No Retreat but fun Sponsor’s Giveaways

No Retreat but we met up at Sandra’s Studio

Sadly our retreat was cancelled due to the Caldor Fire that threatened South Lake Tahoe. The whole area was evacuated and Zephyr Point Conference Center was used for evacuees housing. Happily things now are back to normal and even Hwy. 50 is open.

Before the retreat I wrote to various companies in the textile industry asking if they could donate any giveaways to our retreat. We had a very generous response and I just wanted to give a BIG SHOUTOUT to thank these companies. Also encourage you our supporters to give them some support by checking out their websites.

Using Sandra’s long-arm machine to lay out all our goodies.

Thanks Dharma Trading, Quiltfolk Magazine, and C&T Publishing

One morning a couple of weeks ago, when we should her been at the retreat, we gathered at Sandra’s studio to sort, divide up the giveaways and hold the raffle for prizes. It was bitter sweet. We were just happy that our attendees would receive a surprise package. Later everything was boxed up and shipped on to the attendees.

Marcia Derse packets of fabric

Marcia Derse and Turtehand Batiks both packed up little bundles of fabric, Thank you.

It has made us happy to receive some nice replies from attendees after receiving their packages.

“I almost cried to see all the goodies you sent.  What a dear thing to do.  You are all so generous and gracious.  Thank you for this thought, it made me miss AA even more! Again, thank you, I have been having so much fun looking and testing everything.”

“I received your package yesterday.  That was very sweet of you to send that off to everyone.  So many goodies in the package.  It’s so sad you had to cancel, but everyone did the right thing.”

More goodies

“Last night when I returned home from a long day of volunteer work, the unexpected goody box was waiting for me.  What joy!  My husband said he liked watching my face as I took out each surprise.”

“Your box just arrived. I am so overwhelmed with joy. It was just like Christmas.” 

Mistyfuse donated some of their wonderful fusible web for us to use and Goddess Pressing Sheets for all.

As the retreat was so close to going ahead Sandra made all the name tags, and donated some personalized items. Heidi made everyone little hand sewing kits and I brown-bagged a surprise sewing project for all.

As of now we are in no rush to figure out the future of Artistic Alchemy. This was supposed to be our final retreat but you never know something might happen at Zephyr Point in the future. We will be blogging occasionally and keeping all our supporters up to date with our goings on. For me I have a lot of prep work as I get ready for IQF Houston at the end of October. I will be teaching five different classes over five days.

Thanks everyone, until our next post …..

Changing Times. Embracing Technology!

This is Jane. My blog post this week will start from a message from us all.

 It is our utmost desire when having our retreats at Zephyr to give you the optimum experience….where you are able to learn, laugh, and enjoy the company of the other sewists in the beautiful setting of Lake Tahoe. We three, Jane, Heidi and Sandra have been in constant communication with Zephyr, and between ourselves, about the fate of the September retreat in light of the Covid virus. We want, more than anything, to be able to go forward there in safety and assurance of a positive experience for you all. When we were in discussion about this issue we came to the ultimate conclusion that we cannot assure these objectives. In many ways it is out of our hands and for that reason we are postponing our September retreat until 2021. Your safety and positive experience are our primary goals.

  

We know how disappointed you are, as are we, but you surely understand where we are coming from in postponing the retreat. Please email us for any questions you may have. This is unprecedented territory for us, and we pledge to be fair and equitable going forward. We want 2021 to be a fantastic year with a retreat that is the best yet.

Lake view from Zephyr Point

It makes us sad to have made this decision but I feel we can all now move forward and focus on the retreat for 2021. As a traveling quilt teacher I have just about written off 2020. I still have a few things on my calendar but I shall have to wait and see if they go ahead. As I said in my blog title, even I am now having to jump on the technology bandwagon, something a few weeks ago I just wasn’t interested in doing.

Fabric Journal, one of the samples for Artistic Alchemy retreat

As for technology I recently presented my lecture ‘Living a Creative Life’ to the San Francisco Quilt Guild using Zoom! My Power Point lasted 30 minutes, followed by Q & A, and went down well, I believe!  We had 138 attendees and all stayed till the end. I will say I did miss the audience reactions and participation though.

