Craft Napa 2018 came and went, and frankly, it was such an amazing time–so much so–I needed a little rest afterwards, and hence the late recap. For this past third edition, we had 17 teachers, 41 workshops held over four days, with 230 students–more than double the amount the first year.

Whether it was politics or natural disasters, most everyone came off a hard 2017. To be able to kickstart 2018 in such a positive, color- and stitch-filled, creative way, definitely felt incredibly gratifying.

We built a wall—a community Graffiti wall–where over the course of the four days people freely added their creative hopes, dreams, drawings, and doodles. (Special thanks to Dharma Trading for providing materials and paint supplies.)

Before:

During:

After:

We also hosted the Stay Pawsitive art benefit for Friends for Life, Houston’s premiere no-kill animal rescue that provided safe haven, triage and vet care during Hurricane Harvey at one of the largest emergency shelters (and home to Quilt Festival)—the George R Brown Convention Center. Through artwork created and purchased, we raised $4000 for them!

When I say Craft Napans took over the Embassy Suites, I mean, we took over the entire hotel, including outdoor spaces as well. Some shibori with the swans in the courtyard:

We offered 3-hour, 6-hour, 9-hour, and two-day workshops, both at the Embassy Suites and in my art barn. A copious amount of art was produced—from art quilts, mixed media, modern and improv quilts—to books, assemblages, dyed and painted fabrics, monoprints, and encaustic work.

On Friday night of the event we hosted an artist market with our teachers, non-profit organizations, local shops, and an extra bonus: a quilt guild raffle quilt. Our Artists’ View Luncheon went well, too, where teachers candidly shared ideas and inspired all to set the tone for a year filled with creating.

I see a lot of opportunity for growth for Craft Napa, and making this event even more meaningful, and so that is what I am working on right now for both next year and beyond for (gulp!) the 5^th anniversary edition.

I want to sincerely thank the sponsors, swag and door prize donators, because these companies proved themselves in gold for their generosity. I hope everyone who reads this blog will support them, check out their websites to see what they have to offer, buy from them, stop at their booths at quilt, trade, and craft shows, and follow them on social media:

Meissner’s Sewing (Northern CA’s premiere sewing and vacuum company that facilitated and provided the BERNINA sewing machines for classroom use)

BERNINA of America (My hands-down favorite machine!)

Dharma Trading

Pro-Chemical & Dye

QuiltFolk Magazine

Mistyfuse

Havel’s Sewing

Quilter’s Select

Craft Industry Alliance

Windham Fabrics

RJR Fabrics

Aurifil Threads

SOAK

Tacony Corporation

Lastly, thanks to all who made the trek to join us! It’s you who make this community come alive and make this event so special!

Next year’s dates for Craft Napa are January 9-13, 2019, and if you want to join us for our five-year anniversary, the dates for 2020 will be January 8-12, 2020.

The last eight days have felt like one, long extended night. It is hard to believe that more than a week ago, I was awakened by my dog Nellie a little after midnight, followed quickly by a text from my friend Patricia Trimble, and then a Nixle alert on my cell phone saying evacuate immediately. I did not have long and quickly grabbed my animals and threw some things in a bag and fled.

I went down the street and saw this fire behind my place:

I went to Patricia’s house for about an hour (3:00-4:00 AM), but then I drove around again, went to the shelter to see if I could get any information (and get some water), got back in my car to drive some more, and this was what I saw the next morning near my place. This was as close as I could get:

Another shot from my neighborhood–Browns Valley (this is a portion of southwest Napa where Carneros is, and just over the hill from Sonoma). My fire is the “Partrick” fire, which joined and became part of the Nunn’s fire. From this perspective, I am looking across the Napa Valley basin to the Atlas Fire, which devastated the Silverado area:

That day (Monday) I checked into the Embassy Suites where I stayed for several nights. I stayed with a number of families, many of whom had already lost their homes. There were a lot of tears and hugs all around. Tyrion tried to provide some comfort:

Next afternoon, my street was barricaded by CalFire, but they looked on the map and said I could “check” my place quickly. I put my iPhone on video in my lap. I was surprised, scared, yet relieved to see this…

I thought everything was ok by then. But it was not. It had also been two days and I still had no cell service–no one did in Napa. We were all trying to get reliable information, which proved difficult.

