Divide and Conquer...Quilting & Life in General

I was the June instructor for the Sew Cal Gal's Free Motion Quilting Challenge in June and a large part of my lesson including dividing and conquering a space and then filling it in.  It's less intimidating and more manageable that way.  Well, that applies to life in general...not just quilting!  Before I share my recent projects I want to send out a heart-felt THANK YOU to Sew Cal Gal for inviting me to be a part of this very amazing project and send out a huge congratulations to all the participants.  Wow...I was completely blown away by the work that was created this past month.  I had planned on doing a feature and picking out several pieces to share with all of you but that proved to be impossible.  I loved every single piece...I couldn't choose.  I loved spending a little time each evening perusing thru all the Facebook projects that were posted by the participants and was very impressed with the group enthusiasm and support for each other.  Thank you all for such an amazing experience that I will never forget.

I've been over-the-top busy prepping for my next upcoming 5-day Design Workshop in Rancho Cordova as well as getting ready to film for some upcoming on-line classes.  It all seems overwhelming and too much to handle sometimes.  While monitoring the FMQ challenge this past month I was reminding myself to "Divide and Conquer"...isn't that what I was telling everyone else to do?  So I did.  Baby Steps...divide it up...conquer that small space...and then move on.  So I am and it's slowly working.

All of the binders/handbooks have been loaded and are ready to go...huge project.  Not only has my sewing room, the guest room, part of the living room but the kitchen/dining area have been impacted with all the prep work. I have a VERY patient husband...thank you Kent!

If one is good, twice is better...so why not make several more teaching samples for the workshop too?  Sure, why not???  I teach my students how to take a main focus design and then create dimension, movement and sunshine and shadow around it.  These samples are to help them visualize that and give them the confidence to do it themselves. These samples are also showing how to take a basic stencil design, use just the "parts" that you want, and then make it your own.   I had loads of fun while doing these.  By the way, these were all started in my hotel room in Santa Fe...I was given a loaner machine, (Janome 6600), to use during my stay and put in very long hours getting these going.  Thank you Santa Fe!

While on the airplane and in the airports back and forth from Santa Fe I was able to get the beadwork started on the Battenburg piece...I'm very happy with how this is looking!

There probably won't be any more blog posts until after the design workshop so I loaded up this particular blog with enough pictures to keep you going.  Cindy is alive and well in Chico...still breathing...and am following my own advice of  Dividing and Conquering!   Hugs, Cindy :)