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!
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Rhonda Bracey: At Random 