It is hard to tell from this photo but by Wednesday evening, things had flared up again. The valley was absolutely toxic, a ring of fire and smoke so thick you couldn’t see 10 feet in front of you. It was also hard to leave the valley–Sonoma was ablaze and roads closed.  I got a text that evening that said “Bulldozers at your place, fire coming south, looks bad.”

Next day:

There is a clear and visible burn behind my hill to the left.

On Friday I was able to go back again for a few minutes and see all still standing, but still a little bleak.

Finally, I was able to go home on Saturday. And while wearing my N95 mask, start cleaning.

It was therapy to clean and try and gain control what has felt like a totally out-of-control situation this past week. These fires were unprecedented and historic.

I have changed the air filters in my house, and for the most part wearing that N95 mask as I clean, wipe down, and pitch stuff, including pillows, dog beds, etc., and all food in my refrigerator and cabinets. I also have ordered two HEPA air filters from Amazon to help get rid of all of the residual smoke inside my home. I am GRATEFUL and LUCKY, my place is still standing, and I know it.

I am forever indebted to our first responders, for those firemen who kept watch on my porch that first night and next day.

I am thankful for Eli Ponce Construction who volunteered his time and energy and for almost 24 hours straight, bulldozed around my place and my neighbors’ homes in Browns Valley to create a fire break. I am thankful for SO MANY family members and friends from the Bay Area who called me and reached out (multiple times), offering me a place to stay, and kept checking back in with me. I am grateful for Napa…I have made some incredible friendships here, especially Patricia Trimble from The Roost Napa and those in my neighborhood; our bonds have only deepened.

I also want to thank everyone, too, on Facebook, who gave me so many cheers and just overall words of support and comfort when I was distraught, confused, incoherent and tired. I needed it, and I hope I can return the favor to you some day.

I learned a few things, that I hope are helpful, too. There have been so many devastating floods, fires, hurricanes this year…I think this is good generic  info. to prepare, no matter what the threat may be:

APPS to download on your cell phone:

-Next Door, a neighborhood APP to keep in touch with each other.

-Nixle, which coordinates county and state emergency services, letting you know timely updates of threats or concerns in your area.

-MyTuner Radio (this allows your iPhone to access AM radio and local news–great if you don’t own a radio anymore)

If on Facebook, make sure to follow both the official page of your county/city and local police. I found this invaluable, especially when I had no cell service, but was able to go to a hotspot for WiFi to learn the latest from county officials.

What I wish I had done (and will now do):

-Get a fire proof safe/ container to put photos and important docs in.

-Have water and batteries and other emergency misc ready. I thought I did, but it wasn’t organized as well as it should have been.

-Have an extra bag of clothing and toiletries to grab and take.

-Make sure my pet carriers (leashes, medicines, etc.) are easily accessible. (I had to dig around to find my cat carrier.)

Here is a picture of Clarence tonight in his new, plush, smoke-free dog bed. His face says it all:

We are all looking forward to catching up on sleep, to finding our humor again.

And I don’t think I am alone in saying this, but after Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Maria, and the Vegas shooting, can we all just scream UNCLE!?

With my deepest gratitude for all your support this past week, and my sincere well wishes that we all stay safe and find a sense of calm,

Pokey

A couple weekends ago I brought my pup Tyrion to Quilting in the Garden at Alden Lane, a dog-friendly annual quilt show in one of the finest nurseries in Northern California. Tyrion was a little nervous to get into the car, thinking that since this was a solo trip sans his canine siblings, I was taking him to the vet. He was pleasantly surprised (albeit a little spooked) to see quilts swaying from giant oak trees.

Jennifer Sampou, Tyrion and me. (Photo courtesy of Todd Hensley)

At the show, artist Jennifer Sampou and I met to scheme the final touches on her quilt retreat she’s teaching at my art barn next spring:

Jennifer just came out with a hot-off-the-press pattern with C&T Publishing called Polygon Play, a riff on hexie paper piecing. (Click here to read her really fun story of how she came up with this idea.) It is such a playful pattern with so many possibilities, we felt it was worthy of a two-day weekend workshop in wine country.

