Class w/Jenny Bowker Cont'd 01-20-08

I have been reading Jenny's blog since early 2006 http://jennybowker.blogspot.com/ , so I know something about her family, her quilt making and her experiences in Cairo. Which, on some level, makes it seem that I know her, but, of course, I don't. That gave me a feeling of disconnect when I met her on Friday. It was almost like meeting a fictional character from a book I enjoyed reading. Jenny is friendly and sharing and interesting, but I was disconnected from the Jenny I know on her blog. Interesting feeling.

I had never seen a picture of her and she didn't match my unconscious image. Does it ever work that way? Here she is with one of her most recent quilts which depicts her Cairo friend Hashim. See her blog post for 10-01-07.

Jenny is not a teacher who gives you a assignment and then checks to see that you are doing it correctly. On Friday she had us do some design exercises which helped me get my mind into what she was teaching and also gave me some ideas on what to work on in class. This is the yet to be sewn background for my triptych which will be divided vertically into three panels and will also have some horizontal sections inserted. The tree in the picture in yesterday's blog will be enlarged and applied over this background, so parts of it will appear in adjacent sections. Jenny kept an eye on what each student was doing, but didn't interrupt with suggestions and ideas unless the student asked her to do so. The comments she made were not to impose her ideas, rather to guide the student in finding her own 'voice'. I enjoyed the class immensely and will take another class with her if I ever have a chance.

I spend very little time looking at the quilts in the show and even less looking at the vendor's wares. After class I looked up those vendors I know, just to say hello. By then the crowds had gone home, so there was lots of room to walk around and stand around without being buffeted around. I was simply exhausted by the time I got home, so I emptied my class stuff from the van and crawled into bed for a long nap - four hours! It was heavenly uninterrupted sleep.