On the Road: Empty Spools Seminars 2019, Fabric Collage Class Part 1

This is my 10 year anniversary of teaching at Empty Spools Seminars. Held at the beautiful Asilomar State Park on the Monterey Peninsula in Pacific Grove, California, Empty Spools has been run since 1984. Though I have 10 years of teaching there behind me, only three years (of two weeks each) are documented as blog posts, a listing of each with easy links can be found in this week’s Throwback Thursday post.

I’ll begin with some photos of the class itself, the first of the two I taught at Asilomar this year. As I always feel fortunate to say, it was another enthusiastic group of ladies, with five “repeaters” from other classes through the years. It was the first year of my “Animal Menagerie” class, where the only subjects are from the animal kingdom. Choices ranged from pets—such as Kelly Godbout’s pup above—to wildlife and a couple insects.

Cheryl Wood (above left) found a good spot to work, leaning her pinning board against the resident piano-turned-into-a-handy-surface for our infamous “piano pile.” It’s an evolving collection of fabric scraps collected and saved from year to year by my Pacific Grove friend, Barb Grant. She’s been dubbed an angel by more than one of my students who perused the pile and found exactly what they needed.

In another corner, Candi Smith (above) quietly works away on her sea turtle collage, accompanied by a cute pin-cushion version. I’m becoming enamored with these sorts of personal supplies that some students bring to classes—maybe a future blog post? But for now, let’s meet the class below—photo taken by our coffee guy.

Class photo pictured left to right: back row—Lorraine, Leslie Dickinson, Rochelle Coleman, Kathy Butz, Kim Moutoux, Cheryl Wood, Kelly Godbout, Candi Smith, and Donna Cameron; middle row—Roxanne Barbieri, Gayle Cepparo, Kenzie Preston, Marianne Moutoux, Brenda Brown, and MG Pogue; front row—me, Shann Allen, Laurie Mutalipassi, Gail Ghiozzi, and Mary Foster.

I was a day or so late in starting to take photographs of the progress this class was making. They moved along quite quickly so there aren’t too many photos of what I call the “messy scary stage” to show in the slide show below. By the end of the week, their projects made quite an impressive showing during the “walkabout” from class to class of this Empty Spools seminar.

In-Progress Student Slideshow

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Kathy Butz began “Willard the Iguana” (above) in one of my Maine retreats about 3 years ago. She easily picked up where she had left off, bringing a great selection of fabrics to create his colorful and textured self.

Each class is given a hostess and Leslie Dickinson (above left) was mine for this week. Leslie is another Maine retreat attendee, and this time I got to meet her exceptionally large (even in real life) Maine Coon Cat, Bob. I loved how her outfit on the last day matched Bob’s “black and white” colors.

And then time is up and the colorful and creative mess that has been brewing all week is tidied and packed away. Always a bittersweet moment saying goodbye to these ladies who have worked so hard for five days. Above right, Gayle Cepparo was pleased with her progress. Usually students don’t get to the backgrounds behind their subjects, but using my gecko pattern gave Gayle a leg-up getting started. She’s got a couple changes still in mind, but I expect to see a finished version sooner rather than later.

Extracurricular Activities

The Asilomar Conference Grounds are kept in a natural state that encourages native species of both plant and animal life to make a home here. It’s quite common to see grazing deer just feet away from a walkway on the way to class or dining hall.

If you read through previous Asilomar blog posts, you’d have noticed the common thread of morning walks with friends, arriving from Canada, Australia, and around the US. We get up early and walk fast, getting about 4 miles under our belts before breakfast.

The biggest question we face is whether to turn left or right along the coastline of Asilomar State Park. Though we each may have our favorite direction, they both have their beauty. Left, or south, takes us a short stretch along a boardwalk mostly submerged under blown sand, which gives a different sort of workout. The open stretch of state beach also attracts surf-boarders as an added sight to see.

The spot to turn around and head back is a lookout of rocks named Point Joe. The waves crash in from a couple different directions and it’s a good area to pause and look for wildlife. Monterey Bay’s famous sea otters like to hang out in the kelp beds not too far off the shore. It’s fun to see who can make the first otter sightings of the year.

About halfway between Point Joe (receding in the fog above left) and the conference grounds is a picnic stop that’s been taken over by rock cairns. My husband Tom, thinks it’s kind of eerie looking, fellow teacher Sue Benner (below) and I thought it was a great stop for photos.

We then had to hustle back to catch up with the rest of the group—the motto being, “We wait for no one.” It does keep us on time to get back for classes.

This week was cloudy and cooler than usual for this time of year, but good for walking, and the ocean did show off some pretty shades of aqua green at times.

Every other day we turned right, or north, along the coast. One morning a driftwood arch “appeared” along the beach. We of course had to deviate from the path for photo and selfie op’s.

The coastline going north from the park is rockier with outcroppings jutting into the surf. A path meanders around rocks and vegetation, allowing us to stay off the winding roadway, and turning back toward the water here and there for great views.

After ten years of travel to California and hearing about their resident banana slugs, I finally saw one along the edge of the path. Stretched out, he’d probably be about six inches long.

From the parking area we pause at, the coast makes a turn so we face the rising sun. It’s just past this spot that we cross the coastal road and turn back though residential roads that give us a straighter route to Asilomar.

The houses of Pacific Grove are known for being cute and sometimes colorful, with a lot of early 1900’s Craftsman Style architecture thrown in. Lawns and gardens are mostly naturalized plants and grasses. Being early May, there were still a few spring flowers in bloom.

“Teachers’ Night Out” photo above: pictured left to right: back row—Robin Long, Sue Rasmussen, Valerie Goodwin, Ann Shaw, and Gloria Loughman; front row—Julia Scheffelin Graves, Philippa Naylor, Sue Benner, Pam Holland, and me.

I won’t deny that getting to meet and catch up with other teachers is an attraction and benefit to the Empty Spools venue. Midway through each week’s session is an “open night” with no evening presentations. The idea is that students can work late in their classrooms and us teachers have no responsibilities except to arrange a dinner out on the town. Not all of the dozen or so teachers are available to attend, but there’s usually a fair showing with fun conversation, and drinks.

Teachers’ Night Out during the second week I taught this year, passed with more great camaraderie, but with none of us thinking about a group photo. Melissa Sobotka, teaching that second week, thought about it as she, Gloria Loughman, and myself left the restaurant after everyone else. The three of us had decided to work off dessert and enjoy the 1+mile walk back to Asilomar. She took the selfie (above left) on that misty night in Pacific Grove.

The one absolutely beautiful day at Asilomar was the change-over day between Empty Spools’ Sessions 4 and 5. One session ended at noon, the next picked up at 3pm. Some teachers such as myself, Gloria, Pam Holland, and Philippa Naylor stayed on for that short turnaround, some teachers said goodbye, and others arrived for the next week of classes.

So I was able to have one lunch hour and one photo (above) together with my teaching buddies Katie Pasquini Masopust—who just arrived—and Sue Benner, before she caught a shuttle to the airport. Short but sweet until we meet again at Art Quilt Tahoe this coming November.

I told Sue the California Poppies were blooming for her—they had been closed up on all our morning walks and grey days.

In the remaining mid-day time I had between classes, I headed past the dunes of wildflowers and parked myself on the beach. A short nap ensued with a barefoot stroll back via the tide pools. A little refresher before meeting my second class of eager-eyed students. Stay tuned for more about them in Part Two of Empty Spool Seminars 2019.