Every season in Napa is beautiful, but my favorite time of year is spring when the mustard flowers bloom riotously in the vineyards. There are also a lot of art, wine, and music festivals that take place all over the valley the month of March.

A picture from my art barn porch last March:

Polygon Play will take place March 24-25, 2018, and retreat particulars can be found here on the Crafting a Life website. Registration opens next Wednesday and is limited to 8 students. Hope you will consider joining us next spring!

Last year  The Modern Quilt Guild approached me and asked me what I thought about partnering and launching the first Modern Quilt Masters retreat at my place in Napa.

I was more than game! I have found the board of the National Modern Quilt Guild extremely forward thinking and easy to work with, and when they pitched Denyse Schmidt as the teacher for the four-day retreat at my place, I was in! The 12-student, immersive four-day retreat sold out very quickly. BERNINA of America and Meissner’s were generous to provide sewing machines for student use, and I was able to secure an amazing chef in Napa to cook us lunch every day. We ate great food, drank some local/boutique wine, some hiked in the neighboring mountainside, others dabbled in a Sunday Fun Day with a Bloody Mary bar here in my barn, we enjoyed a pool-side BBQ with partners/spouses/friends, but most importantly, we created quilts…

Everyone was so prolific:

Another case in point:

We had plenty of critique time with Denyse who was so giving of herself.

And a special guest showed up…Jennifer Sampou.

More work in progress…

I am so grateful to have hosted this retreat. I did not get very far in my top, but I will. Craft Napa 2018 registration launches in a few days and I have been a bit busy getting it ready. This next Craft Napa event has grown a lot…17 teachers with …drumroll…41 workshops over the four days!

I want to thank the Modern Quilt Guild, Meissner’s, BERNINA USA, and Denyse Schmidt for such generosity and collaboration this past week.

Cheers to all,

Pokey

What a month of weather in Northern CA! Today, it was confirmed by officials: this is the wettest winter ever on record for the state of California, and we certainly felt that in Napa. MY AT&T services (Internet, microcell tower so I can make and accept calls, alarm, etc.) were out for nine straight days, and mudslides and road closures were rampant in my Mt. Veeder/Browns Valley neighborhood, as were downed trees. Case in point:

When I moved here, I had a prized olive tree in my garden.

But last week…my olive tree couldn’t take the constant winds and pressure from the rains and it split, limb by limb. Notice where my power line is (a bit anxiety-provoking). But fortunately through the app Next Door, I found someone who is a woodworker in my neighborhood, and with the help of a friend with a chainsaw, they cut most of it up. Now my neighbor has a lot of wood to make furniture, and I have wood for my pizza oven and leaves for monoprinting.

Meteorologists predict that the heavy rains for the most part have ended for the season, as has the historic drought in CA! I am truly looking forward to brighter, sunnier days ahead. This view the other day from my art barn was a very welcomed site:

And speaking of bright and sunny days, this special individual (below) is coming to lead a very small, intensive, 4-day retreat in June! I am very honored to be working with the Modern Quilt Guild to bring Denyse Schmidt to Napa for improvisational quilting. All of the information and retreat particulars can be found on the Modern Quilt Masters website.

Cheers to a creative weekend! Pretty soon this is what my BBQ area will look like again, and I am looking forward to enjoying the fruits of Napa Valley, olives included (even if they aren’t my own).  🙂

I have finally recovered! Our second edition of CRAFT NAPA went so well, and it was a welcomed bit of respite from the outside world for a few days.  Some fun facts: We had nearly 200 students (up from 113 last year), 12 teachers for 33 workshops, an Artists’ Market, Wine Blending Competition, and a three-hour tour on the Wine Train to close the four-day event.

A few of us after a day of workshops:

So grateful to BERNINA of America and Meissner’s Sewing for providing BERNINAs for 3 full classrooms and sewing stations in others. Below is Jennifer Gigas, tireless as always, on the opening night of the event, offering up a free BERNINA sewing machine.

