After Empty Spools 04-21-24

It was a wonderful week, but I don't remember ever being so tired in all my life. My old body was not ready for all the packing/unpacking, lifting, hanging quilts, hiking  to/from the dining hall, and being "ON" most of the day.  Fortunately, everyone was willing to help.  I just needed to ask.  Everything went fairly smoothly, but needed more time to take down and bundle the quilts on Friday. Thanks to Suzanne, Star, Deborah, and many others I survived the week!  Decided I was unsafe behind the wheel to drive home on Friday, so stayed another night at Asilomar and came home on Saturday.  The drives, both up and back, were seven hours.  Going up there was extremely heavy traffic and heavy rain that lowered visibility so much I considered getting off the highway and waiting it out!   Coming home I decided to stick closer to the speed limit and see what mileage I could get - 23.5 mpg.  Not bad for a 19 year old car!

Here are just three  pictures.  More to come....

  

Suzanne Cox,  one of the three original owners and the only one still active.

Del and Nancy Ota's wonderful quilt "KoKo and Froggy" which she loaned for this exhibit.

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Catching up, I hope! 03-29-22

I am sorry I have not been able to blog while at Empty Spools.  Trouble with my cell phone and with my laptop, along with exhaustion every night!  And now, even at home, I cannot change the margins on this paragraph.  Computing doesn't seem to be my thing anymore.  Anyway, I will blog pictures from my class until I run out, maybe be the end of this week. 

I can't find words to say how FABULOUS it was to be back at Empty Spools.  I felt like I was home after a long trip away.  Some students I knew from the previous 29 years, but there were new people to meet and a couple new teachers.  Of course, Suzanne and Gayle, the owners of this seminar event were there and Carolee with her shop in the back of Merrill Hall.  I did visit all the classrooms on the walk-about on Thursday after class and attended all the evening programs.  This time I had two friends riding along with me, Andrea Bacal and Judy Warren-Tippets, from San Diego.  Andrea and I roomed together and our room in Surf was only four doors from our classroom in Surf and Sand.  Very convenient.  

The building is the furtherest west on the campus and this is the view out the sliders.  On the far left is Sunset Road that goes along the Bay and in the dip in the right middle is a view of the waves in the Bay.  Those spikes at the top are the ends of the rafters that extend the roof over the little deck outside the back of the room.  We had four beds - a double and three twins.  Lots of room to spread our our stuff and, by choice, no maid service so we never had to tidy up.  

The classroom has great light since it is just floor to ceiling windows on three sides, but it is a little small for twenty students, each with their own table and all their piles of fabric and equipment.  The noise level can be dithering.  But we managed as has every class that has been in this location.  I took this picture while standing in the door, pretty much shows how together we were.   The class was all about ABSTRACTION.

Our first assignment was to take the picture Sue Benner gave to each of us and abstract it into a 12X12 fused fiber image using five preselected 20" square fabrics.    The original timing was 20 minutes, but we managed to stretch it to more like 40!  We then pinned them up on design boards and critiqued. The smaller images are the original pictures.  

The picture Sue gave me is an aerial shot of tundra with trees.  And this is what I did with it.

       And in middle right is Andrea's image of a deep water fish and her abstraction. 

I will share more with you in coming days, but right now I need a night's sleep, even after all the naps I have taken today.  Old age is upon me!

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Another day in isolation! 01-03-21

The longer I am in isolation the less I seem to be able to accomplish.  Today we did our two walks around the loop, ate, read, napped, played toss Froggy, did a few little household jobs, dismantled the Christmas wreath, trolled Facebook, read and answered a few e-mails.  Didn't talk to anyone and only saw three people on both of our walks.  Is that a dull day, or what?  I must do better.  Make a list and stick to it.  

I had an e-mail from Suzanne at Empty Spools Seminars.  Looks like I might miss another year - after going every year since 1991.  They have had to cancel the first two sessions, so no class with Sue Benner.  I'll check to see where else she might be teaching later in 2021.  But I moved my reservation to Session V in April for the Independent Study.  I have taken that before, just taking a project from home and working on it all week.  As I recall I didn't finish it there, but that is my SOP anyway. Unless the vaccination program gets going there may not be any Empty Spools Sessions at all this year.  Here is a picture of one of the housing buildings at Asilomar taken maybe 15 years ago.  The blue flowers are ceonothus bushes, native to California, but I doubt these were natives.  Lots of deer all over the campus and the surrounding town of Pacific Grove.  

Asilomar is part of the California State Parks system, so when everything is locked down the entire campus is closed.  When I was up there last April to pick up quilts at Back Porch I thought I would just drive through, but the gates were chained closed.  Hope I do get to visit again one day, it is one of my most favorite places, I suppose because it hold so many happy and satisfying memories. 

Those of you who have been to Back Porch Fabrics may remember Dorothy, mother of Gail Abeloe who owns the shop.  Dorothy died recently at an advanced age.  I don't think she had Covid-19.  She was such a gracious, lovely lady, as is her daughter Gail.  

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End of session at Empty Spools 05-03-19

Seems like a long day today!  Getting everything out of the sleeping room and out of the classroom and into the car is a big deal for me these days.  With my bad hand and elbow and shoulder I am hard pressed.  But with help from Suzanne and Katie I made it.  My portable design board, designed and made by Mabel Huseby, makes the task so much easier.  Just leave all the project pieces pinned to the board, fold it up, close the Velcro fasteners, carry with included handle, and stuff it into the car.  Great.  

I drove the road that follows the bay all the way to the aquarium, stopped for a Starbuck's latte fix and had the car washed (on the outside only) because the windshield was so buggy I could hardly see out.  And with my hand/elbow/shoulder problem I can't reach up to wash the window myself.  Besides, the car always runs better when it is clean, doesn't it?  

I had a three hour nap when I got to Mary's and am ready for another eight hours!

Sue Benner explaining her quilting process.  She is a thorough and sharing teacher. 

My table mate Carole Pirruccello.  Her board is set up like mine and those of a number of other students.  Clockwise from top left: Rectilinear Composition, Curvilinear Composition, Landscape (hers with curved strips), and Cut Composition.    

The drive all along the bay from Asilomar Beach to the Aquarium is slow and gorgeous.  I try do to it several times while I am in Pacific Grove. 

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