2019 - A Year of New Quilts and Classes

 I have been looking at my latest quilts lately and wondering.

http://worldofquiltstravel.com/Alaska19.htm

If I am floating between the spaces. It is easy to do when I go down the memory lane while stitching away.

Primary Colors

They are mostly paved with million little stitches. Each one gets me closer to the space I am trying to reach.

https://www.quiltnthings.com/

 Most of my favorite quilts have had humble and spontaneous beginnings.

https://pvqa.org/

 They surround me with brightness just like the Sunlight in every nook and corner of this home.

They brighten my evenings like that ray of light at the end of a gray day. 

No matter where I am headed with quilting, my past remains with me. Not a bad thing to be attached to if you ask me.

https://sbquilting.com/

These are the samples of my classes for 2019.  Come away with me!

Click on the link below each picture to sign up for the classes.

Here is the link to all of 2019 schedule.

Happy Quilting you all!
Sujata

Back to Quilting, Traveling and Teaching

Finally it seems I have been back at the kitchen table. It's been only a month since I got back from India but with all the teaching trips, it seems like India trip is long forgotten.

These days my kitchen table is a constant mess and that's the way I like it. There has been so much going on, be warned, this is going to be a long post. 
 
Two weeks after I arrived, I went to Santa Cruz, CA for a Windmill/Winter workshop. Members of the South Bay Area Modern Quilt Guild were so creative and prolific.

  
By the end of the day, all the design walls were full of windmills blocks. Thank you SBAQG for inviting me. I had a great time visiting you.

The lecture was schedule for the next day at the Monterey Peninsula Quilters guild one hour south in Monterey, CA.

Kathrin came to the lecture with her finished quilt top for the show and tell. I was pretty impressed! I am looking forward to seeing more quilts from this workshop at some point.

The next day I spent the morning walking around at the beach, signed some books at Back Porch Fabrics. There was a special exhibit in their gallery of Gwen's quilts. They were so inspiring, I wanted to sew right there and then. Unfortunately, I don't travel with my machine and there was no time to sew. I came back home that afternoon. The drive on 101 north was beautiful! The mountains and farms were lush green thanks to our rainy spring weather! As I got closer to home, I saw the rolling hills covered with mustard flowers. Unfortunately I was on the highway, there was no way to take pictures. 

The next day I started a quilt. I am going to have to post about it in near future.

Here is my most recent finish that I can show you today. 

My Windmills quilt workshop is high in demand so I thought to make a new sample from the "Possibilities" section of the book. This way, I can see for myself how it turns out and gives my students ideas they can see in reality rather than in an illustration.

I quilted it on my Viking using the walking foot. I do like simple lines in my quilts, hand quilted or otherwise. So at first I thought horizontal lines would do. But then I realized, the solids in the quilt and those large blocks could use some extra texture so I turned that into waffle quilting.

Ooops.. Do you see on the lower right corner the batting and backing was not enough?  There were some not so fun moments that evening while I was machine quilting and I rather not talk about it.

I finished the quilt with pieced polka dot binding to make it look like the paint was peeling off the edges. I had to send the sample to the guild the day after I arrived from Monterey so there was no time to take a good picture. I guess this will have to do.

I have started many projects at the same time. People ask me if I have multiple quilts in the works.. My answer is always, YES!

Interestingly enough, I am having fun working on all of them at the same time.

Tomorrow evening I will be presenting at the San Francisco Quilters guild. If you are in the area, please stop by to say hello.

Sujata

Trip to Ann Arbor - Part One

The Greater Ann Arbor Quilt Guild contacted me early last year in May. The guild program director Lottie Parker did a great job staying in touch throughout the year and made sure my stay there was comfortable.

I taught two classes - Windmill class was scheduled the day before the guild meeting and Peppermint Pinwheels was scheduled on the day after the meeting. Here are some of the pictures of guild members' work from the Windmills class..

Speaking of Winmills, I also have some pictures from class at Sisters to share.

Jodena's quilt top is stunning. You can find her work on Instagram @jodenab

And this is the picture of one of my favorite students from Sisters. She is 12 years old, a terrific quilter already. You can follow her work on Instagram @mycraftyclub

Sue Nikiel wanted pop of colors on the walls of her log cabin house. I think she got that pop!

It was so nice to finally meet Lori from Humble Quilts.
She worked her magic in the class and had her top ready before even leaving the class.

As I was setting up my quilts on the stage and catching my breath before the talk (as I always do since my first experience) people were trickling in the auditorium.

I spotted those two members with Julie Sefton's book, Build A Barn!
I was thrilled to see it and had to take this picture.

 Sunday's Peppermint Pinwheel class was also as much fun and as colorful as ever.  

