Sewing Room Tour Committee (from left to right): CA Small, Loretta Edgerton, Wendy Butler Berns, Linda Crum, Kris Prass (Chairman), Teri Calpener, Ann Stonecipher, Pat Morris and Tami Graeber.
Varda Main
Over 90 quilters from SaddleBrooke, SaddleBrooke Ranch and Sun City wended their way across SaddleBrooke on March 8, to tour numerous quilting studios. This much anticipated annual event lets quilters see how other quilters setup their studios and pickup quilting tips along the way. The tour included four studios (Wendy Butler Berns, Teri Calpener, CA Small, Ann Stonecipher) and two demos (Tami Graeber, Pat Morris).
A quilting studio is much more than a room with a sewing machine and some fabric. Each quilter has her favorite suite of tools and equipment that varies both with the individual and with the type of quilting they do. A quilter’s stash, their collection of fabric, also varies with the type of quilting they do and, here in SaddleBrooke, with whether they are a full-timer or a snowbird. Some quilters like to organize their studio around clearly defined projects; other quilters require a large stash so that the right fabrics are on hand as a project takes on a life and grows.
Quilters love demos as they have a thirst for knowledge. You can either learn a new technique or learn a new way to do a technique you already know. For this tour Tami Graeber demonstrated how to paint on fabric and Pat Morris demonstrated a fabric collage technique for making whimsical quilts.
After all that touring, everyone had worked up quite the appetite. We had a lovely lunch at The Vistas in SaddleBrooke One during which more quilting tips were shared.
The tour was organized by the Sewing Room Committee of the SaddleBrooke Friday Quilters. Kris Prass chaired the committee and was ably assisted by Wendy Butler Berns, Teri Calpener, Linda Crum, Loretta Edgerton, Tami Graeber, Pat Morris, CA Small and Ann Stonecipher.