Fabric Collage On the Road Teaching: St. Augustine and Naples, Florida

It’s my busy time of year for teaching. I’ve been traveling for almost all of the past four weeks—less two days at home in the middle, where basically I did laundry and re-packed. Now, I love my work and feel blessed to spend my time (and get paid for it!) in creative ways, but this was maybe a little much. Good thing that the quilters I meet and teach are such a great crowd.

This latest trip, that I returned home from two days ago, was to Florida. Not a bad destination when you’re traveling from Maine in February. First stop St. Augustine in the northeast of the state. This city is America’s oldest “continuously occupied” settlement—settled in 1565 (another benefit of travel is the free continuing education).

Aside from absorbing some history in St. Augustine, I gave a guild lecture for the St. Augustine Piecemakers and taught a two-day fish, bug, butterfly class that I call Cutting Loose.

The class is meant to present the fabric collage process in a fun and stress-free way with subject matter that are virtually infallible. With the simplified subject matter, we are free to play with the designs, patterns, and colors found in the fabric. It’s all about cutting fabric shapes and rearranging them within the spaces of the designs. As you can see in the slide-show below, the ladies did just that, in very fun ways.

 

 

Victoria Rondeau

 

Rosemary Comtois

 

Lynn Gilles

 

Judy Herrin

 

Donna Nicklis

 

Cindy Pilkington

 

Vicki Rundle

 

Karen Rathmell

 

Nikki Hill

 

Ellen White

 

Laura Austin

 

Ann Marshall

 

Ann Bradner

 

Joanne Truber

 

Margaret Knepper

 

Susan Cockerham

 

Jane Plummer

 

Gaye Esperson

 

Cheryl Avery

The second leg of the trip was to Naples in the south west of Florida, for which I rented a car to transport me and my supplies. I was encouraged by my first class to stop in Orlando at The Sewing Studio. What full-blooded quilter wouldn’t want to? Well I did stop, spent some money and spent just enough time to put me in the middle of stop-and-go-Friday-afternoon-beautiful-weather traffic. Took me a little longer than planned for that leg of the journey. Lesson learned. Skip breakfast to leave more time in the fabric store!

In Naples, I taught a four-day sea-life (fish, turtles, seahorses, etc.—plus bugs and butterflies) class. With a couple extra days to the class, many were able to get a little farther on their designs, especially with starting to figure out the backgrounds. A couple even got to the quilting stage! I didn’t necessarily get photos of all of them, so you’ll just have to take my word on that. It was a very hard working group, putting a lot of thought into their pieces.

Projects from Naples Quilters Guild:

 

 

Kim Kooyers

 

Kim Kooyers

 

Shirley Roubinek

 

Shirley Roubinek

 

Barrie Anderson

 

Barrie Anderson

 

Barrie Anderson

 

Suzanne Sanger

 

Suzanne Sanger

 

Carrol Petroske

 

Carrol Petroske

 

Judy Bauckham

 

Judy Bauckham

 

Emily Smith

 

Emily Smith

 

Sara Blythe

 

Sara Blythe

 

Janet Bergman

 

Janet Bergman

 

Silvia Merz-Horn

 

Silvia Merz-Horn

 

Barbara Chandler

 

Barbara Chandler

 

Jo Anne Powell

 

Jo Anne Powell

 

Jo Anne Powell

 

Pat Walrath

 

Pat Walrath

 

Ginny Acklete

 

Ginny Acklete

 

Karen Stockwell

 

Karen Stockwell

 

Trudy Lapke

 

Trudy Lapke

 

Trudy Lapke

 

Trudy Lapke

 

Sue Abrahamsen

 

Nicol Sargent

 

Nicol Sargent

 

Maureen Creed

 

Maureen Creed

 

Karen Harris

 

Karen Harris

 

Karen Harris

 

Cathi Paszkiewicz

 

Cathi Paszkiewicz

Two days after class ended was a guild lecture on Thursday evening, giving me a couple days to myself in between. Hmmm, what to do in sunny Florida in the middle of winter? Below is my answer to that dilemma. The slide show starts in St. Augustine, then moves south. Hint: excursions included the Everglades and a parrot sanctuary. Plus alligators!

My travels around Florida:

 

 

Old town St. Augustine, FL and the Bridge of Lions.

 

Castillo de San Marcos, the oldest masonry fort in the continental US.

 

The fort is made from coquina, ancient shells bonded to make stone.

 

Thai coffee (with coconut and lemmongrass) with my tour guide, Sandie Jensen.

 

Sandie had taken my class in AZ years ago and brought her fish back to show me.

 

Striking architecture in St Augustine.

 

Sunset at Vilano Beach Pier.

 

A very large bird sighting on the pier.

 

Having traveled south west to Naples and now exploring their dock at sunset.

 

Brown Pelicans lined up for their afternoon treats from fishermen.

 

I really, really wanted to see an alligator in the wild. Met up with a domesticated fellow.

 

An ominous sign on the narrow Loop Road in Big Cyprus Nat’l Preserve.

 

Success! A lazy gator sighting in the roadside swamp.

 

An open view and lovely reflections at Sweetwater Strand.

 

Back to the main road… another alligator!! This one maybe 8 feet or so right next to the car.

 

A sunset cruise to see some of the 10,000 Islands of the Everglades.

 

The “most photographed tree”, a black mangrove. Our boat was no exception.

 

We saw many types of birds, including white pelicans…

 

… and a Roseate Spoonbill (note pink blur in center of photo).

 

And eventually, the sunset.

 

Next morning, had to dip my toes into the Gulf waters, and wander onto the Naples Pier.

 

At the end of the pier, a Brown Pelican very used to tourists. Got quite a few pics of this fellow.

 

And many more photos of this Snowy Egret, fluffing her feathers…

 

… and here with a more classic pose. “Lady with the Golden Slippers”.

 

The Bird Gardens of Naples, a parrot sanctuary with over 350 rescues.

 

We first met with the bird ambassadors, including “Sunny”.

 

Never rubbed noses with a parrot before!

 

In the Macaw enclosure it was easy to feed them raw nuts.

 

The birds had no qualms letting you know when they wanted more food or attention.

 

I had to aim my camera at my head to see who landed on it this time.

 

A parting shot with my new friend.

Now I’m home for a week before travel to the Monterey Peninsula in CA for an Empty Spools Seminar at Asilomar Conference Grounds. Not a bad destination when you’re traveling from Maine in late February and early March….