the quilting workshops — the T Bar M Resort, just outside New Braunfels. Gorgeous location and grounds. I checked in to my room, then went to check out where we had to register for the workshops etc. Kim (one of the organisers) welcomed me with a big hug (we’ve chatted quite a bit via email) and the ladies at ‘The Quilt Haus’ store knew who I was too, as they are hiring me a machine for the week. What a pleasant welcome!

I chose a table in the room where I’ll be spending the rest of the week, and started setting up my gear, including the loan Elna sewing machine (brand new — it will become a demo model for the store once I’ve finished with it). I met a few of the other ladies in my workshop (it looks like there are about 15 of them). Then it was time for drinks, where I met a few more ladies who are in different workshops. GOOD Margaritas, with plenty of tequila! 😉

After drinks was a Texas BBQ dinner (not an open fire BBQ — more BBQ-style beef [brisket?] and chicken and a HOT sauce). Delicious.

Then we had a general session for everyone — I counted about 45 people including the instructors, who will be spread over 5 different workshops. I cracked a special mention for coming the furthest! Most of the ladies are from Texas, with a few from further afield, such as Oklahoma City, Florida, Connecticut, Mississippi, and Kentucky.

After the general session we went to our workshop rooms, where our instructors for the week did a 30-minute intro session. My workshop is with Lenore Crawford, and I got to look at some of her amazing quilts close up.

Then it was back to my room to write up this post, upload my photos (click on a small photo to see it larger), and to TRY to get more than 2.5 hours sleep, which is all I’ve had the past two nights… Damned jet lag…. (Actually, I didn’t upload this blog post or pictures until Tuesday night, which when I first got internet access that worked).

Click on a small photo to show it larger.

I stayed at the Hilton Del Mar, near San Diego, California for the Eleanor Burns Quilting Academy in March this year.  Here are some pictures of my room at the Hilton when I first opened the door (it never stays like this!) — click on a small image to see it full size.

Last day today… And it was time to be let loose on the overlockers (or sergers as they call them in the US). This time the task was to make a complete quilt top out of a Jelly Roll of Moda fabric, with enough left over to make two more smaller quilts (though only one quilt top was the aim of the day). Oh, and we were to make it ALL on an overlocker — no sewing machines were to be seen in the classroom.

For those unfamiliar with the term, a Jelly Roll is a set of around 40 two and half inch strips of pre-cut fabric. The fabric usually follows a theme — typically a colorway (e.g. all fall tones) or a set of coordinating fabrics from a manufacturer. We had a choice of two Jelly Rolls — either the muted, more ‘country’, more ‘adult’ fabrics from Moda (creams, teals, terracottas, greens,  paisleys, florals etc.), or the brighter, ‘juvenile’, colorful fabrics also from Moda. I’m fond of brights, so that’s what I chose (though I have to say that after working with those fabrics all day and combining them like we did, I did find them a little nauseating to look at by the end of the day!).

Our teacher Suzie took us through some of the basics of the Babylock Evolution sergers (I have an old Bernina FunLock at home and it’s pretty much the same except I have to thread the thing by hand — which is mighty painful. These sergers had auto threaders… and a price to match!).

Then she let us loose on the fabrics! We followed one of Eleanor Burns’ patterns for a Jelly Roll quilt, but as we were using sergers instead of sewing machines, many of the stitching and cutting techniques didn’t apply.

And yes, we made an entire quilt top in 6 hours (well, probably 5 hours by the time we got started, had some breaks, etc.). It was quick and easy and using an serger would be a great idea for knocking out charity quilts quickly.

Here are some pictures; click on a small picture to show it full size.

See also:

• Day 1: https://sandgroper14.wordpress.com/2011/03/18/quilting-academy-day-1-march-2011/
• Day 2: https://sandgroper14.wordpress.com/2011/03/19/quilting-academy-day-2-march-2011/

After the first day of the Quilting Academy, we were invited to Eleanor Burns’ Quilt in a Day store, and attend her 90 minute American Barns Trunk Show.

She was just like she appears on TV, except even more personable. The American Barns Trunk Show was full of information and techniques  and some history of the barns , the quilt blocks, and the project to get quilt blocks painted onto barns (some 3000 barns now have them). The evening was full of fun, laughter, song and dance (yes, really!). Her whole family is involved, with her son, brand new daughter-in-law and granddaughter all performing or being featured in some way.

While she may try to come across as a little hokey, behind that facade is a very bright and astute businesswoman!

Some pictures from the Trunk Show; click on a small image to see it full size.

Tomorrow is the day I spend in her class — after tonight’s performance, I’m really looking forward to it.

After the first day of the Quilting Academy, we were invited to travel to San Marcos (about 30 minutes away, but maybe less if we had taken the right turn!) to see Eleanor Burns’ Quilt in a Day store, and attend her 90 minute American Barns Trunk Show.

The store was like many others, though it did have quite a lot of fabric on sale (Yes, I bought some! At sale prices of $4 and $5 a yard, who wouldn’t? especially as fabric in Australia is upwards of $20 a metre.)

The highlight though was the ‘backlot’ tour conducted by Eleanor herself. This is a MAJOR one-woman brand industry! Most of her sales are via the internet and the back area is HUGE. Even at close to 7 pm, many staff were still working, packing orders, cutting fabric for packs, testing new designs, etc. They even have their own art department (for magazines, books, and web), and their own digital printing press for short-run books on demand. Oh, and she has her own recording studio, which is where she held the Trunk Show (and I suspect it was video’d as the full studio lighting was turned on when she came out to perform.)

Some ‘backlot’ pictures; click on a small image to see it full size.