A Visit to Atlanta

Earlier this month I had the great pleasure of teaching my first classes of the year in Atlanta, Georgia. As always, the students make teaching in person a lot of fun, and it was great to meet some students that I already knew from online classes.

This time I offered two classes: an 18th century Passementerie class and my new Ribbon Embroidery class. First up, passementerie on Saturday.

This class covered basic and intermediate fringed knots with connections that can be made by hand without a loom…

…as well as some fun embellishments like these rosettes.

One of the best parts of teaching in a group is that I get to hear the excitement (and sometimes frustration) of my students when they learn a new technique. Everyone has their own favorites to take away from the class, and it’s fun to see what techniques each person is drawn to.

Groups also lead to a lot of laughs and new friendships as we work together to help everyone learn new techniques. This group was great for both their perseverance and their helpfulness, which I love!

Sunday was Ribbon Embroidery. Most of the same students were in both classes, so by this point we were pretty relaxed.

We focused on techniques specific to working with ribbon, plus stitches that work well for leaves and dimensional flowers. By the end of class, we had a lovely variety of floral designs blooming around the room.

Traveling to Atlanta had an awesome bonus: I got to hang out with the fabulous Gretchen (@parttimeliontamer) and Megan (ms.maude) and spend some time exploring the city.

Gretchen took me on a tour of Atlanta fabric shops. Luckily, handing out class kits left plenty of space in my luggage for some fun new fabrics. Mostly I brought home fabric for modern clothes, but I also brought home a great metallic net that might become a 1920s evening gown.

Gretchen and Megan are also fabulous tour guides for all things food related. We sampled delicious BBQ (Korean and Texas-style) as well as great French, Southern, and Chinese restaurants. There was also delicious cake to celebrate the birthday of one of the students. Yum!

On my last day in Atlanta, we wandered around Oakland Cemetery, which was full of interesting monuments and mausoleums. This deep sense of history is something I really miss in the Pacific NW; Washington State wasn’t even settled when this cemetery was founded.

Overall, this was a really wonderful trip, and I can’t wait to visit Atlanta again! I’m so glad I built in some extra time to visit with good friends and explore a new city. I left full, happy, and excited about the future.

Last fall, Gretchen and I sat in a little café in Paris hatching a plan for me to come teach in Atlanta. It somehow felt right that one teaching trip was opening the door to others. That trend continues: while waiting for my flight to Atlanta, I was chatting about the possibilities of classes in Scotland this May. (If you’re reading this in Scotland and are interested, please shoot me a message!)

PS: Many thanks to Gretchen for taking photos of the classes! I’m always so busy I forget.