Precious

And I am now working on putting together an online class called Love of Pets Fabric Collage. This wasn’t something I had considered but as time goes on and reality sets in I know I won’t be teaching in person for a while. When I think about the opportunities that this opens up, its pretty good. Quilters from all around the country and world will have the chance to take my class.

Fabric selection ideas for Love of Pets online class

The good thing that has come out of this pandemic is reconnecting with family, and friends using either Messenger video groups, Instagram Live or Zoom. I come from a large family, all of them in the UK and for the first we have been catching up virtually. Pokey Bolton has a daily chat with quilters and artists on Instagram Live at 1pm pacific time and I was on with her a few weeks ago talking about this very subject, teaching cancellations and ways to move forward. Then lets not mention the funny glasses my close friend Ronnie and I found on Messenger video!

Porch time during lockdown

Staying at home I think is made easier by creating routines. I will work in the morning, have a family lunch and play Yahtzee on the iPad, listen to Pokey’s 1pm chat, work the afternoon till about 5 when its “Beer O’clock”. This is our family time for a beer on the porch and daily card game challenge! Our favorites are Wizard, Knaves and Phase 10.

Big Frank 46″ x 69″

Now that I have had more time for sewing I will share what I’ve been working on over the last couple of months. With the deadline to enter the World of Beauty quilt competition at IQF Houston coming up, I decided to make a couple of large quilts. I always think a quilt needs to be big to look impressive hanging in a quilt show. So Big Frank was created! I’m pretty happy with him and am now working on Little Frank and perhaps pattern I can share.

Detail of the eye, approx 9” x 6”

Here is a detail of his eye and really I don’t think it looks as impressive close-up as you just see the different fabrics I included. Some are pretty random! When I started this quilt my intent to use scraps and those old fabrics I have but never use. Pretty much the ugly ones! I started with a grey, brown and blue palette but as the quilt grew I would get bored with using these same fabrics and so I’d look through my stash and grab a bunch in another color. So now as he progressed I added those greens, ochres and even pinks!

Notes of Hope 81” x 61”

This is the other large quilt I have been working on and just finished.  I made it in response to the Mountain Art Quilters Spring challenge. The category that spoke to me was ‘Colors of Emotion’

Small ‘messages of hope’ attached to the railings on the Foresthill Bridge, CA

The story behind this quilt. In 2018 I remember hearing on the news that a lady from Auburn, Brittney Hendricks, organized for volunteers to make ‘Notes of Hope’ that they attached to the railings on the Foresthill Bridge. This bridge is located just outside Auburn, CA is the highest bridge in California and fourth highest in the USA and has been the scene for 90 suicides since it was built in 1947. These ‘messages of hope’ attached to the bridge are an attempt to convince people that life continues to be worth living. I walked the bridge with my son James in the new year and took many photos.

These photos I printed onto fabric sheets and then Improv pieced everything together. Starting with the words, the dark black fabrics around them, included a small colorful border and then more black border. I will say it was a little tricky to square it up!

This little ‘Yorkie’ quilt is one of many samples started whilst demoing in the classes I teach. Having more time now I want to work on these. Once the collage was finished it was time to choose the background. I put these photos on my new Facebook group Fabric Collage School asking for opinions and although I love the busy background on the left I settled with the more restful blue one on the right. Its so fun to get peoples ideas and opinions while you are still working on something!

Time to clean this machine!

After spending a month making masks, and sewing everyday I finally decided it was time to clean out my sewing machine. I have a Juki 2010Q which is a straight stitch semi-industrial machine and I love it. Its a workhorse. Everyday I oil my machine and clean out around the bobbin but it has this little hatch underneath that was last cleaned out around Christmas. I think it was time!

Now its time to get back to sewing, video taping my work in progress for my online class and entering my quilts into World of Beauty. Although sadly we won’t be holding our retreat I do want to devote some time to fabric play and mark-making and come up with some great samples for next time. Out of interest is anyone up for some kind of virtual Artistic Alchemy event?

