My week at Asilomar

I am back from my first adventure at the Empty Spools Quilting Seminars at Asilomar. If you've not heard of them, you can see their site here:

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Last year a friend and I decided to try it out. It was so nice to have a roommate I knew and liked and could live with for a week!

She took Sue Benner's fusing class as she is an art quilter.

I took Judith Baker Montano's crazy quilting class. Frankly, we had a really sucky room. It was extremely dark. There were pot lights on the ceiling overhang, but they pointed up to the ceiling and were supposed to reflect their pathetic 40 watt light down. Didn't do much. Thankfully we had all been told to bring a light so that helped and long about the third day they begged the facility for floor lamps and that helped a little too.

Judith was a very fun and encouraging teacher and made the room bearable :-) She taught us her crazy piecing method and we pieced four blocks - though some students made more. Then we spent the rest of the week learning about threads, trims, ribbons, beads and buttons. She showed us different stitches with threads and ribbons and taught us some fun things to do with the beads and buttons. We were also treated to a slide show of antique quilts and learned some of the history.

I confess to getting stir crazy in that cave of a room so I took off on a shopping trip (for class supplies) to Carmel and took half the class with me. We found a lovely trim shop in downtown Carmel with vintage ribbons and lovely new ones as well. We made that shop owner very happy I think. Plus we had new fun things to sew onto our blocks.

The whole week is spent sewing and all meals are provided so no cooking or dishes to worry about. Every night but one there is a program and participants are also encouraged to bring show and tell and those quilts were just lovely. There is also a shuttle every afternoon that takes you to the two quilt shops in Pacific Grove and also shopping in their little downtown. Across the street is the ocean and there are lovely trails to walk which was quite fun after breakfast and before class. You can even get your meals to go and eat on the beach if you wish.

It was a very nice week and I had a grand time in class. If you like handwork or crazy quilting I do recommend Judith as a teacher if you ever get the chance. I am pooped though! We worked from morning till bedtime and I think I need a vacation to recover from my quilting vacation!

marcella

Reply to
Marcella Peek
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Jealous, that's what I am. Just plain jealous. :)

Reply to
Kathy Applebaum

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