Rabbit on the Run

Being the director of an art workshop venue may seem like a "cushy" job with lots of opportunity to sit in on classes, but the truth of the matter is that most of the time I barely have the time to walk through the classroom once day just to make sure everything is running smoothly. My normal work day starts at 5:30am and ends at 8:30pm, with just enough time to relax with my husband and the pups for an hour or so before I'm out like a light in the evening.

I'm often asked if I get to take any of the classes, but I always say the only way I'll get to take a class is to go somewhere else! So that is what I'm doing in just a couple of weeks. I'm going to the Alegre Retreat at the Gateway Canyons Resort in Grand Junction, Colorado to take a work with Katie Pasquini Masopust.

I have longed for the opportunity to go to Katie's Alegre Retreat from the very beginning, way back when she held it near her home in New Mexico. When she ended that retreat, I kicked myself for missing out on all the fun I had heard about for years. Then when Katie restarted the retreat in Colorado, I was overjoyed. I swore that this time I wouldn't miss the chance to go there at least once. So two years ago when I was planning our 2014 workshops schedule for the Hudson River Valley Art Workshops, I emailed Katie to see if they had the dates yet for their 2014 retreat. We always schedule two or three years in advance, so in order to be able to go to Katie's retreat, I had to block off those weeks in our schedule. Then I had to wait two years!

The wait is finally almost over and I'm raring to go. The workshop Katie is teaching is "Working in a Series," and in fact it is the workshop she just taught for us at HRVAW, so I got a preview of what the class was all about.

The students are suppose to bring one existing art quilt and then develop a series based on that. I have agonized over what I might possibly start with, whether I should just pick a piece that I had already made or make a new one just for the workshop. In the end, I'm sort of doing both. I just finished another rabbit quilt - "Rabbit on the Run" and that will be my starting point. I have no idea where I am going with it, but that, as I learned is the best place to start in this class!



I'm also getting a new appreciation for all of the people who come to our workshops from a distance, having to deal with packing for air travel and/or shipping your supplies ahead of time. This will be the first workshop I've taken that I didn't drive to. I asked a couple of veteran distance flying workshoppers at the last class for packing tips. They said UPS is your friend, but pack the things you don't want to do without for long in your suitcase, because UPS will have your supplies several days on the way there and several days on the way back. They also advised to pack light on clothes, after all, who cares if you wear the same clothes more than once if it allows you to pack more fabric in your suitcase!