There was a lot of opining at the Artists’ View Luncheon where our teachers fielded honest and candid questions from students about manufacturers, supplies, inspiration, best practices, and copyright issues. I took so many things away from this luncheon, but here is a fun fact, explained by Victoria Findlay Wolfe: If you have Accuquilt dies, they will work on your Sizzix machines. Sizzix dyes will not work on your Accuquilt machines, so if you have both, the take-away is Sizzix can handle both!

What some old UFO’s morphed into after Lynn Krawczyk’s UFO workshop…

THANK YOU BERNINA of America and Meissner’s…these machines for free-motion quilting and piecing worked like a dream.

During CRAFT NAPA, we discussed a lot about design and color, including how to repurpose vintage blocks:

Leslie Jenison explaining how to use vintage blocks to turn into a modern quilt.

We studied art history and challenged ourselves to make mini-collages with minimal tools like strips of paper from brown paper bags:

We blended wine led by a vintner who gave each team some measuring cups, beakers, bottles of Merlot, Malbec, Cab Franc, and Cab Sauvignon to create a winning blend (chosen by blind judging).

We took this wine blending pretty seriously; the winning team got to have their wine bottled and given to all participants. (It turns out my team, “The Crafting Winos” won…but I swear it was not rigged!)

We studied shapes and movement in art (and admired Carrie Bloomston’s arm muscles).

We sold LOTS of fabric and supplies at the Artists’ Market. A peek at Jennifer Sampou’s booth…

40 of us closed the event with a wine train excursion, a three-hour tour up Napa Valley and back on a vintage Pullman train.

This was an incredibly fun time together.

But for me, one of the shining moments was hosting Open Studios with Melanie Testa and Carol Soderlund, the two authors for PLAYFUL FABRIC PRINTING. On Saturday these two artists turned the central area at the Embassy Suites into a dye studio and signed books for the masses.

Totally normal to sign books while donning dust masks and mixing dyes, right?

I surprised them with a cake that included the cover of their book…

They loved it, and I made them cry (there is a video of that on Facebook). It was my goal to make them cry. 😉

What made me cry was the ENTIRE cake was eaten, and it hurt me immensely to cut up the cover. But the cake was dee-lish (yellow cake with vanilla icing and a lemon filling).

All in all, it was a such a fun time together. Craft Napa was about making art and embracing our community. Next year’s dates are January 10-14, 2018, and I have plans to change things up. Please save the dates. Until then, thank you, and CHEERS!

Wow, 2016, I have to give you credit. You sure were interesting! This was certainly a year of extremes, and I am choosing to focus on the positives, because– with much gratitude–I can say I had a lot of them.

A few examples…

My dream of building and completing the dream studio space and to share it with friends has become a reality. My studio space/ art barn is done.

The inaugural Craft Napa took place at the Embassy Suites/Napa this past January! We had about 120 students for the first go, and thanks to Meissner’s Sewing and BERNINA of America, we had such a successful first retreat!

We screen-printed, made improvisational quilts, free-motion quilted, collaged, laughed, cried, ate great food, and made wine together.

And students made some incredible art:

Soy wax batik examples from Melly Testa’s workshop.

And for those of us who have spent time together in this industry over the years, we reminisced during the reception in my art barn.

When it was over, some of us took a silly picture to commemorate the success. Yes, I am sitting in a piñata I commissioned to thank BERNINA for sponsoring. I had filled this piñata with Aurifil thread that every student had a chance to whack and grab during the retreat.

A few months later…we had a photo shoot for our first book: Playful Fabric Printing by Melanie Testa and Carol Soderlund. Picture below shows all of the step-out piles, in order (by chapter) to be shot.

It took nearly a full week to shoot and we were inspired during the shoot to take some other artful shots, too, like reflections of tiny mason jars filled with dye placed on cement.

Indigo Perez, location photographer and artist, doing her thing:

A detail of this styled shot ended up on the cover.

And as all good photo shoots should wrap, we had a pizza party with wine, swimming, and a dog on a fruit floatie.

This year, too, I was able to create a few quilts. Here are three that were extra special to me. One for a dear friend and special former colleague of mine, Carmen Beck for her newborn daughter…

Quilt in the piecing stage; I got the pattern from the magazine Quilt Moderne, by Michelle of Sew Demented.

This kid is going to be BOSS of quilting someday…look at the confident expression as she stares at the Best in Show quilt at Quilt Festival!

