I just returned from teaching two workshops and speaking to the East Cobb Quilters’ Guild in Marietta, Georgia, near Atlanta. What a wonderful, warm group of quilters! I was invited to teach there after Danielle Morgan wrote me; at the time, I think she was the guild president, and discovered my blog and website. That’s Danielle above with the wonderful dragonfly she created in the thread sketching class I taught on Saturday.
I can’t tell you how wonderfully they treated me; taking me for great meals, helping me schlep all my stuff in and out of several different workshop and meeting sites, helping me set up, helping me sell my patterns, book and DVD, but most of all, helping me out when I got sick. It is hard to be away from home and attempting to be professional when you are sick. Especially sick the way I was sick (I will spare you the details, but you can take my word for it that it wasn't pretty.) Luckily, it was only a 12-hour bug and I was back on my feet in time to speak to the guild on Friday morning.
What a great program chair this guild has in Pam Cornutt. She is a ball of energy, and was unfailingly helpful, organized and cheerful.
After the guild meeting, Linda Christensen came up to me, excited to see my rust-dyed piece. She had been collecting rusty stuff, and after talking with me and finding me to be a fellow admirer of rust, went out to her car and brought back a big box filled with the most marvelous rusty bits. Look at this!
These are scraps from a metal stamping company. Wow, wow, wow! Thank you, Linda! I wish I had time to work with these right now, but they might have to wait until I get some big projects finished up. (After I took this photo, by daughter came in and said, “Those are interesting rusty things on the kitchen counter, Mama… you have had a tetanus shot lately, haven’t you?”)
Asking students to complete evaluation forms after I teach a class is something I started to do recently. I’m so glad I decided to do it, because I’m getting wonderful feedback from my students. Most of them gave my two classes and my teaching good marks, and that was reassuring. But the constructive criticism and suggestions were invaluable. It made me wonder why more teachers – and more guilds, for that matter – don’t make teacher/class evaluations a regular thing.
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We enjoyed having you at guild so much. Thank you for all the inspiration you shared.
ReplyDeleteSusan,
ReplyDeleteIt was great to get to meet you and see your work at East Cobb on Friday. But to me, the most interesting thing was the content of your presentation about things you've learned and tips to challenge us to try more things in our quilting. I also liked the 'anchor' to traditional approaches too.
I am doing a presentation and short workshop in about 6 weeks to a guild near Athens. My topic is "Transforming Fabric to Use in Quilting". I have been making notes for several months on ideas I want to present. I made about four pages of notes from your presentation. You hit on some things that I want to stress.
This guild, I believe is a very conservative group, so my biggest challenge is going to be getting them to try something that they normally wouldn't try. To then take what they make and use it in a quilt, now that might be too much to ask.
One of the things I will do is to try some new things and look at art quilting with a more open mind.
Presentations like yours have been valuable to me in preparing for this program.
I wish that I could have taken your class while your were here but the timing was not good for me. I hope to have the opportunity to take a class with you sometime soon. Perhaps in Houston in November. I plan to enter my Sunbonnet Sue quilt in that show.
I'm glad that you are feeling better.
Ben Hollingsworth
Ben,
ReplyDeleteYour work is absolutely fabulous, and I wish I could have seen more of it when I was in Atlanta. It was great talking with you at the meeting. I'm so glad to hear that my presentation was helpful to you. I hope your Sun Bonnet Sue quilt gets into Houston! I'm hoping to attend, and will look for it - and you - there!
I am going to be speaking and teaching in Athens, Ga., at the Cotton Patch group in September. I think the dates will be Sept. 14 (meeting) and 15 (workshop), so mark your calendar... if they let non-guild members take the class, it might be an option. It sounds like they might want me to teach some of my painting techniques.
Again, so nice to meet you... you are so lucky to have such a great guild.
Melinda,
ReplyDeleteThanks! It was great meeting you and having you in class ... I just left a message on your blog, too! :-)
Would have loved to be in that class, fun and a wonderful piece. I think the evaluations are a good thing, helps you to plan future classes.
ReplyDeleteDebbie
Loved your presentation at the Friday guild meeting. You're an excellent speaker and the combination of slides and then the actual quilts was wonderful.
ReplyDeletebrodeuse d insectes et artiste textile en france je suis enthousiasmée par ce travail de creation autour de la libellulle
ReplyDeleteje serai tres contente si vous laissez un com sur mon blog
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