The Bush Family Affair long arm quilt shop in Chickasha, Oklahoma hosted a portrait quilt class yesterday. What a fun day!
I made 14 custom patterns for the group of quilters.Whew!
Each had emailed their photos to me and I, in turn, emailed back the pattern.
They enlarged it to the size they preferred, selected fabrics and were off and running!

Some worked on their dogs, others on photos of loved ones
from an early age to loved ones lost.

The photos are all as they worked in the class and I’m hoping
they will share the completed quilts so we can enjoy them even more.

This one is Susan’s. She made her own pattern.
She bought my book and made it just a day or two before the class!
Didn’t she do a wonderful job!

Didn’t Carolyn’s turn out cute! When the pieces were pressed and it was safe to hold them, each quilter auditioned fabric before the group. It was so much fun. We would all say, no…not that one. Then another background was held behind the subject and we would all agree or disagree to that background until we reached a consensus. The subject was then placed on the background, pressed and on to the next step.

I snapped the photo and moved a bit, but you can still see what a great job Glee did
putting all those small pieces together!

Kenna’s went together so quickly she did a second one! She’s a pro!
Shhh…don’t tell… some of these may be surprise gifts.

Blue Boy is her second one.

Bonnie was one of the early ones to begin stitching! She even had a photo with glasses!

Jean was the first to sew.
She and Bonnie sat beside each other and at first they stitched very slowly
going around the tiny pieces, after a few minutes they were zooming around them!

In the background is Gina, a master tatter (is that a word?)!
She took time to help me with a tatting problem,
and I didn’t get a shot of her quilt top! Visit her website to see marvelous tatting.

Yay! Gina sent a photo to share!
She will probably tat edging to go on the dress of this cutie!

Lahree put her dog in fabric and he will “sit” on the wall! He has one blue eye and the other one is dark, so she had to
be certain to get that one eye blue!

Look closely and you will see Wendy’s dog! Her fabric selections were super.
The dog was all white, but you can only have so much white and then
shading must be either gray or beige. She selected beige and it looks wonderful!

Connie and Shirley were so quiet and did so much work!
Shirley even decided to use a small striped t-shirt for her quilt
rather than fabric. Can’t wait to see them completed.

See the t-shirt and hat? They are the real thing!
Shirley is auditioning background fabric.

Carol and Meleah were busy cutting and cutting and cutting!
They were super hostesses and dessert makers!
Didn’t get a photo of Gail. She was busy at the shop, but brought yummy lunch to us!

Gayla was gone looking for background fabric when I took the photos,
so I missed hers, but it looks soooo cute!

Thanks for a wonderful day!

Driving through Scott, Arkansas we spotted the Plantation Agriculture
Museum, what a find!

Wow! The  old tractors sitting outside caught our eye and we stopped to take pics.

We have a 1940s 9N tractor, so these tractors were a certain save to the camera.

The museum opened at 8 am and just as we finished taking these pics the doors opened:

It was all about cotton! As quilters, we use cotton batting and fabrics…how cool is that!

The pic above is a bale of cotton.

This is a scale for use in the field for weighing the cotton.

No mention of the yield for batting or fabric.

This building was designed for the “angle of repose”.

It really was a very interesting stop!
That’s the joy of only traveling the backroads of the USA.
We never would have seen this on the interstate.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Museum and the “angle of repose”:

http://www.arkansasstateparks.com/plantationagriculturemuseum/

This is a pic of the website page, “lectures“. When you visit the page, just click on the buttons on the images to watch the movies I’ve made to let you know a little bit about what to expect from the lecture.

Lectures are just the tip of the iceberg, and the true learning comes from the workshops. This pic is from the page “workshops“.

My thoughts from so many years of teaching college students:

Lectures provide teachers an opportunity to share.

Teachers provide students an opportunity to grow.

Students provide teachers an
opportunity to teach.

If you provide the
opportunity,
I’ll share.