I made this too, for my new Godson, Hunter (pattern by Elizabeth Hartman, baby by Lindsey and Fergal McLelland).

I was very worried I would drop him during the baptism…

Thankfully, I did not.

And there was this art quilt, my quilt to honor Yvonne Porcella, for an exhibit I put together to celebrate her life. I dubbed this quilt, “Go Forth and Fruit.” Yvonne has been one of my greatest mentors and someone who challenged me and guided me in my career over the years.

One of Yvonne’s sons, Greg and his wife to see the exhibit debut at Quilting in the Garden at Alden Lane this past September.

And finally, just yesterday, I got one advance copy of Playful Fabric Printing. I am pretty happy with it.

Lastly, I feel so blessed I live here in Napa. I took this picture in early February of this year of the budding mustard flowers. I can’t wait to have everyone for the next edition of Craft Napa in less than two weeks.

I wish everyone a blessed new year!
Pokey Bolton

Welcome to my new digs. A new domain, that is!

It’s high time for the “Pokey’s Ponderings” blog to retire, and I am moving things over to this domain (pokeybolton.com), which will be an easier way for people to find me and frankly, Google likes a lot more! (If you were an email follower to the Pokey’s Pondering blog, your email subscription was automatically redirected here.)

In the Monaluna booth at Quilt Market. Monaluna is down the road from Napa in Walnut Creek…if you come to Napa, be sure to take a side trip and visit them, too, as they have a store downtown!)

As this website migration took place and I was blog-silent for a while, I have received a lot of emails, some several times over, so I thought while I initially settle in, I would host a quick Q & A.

The most popular question:

When are you having retreats in your art barn?

The first retreats will be taking place in tandem with Craft Napa, January 12-15, 2017. During that time both Leslie Jenison and Melanie Testa will each have their own workshops here in the art barn. (All of the info for Craft Napa can be found here and registration is still open!)

After Craft Napa, there will be some smaller retreats that I will be announcing shortly. I am thrilled with the talent that is scheduled to come, and I am collaborating with some fantastic, forward-thinking people in the quilting, art, and textile industries to bring them here. I should note, that these retreats will be small so they can be immersive, and we can enjoy the valley.

Do you rent out your art barn?

No, I do not. This is my own working studio and space, too, so the retreats are very controlled, small, and sparsely scheduled.

How do I submit a proposal if I’d like to teach?

If you would like to pitch an idea, email me! This is an informal process to see what might work for both of us. There is a more formal proposal process for Craft Napa; the next round of proposals will go out February 2017 and be available on my business site: craftingalifellc.com.

So…did you vote for Clinton or did you vote for Trump?

OK, no one actually asked me that question but I want to clarify the direction of this blog. The only politics you will find here are about our industry (and there is plenty of controversy and points of discussion in our industry right now). The focus of this blog is fourfold: 1) about art, mostly textiles, 2) my thoughts about our industry, 3) enterprising ventures, 4) and techniques and projects I am working on.

You moved to Napa…are you going to grow any grapes?

Nope.  Living in the Mt. Veeder part of Napa (which is closest to Sonoma too), I am surrounded by expert vintners who know what they are doing. I do, however, have a lot of mature fruit trees here: lemon, orange, apple, walnut, olive, fig, pear, plum, and persimmon (blackberry bushes too). I am hoping that we have another wonderfully wet winter so they get nice and plump, not just for eating but for fabric printing and eco-dyeing!

And speaking of printing…

The first book that we are publishing, Playful Fabric Printing with Carol Soderlund and Melanie Testa will make its debut in January 2017. This book is 144 pages chock-full of inspiration and everything you need to know to dye fabric, print, and create your own fabric collection. This book is just about ready for press, minus the cover. (We had about 20 options for covers and we have winnowed it down to three.) I’d love your opinion on the cover, so that post will be forthcoming this Friday, which is Black Friday, and while most business will be selling, selling, selling, I will be giving away 5 copies (when it’s printed) that are randomly selected from the comments section when you make your cover choice.

In the meantime, I am so happy to have you here, and on this Thanksgiving week, I thank you sincerely for visiting me.

Pokey

View one morning this past August from my art barn porch.