Teaching Travel Log

We were in Florida last week in Pensacola, Gulf Breeze and Ft. Walton Beach where I taught two quilt guild programs and an all-day fabric dye class. We lived in the area for seven years and it was wonderful to be back to see good friends.

Following the long drive south, we visited the chiropractor in Destin--always a lovely drive...


Love that white sand and turquoise water of northwest Florida.

Our wonderful friends Ann & Greg hosted us for the week, so we had plenty of quality time with them.


Ann, Bill, me, Pat and Greg

We three ladies are part of the Killer Bees quilting group in Pensacola. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of the ladies on bee day.

The Santa Rosa Quilters Guild hired me to give my Green Ideas for the Studio program and then an all-day fabric dye class at the Naval Live Oaks Park in Gulf Breeze. It was beautiful and we were just steps from Escambia Bay...




I gave my Stretching the String lecture to the Silver Threads Quilt Guild of Ft. Walton Beach.

All around, it was a wonderful week!

Moving Forward

I'm in high gear--preparing to give two lectures and an all-day class in Florida next week.

--84 yards scoured & cut for fabric kits for dye class
--two more samples quilted
--binding on one of those samples
--two table runner tops finished
--samples partially packed for one lecture
--found copies of my handouts to type into the laptop (after the desktop died).



Today:

--teach a beginner quilting class
--make a pillow cover out of new quilted sample
--type in handouts and then save on disk!
--finish top of fabric-knit purse for sample

I knit these scrap 1/2" fabric pieces into a hat pattern, but it will be used for the bottom of a purse.

Need more tea, and then time for fun!

And the Winner Is...

We just drew the name for the giveaway of two yards of my hand-dyed fabric. The winner is "S".

Congratulations! Please send me your address and I'll get the fabric out to you!

Machine Quilting

I'm finally feeling more comfortable machine quilting my own quilts. Yesterday and today I finished quilting this red piece. My friend Mary Ann suggested using the same swirl motif in the border as I had used in the center, and it worked beautifully.


Next, this table runner (below) has been ready to quilt for a while, but it was just too wide, I thought. After tossing around ideas for a while, I decided to cut out the center of the runner, lengthwise, and then sew the two sides together...


Below is the middle of the runner, cut out, and then the two sides sewn together to make the new 14" wide runner.

Here's a better photo of it...


The part that was cut out will get some borders to make another runner. Fun!

Anniversary and a Giveaway!

Today is the 3rd anniversary of my business, Anita Heady Fiber Arts, and it would also have been my Memere's 111th Birthday. Good day for a giveaway!

If you'll comment on this blog between now and noon on Thursday, April 7th, you will have a chance to win these coordinating one-yard pieces of my hand-dyed fabric (two yards total). One entry per person.

Best of luck!

Anita

Proof of Art

Okay, I know that it looks like I'm not doing much this week as it's been a week since my last post, but here's my "proof of art".

First of all, this is what half my studio looks like after 3 visitors in the last month have occupied the other half...

We put a Murphy Bed in the front small bedroom before that room became part of my 2-room studio. When our son Bryan is home and is using the upstairs bedroom, the Murphy room becomes our guest bedroom...and all my studio stuff is moved into here. Yipes. That's my recumbent bike/rower under some of that stuff.

1st Proof: Here's the update on this circle quilt. It may be the first quilt that has absolutely no plan at all; I just wanted to have some handwork and suddenly it's becoming a quilt!



Threw in a monkey wrench this week by adding an odd shaped block with some of the cut-outs from the previous blocks...



2nd Proof:

Here are the stacks of fabric that I dyed, rinsed, cut and priced this week.


I also dyed a couple of white cotton tops that were no longer as white as I liked...


3rd Proof:

Don't want to show them here, but I also drafted two string quilts, one for my son for his move to Alaska, and a wall hanging for our "Green" challenge in the Fiber Frenzy group. I won't be able to make it to the FF meeting since I'll be in Florida, but hopefully I'll be able to finish it anyway.