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Teaching in Enfield, NH – Northern Lights Quilt Guild. Part 1
What FUN! Michelle G. from the QuiltArt list and program co-person for the Northern Lights Quilt Guild (Enfield, New Hampshire and environs…near Dartmouth) decided to organize a retreat with teacher for her guild, and I got to be the lucky teacher! I arrived late Thursday (tho as the crow flies it’s not so far from mid-coast Maine to western New Hampshire, the roads are two-lane twisty turny—up here all roads lead to Boston, if you’re going anywhere else, it takes a lot of slow driving time!). We had full day classes on Friday (Applique 3 1/2 ways), Saturday (Intro to Machine Quilting), a lecture Friday night (With a dash of color), and half-day class Sunday morning (Fine Finishes, about bindings, but a short version of the class).
Leaving Hope/home, Thursday morning--it has been rainy for weeks in Maine
I’ve never had the chance before to spend that much time with a group, either as a student or as a teacher. It was so wonderful to get to know the ladies (hey Chris! Thanks for being my on-site IT help!), share potluck (I gained a couple of pounds…sigh), and just hang out. Michelle booked the group into the Shaker Museum. Yes, a MUSEUM that used to be a Shaker colony. Here’s a photo from Route 4 (or was it 4A?):
The Museum is on the right. My room was the two windows on the 3rd floor on the right. They were doing re-roofing, and every so often during class debris would plummet past the windows!
And my room…really large! I expect at least four if not more persons slept in these rooms. The furniture was reproduction shaker furniture (there is a Shaker Workshops catalog..I actually made Joshua a long bookcase from their stuff about 14 years ago and it is still wonderful and sturdy) and there were gorgeous and still well-working built-ins in the room:
View in my room. Like most old buildings, the windows were finnicky, but they were large and the room airly and light.
The door on the left (with the white patch of paint on the bottom) is the door from the hallway. Built in next to it are drawers and a cupboard (perhaps for a chamberpot?). The walls are lined with peg boards. There are these cool shelves that can hang from a peg, plus one can lift the chairs off the floor to sweep by perching them on the pegs. The desk, chair, and stool/bench at the foot of the bed are repro pieces. And that small mountain by the door is my teaching stuff--pink boards to pin up samples, suitcases with class samples and stuff to sell, my laptop/projector bag, and the crate has my handouts and teaching binders for the various classes. I swear the schlepping of "stuff" is what will drive me out of teaching (that and air travel).
And here are some quintessentially New England buildings nearby:
Another Shaker building, lumpy (as opposed to flat-finished) stone, large and gorgeous...across the road
Next to the museum...probably a private residence
Next post I’ll share about the classes!
June 3rd, 2011 at 9:55 am
What fun you did have! New places to see, new students to enjoy — life can be good!
June 3rd, 2011 at 10:10 pm
We (the students) had a great time! I learned a lot of new techniques, too. The pace of the classes was just right, and you gave us so much DETAIL. Now to just put it into practice, eh?
The red building at the bottom is a reproduction of a Shaker building where Dana Robes, a fine Shaker style furniture maker had his workshop.