Class Help

Bob has several classes coming up in 2011 that are out of the country and this might be the best place to explain what he means when he asks for sandwiches. Mine would be egg salad but he is talking cloth, batting, cloth sandwiches. There are pictures that will explain what he means if you look at older blogs. I will be adding new pictures from his classes at QSDS and Australia.

We have been so busy with life that I have let this page slip. I would say I was sorry but now that I have grand kids, they are taking up my time and energy. We had a wonderful winter in California last year from October through April and we will be heading back for a quick trip soon. We are trying to decide what to do with our life now. 2011 will be Bob's busiest year for teaching and we are thinking of selling the house and downsizing to California. IF we end up doing that we will have to sell a lot of Bob's possessions. One that comes to mind is his George (APQS) sewing machine and table. We would be downsizing to a one bedroom apt. from a 3 bedroom with a full basement studio. Needless to say a lot of tools and supplies will have to go.

Bob had a great time teaching in Australia. The students were eager to learn and one class made him a discharged jacket with some of the material they had discharged in class. He plans on wearing it in his future classes.

Check back around Christmas. We will be back from California and I will post some pictures from Australia.

Natalie

Class examples

If you are taking a class from Bob and the class list calls for: 4 fabric sandwiches 18 x 18: top white, middle a thin batting, bottom black. On two use the white side and layer 2 1/2 inch to 3 inch strips of solid colors (hand dyed or store bought) on the other two use the black as the top and layer 2 inch strips of solids and small prints that read close to solid. On one of the strips you can use a bold print if you have one in your stash just to see how it looks. Look at the picture below:

Then the list might say: · 4 - three inch squares in each of the following colors: 4 warm, 4 cool, and 4 neutral. See the example to the left. They can be your favorite warm, cool, and neutral. You will be doing exercises that require the squares to be affixed to a fabric sandwich. They can be attached with “wonder under” or spray adhesive.

Up Date on our life

I realize it has been awhile since I blogged. A lot has happened in the last year. Bob got into Quilt National for the 4th time (4 out of 5 entries...I'm proud of him). We of course went to Athens and met up with old friends. We re-connected with Glenys Mann from Australia . We met Glenys back in 96 or 97 at QSDS when it was held at the Josehpina in Columbus. Glenys asked Bob to come to Australia to teach for 2 weeks next fall. As those who have taken a class from Bob you know that I am always hanging out in the class. But I think I may pass up this trip. Two days after the last class he is teaching for Pro Chemical in Massachusetts and I think I better stay back and get all his material to Fall River. So I will spend that time visiting family and friends on the east coast.

We moved (for the winter only but our winter started in October) to California. I am thinking I could stay here forever. Our son has a small condo that is not selling right now so he asked us to come out and this way we can spend time with the grand children. We went from no grand kids a few years ago to soon having 5. We now have 3 step grandkids ages 13, 11, and 9 and then they had a boy a year ago July and another boy is on the way, due in January.

The condo is only 560 square feet. Rather small. Bob is teaching several classes out here in California so he brought many quilts to show as examples in class. He also bought his George sewing machine and his Bernina. So the entire condo is his studio now. I have a small corner of the bedroom for my computers and printers. But that is all I need. Especially when it is the of December and the windows are open and we are comfortable on the coldest day with just a light jacket or sweatshirt. Tim is the Strength and Conditioning Coach for the LA Kings Hockey team so we get to go to as many home hockey games as we want. We are having a great time out here and Bob still has time to do his quilting. We do miss being able to run up to Chicago to see our daughter Amy and her husband. That's about all for now. I won't wait so long before my next blog.

N

Quilting by the Lake

Thank you Janet for asking the first question. Here are some pictures of what the "sandwiches" with different colored 3" strips should look like. The idea is for you to audition thread colors on different colored fabric strips, so when you go home you can refer to this "sampler." You can see that the blue thread looks one color on the red material and a different color on the green material. So use colors that are you tend to use alot. That way it will be helpful in the future. But also use colors you don't tend to use so that you will have those as a reference also. You can attach your strips by sewing them with 1/4 in seams or just by "wonder-undering" (fusing). Bob and I are looking forward to the class. If any of you have other questions feel free to send an e-mail.

April 8, 2009

Well it has been a while since my last post. A lot has happened. Bob's brother died unexpectedly. Then our son Tim had a blood clot in his lung and is still working that one out. He was on his way to New York for the primier of the Travel Channels show "Dhani Tackles the Globe" with Dhani Jones. Tim is his Performance Coach and travels with him to all these countries and that was something the doctors thought might have contributed to the clot. Thank goodness he went to the hospital before he got on the plane or who knows what might have happened to that clot.

I am still looking for work. Who knows what will happen with that. Bob is looking for students to take classes at the studio here. The few classes he taught have been very successful and the students very pleased. I need to put testimonials up I guess.

NCSW 4 of 4

OK this is the last post on North Country Studio Workshops. Here are some pictures from the campus of Bennington College where the workshop was held.





The classes were held in a building called VAPA (Visual Arts Performing Arts) The building was made of wood that has weathered and looks great.

NCSW 3 of 4

If I could have taken a class there are 2 that were at the top of my list. One was a stitching and markmarking class taught by Ilze Aviks - www.ilzeaviks.com but there might have been a little too much hand sewing for my liking (actually I am lucky to do machine sewing these days) and the other that I think I really would have enjoyed was a felting class taught by Lisa Klakulak. They did some amazing things. If you ever have a chance to take her class you will not regret it. Sorry I don't have any pictures of either class but go to their web sites and you can get an idea of what they did. I did spend time in Ilze's class bringing messages from the office. I volunteered to help out in the office when they needed to take a break or needed someone to run to the classes to deliver messages. It was truly a great week.