John C. Campbell Folk School. July 31-August 6, 2022

Just alerting you that this post will be randomly episodic as I took no notes during this past week because all I did was Sew and Eat!!!!!

Sunday, July 31:  Rhoda and I arrived, checked in with no difficulty and picked up our room assignment. It was not until I began to open the car door that I realized we had no key. Turns out attendees do not receive room keys as the school has never had a problem with theft. Now, I had a big problem accepting this situation, but as Rhoda noted, "We're here, there's nothing you can do about it. It's policy, so put on your big girl panties and cope."  I was bemused later on to remind her of that statement when the reality of having to wear a mask all the time you were indoors, except when enjoying family-style dining at very close quarters during meals hit both of us. 

At the Quilting Studio, just up the incline from our room in Field House, on the other side of Brasstown Rd, we met Annie Smith, our teacher, and Laura Jones, our assistant teacher. We quickly discovered that we had come almost over prepared for this class. Our serious perusal of Valerie S. Goodwin's e-book art quilt maps: capture a sense of place with fiber collage - a visual guide guided us to curate our fabric choices in order to complement our map selection. The other 7 participants had brought fabric but hadn't really bored into the HOW of creating a fiber art map.  This first class meeting ended on a positive beat as we left energized about our projects and ready to meet again after dinner. We ate dinner in the dining hall which evoked images of Hogwarts (I kept thinking Dumbledore would wave his wand and the fluttering banners would change.)

Monday, August 1: Annie shared her vision for the class had each of us create a fabric postcard "map" of the Folk School and then let us loose to work. My postcard is 2nd on down on the left; Rhoda's is the green one to the right of mine.) She and Laura spent most of this day helping the others while Rhoda and I put our heads down and started to trace and cut our appliqués. We did "visit" other class members but only for a few minutes. They frequently came over to us asking questions. Very congenial and convivial atmosphere.  

Tuesday, August 2: Repeat of yesterday in the morning and early afternoon. Around 3:30 PM, most of the class decamped in three cars for Fabrics Galore and Quilting Store in Blairsville, GA. We had a delightful time finding fabrics, notions and embellishments for our projects. Since I'd had changed my original plan  for my project, I needed new backing fabric. Others had the same issue; we all, instructors included, made several, "I just have to have this." purchases. So, very typical quilt shop visit for us. We dined around the corner at El Manzanillo for Taco Tuesday. YUM!!!!  Back to the school for a few more hours of stitching.

Wednesday, August 3: More stitching and shaping. BUT around 4:30 I realized I could actually FINISH this quilted wall-hanging before the class ended! So the after dinner class hours were spent very industriously keeping my nose to the sewing machine grindstone.

Thursday, August 4: It took most of the day but I did finish the quilting of my map and I did most of the binding.  Faced with quinoa on the dinner menu,  I asked two locals (Mike and Chuck) for dinner suggestion that included good steak, so I made a reservation for two at Legends in Murphy. Returning to the studio after lunch, we mentioned we would not be at dinner and suddenly a bunch oftener wanted to tag along. Our dinner reservation increased to 8. We spent nearly 3 hours in congenial camaraderie enjoying a wonderful meal and excellent conversation. Then returned to the studio to sew.  The three ladies from Tennessee: Paige, Alice and Sandra, along with Laura (assistant instructor),  Rhoda and I stayed until midnight working!!!!

Friday, August 5: Rhoda and I completed our wall hangings, including labels before lunch.. Mine depicts the area of London that is Buckingham Place grounds, Green Park and St, James Park, the Ruebens at the Palace Hotel and The Mall…each
in fond commemoration of the Week Mom, Jeff and I spent in London in 2010. So, we had the car totally packed with our sewing stuff before going off to eat and spent the afternoon chatting with our instructors until the closing ceremony began. We hung our quilts. Everyone, including the Folk School director just gushed about the quilted maps. For a first time course, this one was a huge success.

Today, Saturday, August 6: We left Brasstown at 8:56 this morning heading to McDonald's for breakfast as the Continental breakfast offered by the School did not appeal. We shopped at our favorite quilt store in Franklin, A Stitch in Time, where we met up with the ladies from Tennessee, spent a bit of time together and spent a bit more $$$ on fabric and quilting supplies...I bought some cork to try my hand at working with it. We drove back roads west of Atlanta, stopped at the overlook in in Tallulah Gorge State Park but were too chicken to lean over the railing far enough to see the falls, though we were silenced by the roar of the water as it ran in Tallulah Lake.  We stopped in Athens for lunch at a chain place called Flying Biscuits which offered a wonderful BLT and fabulous cranberry/apple butter for the biscuit!  Then w
e took a meander to Sew Sew Studio in Bogart, GA and got a couple more pieces of fabric. Now, we are in our Hampton Inn in Warner Robins before we head home tomorrow.

It was a great week. We completed our projects. We made some potential good friends. We learned some interesting facts and trivia: Kaffe Fasset's real name is Frank,  digitally printed fabric does not have the color codes on the selvage because digitizing uses hundred and hundreds of color hues, boiled broccoli is almost as gross as boiled Brussel sprouts, black fabric wrapped stem makers make wonderful roads, Microtex needles are amazing and Rhoda can face a quilt!

It's been almost a month since that trip. My London wall hanging is a work in progress. I've decided to add a compass rose in the upper left and to bead the trees and shrubs of the park to add a bit of gleam.