Asilomar State Park of California, at the tip of the Monterey Peninsula, in the town of Pacific Grove, is a beautiful part of the world to travel to and it’s been a dozen (probably more) years that I’ve gone there to teach for Empty Spools Seminars. Twelve plus years to the same place and I still come home with hundreds of photos—it’s no wonder these blog posts are so long. There are still so many sights I want to share with you—plenty of location shots for sure—but most importantly for this post, the fabric collage creations of my students.
So get comfy, grab a cuppa, and settle in for Part 2 of this collage class and travel-log to Asilomar.
But first, a notice from the two venues I’m yet to be teaching at this year—one very soon in May, and the other in September. A reminder I’m taking a break from traveling to teach next year.
In-Person Class Openings
MISA West (Santa Fe, NM) Fabric Collage Quilting—Advanced
May 16-20, 2022
There are currently two openings for this advanced workshop for students who have a solid understanding of Susan’s fabric collage technique.
Dive right into this five-day workshop for advanced students only. Susan skips the introductory fabric collage demonstrations and focuses instead on techniques that can take a project beyond the basics.
If you have taken two or more week-long classes with Susan or have worked extensively through her Fabric Collage Online Master Class, you may qualify. Contact Susan ([email protected]) to discuss whether this class is right for you.
* Please note: All students are required to be vaccinated.
* * * * * *
Woodland Ridge Retreat Center (Downsville, WI) Fabric Images—All Levels
September 20-24, 2022
There is one opening left for this all-levels workshop. Create a fabric collage quilt of your own chosen subject using Susan’s innovative layering/collage method. Individual design, fabric selection, construction, borders, and quilting will be discussed. Class size is limited to give students the extra attention toward each of their unique subjects.
* Please note: Proof of Vaccination and a Negative Covid Test Required for this Workshop
And now back to Empty Spools. In all the years I’ve taught here, I’ve almost always had the same classroom and I don’t believe I’ve ever taken a photo of it from the outside. That’s it above right, not much to look at really, kinda subterranean and it looks dark. But it’s not, dark that is. Lots of afternoon sun especially—and plenty of room to work big. At night there’s often students up and diligently working—bright lights turned on and enticing bits of collage to be seen through the windows. Fabric magic has happened in that room. If you haven’t already, you may want to check out last week’s Part 1 post.
Let me begin to introduce you to my students featured in this week’s post.
At the end of every Empty Spools session (which involves multiple instructors and hundreds of students) there’s an end-of-the-week walk-through to all the classrooms. Before my students went on their way, I was able to catch a few to pose in front of their works-in-progress.
Note: scroll over any of the photos and “pop-up” captions appear. Click on any photo in the post to enlarge it and then advance through the other photos in that grouping—like pages in an album.
In the photos below, Ricki Selva and Mary Lynn Scoggins went beyond the basics to set up their collage for viewing—adding “support materials” to their images.
This week, I couldn’t decide between the serious or silly class photo versions of my students, so I’m just going to include both! Above or below, left to right: back row—Chris Piper, Susan Al-Bander, Carol Olsen, Kathryn Sandner, Karen Coan, Teresa Molnar, Beverly Spurs, Diane Ebner, Ann Hammes, and Amy Stenstrom; middle row—me, Lindsay Colby, Bonnie Symon, Nancy Wilhelm, Michelle Jones, and Mary Lynn Scoggins; front row—Terri Varnhagen, Frances Dack, Linnea McIntosh, Ricki Sylva, and Nancy Bergen.
Student Work In-Progress Slideshow
Please sit back and appreciate the hard work and focus my students put into their collage projects this week. I enjoyed your spirit, enthusiasm, and lovely personalities, ladies. Thank you.
This session, as well as the previous one, had four evening programs which included a show and share from attendees. I snapped photos from the audience as past students of mine showed their completed quilts, above. Below, are closeups I took under better lighting conditions. Thanks for sharing, ladies!
The middle evening of an Empty Spools session is a “free” evening with no evening program, which leaves students free to put more time into their classwork, and instructors free to not be giving any evening program presentations.
Six of us instructors were available to take a break and go out to dinner together: clockwise from lower left—me, Sandra Bruce, Andrea Brokenshire, Patti Fried, Sue Benner, and Maria Shell. They were all game to try my favorite Pacific Grove restaurant, Julia’s, and it was a great evening of amazing vegetarian food and new friendships.
One thing about Julia’s that I discovered the previous week (all total I ate at Julia’s four times during my stay—my only meals outside of the conference), was that a visit to the restroom was in order, if need be or not. The photos below explain why. Laura Tryon is the artist who created the unexpected environment.
Morning walks with my long-time friend Sue Benner continued this week, though our friend, fellow instructor, and last week’s co-walker Katie Pasquini Masopust had already headed home after her one week of teaching.
Sue and I kept to the beautiful ocean walk, but then branched out a bit. First we headed to the Monarch Sanctuary, finding a well-worn off-the-road path (below left), like an alley through a neighborhood, to get most of the way there.
The flowering eucalyptus in photo above, was found along that path. I’ve loved the smell of the eucalyptus trees for years, but never saw (or even thought about) what it may look like in bloom. What a lovely find.
Another morning, we headed in the opposite direction and found a new path going through a more wooded area. It was wild and overgrown and looked primeval—definitely different from any other walks we had taken on either of our times at Asilomar. Thanks to GPS, Sue easily found out we were in the Rip Van Winkle Open Space of Pacific Grove. It made sense—like we had wandered back in time.
But each morning at some point, we’d find ourselves in one Pacific Grove neighborhood or another and would get distracted by an interesting gate, fence, mailbox, or cute little pocket-garden that we’d find inviting, inspiring, or just plain fun to see.
Classes ended around noon on the last day of the session, which left me with a little over 24 hours on my own before catching flights east and home. A couple stops in nearby Monterey with my new instructor friend, Maria Shell, filled the afternoon. The next morning after finishing up packing, I took one last stroll along the Asilomar park boardwalk.
Now, long-time readers of my blog may remember that in my travels I tend to find small (stuffed) animals that then find their way into my photos. This trip was no exception. When I arrived in CA, my friend Barb gave me a lionfish right away. She had two of them, one for her young grandchild, and one for me. The other foundling is a butterfly faerie made by the owner of Pacific Grove’s Tessuti Zoo. I figured it was now or never that they get out and into some photos.
I had the boardwalk to myself, mostly, as I (carefully) posed the fish in some dune flowers, and then “flew” the faerie over the sea. Though I did cause smiles on first a sweet older couple and then a young man, as they saw what I was doing.
Point Lobos State Natural Reserve
I do believe that my first and last days in California this year were the most beautiful—sunny and mild. Point Lobos was the destination for the last couple hours before my flight. With my local friends Barb and Irv, we drove the loop on the map above (after a yummy lunch at Julia’s of course!).
The sun was setting over the west coast as my plane took off for Phoenix‚ followed with a red-eye to Boston, and then a bus back to Maine the next morning. Thanks to all for another good trip and a fine time at Asilomar.
Wow! This work is amazing.
Lovely faces,places and quilts thanks for sharing
Susan…I love today’s fanciful post! The sights of Pacific Grove are so much fun! ( That bathroom!!! Lol!) You always do a wonderful job of sharing both classwork and the points of interest wherever you travel!
Thanks SO much for sharing your trip and the amazing students and the beautiful area!
Missed seeing you this year, Susan. I finally took David’s class this time and made your presence known by placing a small bottle of Arlene’s up at his table before he arrived one morning (never confessed). I also added a bit of humor to my piece for the walk-about that I’ll email to you later.