Cindy Needham class

Our local guild brought in Cindy Needham for a lecture and classes, and I was so glad to take her Heirloom Feathers class.  It was almost snowed out, though.  We got a historic amount of snow and freezing rain on Wednesday and early Thursday.  Many flights were cancelled, all schools were shut down, and most everyone was stuck in their homes with 5" to 14" of snow!  Our guild meeting (Thursday night) got cancelled, so we didn't get to have the lecture at all.  But Cindy was a trooper and got into the airport.  And the Friday and Saturday classes were still held.  As a special treat to those of us who took her classes, she held a trunk show for the first hour with some of the quilts she was going to show us at the guild meeting.  Thank you Cindy!

I have done machine quilting for a long time, and since I have a wonderful sit down long arm now, going back to my sewing machine seemed odd.  The motions on the sewing machine, however, are the same as the sit down.  And it is always helpful to get hints and tips from as many teachers as you can, and students sitting next to you.  Cindy was extremely generous with her threads and templates and she showed us a lot of different ways to design and draw feathers, and gave us lots of tips about thread, needles, heirloom soaking products, and batting.

She readily shares on Pinterest, so if you want to see some of her work, and some of her students' work, check it out.

Picture from Cindy's web page

I hope you have the opportunity to take classes from National teachers too!

Abundance

I believe that our world is abundant.  Whatever you wish for will come your way.  And whatever comes your way doesn't diminish what is available to me.  You just have to put your intentions out there.  And watch the tide roll in.  Just this week I was gifted 2 real nests!

If you've been following my blog, you'll know that I have been making a series of art quilts based on nests.  The nests are made of both man made fibers and natural fibers that are for the most part recycled or found.  This includes vintage bias binding, vintage rick rack, yarn, twine, embroidery floss, thread, pearl cotton, felted wool, cotton material, organza, tulle, costume fabric, hand dyed fabric remnants, shredded cotton fabric, Angelina fibers, feathers, lichen, goat hair, old book pages, ribbon, lace, and raffia.   

Where do you think all these fibers come from?  Friends who share my quilting passion, garage sales, estate sales, donations to our free table, found items from hiking and walks, a goat farmer, a hunter, hand dyers, and a wool dyer's scraps.  Thanks to all of these people in my world!

This week I also got 2 bags of thread and fiber scraps from a long-arm quilter, my husband brought home a feather and I found 3 on our walks, and I added a handful of scraps from a recent bed-sized quilt top.  

I think I have to make a gigantic nest quilt now!  I'm so grateful and thankful for my abundant world.  How about you?