Color Theory and Chinese Embroidery Day!

Fun Fact: I’m always going to a sewing and/or textiles instruction class. Over the years, I learned to stay away from the people who say, “What?!?! You’re going to another sewing class?!?! Why?!?!” My reply: “Because I love it! Now leave me alone!”

Anyway. .  .

I overscheduled myself this past Saturday and I am grateful I did. I love sewing days like these! I went to yet another color theory class in the morning and then a Chinese embroidery class in the afternoon. I am making a series of temperature quilts. I really felt I needed to talk to someone about the color gradations I chose. I personally feel you need to talk to different instructors and take different classes. I am in a teacher certification program. Repetition is key to learning and sometime one instructor will explain things in a way that you understand better than another instructor. The instructor said she would be at the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show next week. I told her I would be there too, See? This is when you know that something good is happening: You find your tribe, then you follow each other around from textiles classes to textiles conferences and events.

During Saturday afternoon, I went to my first Chinese embroidery class at the Heritage Museum of Asian Art in Chicago. Talk about phenomenal! And, as always, one attendee saw me walking around with a quilting bag and said, “I’m going to follow you. I’m with my people.” Once inside, we all made recommendations about local garment making and weaving classes, the new Mood Fabric store and exchanging ideas on how to organize an advanced Chinese embroidery class.

This was my first time sewing with silk thread and on silk. I remember when I was growing up that my mother sewed prom dresses on silk and literally had choice words about the experience. It was slippery yes, so I went slower, which seemed to help with meditation, calm and mood elevation. It also helped that the instructor had a huge flat screen television of videos showing herself sewing the stitches we were trying to learn. We were sewing a flower. After having come off of the elation of my nature writing class, I felt this was the most supportive and appropriate textiles gesture. I decided that I was going to take my sewing sample and place it on my wall when I was done. I was so proud of myself!

I walked away knowing that there truly are worse things to do in this lifetime besides sew. It is okay to be passionate and do exactly what you love.

Ya’ll Midwest

I finally made it to Ya’ll Midwest! I heard all about Ya’ll West through my young adult fiction friends. I attended Ya’ll West online during Covid in May 2020 and loved every minute of it. I finally learned about Anderson’s Bookstore hosting Ya’ll Midwest at Metea Valley High School. Admittedly, it was like my regular workday, but with a writing conference thrown in between and I must say I absolutely loved it! As always, Anderson’s had a great book reading recommendations list that I shared with everyone I knew. There was the best of the best finger foods: hamburgers, cheeseburgers and pizza. Being immersed in an environment where you could freely talk about a love of books and writing is always a wonderful thing. It was only one day and not nearly long enough. Sigh. . .

September 2026 Staff Art Exhibition “Bee Positive” Quilt

One of the joys of my life is the art gallery at Whitney Young High School in Chicago. One of the events I look forward to during the year is the September staff art exhibition. It is not unusual for me to plan and prepare for this event a year in advance. This year, I spoke to the art department about my contribution. I wanted to make a “Bee Positive” quilt with a bee and pollinator’s theme as well as positive affirmations. It would be in conjunction with the Healthy Minds initiative that takes place in Whitney Young High School. The students post positive affirmations and suggestions for self-care around the school in an effort to promote positive mental health. Reminders of these topics are always a good thing.

I had been collecting fabric for months, including going to the Waste Shed, one of my favorite places in Chicagoland. I happened to find some bee themed fabric and got to work. I did the English paper piecing of an inch and one fourth hexagons. It is a hand sewing technique, coincidentally, I learned from a local quilt shop owner nearly twenty years ago when I was on a travel nursing assignment. Due to the stressors of my job, I needed to have the relief of hand quilting. I sewed the binding on that bee positive quilt by hand as well and have never felt so blissed out in all my natural born life. EF 1 tornados make life challenging let me tell you! By the time I turned it into the art department, I felt such a sense of accomplishment. I hope others get the same sense of encouragement seeing it as I got making it.

Nature Writing at the Morton Arboretum

It always felt to me like something was missing in my writing education and I found out when I took Cindy Crosby’s nature writing workshop at the Morton Arboretum this summer. No shade to anyone, but I felt this class was literally was the missing link in my writing education. It does not matter if you are a nature writer. The class gets you out of your comfort zone and allows you to pay attention. Considering there were some EF 1 tornados this summer, I found that I had a lot to write about. The class gave me the permission to just write, not necessarily to be recognized. It was okay to have practice shots at writing and to be happy. The class was once a week for four weeks, not nearly long enough, but enough to choose a new direction moving forward. I recommended the class to anyone who crossed my path.

Sand Ridge Nature Center Freedom Canoe Underground Railroad Bus Tour

            As a descendant of the Underground Railroad, the activities at the Sand Ridge Nature Center this summer were very healing. I took tons of pictures. I sent them to my family. I called Sand Ridge Nature Center to tell them I’ve never been on a canoe trip before. I was told how to prepare: “Use sunscreen all over your body, including your hair, have sunglasses, a sun hat, bug spray.” Considering these were items I could easily purchase at the dollar store, I said, “Great! Thanks!” There were poetry readings and songs sung for the ancestors before the canoe trip. The narrator pointed out locations along the Chicago River that were significant to the Underground Railroad. Words cannot describe how emotional this all was for me.

The Underground Railroad Bus Tour of the South Suburbs of Chicago was also very moving. If you are looking for more information, please see the book, “Onward to Chicago: Freedom Seekers and the Underground Railroad in Northeastern Illinois” by Larry A. McClellan, a Governors State University professor who has officiated these tour for years and studied the Underground Railroad as it ran through the South Suburbs of Chicago. These is also a YouTube video of Professor Larry McClellan lecturing about this topic called “The Underground Railroad in Your Back Yard.”

            Before this time, I had to work, but I was grateful I was able to spend a couple Saturday mornings and afternoons attending these events.