My first class at Road was with the delightful, Gina Perkes. Lorette and I had decided that we were going to focus most of our class time on overcoming our hesitation of quilting feathers and Gina’s class, “Fantabulous Feathers and Fill” seemed a great place to start! Gina has a very fun, pleasant personality and she made sure we all knew how loved we were with constant praise and adoration. Her mom, Debbie often travels with her and she was equally as charming. Gina brought along numerous samples and invited us to take as many pictures as we wanted of her work, as well to use her award winning quilts to cuddle in if we got cold! Really! She assured us she uses them for just that purpose at home. I don’t recall anyone taking her up on her offer to cuddle with them, although we all took lots of photos.
We were learning to quilt our feathers and fill on the Charm, a new Gammill sit down machine, but as much fun as it was, I still prefer my APQS longarm. I have quilted for years on a domestic and with carpal tunnel and neck issues, I find it tiring. But, that didn’t take away from all the great designs we learned! And Gina was very generous in sharing tips that could make our quilting smoother and easier. As well, she was very generous in her praise of our efforts, constantly moving around the room, engaging with every student over and over.
Even with all the excitement of actually being in this class, it was all I could do to stay indoors! The sun was streaming in the windows, I could see palm trees just a short distance away and I was in bare legs!! No talk of polar vortex here! Eating lunch outdoors outside the Convention Centre was lovely!! And every time you sat down, you got to meet more quilters because even on these first days before the show and merchants mall began, quilters were everywhere and they were all excited to be there, taking classes and learning new techniques.
There is a photo on Gina’s blog of our class at Road and if you look at the left hand side of the picture, you can see my bare legs underneath the table where I was sewing!! You can see a bit of my head and sweater as well, but I would be hard to identify conclusively based on this photo. However, Gina very graciously posed with me as proof I was there - just in case I had to pinch myself later on in disbelief! Fun loving person that she is, first we took a selfie..
Then mom Debbie took a posed shot..
We were learning to quilt our feathers and fill on the Charm, a new Gammill sit down machine, but as much fun as it was, I still prefer my APQS longarm. I have quilted for years on a domestic and with carpal tunnel and neck issues, I find it tiring. But, that didn’t take away from all the great designs we learned! And Gina was very generous in sharing tips that could make our quilting smoother and easier. As well, she was very generous in her praise of our efforts, constantly moving around the room, engaging with every student over and over.
Even with all the excitement of actually being in this class, it was all I could do to stay indoors! The sun was streaming in the windows, I could see palm trees just a short distance away and I was in bare legs!! No talk of polar vortex here! Eating lunch outdoors outside the Convention Centre was lovely!! And every time you sat down, you got to meet more quilters because even on these first days before the show and merchants mall began, quilters were everywhere and they were all excited to be there, taking classes and learning new techniques.
There is a photo on Gina’s blog of our class at Road and if you look at the left hand side of the picture, you can see my bare legs underneath the table where I was sewing!! You can see a bit of my head and sweater as well, but I would be hard to identify conclusively based on this photo. However, Gina very graciously posed with me as proof I was there - just in case I had to pinch myself later on in disbelief! Fun loving person that she is, first we took a selfie..
Then mom Debbie took a posed shot..
