I began teaching for the first time in more than five years this past month.  It felt SO fantastic to teach again after so long! This was the first time I taught in my own barn, and after doing it once (thankfully with success) I plan to teach several micro retreats next year here.

Last month I taught a two-day class on layered surface design techniques including indigo and shibori, deconstructed screen printing, Gelli-plate mono printing, and Thermofax screen printing. Below are my class samples I had posted to promote the workshop:

Some student work below. (They got inventive about where the fabrics could dry.)

More work:

Gina Lee Kim had worked back into her fabric with screen printing with fig tree leaves she found at my place:

Fabrics drying on my porch, getting ready for the second round of surface work:

I limited this first class to five students, and it was a great crowd!

I made a small scrap quilt using some of my samples:

All in all, a fun time, and I am planning my next surface design retreat retreat (limited to seven students) for March 21-22, 2020. Meanwhile, there are a lot of classes being offered at Craft Napa 2020 that still have some spots! All of the Craft Napa workshops can be found here.

Hope everyone is enjoying a fantastic November!

~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!

Thank you Pantone for choosing such a gorgeous Color of the Year for 2017:

Pantone deems “Greenery” a color that is “life-affirming, emblematic of the pursuits of personal passions and vitality.”

I agree. Green has always been my very favorite color that I have found both calming yet invigorating. And in dealing with the stress of today’s heated political climate, I find myself more than ever going to my studio at night and immersing myself in this leafy color that celebrates the promises of flourishing, hope, and growth.

Thanks to one of the most precipitous winters ever on record in California, we are reaping the rewards of green in Napa. Below is a view from the top of my street in Napa. In the distance you can see where the San Pablo Bay (which is a part of the San Francisco Bay) meets the shoreline at its most northern tip.

The Pantone websites offers “pairings” for their featured color of the year– fitting language for wine country! I like the Transitions pairing the most:

The county of Napa concurs; I snapped the following recently here at my place:

Here is to warm, springtime, verdant days ahead for all.

Happy Spring,

QuiltCon East just transpired and for those of us who didn’t go, maybe you were like me: sitting in your kitchen compulsively eating microwave popcorn, refreshing your Instagram feed, eagerly awaiting to see friends and colleagues at the meet-ups, read about their observations of the show, and of course, to see the winning quilts! I also wanted to see how teaching was going for my friends, especially those new to teaching.

Just last week, working out at my local gym here in Napa, a quilting friend of mine waved at a distance and shouted, “I did two classes today in readying for a shrimp and grits feast in Savannah!”

She was QuiltCon bound, and I was so jealous!

I was jealous because of the camaraderie, the networking, the inspiration I have found at QuiltCon. I have been to every edition, and this past one in 2016 in Pasadena, frankly, bowled me over. I am very impressed with the production of this show and how quickly they have been able to develop it in a very sophisticated, forward-thinking manner, not to mention the excitement that manufacturers and movers and shakers in this industry have for it.

The reason I didn’t go to QuiltCon this year was because I got another upcoming invitation that was a conflict: an invitation to…well…Disneyworld.

When you can only be away so much, and only take so many transcontinental treks…it’s family first. So instead of seeing the best in show quilt in person at QuiltCon, in a couple of days, my niece and/or nephew will be my seat mate on the Crush ‘n Gusher…or The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Underground Adventure–whatever they choose.

In the meantime, today I was interviewed by Abby Glassenburg, co-founder of Craft Industry Alliance and founder/host of the While She Naps podcast. We have a shared history; we both were public school teachers and taught in the same school district nearly at the same time in Massachusetts. She is a true journalist, she asks questions and seeks answers in order to gain an understanding to issues that have not been previously addressed in this industry, with the designer, the crafter, the author, the teacher, the talent in mind. I wish we had a couple more hours to talk. Her podcast with me as a guest will go live this Monday, March 6th.

So tomorrow I head east–not to view amazing quilts–but to raise my arms high above my head, screaming at the top of my lungs at the peak of Expedition Everest, smiling, with a niece or nephew by my side. Because in five or so years, they will be moving on,  and I won’t be asked to sit next to them on a roller coaster probably ever again.

QuiltCon will still be there, but for this year, I am trading the viewing of quilts and quilter camaraderie for a pair of Mickey Mouse ears.

And I am totally good with that.

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’m honored to be closing out Melanie Testa and Carol Soderlund’s author blog hop for their brand new book, Playful Fabric Printing that is now available!

As the publisher, it was a pleasure to work with these two talented artists so this book could at long last see the light of day.

The book is chock-full of techniques, color recipes, and step-by-step instructions for printing your own fabrics using thickened dyes and low-tech, easily accessible tools.

I get asked all the time, why thickened dyes vs. fabric paint? I actually like to print with both. Paint sits on top of the fabric, and when dry, it can have a bit of a stiff hand to it (depending upon the brand and type)–sometimes this is wanted as it adds wonderful texture. I use fabric paints most especially in my art quilts and fabric collages. However, when you use thickened dyes (dyes with print paste added), the dyes act like paint–you can stamp, screenprint, monoprint, etc., but when you wash the dyes out, you are left with a fabric that has a very soft hand, and plays really well with commercial fabrics for quilts and projects.

