In this final installment of 2020’s Summer Rerun Saturday we revisit my two 2019 sessions at Empty Spools Seminars, held at Asilomar State Park on the Monterey Peninsula in California. As you will read, 2019 marked my ten year anniversary of teaching at Asilomar. Then came the memorable year of 2020 and for the first time ever, numerous sessions of Empty Spools Seminars were canceled—and no doubt hundreds of students and dozens of teachers were left to rearrange their plans in early March. I was three days from boarding a plane to California (though honestly, I was having serious doubts about traveling) when the State Park where the seminars are held was shut down.
Asilomar is a special place and Empty Spools is a special event. It’s one of my favorite places to teach for a few reasons. Each year I look forward to reuniting with so many of my colleagues, returning students (returning to take a variety of class offerings), and friends (like you Barb G.). Also, the beauty of the location is unique: beaches, ocean views, wildlife, flowers. It’s always welcome to exchange the frigid Maine winter (or slow-arriving spring) for the temperate climate of California.
In the two posts below you’ll experience everything that Asilomar has to offer: talented students and teachers, beautiful quilts (like Lynn Todoroff’s cheeky zebra above), and lovely scenery. This week’s post is a little wave to my would-be 40 students and the other folks I would have had the chance to say hello to in person—and give a hug to—this spring.
Next week we’ll be back with a brand new post letting you know how we’ve been using the time we normally dedicate to writing the blog. The Summer Reruns will be over and a new season begins.
Thursday Night in My Studio Live! presentations return next Thursday, August 13
The next four sessions will “fill in the gaps” in the previous Improvisational Faces series.
To sign up for these live events visit the website: www.susancarlson.com and scroll down to the Thursday Night section. You can also purchase recordings of past presentations there.
Here’s a schedule:
August 13: Neck and Hair
August 20: Child vs. Adult Faces
August 27: Glasses
September 3: Smiles and Teeth
On the Road Teaching: 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 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
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.
On the Road Teaching: Empty Spools Seminars 2019, Fabric Collage Class Part 2
Originally Published: June 1, 2019
At the end of Part 1 of my Empty Spools Teaching post, I was heading of to the second week’s class after a short respite on Asilomar beach, next to Asilomar Conference Grounds where classes, lodging, and dining are held in Pacific Grove, California. I was thoroughly enjoying the (as it turned out, only) sunny day and the few hours between classes. But in entering the classroom, there there was a whole new batch of smiling faces, six of them were familiar from past classes, four of them are pictured below.
These four friends are (left to right): Beth Shay, Juliet Sandquist, Judy Crotts, and Linda Roberts.
Beth’s quilt, “Miss Crabcakes at the Beach,” opened this post—brought back from her 2017 Asilomar class to get some glitter tulle and cropping opinions. Take a moment to look closer at Miss Crabcakes. You’ll see that there’s a whole crustacean army quilted into the sand. Plus, Beth’s readily available cropping tool is nicked from the loo—rolls of disposable white “paper strips”—a tip provided by another teacher of hers, Jane Sassaman, in a previous class.
In the same 2017 class was Juliet, returning with her dog Cajun’s portrait (above). The photo was taken at the end of the week—Juliet’s goal had been to get Cajun onto a background and ready for quilting, which she accomplished. Funny thing was, that great pieced border and it’s black interior, was a UFO (unfinished object). We all agreed that it worked perfectly for Cajun, and with the additions of a few well-chosen and placed rectangles, the background was done. “Remembering Cajun” is now quilted and submitted into a quilt show, and will be included in next week’s Finish Line blog post, so be sure to look for him and read Juliet has shared about the collage process.
As Juliet was finishing the quilt, she sent:
What a whirlwind week! I really don’t know when I’ve enjoyed a better time. Having you, plus three best friends at Asilomar was quite an amazing experience. Thank you! After we got home, I read the quilt show info packet for label and sleeve directions and discovered a loophole (yay!)—Cajun can be turned in on May 25th for judging and the show. So, I’m still working on him! Thank you for all the constructive suggestions! I promise a photo when I finish. He is looking good. I’m excited to try some free motion ideas for the quilting. What a journey this has been for me! I’ll send some pictures and a little bit about the process of selecting lots and lots of brown fabric for my chocolate Labrador retriever who playfully morphed into a much more colorful creature.
One of the last two of this featured friend group are Judy Crotts, above with pets-in-progress, Riki and Carlos. If Judy looks familiar, it’s because Judy has turned into a “regular” in my blog posts this past year—Asilomar 2018, Road to California Quilt Show Special, and last week’s Asilomar Show-and-Share post—all including the quilt of her grandson Corbin, another large-scaled subject with beautiful eyes.
And below is the beginning of Linda Roberts’ pup portrait of Curly the English Setter. Linda had been in a 2-day class a couple years ago, collaging a fish. Prior to class she emailed me about subject matter and her excitement shown through the words.
