2024 Southern McGown Teacher Training cont.

 The second class, taught by Jan Frank, was a Carolyn Stitch design.

Jan provided us with lots of photos of foxes and night skies and plenty of wool to complete the piece.

My difficulty was that I had decided that I wanted to do an Arctic Fox and make mine more of a Monochromatic, blues with whites, greys and black. So there was not a lot of wool for me to purchase and I couldn't start on the face, which is what most people spent their class time on.

Getting the face right

is key.

The eye and

the mouth hint at the foxes personality and mood.

By the end of the class I had thinned him down a little, narrowed his tail, hooked the moon, his bib and the tip of his tail. I am looking forward to getting in to my stash at home and finishing him.

Wednesday the theme was Wide Cut Florals and I took this piece taught by Judy Werling.

Judy had taken the instructions "be creative and have fun" to heart with bugs hidden under leaves

and many different types of flowers (some of which required sewing, I can almost hear Nicola laughing from here)

There was a huge array of alternative fibers

and colourful wools.

This was my piece by the end of the day.

Judy taught us about "standing wool", "shirring", yoyos, proddy, quillies, using wire and beads and some some techniques that did not even have names. Basically the sky was the limit.

Sailing and McGown Teacher Training

 This September Rick opted to sail in the Spinnaker Fleet for both the Monday and Wednesday races. Our fleet photographers caught us on film (no longer accurate, I mean on SD card) a few times.

September means we are often heading in

as the sun sets.

 I am missing a week of sailing to participate in the McGown Southern Teacher Training Workshop in Ripley, West Virginia. Jennifer and I drove down in one day, leaving at 7:50am and arriving at about 4pm, with a half hour stop for lunch.

The first class I took was Rockport, hooked and taught by Norita Blue. The other options were a farm scene or a Victorian House as the day's theme was architecture.

Norita had holidayed in both Maine and Nova Scotia so had lots of photos and memorabilia

along with her wool selection.

Nice and relaxed with just 7 in the class.

I got this far by lunch

and this far by the end of the day. I think I will complete this one although there are some issues to be worked out with the shadows and background buildings.