My time!

Yesterday morning I washed my clothes that I had taken to Canada, packed up some assorted stuff from both studios and headed off to Asilomar with my three best friends, the BB's. Many of you may be familiar with Asilomar as Empty Spools Seminars has five different sessions here during the year, each session offering lots of great teachers. Next year during the second session I will be the Artist in Residence during that session.

We stopped for a nice lunch and arrived in Pacific Grove by 2:00. We couldn't get into our sewing room yet (who cares about the sleeping room!) so we went for a walk along the beach which is right across the street. Since I couldn't be working, I took a lot of pictures for inspiration and design ideas. The tide had come in and was just going out so there was lots of stuff to look at that had been brought up by the water.

The Monterey Bay has lots of kelp which washes ashore. It was a picture of kelp here at this beach from over a year ago that led to one of my pieces that was used in Quilting Arts Magazine in my article in the Spring, 2006 issue.

I love the way the kelp gets arranged and rearranged and how the sand flows around it.
One lone little piece of sea grass with a bunch of something green entangled.
More sea grass...what great quilting lines! I love the little rivulets that are also there!
And lots of jelly fish that had washed ashore. This was a really big one, about ten inches across.
More jellies and kelp and sea grass
and the texture in this piece of kelp!
And lots of bubbles, if I got there fast enough just after the water started draining off the shore!


But best of all is this young hawk perched in the tree to watch for a passing morsel in the grasses below! And this was taken with my little Canon Power Shot telephotoed out all the way (which isn't very much for this little camera) and then really blown up! It was the only way we could tell for sure what it was!I am part of a small group of artists who are working on pieces of art made from the reclycled nylon used by Christo in his Running Fences project that went from Marin County and Sonoma county to the sea in 1972. Dianne Smith found the 18 huge panels in a farmer's barn and bought them and then brought a bunch of various artists together to make art out of them. She then finds places to show them and we all split the earnings from the work. I have done two before, one of which has sold and am now working on a third piece today, but it also incorporates some pieces of the Gates from New York. I am really excited about this! I also have a lot more fabric to work with. The fun of doing this is that I can dye the nylon with disperse dyes!

Myrna is still working through some of her quilting. She has made some changes in a few of her pieces and is doing quite well. She is going to go live with a blog and when she does, you can get her perspective about it.

A little more about how this worked. Myrna have traveled to take different workshops when she wanted to learn something new but is a very gifted teacher. When I recently advertised about a design class that I was giving in my studio several months ago, she contacted me to see if I taught any longer classes. I will be doing a retreat at Heart and Hand in May but she did not want to wait that long. So she contacted the quilt store, and several friends to see if they would like to go together on the cost to bring me up to them...I travel when all expenses are incurred by the hiring parties and I am paid my daily teaching rate. That didn't pan out so she decided to just hire me personally for two days. She paid my travel expenses and put me up. The bonus for her was that it did not cost here any more than if she had flown, and she actually figured out that it was less, to a retreat someplace else. Plus she could work in her own studio where she was very comfortable and did not have to travel with all that stuff.

And, because it was a design class, I did not have to travel with lots of stuff either! And she sure has gotten more than her two days' worth!

I am considering doing some critiquing and mentoring for a fee. Tell me what you think. I would like to set up pay pal and then I can work out the payments much easier. Additionally, after several people have asked if I taught on line classes, I am considering doing a design class as an on line class but that is still in the making. So, whatcha' think?