Please Don't Feed the Bears-Arrowmont

 Last Sunday I drove up to Arrowmont for my much anticipated class with textile artist,  Helen Geglio.  The class "The Keeper's Quilt" was about using treasured textiles in a newly designed quilt.

This is my fifth visit to Arrowmont and it is something I look forward to each year.  My only disappointment year after year was never seeing first hand the much lauded black bear visit.  But during lunch one day, two bears ambled through.  They did not approach us even though we were eating about 30 to 40 yards away at the picnic tables outside.  What a treat!

The class was exactly what I hoped it would be, a relaxing yet deep dive into using old textiles and hand stitch.  Helen is a knowledgeable and generous instructor, both in sharing her design process and materials.

One of my favorite aspects of the class was seeing her work close up and working with an old quilt with fabrics from the turn of the century and the 30s and 40s.

There is a whole back story about the fictional Hesperia, the maker of the old quilt Helen brought for us to use.

The class was small, only six of us.  It was a really pleasant group of like minded people of all ages.

Helen had us do some small samplers to practice some techniques.  My first was titled "Night Watch" .

We all worked then on a primary project.  Here are some in progress shots of mine, "Three Sisters".

Here are some of the other projects from our class.