We had some very prolific group of quilters! They all ended up making at least four or more blocks on the day of the class. I loved the variety of fabrics in the class.

Thank you Sonya, Lottie, Judy, Carol and everyone at Greater Ann Arbor Quilt Guild for your warm hospitality. You made my experience memorable!

After the classes I visited a dear friend on Beaver island. I can't wait to share the story about that in a day or two. Stay tuned!

Sujata

Playing catch up and pattern for Organized Chaos

I am not even sure where I had left off. Almost three months after coming back from India, I have started sewing and I can say, that is a clear sign of being settling down. 

Greater Ann Arbor Quilt Guild asked if I could send them the samples for my upcoming workshops in July. Since I needed the original quilt for couple of presentations and workshops between now and July, I decided to make a new sample.

I pulled first box of fabrics out and it happened to be full of red and orange fabrics and so began the Marigold quilt. Needless to say, I got a bit carried away. There was no way I was going to finish another large quilt in time so I make a smaller sample and sent it it.

While I was working on the sample, I decided to make a smaller version of Rail Fence quilt too.. Just in case, I need another sample!

Yes, that's a shower curtain as a temporary design wall. These days, anything goes as long as I can continue working.

Gwen's baskets are in the making on the side too. I will come back with this post later because it deserves a post by itself.

Meanwhile there is a lot of work, social/family events and just plain old goofing around going on.
I presented at Stitch Modern event back in April, hosted by East Bay Modern Quilt Guild.
I also visited Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild and Baltimore Heritage quilt guild early in May. It was the best time I had on the east coast since I moved out.

I am looking forward to everyone's finished projects from both of those workshops.

Amy showed her finished Hourglass Twist quilt she made at my MAQ 2015workshop in Maryland.

Here are some pictures of wild life my backyard.

 

Oh and back to quilting for a very important news!

You can order Organized Chaos quilt pattern from my etsy shop.  Click on the link below.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/Rangolidesigns?ref=l2-shopheader-name 

It sure feels like I am back to sewing whenever time permits. I will be at Santa Clara Quilt guild in June and at Sisters, Orgeon and Ann Arbor, MI in July. I hope to see some of you there! 

Have a great week!

Sujata

Birthdays and upcoming classes in St. Loius and Seattle area

and all sorts of randomness...

On Monday night I received a text from an old friend/neighbor which I have to share today.

Unfortunately, I have not gone to many quilt shops and book stores to check if they are carrying my book so it is always nice to see when someone mentions seeing it at a shop.

She was visiting a quilt shop in McMinneville, Oregon and spotted my book!

There it is! Just sitting happily!

Speaking of quilt shops, In addition to Organized Chaos I have added another class while I am in Seattle. For those of you who have asked, here is the link to the website for the class at Quiltworks Northwest in Bellevue, WA. This is the place I worked and taught classes before moving to PA. I can not wait to go back and teach there.

I hope to see you there!

We just got back from visiting Toronto for few days. My sister surprised her husband for his 60th birthday.  All of his close friends were there along with most of the family members. His party happened to be the day before Shail and my birthday. It was nice to be able to see my son on our birthday. We needed to have our selfie to mark his 24th and my 52nd birthday don't you agree?

Kavita joined us from her month long trip on the west coast. She spent volunteering on farms in Oregon and Washington state as her summer experience. I am pretty proud of her.

At the end of the trip she visited her brother Gautam, who sent me this cutest little elephant for a birthday gift.. He printed it on his 3D printer! I am still baffled and impressed by it! This thing came out of a printer!!!

I think he is a yogi!

and a kid at heart!

 A new quilt is in the making!

Last week I made a little quilt for my younger sister. Like me, she loves house plants and gardening. Last time I visited her, she had asked me to bring something small to put under her planter on the fireplace.

All the scraps came out of this quilt. Now bits and pieces of Daffodils and Winter quilts live at my sister's house.

Speaking of Daffodils, I have hired backyard birds to keep an eye on my garden this year.  

 

I am off to St. Louis to speak at Thimbles and Thread quilt guild for the weekend. We are making Rail Fence quilt. Can't wait!

Have a wonderful rest of the week and weekend!
 

My Presentation at MAQ

It's been already a week since my speech at MAQ. Friday the 10th was a long day! I was scheduled to teach a full day class followed by the presentation in the evening in front of a large audience. There were 270 quilters that gathered at the seminar. It was a successful event for the organizers and teachers. I taught three classes during the weekend.

