Tula Pink Workshops

Saturday’s workshop was machine piecing Tula’s Shoreline quilt.

It was a fun project 

and the venue, Bell Arts Factory in Ventura, was wonderful 

with lots of natural light 

and plenty of room for 25 quilters and all their supplies. 

I was not happy with my project - Too much color! Too many patterns! Throw it in the trash! Arrghhhhhh!! - 

until Tula put it in a kinda rainbow order that made sense.

Two panels are done, with four to go, and I’m lovin’ this more all the time. 

Saturday was fun but Sunday’s workshop was amazing!! 

 One of Tula’s quilts

English paper-piecing is Tula’s self-admitted passion; she works on EPP projects every day for relaxation.  

I’m still amazed at how much I learned and how many techniques I put into practice during the 6-hour day. 

 Hidden creatures in Tula’s Zuma fabric

Going into the workshop, I wasn’t planning to finish this except as a tiny sample. But now I can’t stop.

Sooo, maybe a wallhanging? We’ll see what happens when I run out of fabric . . .

Tula Quilt Parade

Tonight’s talk and quilt parade did not disappoint. Tula is hilarious and amazingly talented. 

In 15-ish years in the fabric business, she has created over 26 fabric lines, all of them starting with incredibly intricate hand-drawn art. 

 My favorite quilt of the night. 

She also sews/pieces her own quilt samples for each fabric line. I love that she’s a quilter and understands what quilters are looking for/need.

Tula said she works on English paper-piecing every night, as a form of meditation and to get her brain to turn off so she can sleep. Love that. 

 “The United States of Tula Pink”

After tonight, I’m even more excited for this weekend‘s workshops!

A few of Tula’s EPP quilts:

 This is Sunday’s workshop - Tula Nova

Regular piecing:
 I love this but don’t know if I’d have the patience to make all those sunbursts

 Saturday’s workshop - Shoreline

Tula!

She’s finally (almost) here!

I signed up for this weekend of Tula Pink classes the first day - almost the first hour - registration was open last November. Friday night is a lecture by Tula, along with a meet-and-greet. 

Saturday is a machine quilting class to make “Shoreline”, a free Tula pattern (scroll down after clicking the link). There was no “homework” (prep work) for this class, but I’ve already got all my fabric cut and ready to go. I’m just a little excited. 

Sunday is English paper-piecing, to make the hand-stitched Tula Nova. I’ve got the pattern, papers and templates, plus a few pieces of fabric, mostly in blues. Part of the workshop is Tula explaining how to pick additional colors and fabrics and how to fussy-cut for best effect. That should be worth the price of the workshop, all by itself.

Rope Painting and Bowls

One of the crafts I came up with to entertain the girls on spring break was rope painting, aka spaghetti art. Doesn’t Leanne’s tray look like a mess of noodles? Or worms??

Jac and Leanne both like painting, so I got no argument from them. 

 “Put the paint HERE, Sissy!”

The idea was to paint cotton clothesline 

 Note Jac is double-fisting her brushes

with acrylic paints (because that’s what I had),

let it dry and make rope bowls. 

The painting went well - 

 Jackie used every brush we own

with very different color palates for each girl - 

 Leanne’s finished yarn

 
but the drying took forever, even after I hung the clothesline in the sun. (Note to self: no need to soak the line in water before painting next time . . . )

And how did it turn out?

Jac and I sewed hers today (she “helped” by pushing every button on my sewing machine. As I was sewing . . .) and she proudly proclaimed it a hat.

I used 2 different weights of thread - Jac’s choice of purple on the inside, cream on the reverse - and you can see specks of the purple on the outside. (Another note to self: change the sewing machine needle after sewing through paint!)

I kinda like the look and am glad I tried it. 

Leanne wants to sew her own bowl - can you say “Fair entry”?? - so we’ll probably do that next week. This was one of the most cost effective - and fun - projects we’ve done. The clothesline cost about $8, everything else came from my stash and I’m getting two days of crafting with each girl. Winner!

Hoppy Easter

The day didn’t go quite as planned - Pop and Jac were both sick and missed the fun - but the rest of us had a great time. 

Egg coloring - 

Egg hunting - 

 On your mark, get set . . .

Family fun -