And Now--For Some Fun!

 You know, some teachers are talented but can be Oh So Serious about their work and other teachers can be a lot of fun but somewhat lacking in talent. In Peggy Barkle, you are fortunate to have both things in one package. She came to our Guild last week for a lecture and a class. In her lecture, she showed many beautiful quilts and talked about the method of quilting she developed that is featured in her book, Blendable Curves, which is published by C&T Publishing Company.  She has a wonderful style of talking about herself and her work that had us all laughing.  And isn't it great to find something to laugh about these days?  Laughter is literally good for the soul.
Although she talked mainly about her quilts that are featured in Blendable Curves and shared her vision for another book in her future, she actually taught "Twisted Bargello", a pattern by

 Australian quilt designer, Chris Timmins.  I saw this pattern years ago when it was published in an Autralian quilt magazine and had saved it for a long time with the idea of making it.  Well, time passed and I didn't do it.  I still haven't done it, but I did have the pleasure of being at Peggy's class (I'm the Program Chairman this year) and watching the fun that all of her students had with her.

 She was very smart in that she had each student sew lots of strips together BEFORE class.  This guaranteed that everyone would go home with a good start on the bargello--and would, hopefully, finish it. 

 You can see here that everyone is working away and there was such a pleasant atmosphere in the room.  Peggy gave lots of tips on easy construction methods and helped find the "boo-boo's" that sent the design off course.

 Here are a couple of quilts in progress.

And here are another two.  By the end of the day, everyone had a really good idea of how their quilts were going to look and, as an observor, it was fun to see how each quilt turned out so differently.  As Program Chairman for a Guild, you can spend many, many hours lining up speakers and teachers, setting up lecture spaces and classroom spaces, taking them out to dinner and escorting them around BUT it all is more than worth it when you have someone come to town who is as nice and as much fun as Peggy Barkle.  Thanks, Peggy.