I don't consider myself as an expert at public speaking. Some people are just natural at it. When I was in grade school, I loved participating in dance programs, which also involved annual presentations at an auditorium. I remember those days very well. Participating in more than two or three numbers,  being on the stage wearing makeup and costumes, I would become someone else. I do not remember fear or anxiety from that time of my life. But when you are older and not in your costumes - things can be different.
 
In 2005, I was asked to teach at such an event in Seattle area for the first time. I was a beginning teacher but my store manager had faith in my abilities to offer me that option. I was not sure if I shared the same confidence at the time, I respectfully declined that offer.
I was also invited to a guild in Seattle by my good friends to give a presentation. Which I had reluctantly accepted. It was fun to see all the quilters admiring my quilts but did I deserve to be one the stage? Hmmm... Not sure about that.

But ten years is a long time for personal growth. As I wrote in previous post,  six months ago I accepted both speaking and teaching opportunities at MAQ.

Back to the long day -

I taught Windmills on Friday. Any teacher will tell you that the most gratifying thing about teaching is to see that sparkle in the eyes and faces of both, experienced and non experienced quilters in your classroom. I not only saw that but they made me forget about my anxiety for most of the day about my speech. My classroom was colorful no mater which direction I looked at.

It would be pretentious of me to say that I wasn't nervous. As soon as the class was over I started preparing for my speech - physically and mentally. Before this event, I had presented at only two guilds. This was a big deal! I did not want to fail myself or disappoint those who came to listen and see.

A really nice, young woman helped me set up the power point. I was introduced by the president of MAQ. I took the stage and introduced myself. I asked the lights to be turned off and there was completely dark! I could sense the eager eyes and ears but saw nothing.

From there on, everything happened as expected. By that, I mean nothing went as I had planned. I was nervous and I forgot my words. In that moment I decided to be true to who I am. In that moment I thought of nothing better than being honest and up front. I told my audience that I was nervous standing in front of them and I needed a moment or two to gather my thoughts. They were kinder than I can ever imagine. It took a sip or water and less than 10 seconds to recover. From that point on, I enjoyed speaking about my home country, my journey through colors and textiles of India.

Next two days of classes were spent in making connections with people at personal level. I made many friends and hope to continue being friends and see them again.

MAQ - An organization I knew nothing about up until six months ago!  It is a quilters' retreat for Mid Appalachian states of Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Each year in July, it is held at Mount St. Mary's University in Maryland. It's spans to a three days' weekend where quilters and teachers gather to teach and learn. There is an open studio space with an instructor available to help those who need it. Classes can range anywhere from one to three days. Everyone boards in the dorm rooms. Having three kids through college I have seen plenty and these dorm rooms were better than any other dorm rooms I had seen in the past. 

I later found out, MAQ does not do any advertizing for their programs. It is a great volunteer based organization which attracts many regulars for years to teach and learn. Check out their blog and website here.
http://www.maqonline.org/

Now you are wondering about the photos.. right?

Well, that was also one of those planned thing that did not happen. I had planned to take the picture of my audience.. I forgot!

I had thought I would ask my friends to take a picture of me on the stage - I forgot. But that's why we call them friends - They remembered! Thank you!

Here I am during the presentation talking about unpredictability and negative and positive space of free-form blocks. 

I had planned to post the pictures of classes in session - I did not connect my phone Wi-Fi on time. So here I am almost a week later with few shots from the MAQ workshops and lecture.

Click below to see some pictures of my classes.
https://www.facebook.com/TheRootConnection/posts/876846599019544

Saturday night was the general meeting where students got to show their work from past two days of classes and teachers had an opportunity to propose for their future classes.

Here are few pictures of students showing off their work. 

As you can see, there was something for every kind of quilter and designer. And there were total of 27 teachers. This was just a glimpse of what was being offered.

Thanks everyone for participating and making the time to see my presentation.

Ann Giglio and everyone at MAQ - Thank you for that nice email and invite. I had a great time!

I learned a lot about my strengths and weaknesses over the weekend. I had forgotten how much I enjoy teaching. It brought back many memories of my days in Seattle. When I published the book, I was unsure if I was willing to travel, speak and teach but this weekend was a true eye opener. My friends then kept reminding me that at some point I will have to decide if I was willing to do all that because the guild will start asking. Now I know. I do want to travel, speak and teach. 

I will be in St. Louis MO in August. They have requested to teach Rail Fence class. I can not wait!
14 August - Presentation - Thimble and Thread Quilt Guild of Greater St. Louis
15 August - Workshop - Thimble and Thread Quilt Guild of Greater St. Louis

If you are in the area, I would love to see you there! I believe there are some spots left for the workshop.

I will be visiting Seattle in early September and teaching Organized Chaos. You all know how much I love that place. It's going to be fun!

Have a great weekend you all!