Empty Spools Retreat 2023

I'm excited to announce that I will be teaching at Empty Spools next year. I have had a lot of inquiries for classes and retreats, so here is your chance. I'm taking this year off from traveling and teaching except for a few local quilt guilds because of COVID and family and personal health issues. So, if you're looking for classes from me, you will have to wait until 2023 (unless you're a member of one of this year's guilds).  I do have some YouTube classes, but in-person is so much better. 

Waratah: Commercial fabrics, batiks, and hand-dyes     .

If you don't know about  Empty Spools Seminars, they are 5-day quilt art retreats. They are held at Asilomar Confrence Center, an historical retreat in beautiful Pacific Grove, California, which is on the Central Coast between Monterey and Carmel. You spend the week with one noted quilt instructor and focus on that instructor's technique. I'm teaching session 5, from May 5-10, 2023 and they are taking sign-ups now. Click the link.

A Gardens Delight: Commercial fabrics and batiks

All my quilts here are made with only fabric, and no paint. Back in the early years of my art quilting, it was important to me to just use fabrics, and most of them were commercially available. I then started using batiks and my own hand-dyes, which I still use. 

...and Our Flag Was Still There: Hand-dyes and batiks 

3-years ago we experienced a devastating fire in Paradise, California, which killed 85 people.  The Camp Fire wiped out 95% of Paradise, destroyed 14,000 homes and displaced 27,000 people, many of whom lost not only their home, but their business, as well. I lost everything, including dozens of quilts and 20 years of accumulated fabric stash, along with a studio full of every tool, supply and sewing machine a quilter could ever want. 

Camellia: Photo above and quilt below - hand-dyed and batik fabrics 

I started to rebuild my stash and then COVID-19 hit and shops closed down.  Not having a fabric stash has changed how I work, think,and create. So, last week, I broke down and started using paints. I know! I'm working on a hydrangea quilt (my second try) and I just don't have the fabric stash to make it work.  I will be posting my progress on the hydrangea and, so far, it is coming along nicely thanks to the paint. And yes, it is easier with paint and I am learning a new technique to implement with my old technique. So sign up for my Empty Spools Seminar workshop and I will be sending you a new supply list that will go along with the one on the retreat website.  You can email me when any questions and I will share with you all my tips, tricks, and insights for using fabric, fusible web, and paint. You can reach me at melbula@comcast.net.