Join Me at Craft Napa in 2019

Craft Napa for 2019 is a tremendous way to jump start your creative year! Registration begins on June 1, 2018. The retreat takes place at Embassy Suites in Napa, CA. I will be teaching, along with this amazing group of teachers. January 10-13, 2019. 

I am teaching two full day classes and a night class. I absolutely love teaching at this venue. The full day class start at nine in the morning and goes till five, and you get a two hour lunch. There is also a vendor night on Friday, where I will be selling my artwork and bundles of fabric. My first class is on Thursday ‘write your own story’ and making a typewriter quilt. 

Thursday night from 6:30-9:30 I will be teaching ‘stencil scrumble’ using my vast collection of StencilGirl stencils

Friday bring back my faces class that was a huge success last year ‘picture this: faces in fabric.’ All of the details are on the Crafting a 

Life website. This is a remarkable retreat and my favorite place to teach. Embassy Suites offers a complimentary hot breakfast and wine and snacks in the late afternoon. There are unique restaurants nearby that you can drive to or take a Lyft. Plenty of fun things to do in and around Napa. I hope to see you there!

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Craft Napa was Super Fun

Back from Craft Napa and had a great time. The mixed media retreat takes place at the Embassy Suites in Napa. These are the cool signs that Pokey Bolton makes for our workshops. The lighting wasn’t too good for this shot

I had an almost full class. Every student made their own version of the faces quilt which I loved. These were all made with my Hopscotch line of Fabric by RJR. The fabrics were all ore-fused with Mistyfuse. All the students had to bring was a pair of scissors and a supply fee. It was great fun!

Some groupings so you can get a better idea. Friends, sisters, mothers and daughters, dogs and cats

I love the uniqueness of each one. They measure 18x18 square

This was a dream class, because everyone was eager to learn and then do their own thing. The background colors really pop the faces.

Craft Napa 2017

My friend, Leslie Tucker Jenison and I start each adventure by taking a photo of each other over a glass of wine. Toasting the start of Craft Napa 2017.  We dined at Fume in downtown Napa on Tuesday night. 

On Wednesday, I helped Leslie set up her class at Pokey's Art Barn.

Inside the art barn - all set up for her class

View from the porch of the art barn

Zen Stitching - my first night class on Thursday.  I had kits for each person to start their own Zen Stitching project.  National Nonwovens supplied all of the black wool blended felt for each project!  Havel's Sewing send me a cutting mat, ruler and rotary cutter to use in my workshops!

Student work.  The flowers were cut on a Sizzix Big Shot die cutting machine ahead of time and put in each kit

I loved the variety of ways my students arranged the felt on their pieces

It's all in the details

Twirly Whirly Swirls - don't you just love the signs that Pokey had made for each class?

This is a partial photo of the art quilt that everyone would be making.  I pre-Mistyfused all of the fabrics ahead of time for this class.  We used a Sizzix Big Shot Pro and a Sizzix Big Shot to cut the two different sized spirals and dots

Class photo of finished work - there were ALL fabulous!

Each day at 5:00pm all students would meet in this section to be part of the group pic with all that they made in workshops!  Such a fun bonus to see the variety of artwork!

Saturday's class - Hexi Art Quilt

This piece only uses two fabrics.  All of the fabrics were pre-Mistyfused ahead of time. Hexagons were cut on a Sizzix Big Shot die cutting machine

I loved seeing the differences in each art quilt and how they positioned their hexi's

Saturday night was Wine Blending, which is always such a highlight of the retreat!  Leslie Tucker Jenison was designated the chemist mixing our blend.  I was one of the judges tasting all of the wine from each team and it was difficult.  Our wine came in second. We each received a bottle of the winning blend to take home.  I carefully padded it and wrapped it in a plastic bag and put in my suitcase that I checked.  Success!  No breakage!

Sunday - all aboard the wine train

Sunday afternoon at Frank Family Vineyards to taste their wines - always a treat!

A beautiful tree at Frank Family.  What an amazing retreat we had!  I am still basking in the glow of all of the things that I experienced, renewed friendships, meeting new people, teaching, dining out, drinking coffee and having a blast!  Until next year!

