BIG Thank You!

I just finished a marathon teaching stint at Creative House running all three of my workshops within days of each other.  I want to send a big thank you to my summer helper Kari for putting all my kits & handouts together.  What a life-saver / time-saver!  I was so amazed at the students this round.  Almost all of them traveled to get to these classes.  Some of them drove in for every single class!  There were people from Swift Current, Davidson, North Battleford, Rosthern...  I'm sure I'm forgetting somewhere.  It was really great getting to know you all!  I learned a lot.  I learned a lot about Pfaff sewing machines actually!  They have completely different parts from what I'm used to and I had to do some trouble shooting a couple of times.  It was a bit like helping my teenager with his French homework when in fact I do not speak French.  Fortunately, the machine manuals have English and I was able to guess the solutions. ; )

The last class I ran was the Basic Threadpainting.  It went (in my opinion) way better than the last Threadpainting ones.  I extended the class time and put a food break in the middle.  2.5 hrs was just not enough to practice and get a project nearly done.  This one was 4+ hrs, and just long enough.  Some of us started to get sore shoulders.  That led to a good discussion on yoga, massage, and stretching.  Threadpainting is tough business after all!  : )  I'm sure some readers might think that's weird to hear, but it's true.  It is extremely tedious work and there's a lot of one-position body holding.  * * When I run the 6 hour class in Moosomin I will be sure to incorporate a fun activity as a second break for the afternoon.

i love this black and white work in progress! 

This last class was also quite enthusiastic to get their photo taken.  (YAY!)  Usually when I break out the camera, people duck under the tables!  They know I'll blog it, right?  Thanks ladies - you are so brave.  : )

What a happy bunch!  What a TALENTED bunch!  Even the women who didn't jump into the photo seemed pretty thrilled about their threadpainting results.   /I think the lunch break helped./

original photo by Edith Maracle, used with permission

Look how dramatic the chickadee looks on that royal blue background!  (Nice shading by the way!)  Everyone was surprised at how each person's threadpainting looked to have quite different stitches from the next.  It was good to see. 

As for the last post, WOW!  Keep the comments coming in - the contest isn't over yet.  My goodness.  What a gold mine of information!  I'm eating it all up.  : )  Thank you thank you thank you!

Have a great day,