Teaching at The Workroom

It's been a week since I was in this lovely space known as The Workroom. What a delightfully different  quilt store! For one, it is not located in a strip mall or out in the boonies. No, it is on an urban street filled with hipsters and streetcars and bums and roti and taco shops. And it is filled with light. Oh, the light! I imagine those same windows make it stifling in the Toronto summers, but right now it was dreamy.

Then again, it might be dreamy no matter what. Karyn, the owner, and her employees are soft spoken and kind. They radiate a quiet energy that makes you smile. It was just so peaceful to be there, in addition to a lot of fun.

Besides, what's not to love about a store dog in a quilt shop? Okay, I'm biased on this one - Maisy kind of reminded me of our old girl that we lost at New Year's - but she was wonderful company. (And no, there wasn't dog hair all over the fabric.)

While I was at The Workroom I taught two classes - The Quilted Storage Box from Sunday Morning Quilts and my Values class. If you don't count my mistake (I was going on less than 4 hours of sleep) on the storage box instructions it was perfect. Everyone finished (thank-you to Quilt Sunday folks for your few minutes of patience). And we had such a range of awesome boxes.

One of the things I really liked about teaching at The Workroom - aside from the very dedicated students  - was the space. The tables for students are on one side of the store, with the fabric on the other side. And a giant table in between. It was so nice not to be in a classroom shoved in the back or the basement. Being right there allowed us to take advantage of the light. Have I mentioned the light already? But it also allowed us to be in the thick of things. If someone came in looking for some fabric they saw us and could ask questions. I know some teachers who would hate that, but I loved showing off the students' work to anyone who asked.

The Workroom is also a sewing lounge. You can come in and work on your projects, take advantage of  their walking feet or Berninas, and enjoy a cup of tea. Sometimes it would be so nice to just get out of the house and sew. I would take the interruptions of a curious shopper over a toddler most days.

Thank-you so much for having me, Karyn! I hope to come back again soon.

Superior Quilt Show

I'm not sure how many people go to Thunder Bay and say they had an awesome time (unless you are from a town in Northern Ontario and Thunder Bay counts as the big city) but I am officially one of them.

Last weekend I spent three days in Thunder Bay. Three very intense and fun days. I met some wonderful people who were incredibly generous of their time and spirit. I taught such an eager group of students that I was jazzed at the end of each day when they were tuckered out. And they all learned to embrace their scraps. I laughed in front of a crowd of over 100 as I told my stories and shared my quilts. I eagerly walked the show floor (and spent money) to take in the full range of quilts from thread painting to modern and everything in between.

(Made and quilted by Wendy Currie)

I walked on the waterfront of a still iced over Lake Superior (at least by the shore) and took pictures of the most awesome public sculptures ever. I drank beer with an air traffic controller/quilter. And all while keeping company with a carousel horse.

Thank-you very much to the Thunder Bay Quilt Guild for bringing me to your city, your show. it was wonderful.

Announcing My Craftsy Class - Inset and Applique Circles by Machine

Do you remember my necklace inspired quilt? It is now finished and I can share it with you. I can also share with you the rather exciting reason I was making the quilt. 

I am thrilled to announce that I am now a Craftsy instructor! Have you heard about Craftsy? The fastest growing craft community on-line is full of courses from top instructors on everything from cake decorating to knitting, from costumes to quilting. My class - Inset and Applique Circles by Machine - is now available. Sign up now with a 25% discount!

The Craftsy platform is quite cool. Once you purchase the class it is available to you at any time forever. The HD video quality is great. They've filmed so many close-ups so you don't miss a thing. And you can take the classes from the comfort of your home - no lugging a machine across town or missing out because you can't find a local store or babysitter.

One of the best parts about a Craftsy class is the interactive forum. You can ask instructors questions, participate in class discussions with other students, and share your projects. I will be there the whole time, encouraging and helping you along the way. Stuck on a particular technique? You can ask for help and share the problem and we'll make sure you get it sorted.

And that necklace inspired quilt? It is a free pattern that comes with the class! Incorporating all the techniques learned in the class you can make this bold sampler. I've made it here with prints in colours pulled from the necklace itself and a mix of text prints for the background.

I do hope you'll join me over at Craftsy!

Austin Circle Sampler

76' by 96''

Quilted by Andrea Harris from Urban Quiltworks

I've got more that I want to share about my Craftsy experience. Look for that in the coming weeks. It has been an incredible experience so far. Now that the class  - Inset and Applique Circles by Machine - is available I'm looking forward to seeing circles pop up everywhere!

Improv and Intentions

One of the workshops at QuiltCon I was lucky to get into was Denyse Schmidt's Improv workshop. It was a hot commodity and I had just the right timing when doing my registration. To be honest, I took it out of curiosity more than anything. I'm quite comfortable with improv work, even teaching it myself! But I wanted to see how Denyse taught it and see how people responded.

Frankly, I really enjoyed the class. It may have been the opportunity of just free sewing/playtime after weeks of prep for my own classes at QuiltCon. But it was also a great environment. The other students ranged from improv virgins to the old hats at the technique like me. Denyse is a good teacher, clear on the approach, and extremely encouraging. For the students who'd never done improv it was a challenge at the beginning but they all seemed to really embrace things at the end.

Denyse's technique involves true randomness. Three bags of fabric bits in different sizes. Close your eyes and reach in! At home I do almost the same thing, but I keep my eyes open. Denyse's goal is to get the students to see the beauty in the randomness; beauty in seemingly clashing bits of fabric and blocks that don't lay flat. And it is most definitely there.

After each exercise we reviewed all the blocks and discussed our responses. I loved this part as too often in classes we don't get see what other people make or hear about what people experienced as they worked. The last part was a big eyeopener as a teacher. Well worth the class for me.

In the morning we worked solely with Denyse's scraps. In the afternoon we got to add our own fabric and a randomly chosen solid (Confession: my solid may have been placed in my hand by my very awesome Aussie volunteer and friend). Having seen reports of this class before I chose my fabric to bring with great intention. The blocks from one of these classes can start to all look the same so I chose my fabric to stand out a bit. Plus, it is one of my all-time favourite fabrics.

I didn't expect to care much for my blocks, I prefer a bit more control in my colour schemes. But I LOVE my blocks. So much so that I've got plans for a lot more and a finished quilt. I think I lucked out  with the fabric I picked out of the bags and the colours that came up.  Or it was just all serendipity... In the end I took a handful of orphan blocks from the morning exercises and I have another plan for them too.

Again, I was totally reminded that we need to remain open to experiences. I went into the class all cocky about my improv ability and thinking I wouldn't learn anything. And I came out with a bit of a gut check, new ideas, and an appreciation for the approach of others. Plus some rather cool quilt blocks.