My Creative Voice or How Miss J Rocked My World

Who knew a quick trip to Indiana would result in such angst? 

 Certainly not me! 

 I drove to Ft. Wayne Indiana to take a class from the famous Jacquie Gering.  

We met at quilt market last year and just clicked.  

When I arrived in FW, I gave her a call and she left the quilt show and came back to her hotel room.  We stayed up quite late and laughed and talked and caught up on life. 

 I got a personal showing of every single quilt she had brought with her. 

This alone was worth the trip!

 It was so much fun!  

All of them were so cool, but the best part was the stories behind each of them.  

Bridges...what can I say. 

 STUNNING. 

 I do regret that I didn't take many pictures of her quilts though, just in our class.

Friday morning she was teaching a class called "Not your grandmother's log cabin".  

I was so excited to take a class from her! 

Here we are going into the show.  

That cart was amazing!!  

We were able to get her entire class stuff and all my stuff into the cart and one suitcase!

We arrived at class and set up our work stations. 

 I met a lot of really nice people including a blogging friend, Kris, a Flickr friend, 

Jenny (who I now know has a blog) and another friend, Erica.  

It was all very exciting! 

 Jacquie talked a lot about "process" and showed some of her quilts. 

 It started me thinking in a way I had not before.  

It was kind of a revelation, actually.

Jacquie was amazing (her favorite word by the way = )

She walked around the room and spoke with everyone, helped everyone, rejoiced with us as we made discoveries and it was so joyful. 

 What a truly eye opening experience for me. 

 I began to see things in a way I had not before. 

 I was actually creating in a new way.  

One of the most interesting things I observed was that even though we all took the same class,

 no two quilts looked at all like any of the rest of the quilts! 

 Everyone's blocks were such an expression of who they are. 

 It really was remarkable!

Here is what I ended up with at the end of the 6 hours of sewing (with time off for lunch)

I love where this is going! 

 Anyone who knows me would not be surprised by the color choices,

 but the style is totally different from the usual things I have done. 

 I love this so much!!!!

I do have plans for a finished top from this too.  

My DH has been bugging and bugging me for a log cabin for YEARS.  

He will finally get one, this one!  

Completely designed by me, totally my personality with all my heart poured into creating for him.

When class ended Jacquie, Jenny Erica and I walked around the quilt show. 

 My friend Joanne had a quilt in the show and she even won a ribbon! (Photos in Flickr)

This is an overview of the show:

Jenny had 3 quilts in the show.  

WTG Jenny!!  

Jacquie and I left and headed out for some dinner.  

We were both exhausted!  

We found our way to a place and had a fantastic dinner.  

Miss J had Walleye and I had Salmon.  

The food was really, really good!!

We went back to her hotel room and just collapsed.  

I dug around in her scrap bins (I should have such amazing scraps!!) 

and managed to snap this picture of all her quilts rolled up at the foot of her bed.

The next morning was the trunk show and brunch. 

 I was helping hold up quilts so didn't get a chance to take but one photo and it was a horrible picture ( the background of the quilt looks yellow and it really is aqua!!) so no pictures of those for you. 

 This is some of the quilts waiting for the talk.

Jacquie did a fabulous job and everyone was entertained and amazed. 

 The cutest part of the whole thing was when she was talking about Proposal Moon

 and got a little teary eyed.  

Nice to see that after 29 years you still love your husband!!!  

Mine will be 29 years this year too.  

I can't believe how much we actually have in common.  

After her class we went to a quilt shop with Kris, Jenny and Erica.  

That was so much fun!! 

 I managed to snap a photo of the group (minus me of course) 

Jenny, Kris, Jacquie and Erica

I did buy some things and will post about that later.  

I need to get some photos first = )

Kris drove us back to the quilt show and Jacquie and I got in her car and she drove me to my car.  

It was kind of sad to see this time come to an end. 

 I felt like I was leaving my sister. 

 I hope we get to spend some more time together really soon.

We did manage to hammer out the quilting on two of the quilt tops I made for her

 so that was good too.

I have to say that I had a lot of time to think about the time spent with Jacquie on the trip home. 

 I came to the realization that maybe I need to work a little harder at finding my own voice.  

I feel like I am straddling a line with feet in 2 camps. 

 I have been having fun but maybe it is time to decide what I want to do with my quilting life. 

 I don't think Jacquie knows how much my time spent with her shook up the way I am looking at my future, but for this I will be forever grateful to her. 

 Thanks for your support and encouragement!    

I am looking forward to breaking free and going BOLD!!

 ~XOP~