NC Quilt Symposium – Part 1
Grrr….I came all the way to NC Quilt Symposium and all I made was this lousy teapot!
Ha! I hope you know I’m absolutely kidding! Today was another wonderful day of classes and meeting new people here in Charlotte, NC.
I’m having such a great time and meeting so many wonderful people. I just wish I had a bigger brain to remember everyone’s name and infinite time to take classes with every teacher!
Yesterday I had a class with Robbi Joy Eklow, an absolutely terrific quilter who taught her method of fabric fusing.
First I fused up the little cup, then we all got to pick a pattern and work on it during the rest of class. The whole teapot design has a vase and bigger cup, but knowing how I work, I’ll probably never finish it.
To be perfectly honest, I’m not the best workshop taker. I just don’t focus on finishing the actual project, but more on learning the technique.
It just never works well for me to focus on finishing a project because I’m just not as comfortable in a workshop. I don’t have all the tools and gadgets that make my studio my wonderful haven of creativity.
So I learned a few years ago to stop trying to produce a whole awesome project, but to instead master the technique and then go home, rest, relax, and play with the technique when I have every tool and supply and fabric I could possibly need.
That’s just my two cents about workshop taking, so I’ve had a terrific time. Today I had another class with Robbi, and since it was on much of the same technique, I skipped out and went to a cooking demonstration (this symposium is being held at a culinary school so they had 2 extra cooking classes just for fun!)
The demonstration was on foccia bread and pizza making and the pizza the instructor made smelled heavenly and tasted even better. Come to think of it, I should have snapped a photo, but I didn’t think of it in time and ate my slices too quick!
So that’s it for this day of classes and fun. I just got back from picking up my quilts and yes, they did do very well! Release Your Light was awarded Best in Show and Winter Wonderland won Best Machine Quilting. Not bad!
But there were many, many gorgeous quilts in the show and now I feel brimming with creativity and passion to go home and do nothing but quilt for the next month straight.
Which, come to think of it, I’m planning to do just that!
The rest of June will be devoted to finishing Shadow Self and several other projects, filming loads of new quilting videos, and starting a few new projects, maybe even ANOTHER new goddess!
Now I’m off to another event and tomorrow I’ll be home and reunited with my machine by 2:00pm. I swear I’m going through free motion quilting withdrawal!
Let’s go quilt!
Leah Day
I'm so jealous that you got to go to symposium. I would have loved to have taken a class with Pat Sloan.
Love the teapot!
I, too, have difficulty finishing workshop/class projects. I must have dozens of started, but not touched, since the class. OTOH, I have learned some great techniques along the way.
Congrats on your wins! Your quilts were even more fabulous in person!
And the event she went to was the Iron Quilter Challenge where she was the best little "sous chef" to Robbi Eklow! It was all so hilarious and included, silly string, spray coloring for the hair, and whip cream which she accepted on the head very graciously! Leah, you were such a sweet sport to participate in all the bedlam!
I saw your great quilts and the ribbons yesterday when I was at the symposium–congratulations!! I ran over to the quilt show at the lunch break from my class, and I have to agree that the workshops are good for presenting techniques, but I'll never finish what I was working on, either. I really don't want to make something that 25 other people are making a duplicate of, it has to be something of my own design if Iwant to put the effort into it. Again, congratulations on your awards!
Congratulations – best of show and best machine quilting – that's fantastic! We had Robbi Joy at our guild a few years ago before I was sewing enough to take classes, but I know several people who really enjoyed her class!
You're very modest! Best in show! Wahooo!! Well done you.
And I'm going to take your advice on workshops. I have lots of little workshop projects sitting there unfinished, but I should focus on the fact that I learnt a new technique – not that I didn't finish a project.
I agree with you about workshops. I do much better working at home with all my stuff. That is why I prefer online classes. It's the best of both worlds. Love your cup and teapot.
Glad you are having fun…and glad you were kidding about that being a lousy teapot! That teapot and cut has such dimension! Wonderful!
I think my mindset would be the same as yours about workshops: I want the process, not necessarily the product prescribed. But a project does help us get more concrete about the process. I know that I would take off on my own about half way through the process. Oh well.
But I'm also getting very frustrated at trying to learn things at home with a "guide" present and especially without some of the supplies that I really don't know enough about to buy. I think I need to go to some sort of creative week workshop and really dig into a mess of stuff. Learning on my own is too slow and I don't know whether I'll like a process until I try it.
Your "Release Your Light" also got First Place in the 'Studio Art Quilt Large' category, and your "Winter Wonderland" also got First Place in the 'Large Wall Hanging' category! There were ribbons hanging all over the place on your two quilts! =-)
I loved standing around and listening to what all the people had to say about your quilts. It was great!
Congratulations Leah!!!
-Wendy at http(colon)//quiltporn(dot)blogspot(dot)com
=-)
Loved your quilts and pictured one on my blog! Didn't realize you were the one with this wonderful blog! The Symposium was great — my first but not last time.