GROUPS

This is the longest we have resided in ONE PLACE in the last ten years. Our remodeling project (aka "gut job") has kept us here in the Rogue valley of southern Oregon throughout the winter, and we now call this area home. Once finished, we'll start "gypsying" again, but for now we are planted and establishing roots. For me, I am super happy to be able to connect with the fiber art community here, and I haven't wasted any time in doing so. I love my groups.

This little frog has a mouth to catch all your scraps at the sewing machine. 

I joined the local chapter of the American Sewing Guild when we first arrived here in 2010. This is an amazing group of talented and generous women who promote philanthropy and education through sewing. The frog above was presented last week at a monthly meeting, and we had a "Make It and Take It" event last Saturday. I had a great group with me trying their hands at "raw edge applique birds".

"Make It and Take It" is a popular annual ASG event.

A local chapter of SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Association) was started here in Southern Oregon last fall. This keen group of art quilters meets once a month and we work on critiquing, encouraging, and networking. SAQA has opened up a new avenue of exhibition submissions for me. I recently received notice that one of my pieces was accepted into the SAQA show "Balancing Act" (a future blogpost), and I am working on two pieces for an upcoming Oregon show (Poetry and Cloth). And I love meeting other like minded women in this area.

Deb Runnel presented this "found object" piece at our local SAQA meeting.

Early stage of my submission for the "Poetry and Cloth" exhibit.

I've also been teaching at Sew Creative in Ashland (great shop!) and have loved putting together these classes and getting back at teaching. My free motion quilting classes have a different slant by focusing on objects, text, and borders rather than the typical stippling practice. Students seem to love it and are encouraged to keep at it..."practice, practice, practice" I tell them!

We work on these fun and personalized placemats in "FreeMotion 2".

Sew Creative also has a quilt journal group that I was immediately attracted to. Six to eight of us get together once a month to share a small journal quilt with a central theme. Store owner Karen sets the theme and also teaches us something new or presents a new product for us to try. Being a minimalist, there are many products I have never tried so I am thrilled to broaden my my scope and skills.

Journal Quilt for February (Doorway).

And then there's my ever faithful online Cyber Fibres quilt journal group of which I have been a part of since 2008. Currently we have a 60+ piece show going on in Campbell River, BC. This group is like family to me!

Last but certainly not least is the small dye group that meets once a week...Cynthia, Christine, and Lene... they are my avenue to advanced dyeing and I love to see what they are up to. Winter activities tend to focus on paper creations, and when the weather warms up, we head to Cynthia's basement for dyeing fun. I love to hangout with them during paper crafts, but join in for dyeing. Lately they went on a bookmark binge...beautiful!

Beautiful bookmarks with handmade tassels.

And let's not forget the classes that are out there to take advantage of. This weekend I'll be trying "Improvisational Circles" at Sew Creative.
I love my groups! Will I be able to "gypsy" again? (I'll worry about that later!)