Telling My Story At the end of last year I was asked by Brenda Smoak (via referral from friend and fellow quilt teacher, Rose Hughes) to participate in her blog that highlights a different visual artist every week of the year. It’s called Artists Tell Their Stories. We are asked to “… choose one area of your life … More Two stories: One About My Fabric Life, One About My Family Life
When one thinks of quilting meccas, I guess Kalispell, Montana, isn’t the first place to spring to mind. However, I am one of a number of quilting teachers who return to this sleepy little western town each year. The attraction is the Quilt Gallery, owned and operated by Joan Hodgeboom, who runs a first-class fabric store and … More On the Road: Kalispell, MT 2016
My visit this week to Prairie Star Quilters, just outside Chicago, was short but sweet. For two days we concentrated on fish, bugs, and butterflies. I like it when a class limits the subject matter this way. I found early on when I started making these small collage quilts that fish, bugs, and butterflies allowed … More On the Road: Prairie Star Quilters, IL
By the time I arrived in Denver, Colorado, I had already been traveling for fifteen days. I’d taught for eight of those days and had forty students with forty projects. I’d slept in five different beds. It was getting hard to remember where I was when I awoke in the morning. Lying there with my eyes not yet … More On the Road: Lyons, Colorado
Thanks to mother-daughter team, Deborah Walters and Kim Buchmann, who have been running Quilting Adventures for five years, for inviting me to be their teacher for a short week at Jordan Ranch in the foothills of the Texas hill country. … More On the Road: Schulenberg, TX
Sometimes I wonder if I’m a “serious” artist. I mean, I don’t really worry about it, but it crosses my mind. Anyway, do I really want or need to be a “serious” artist? And what is “serious” art anyway? I suppose it’s art with a purpose, with an important message, or with a revolutionary way of viewing the world. … More Quilt Stories: “Dixie Dingo Dreaming”
I got a small taste of life on set last week when I was invited to tape two segments for Quilting Arts TV. Thanks to the crew at KS Productions, Stevie the croc quilt and I were both ready for our closeups. … More Lights, Camera, Quilt!
Another year at Empty Spools is over for me. The second session ended just two days ago. Now I’m home, having traveled about as far across the continental United States as it is possible to travel: Pacific Grove, CA to Harpswell, ME. Pacific coast back to Atlantic coast. In last week’s blog I covered the first session, so here’s the … More On the Road: Empty Spools 2016, Part 2
Where I teach varies from year to year. For many seasons now, however, there has been one consistent venue. Sometime between February and April I’ve been in Pacific Grove, California to teach at Empty Spools. I don’t know what I can say that hasn’t already been said about Empty Spools, or Asilomar as it is often simply called, after the … More On the Road: Empty Spools 2016, Part 1
On the road again… A visit to Florida introduces me to quilt guilds in St. Augustine and Naples. The student work is, as usual, inspiring. I even had a little time for sightseeing. … More On the Road: Florida, February 2016
Susan Carlson Quilts 