By Patricia Belyea
LA CONNER, WA Paradoxical! Quilters come to a picturesque place like La Conner and happily stay inside — on the almost-summer days of June!
This week eleven eager quilters joined me at The La Conner Inn for a Creativity and Inserted Curves Workshop. The Workroom was perfect for our small group with roomy tables, full-size design walls, and a pop-up shop filled with yukata cottons.
To learn how to design and sew an Inserted Curve, everyone completed the X Exercise. A simple dancing X was inserted into a 12” square of patterned fabric.
The main workshop project, The Centrum Quilt, included woven inserted curves and a clever inner border. The students loved the challenge that involved a new technique, precision, and problem solving.
The highlight of the week was visiting the studio of sashiko master Sylvia Pippen where she generously showed us her mother’s quilts. Kitty Pippen, an award-winner quilter and national teacher, introduced American quilters to Japanese textiles three decades ago.
The workshop finished after a breakfast gathering on Friday morning. But the fun was not over in La Conner!
The quilt museum — Pacific NW Quilt & FIber Arts Museum — just up the street, started its weekend Porch Sale at 9am. I headed up Second Street and grabbed some great deals.
From 1pm to 3pm, I hosted a Japanese Textile Trunk Show in the Workroom with my quilts hanging on the design walls. Quilting friends from around the region stopped by to visit and shop.
One week ago, it was bittersweet to leave my home in the Highlands for a teaching gig. But now that I’m here, I’m totally inspired by so many lovely people and amazing quilt-filled moments.
ABOUT US: Okan Arts, a petite family business, is co-owned by mother-daughter duo Patricia Belyea and Victoria Stone. Patricia and Victoria sell Japanese textiles online, host creative quilting experiences, and lead quilting & textile tours to Japan.
FOLLOW OKAN ARTS ON INSTAGRAM @okanarts
