Gearing Up

It's been a long time since I've posted to the blog.  It's been a busy time - once the quilt show and holiday socializing was finally over last week I turned my focus to "back to school" mode.   I've taken on a lot, but it doesn't feel like a lot of responsibility or something to dread.  I am excited and feel like a kid filled with anticipation of the first day of school, excited about the new things I'm going to learn and as much or maybe more about the new friends I'm going to meet or reconnect with.  Turns out that Katie from the Nancy Crow workshop is also part of the online class that starts Sunday.  She lives just north and across the border from here, so we may meet up in person one of these days.

On Sunday morning the first assignment from Lisa in Working in a Series arrived. Class officially starts NEXT Sunday but she gave us some little warm up assignments to get us thinking, learning our way around the blog (Wordpress, UGH!) and posting pictures properly.  I'm okay with posting but even with a bright work light my pictures are not coming out properly.  Look at these!  I borrowed Greg's big construction light  why can't I get the lighting right?!

Anyway it's been fun and busy putting up my first assignment - the "About me" page, and checking to see if others have done the same. So far there are only eight of us - two spaces left, and I'm sure it's not too late if anyone is interested.  I am sure it's going to be fantastic for me - I can see that Lisa is really well organized and has her class carefully thought out and prepared.  So the last piece of my assignment is to declutter the studio - I'm glad to have that assignment -it needed it!

I got through the registration process at Whatcom Community College for the Color in Art class. That should be interesting, and I 'm a little more apprehensive about it, because I'm fairly sure I'll be the only "textile artist". Probably the only one over 40 too.  I definitely won't use the word "quilts" around there. Their quarter is very late so class doesn't start until October 2.  I'm also nervous about disappearing from work for three hours, but probably no one will even notice.  I don't want to keep it a secret, I just don't want to advertise it.

The third part of my "back to school" experience is that I have signed up with SAQA for something called the "Visioning Project."  It's not really well described but it is structured as a way for members to publicly post goals, report on them, and receive feedback. Only a few of the participants have checked in so far.   It seems it does not formally kick off until October, and I know that for anyone making a submission to Quilt National, the deadline is Friday so many people are probably tied up with that.  I am looking forward to seeing that process, and trying to hold back from my urge to jump in and comment on everything.  I don't want to be that person.

Anyway, that's it from here. I will be working on the remainder of my assignment from Lisa - the decluttering and organizing. She did mention purchasing any supplies you might need so you are ready, and gosh, I realized I really really needed this stack of all the new Kona Cotton solids from Pink Chalk.