A couple photos . . .

Here are a couple photos from the workshop. This first one shows Loes and Theo on the left. They are the creators of the digitizing software "Art and Stitch". They are from Amsterdam and come over to do major shows and often have retreats during their stay here. They will be heading home in a few days and plan to return to the U.S. in June.

To the right of Theo is Sharon Schamber and her husband, Gene. That gorgeous quilt in the foreground is one of Sharon's recent prize winning quilts. It was quite an experience to actually have time to study her work and hear her comments and answer questions. Gene is a great supporter of her work and creativity as well as a darn good cook. He fixed us a fantastic chicken stew lunch one of the days we were there.

Sharon also shared her thoughts of the FriXion pens - she uses them. She is clear that one must use a strong shot of steam from a hot iron to force the jel into the batting so it will not reappear as a brown ghost even in cold temperatures. I will try them again. She also talked a bit about thread. She has so much knowledge in e very area of design, construction and quilting that it is overwhelming. I hope to take another class from her.

The second photo is of one of the projects we completed as we learned to better use the software with the most recent new features. This is "Crazy Bird" and we were to take a very simple outline and add to it whatever we wanted from our own designs or from the large library. This is the image of the actual digitized file and I plan to see how it will stitch out tomorrow.

Now, I am working on several new motifs of my own and hope to have several done in the next 2 or 3 weeks. It is so much fun - and it was an amazing time with very creative people.