Teaching in Venice and Jacksonville, Florida

Oooops! I’ve been so busy traveling that I didn’t have time to post my photos from my trips to teach and speak in Venice and Jacksonville, Florida, in January and February. Here are some shots of Venice:

 

and of Jacksonville, and my students there:

Photo shoot in Lenoir, NC

My daughter played soccer today in Lenoir, NC, a town that has seen better days. Many of its long-time employers, big-name American furniture manufacturers, have moved out, sent their production abroad, or downsized. But it has some amazing architecture, and some really cool old buildings just screaming for restoration and a new purpose. How I wish I had millions of dollars to save some of them.

While her team warmed up, I wandered around the old Lenoir High School, and took photos. It is great to go to a new place, and not a particularly beautiful place, and shoot, shoot, shoot. Look for elements like texture, pattern, line, color, form, reflection and movement. Sometimes you can get the most amazing photos at relatively mundane locations. This is one of the exercises I describe in my book, Point, Click, Quilt! Turn Your Photos into Fabulous Fabric Art. Here are some of the photos I took today.

Why do I take photos? Most of my fiber art is based on photos, and I always use original photos (otherwise I’d have copyright issues). Plus, photography is a great way to boost your creativity, and to get ideas that inspire you. And it is fun. Give it a try!

Teaching in sunny Sarasota

I just got back from teaching at the Friendship Knot Quilters Guild of Sarasota. We did “Peacock Feather” on Feb. 18, and I presented my “Point, Click, Quilt!” lecture that evening.  Yesterday, we did “November Leaves.” Here I am before my presentation with Facebook friend and blog buddy Sharon Bourque, who was visiting from Canada:

It is so much fun to meet up with people I have only met previously online. 

I didn’t know it until I traveled to the Sarasota area last month (to teach at the Venice Guild) and this month, but there is a very large Mennonite and Amish community there. For dinner, my host took me to dinner at Der Dutchman, a local restaurant that features Amish food. It was wonderful!
 

Bicycles are a common way for them to get around town:

We made a stop at Alma Sue’s Quilts, a fabulous quilt shop.

Several quilt frames were set up inside the shop, and Mennonite ladies were hand quilting. Gorgeous!

Within the past few years, I have discovered that my Brubaker ancestors (Bruppacher) were Swiss Mennonites who came to America about 1710, and settled in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Maybe I got some of my love of quilting from them!

My hosts’ cat is a Bengal (a hybrid breed of domestic cat that result from crossing a domestic feline with an Asian Leopard Cat)! She is lovely, very orange and tiger-y looking:

Somehow, I didn’t get any photos of my Peacock Feather class students; argh! Here are photos from Tuesday’s November Leaves” class where we painted and stitched Tyvek, then melted it and quilted. 

Here’s another wonderful online friend, Angie Knowles, whom I met in person for the first time:

We also melted some of the leftover Tyvek bits:

 

 

  

When class was over, it was time for some R&R. We went out to dinner at a river-side restaurant, where I had a delicious fish sandwich:

This is a tree outside the restaurant, where some beautiful black birds (crows?) had gathered: 

 

And then my hosts drove me to Siesta Key beach in time for sunset. The sand there is very fine and very white. I didn't even realize when I was taking this shot that I had captured two Mennonite women and their little boy:

 

Here is the sun going …

… going …

 

 

… gone!

Brightly painted lifeguard stations:

Me with my host, Pam:

Photo by Gerry Zeck

The beach is incredibly wide compared to our North Carolina barrier islands:

Seagull tracks:

Sunset silhouette:

Me taking photographs of the sunset:

Photo by Gerry Zeck

Thanks, Friendship Knot Quilters; It was wonderful!