Academy of Appliqué 2021: Home Construction

It has been a crazy year since last year's visit to Williamsburg, Virginia, for the Academy of Appliqué. In fact, for me (Teri), I can admit that the Academy perfectly sandwiched this odd pandemic year: it was the last and the first place that I had traveled and taught. I quickly realized how much I had missed stitching in-person with friends when class began on the first day this past week. We were even able to include Kara, who didn't make the trip from Germany this year, thanks to my iPad and FaceTime. Technology can be awesome, when it works!

We were well-spaced in a large room, skewed a bit in this panoramic shot,
but we all felt quite safe with one person to a table. 

Our class this year was Village Wanderings—Homes, the first series in our Village Wanderings quilt. We focused on the Autumn House during class, and many of our construction crew members came close to having a house by the end of the week!

My early morning walk to class was crisp and cool.

This view is nothing to complain about!

Such peaceful beauty to see as we stitched.

We had patterns and tools for sale...

...as well as threads and ribbons.

On day one, we built our houses, preparing the wool for appliqué and stitching the house elements in place. We started to embroider the timbers as well.

Show and Tell included our Spring Woodland Reverie block, from last year's class. What a stunning job!

I dashed into Huzzah Quilt Shoppe during the lunch break to buy some greens, and when I went back to pay for them, I MAY have picked out a few other fabrics to go with them. And after years of admiring the Suffolk Shaker Shop boxes, I finally succumbed to the temptation to buy one. Okay, one for each of us. My sewing tools are so nicely organized now!!

Our houses were at various stages of completion, but everyone made wonderful progress. We experimented with new ways to use some stitches to create leaves and flowers for our flower boxes. And we made a lot of knots!

Progress on the swag

This was a great group of ladies, with whom I truly enjoyed spending three days building houses. It was an absolute joy to stitch with them!

It is always amazing how fast those classes go. If you have never had the opportunity to attend the Academy of Appliqué, pencil it in for next March. You deserve a getaway to relax, stitch, and meet new friends who share your stitching passion, don't you?! We will keep you updated about what's coming; the class catalog is released in August and registration opens on Labor Day. We would love to see you there!

And because so many have asked . . . 

Yes, we will have patterns and kits available for our Village Wanderings—Homes! I am working now to get them listed on our website, so watch for them. They should be posted within the week. And you'll learn more about that—NEXT week!