I’m thrilled our subject matter for this class is animals! I am an animal lover having owned dogs, cats, horses, ponies, chickens, ducks, rats, parakeets, etc …. along with Oliver the Wonder Goat! I narrowed down to two candidates … the first, my very special English setter who crossed the rainbow bridge in October. (His official color is called blue belton—so I could easily incorporate blues in his black, white, grey mix – though you might suggest adding all kinds of color … it’s art!! Right? Lol I need to learn to embrace stepping out of the “literal” box) He was a wonderful companion, endearingly devoted to me through some rough seasons in my life. His stories/shenanigans were followed by many on Facebook! He was the infamous banana stealer – such a character and very photogenic!
Linda’s second candidate was a horse, but I liked her story of Curly so I suggested she start with him. I also thought the mottled color and fur texture would be more fun to work with. I liked that she was thinking about color alternatives, and she did give him a blue nose and started getting some blue fabrics worked into his fur. And set aside for later, was a banana print fabric to work into the background, somehow.
Now to meet the rest of the class—pictured left to right: back row—Juliet Sandquist, Joyce Lytle, Marcia Hamilton, Cheryl Hack, Donna Greenwald, Laura Schmidhammer, Beth Shay, and Judy Crotts; seated on chairs—Bev Agler, Mary Ellen Janes, Judy Spellman, Linda Dixon, Margaret De Palma, and Terry Loy; seated on floor—Suzette Bowen, Lisa Brothman, Ruby Tabata, Trina Wagner, and Sarah Mikolavich; and lounging in front—Linda Roberts, and me.
So many of these ladies were in the classroom early every morning, many worked through lunchtime, and the creative fires were burning every evening too. They progressed so quickly that I missed getting beginning project photos for quite a few of them. Enjoy the colorful menagerie that follows.
Student In-Progress Slideshow
In the student slideshow, this lime green rhino may have caught your eye. Bev Agler did some great work with the fun color, prints, visual texture, and contours found in her fabrics, but she also came to class with her rhino photo pre-printed onto a fabric foundation. It certainly stands out as different among the other line-drawn images and in-progress photos.
I wasn’t sure how this would work for her, the realistic colors of the photo transfer could easily have been a distraction from Bev’s ability to mentally “translate” the browns to lime green. She was willing to give it a try, so why not? I’m not ready to recommend it as a regular approach to fabric collage, but it’s a different one, and that’s ok. And as shown in the final class photo above, Bev did just fine, and I look forward to seeing the finished fellow.
As I made my rounds through the class, a cute pincushion caught my attention (there was a sea turtle the previous week), Suzette Bowen’s little grey mouse kept a close eye on the progress of her butterfly, above.
Hiding in a class demo sample (below), was a small “gift” for me to find, tucked in place by a student in the first week’s class—novelty cat and sexy firemen fabric scraps found in the “Piano Pile.” Hmmm, I wonder who did that…, Rochelle?
And then, as I prep this blog post, another cat appears in a detail photo I took during class, below. Did I notice it then? Actually, no. These classes make me smile, even after they’re over.
Like I mentioned, these ladies worked hard and really got into their projects—literally, in the case of Terry Loy and her fish with the fanciful tail, above.
As the week progresses, I love to see a fabric messiness spread over the tables and spill onto the floor. This class happily obliged.
Laurie (above) was another returning student—a two-timer perfecting her tree frog—and continuing to work even through the class walkthrough at the end of the week.
More end-of-week photos follow below.
And then my time with Empty Spools at Asilomar is over for the year. But the Piano Pile of fabric scraps seems to have grown over the course of the two weeks. Funny how that happens, even with all the perfect pieces that were found by both classes. It gets packed up as well and saved at a friend’s house in Pacific Grove, to be delivered back to class next year.
And now for the Scenic Photos portion of this travel blog post….
Morning walks along the coast are a given every year. For the second week of teaching, Katie Pasquini Masopust arrived and was quite happy to be back on the beach at Asilomar, below.
Katie’s arrival brought us luck with wildlife sightings. This week we saw deer on the beach, nesting seagulls on the rocks, sea otters, pelicans in flight, porpoise, lots of different shore birds, tiny bunnies, and a beautiful red starfish.
As the shifting time of the tides go, this week was a lower tide during our morning walks, exposing tide pools that merited a bit of exploration.
Until next year my friends.
Asilomar is located in the very cute little town of Pacific Grove on the Monterey Peninsula. When I have an extra day or so to spend in the area, as I did this year, I like to check out its small but interesting Museum of Natural History.
This year featured a nature based art exhibit by students from a local college. I’ve included two works below, their stories especially caught my attention. Click on any of the photos to see them larger and read the write-ups provided by the artists.
If as I did, you want to test the validity of a mouse that howls at the moon or a truce between predator and prey in a tortoise burrow, then grab another cuppa and follow these links that I found: a mouse that not only howls at the moon, but eats scorpions that can kill a human, a couple mouse videos including it’s “wolf howl”, species that use gopher tortoise burrows, and five fun facts about gopher tortoises. These were things I did not know about and thought to share them with you. You never know what you can learn in a blog about fabric collage.
Flowers, big ol’ eucalyptus trees, and a cute little garden shop, all found in downtown Pacific Grove, California.
Lest we not forget to eat, this final slide show of the week takes you to some culinary finds in Pacific Grove and Monterey. Thank you Barb and Irv for your hospitality, again.
So many great collage quilts and great places I really love the story about the truce in the gopher hole
The simple pleasures of getting together.