Thursday, May 15, 2014

The Whirlwind of Classes and Talks

It's no secret that I've been a busy girl as of late.  I'm decent at spacing out my commitments and making sure I don't have too many things pressing at the same time. My calendar usually looks well-balanced and responsible. However, I often forget to leave room for the incidentals and unschedule-able things, like illness, vehicular issues, and Acts of Nephew, among other things good and bad. A particularly crappy inclement spring has seen more barometric changes than the weather network* and left me with less energy and fighting spirit than usual. Renovations have meant my sewing corner has moved, rotated and/or been inaccessible since January - tricky when keeping up with two guilds and two bees! And then, of course, there's been hockey. Glorious hockey. Junior, Olympic, NHL, KHL, AHL, WTH?... I will admit that while I sometimes drop the ball on keeping up in quilting blogland, I never go more than two days without checking in on the hockey blogs. In fact, I was caught at a guild meeting streaming a game during a presentation.  I was LISTENING, of course, to the presenter and looked at all her slides, but I also didn't want to miss any changes in the score.  That being said, if I'm the presenter and you are in the audience, feel free to live-stream sporting events.  Just keep me updated on the score!  (NOTE: this does NOT apply in the scholastic setting - secondary students are required to pay attention in class, even if I'm boring.  Therefore, if you by any strange chance or coincidence are a high school student who has me as their classroom teacher at any time, I will not accept any excuses of "But Ms. M..... !You said on your blog....". So there. You have been warned. Also - how did you find this blog, anyway? Get off the internet, go outside and/or do your homework, please and thank you!)

Speaking of giving talks, classes and presentations...

I had the distinct pleasure of leading a workshop on improv piecing at Saskatoon Quilters' Guild spring retreat at the end of April. I do a lot of improv piecing (crazy piecing, free-piecing, what have you) These were the samples that I made up plus more that I made during/after the workshop:
Most of my job was just to give encouragement and provide a little guidance on making such unusual pieces cohesive. Here is all the beautiful work they did!
I was a proud, proud teacher, (though truly I think an improv workshop leader is really more of a permission giver and 'can't' preventer than instructor.) They all had such different styles; not surprising since they've all been quilting for years. Having never given that workshop before, I was quite pleased with how it went. The gals gave me some great and constructive feedback, too.

At the last meeting of Saskatoon Quilter's Guild, I got to see some of their work continued but wasn't able to snap a pic. I had the privilege that night to give a talk on modern quilting. Of that, I have no photos but since no one fell asleep, I think it went well, too. Put a mic in my hand and I can talk, boy!  Only trouble?  When you're the speaker - you can't stream the hockey game...


*As one of many folk around here with climate migraines, I can say that spring is not a great time of year, especially with the yo-yo of sun/snow/sun/snow/rain/snain/snow/sun/rain we've had this go-round. If these manned missions to Mars advertised a permanently consistent air pressure in all compartments, ships and colonies, migraneurs would risk experiencing every bad thing that's ever happened in a scifi film.... Aliens, schmaliens!

10 comments:

  1. Sorry you've been struggling with migraines, but loving the improv teaching, and even better the note to your students!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love those improv pieces. They look great. It's too bad I'm so far from Saskatoon, otherwise I'd likely be able to do some sort of quilting thing! Also, very funny--not the headaches that is, but the rest.

    ReplyDelete
  3. No worries, I'd never be checking scores while at a lecture because I'm sports illiterate! I wouldn't even check my mail - even if you were boring, ha!

    Love what your pupils are up to. I'm always amazed at the variety that comes from the same ideas through different people's heads. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hey Carly, hope that the weather improves!, what happened to the beautiful springtime in Saskatchewan, hope the summer makes up for it,

    ReplyDelete
  5. Great presentation at the guild, Carly. Thoroughly enjoyed it and I can honestly say I wasn't tempted for a moment to watch a game...

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wish I'd been there, live 2 hours from city. I'm a traditional quilter, my age of 73 probably does that. But, starting to lean towards modern quilts more and more. Love the scrappy look, whether modern or otherwise.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'm working on using up some scraps in blocks. Not as random and scrappy as this, but in a more organized way. I think I needed to see these pictures to remind me that I can get crazy and they will still look good. Or maybe svn better!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Improv piecing can be so freeing. I love that you taught others how to sew out of the box. Very cool blocks that were made!

    ReplyDelete

Who doesn't love comments? I appreciate every single one and try to reply to each. Unless you're a no-reply commenter. Then I can't. And I have a little sad moment. Like a dropped ice cream cone. So if you're a no-reply commenter and have a question, check the comment thread and I'll try to reply there. :-)