Craft Napa 2017 - I am Teaching!

I am so excited to be teaching for a second year at Craft Napa!  These are the amazing and colorful postcards to advertise the retreat weekend in Napa, California - Hope you can join us for the weekend!  January 12-15th - Registration is OPEN

I am gathering the fabric for both of my classes.  I want to make it easy for my students by providing the fabric!  You can view what I am teaching on the Crafting a Life website here

This is a detail from the Hexi Art Quilts class.  We will use Sizzix die cutting machines, which is way more fun than fussy cutting each hexi out by hand. Are you tempted?  This class is on Saturday!

Hexi Art Quilts uses only two fabrics to create an optical illusion

Twirly Whirly Swirls is a full day class that also uses Sizzix die cutting machines.  I mean really, who wants to cut out spirals by hand?  Not me!  This gives the artist much more freedom to create a really awesome quilt.

another detail of what the swirls

This is a detail of the actual quilt that we will make in the class! Twirly Whirly Swirls is on Friday!

Zen Stitching - if you follow me on Instagram, you have seen a variety of these felt constructions. This is a 3-hour night class on Thursday. Imagine a sewing circle, hand sewing, chatting, laughing and creating your own zen landscape. Zen Stitching - just for fun!  Hope you can join us for a very unique experience in Napa!

Craft Napa - a Remarkable Experience

Craft Napa started out with a trip to St. Helena for some shopping and lunch.  I tried on this great hat.  It sets the tone for the days ahead.

After Pokey's welcome to the students and introducing the teachers, we were all given swag bags full of wonderful treasures.  One was this white apron with hexagons and icons for this mixed media retreat.  We ALL headed to the bar to color with Crayola fabric markers and make the aprons our own.  Brilliant idea and fun to have the opportunity to chat with the attendees and teachers!

My schedule.  Day off, take a class as a student and teach a class as a teacher.  Perfect.  On the first day I sat in the main room of the Embassy Suites, where Craft Napa was taking place.  I had a lovely day painting with watercolors, and chatting with students and teachers on their breaks.

Craft Napa offered a wine blending night.  We were separated into five groups, with 1-2 teachers at each table.  We learned the in's and out's of wine blending - cliff note style.  Each table made their own blend.  It was great fun.  A judge from each table sat at the tasting table to taste each wine.  The winning team got to have their blend bottled and we were each given one the next day. It was such a hilarious, fun and delicious event.  I learned alot about the process.  Our wine came in 2nd.  I haven't opened the bottle of wine yet.

Here is Barbie who looks like me in the class that I took on advanced free motion quilting with Jenny K. Lyon.  What a great class and I learned so much.  I needed to find some more motifs to add to what I already use.  She is an amazing teacher and she draws - gotta love that.

  The Art Haus.  I provided pre-fused with Mistyfuse fabrics from Hoffman Fabrics.  Sizzix provided two Fabi (big shot) die cutting machines and dies. The house is made up of geometric shapes and stacked onto one another to create an 'Art Haus.'  Each student made a house that was uniquely their own, with a hexagon background made with blue Batiks and screen prints. My students were gracious, generous and totally fun. The time flew by.

Student work - isn't it amazing?  Hexi's all cut on a Sizzix machine.

This one has a flag and a walk-way - so whimsical!

Look at those fun elements!

Some really fun elements here - love the flowers and all of the windows

This was a horizontal format.  So fun.  I want to live there!

A short little movie with everyone sharing their work!  I was just bowled over at the creativity of my students.

A reunion of sorts, bringing back together me, Judy Coates Perez, Leslie Tucker Jenison, Pokey Bolton, Melly Testa and Jane La Fazio who in this picture were working in the first MIU at Festival in Long Beach, CA in 2008, and then reunited at Craft Napa in 2016

All of the teachers at Craft Napa at Pokey's Art Barn for a night of celebrating after classes were over. Such an incredible experience and I am still smiling over it all. Thank you Pokey Bolton for bringing us altogether to share, play, laugh and get to know each other on a more personal level.  If you are on Facebook, be sure to LIKE the Crafting a Life page for the latest up to date details of what is to come. Yay! Onward and upward!