 

Celebrating Christmas the English Way

This is Jane. In the UK Christmas is not over in a day. We start celebrating on Christmas Eve all the way through to the New Year. We have lived in California for 20 years now but still like to keep our English traditions especially around the Christmas holidays. Christmas dinner is eaten around 1-2pm, so you are done by 3pm ready for The Queen’s Speech and then a chance to nap while Wizard of Oz plays in the background. Dinner includes turkey, Paxo stuffing, bread sauce and not forgetting the crackers on the table. December 26th or Boxing Day is another public holiday and is the day to celebrate Christmas with friends or relatives. Its the time to serve leftovers; cold turkey and ham, take a walk, open more presents and chill out watching Christmas specials on the telly.

With friends we took our Boxing Day walk, just a stroll down the local canal, before our early afternoon dinner, then games and a little celebratory glass of sherry.

Family photo time. When our kids and friends kids grow older together its fun for them and us to see them change. And of course as parents we never grow older or change!!

Its been 5 days now and I haven’t powered up my Juki 2010Q, “Julie”. I am actually itching to get back to finishing some projects but am giving myself a break. Recently we have had some wonderful sunsets and the location of my sewing machine in my new studio/workspace is perfect. No longer am I tucked away in the bedroom in the back of the house but at the front in the “formal lounge”

I continue to teach my monthly Kids Sewing Class at Howells in Auburn. I have some very charming and enthusiastic girls that embrace all of the projects that I give them. November we made pajama pants and December Christmas stockings. I love the way they bring their own personalities into their projects.

I have been working on planning and making samples for a couple of new classes I will teach in 2019. This one Fabulous Fish is a wall hanging version of Rainbow Fish, the king size raffle quilt I made in 2017 with the Foothill Quilt Guild. As a Pisces I feel these fish are something I fall back on and have been doodling and painting for 30+ years so its only natural I plan a workshop around them.

2018 was my busiest year so far for teaching and presenting at Quilt Guilds. I also taught my Love of Pets workshop at In-between Stitches in Livermore and am scheduled to teach it again in 2019. Look up my calendar to check up on dates for upcoming classes. These photos are from Livermore, students at work and students work! I’d also like to thank the following guilds for hosting me this year: Folsom Quilt and Fibre Guild, Country Crossroads Quilters of Modesto, Marin Needle Arts Guild, River City Quilt Guild, Foothill Quilt Guild, Santa Clara Valley Quilt, Diablo Valley Quilt Guild, Oroville Piecemakers Guild and In-between Stitches Livermore.

My next engagement is one I am very excited about and that is to be on the faculty for Craft Napa 2019. I have attended this fun, creative retreat over the past 3 years taking classes from some incredible teachers. I am teaching Pet Portraits Fabric Collage and Succulent Love, draw, paint and collage succulents. These little dog collages are fabric postcards that will be auctioned off as a Stay Pawsitive fundraiser for Wags and Whiskers in Chico, CA

Susan Brusker Knapp and I on the set of Quilting Arts TV

A couple of the highlights from 2018 was filming tv segments for the Quilting Arts TV show that will be coming out sometime in 2019 and meeting Susan Brubaker Knapp, the staff of Quilting Arts TV and the other quilt artists that recorded for that series. Then in November being part of the faculty at the International Quilt Festival and teaching 4 classes was tiring but wonderful.

And of course not forgetting my first experience of  joining Artistic Alchemy. Teaching and generally having a great time with staff and students at the 5th annual retreat at Zephyr Point was another highlight. With the New Year right around the corner I am putting plans together for my workshop for 2019 and encourage anyone interested to watch out as as we will be announcing workshops and sign-ups early in February.

Finally I like to make a summary of the work I have created over the year and some of my other achievements. I made 21 T-shirt quilts and 4 necktie quilts for my Etsy shop customers, 19 art quilts, won Best of Show with Bullseye x Nine at the Foothill Quilt Guild show, exhibited Melman, the Vulnerable Giraffe quilt at Sisters, Oregon and sold it, and also exhibited quilts juried into Road to California, PIQF and IQF Houston.

Thanks to all the students who have attended my classes and I plan to very soon start a newsletter for my website janehaworth.com.

Mary Boalt, Sandra Bruce, Heidi Emmett and I want thank all you supporters of Artistic Alchemy and wish everyone a Happy New Year for 2019. May it bring peace and creativity to you all.