My Latest Print Session and a Hack for Batching

The other day I plucked some lemons from my Meyer lemon tree for stamping. I like to layer color on my prints; I often first monoprint a background color with thickened dyes, let that layer dry, and then apply a Thermofax screen, stamp, or stencil, letting each layer of thickened dye dry before applying another layer of print work.

Once I think a piece of fabric is finished with layers of printing, and the fabric is completely dry, it’s time to “batch” the fabrics so that the dyes permanently soak into the fibers. (If you skip this step, most of the dyes will completely wash out when rinsing.) Batching takes time and a moist environment, and traditionally you batch fabrics overnight by rolling the printed fabrics in plastic and placing in a dark bathroom or closet.

This means waiting to use the fabrics…and I do not like to wait.

However, Carol and Melly  taught me the best hack ever: creating your own steam system where the fabric dyes set in just 20 minutes.

Meet what I like to call Cousin Itt:

See the resemblance?

The directions for assembling this steam system are in the book, and for me, one of my biggest take-aways. This easy-to-assemble steam system means I can walk into my studio in the morning, and just a few hours later, come away with stacks and stacks of printed fabrics that I can then quilt with immediately. All you need is a a rice cooker with a steam basket, metal duct, wire mesh,  cheesecloth, newsprint, foil, and a towel, among a few other tools for assembly. Below I am showing some local quilting friends how this steam system works.

To the left in this photo, you can see that the metal duct is sitting in the rice cooker with a steam basket (with some water on the bottom). I am holding the inner tube (rolled wire mesh with cheesecloth stitched around it) where you wrap your fabrics with layers of newsprint. Once you’ve rolled your layered fabrics and newsprint around the inner tube and secured with masking tape,  set this inner tube inside the metal duct. Place a towel on top, then wrap both the top and the bottom with foil to keep the steam from leaking out. Set your timer for 20 minutes, and when done steaming, the fabrics are ready to be rinsed and stitched.

I have so many plans for quilt making with my prints, and I am really looking forward to experimenting with the numerous techniques and dye recipes in this book.

So to close out this blog, I want to ask the following question. Leave your answer in the comments area, and I will randomly select a winner to get a free copy of the book.

Question: If you could create your own fabrics, what motifs would you feature? And if you have printed your own fabrics and they are viewable online, please share the link so we can see!

To see the other blogs in this blog hop (many with techniques and demos) click the following:

Melly Testa
http://melanietesta.com/blog/

Carol Soderlund
http://www.carolsoderlund.com/blog/

Lisa Chin
http://somethingcleveraboutnothing.blogspot.com

Julie Fei-Fan Balzer
http://www.balzerdesigns.typepad.com/

Judy Coates Perez
http://www.judycoatesperez.com

Carrie Bloomston
http://www.carriebloomston.com/blog/

Lynn Krawcyzk
http://smudgeddesignstudio.com

Leslie Tucker Jenison
http://leslietuckerjenison.blogspot.com

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.

At long last we had a photo shoot this past weekend to showcase the interior of the art barn, and I am really thrilled to share with you detailed shots of this building that took just about two years to see to fruition.

The front of the barn has three glass garage doors (they are all open in the above shot). I wanted glass garage doors so 1) the view can be enjoyed while working inside, 2) lots of natural light can come in, and 3) the porch can essentially be an extension of the work area.  What is lovely about the Bay Area/Napa, is the climate is very mild here (I don’t even own an a/c unit in my house or in the barn). So more often than not, I have those glass garage doors open.

Here’s a shot from the right side of the barn with the closest garage door open. The upstairs leads to my office and sitting area with a sleeper sofa. (I’d share a picture of that area but it is my office space…nothing to see except files of paperwork and a very cluttered desk.)

Detail of the left side of the barn. All of these tables rise and lower for either sewing (sitting) or screen printing (standing). I have 15 of them, and they are so lightweight and easy to move around. (Note: if you are looking for tables that rise and lower, you won’t typically find them in a big box hardware store, you have to order them online. I purchased mine online from Home Depot.)

Panoramic view of the barn from the bar area.

And yet anther angle.

My bins of fabric are about as organized as I will ever have them.

This antique hutch (anchored to the wall in case of an earthquake) houses all of my fabric yardage. I’ll come clean and tell you I took a lot OUT for this photo so it looked organized and neat, and you can’t see what a fabric hoarder I really am.

Above is an old antique workbench I found and where I house my ironing station. You can’t get a sense for how big this table is in this photo but it is enormous and great to put projects-in-progress on. The art quilt above is by Betty Hahn; it reminds me of my beloved city by the bay.

The sitting area for scheming new ideas.

Behind some very tall sliding barn doors is my wet studio with a deep, wide sink for fabric dyeing. To the left of that sink is a stacked washer/dryer and a shelving system where I store all of my printmaking materials.

The Pokey Pour bar area for wine and coffee, with a (smallish) Pokey Pour of a wine from a vineyard up the street.

Thanks for having an initial look! I have a lot more pictures that I’ll mostly be sharing on social media. All of the offsite workshops for Craft Napa 2017 that are taking place here at the barn are sold out, so shortly I will announce some other smaller offerings here and there.

Now I am going to do what I have wanted to do for a LONG TIME, and that is I am going to go turn this place into an arty mess.

*Photo credit for all photographs: Indigo Perez

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