to restore my art's soul, only to come back to reality and laundry but I shall try hard to keep an ember of warmth alive to fuel me through the year.
I arrived early in Seattle and picked up the car, OMG the car. Hubby arranged it for me, upgraded from compact to a standard so i got to drive a Magnum, a silly looking thing but I must say it drives well and had pretty decent gas milage. I headed off to Cyn's place and from there she and Dot and I hit Pike's Place. Always fun and potstickers from heaven. After our outing we headed for Issaquah (after picking up Julz)
It was so wonderful to see friends from last year and meet new friends, that I have been chatting with online. One of the great things about this event is the fact that everyone is so generous of spirit. You can plop down anywhere and make a new friend. Here's one of my new kindred spirits... 
Wednesday night Heather, Joleen (2 very talented and fun women) and I headed down to Pacific Fabrics to spend $$ at their Solstice Sale, and we did some damage but with the 25% discount, it wasn't too painful (I popped back in on Saturday for a few more yards of stuff, i LOVE that store)
First class on Thursady was with Jana Newton entitled "House of Dreams". It was all about hyper embellishment, which as a Scandinavian, I am not so good at. She did a great job of talking about creating layers and that made sense to me, here are my panels in the early stages. It will take me awhile to complete this but I will get it done.
On Friday I had a class with Mary Stanley, called Painting with Fiber. I completed a pin and I am well on my way to a finished piece simply titled "goddess". (pix later, Blogger is being bratty)
These first 2 classes were wonderful in the vibe of the room and the calming nature of the hand sewing. I chatted with women and got to hear wonderful stories and share a few of my own. I can imagine my great grandmothers at a sewing bee, probably not chatting in graphic nature the way that we were (why do birth stories and stories about placenta always come up?) It was such a luxury to sit and create and just BE for 6 hours each day.
Tomorrow more stories and my final class with dj petitt, a truly rockin woman.