Nancy Crow Workshop

The workshop was intense and lots of work. The first day we started around 8:30 a.m. and I finished around 8 p.m. I was the first one finished. So the others must have worked later. One day I completed the exercises before dinner, but most days we sewed from the time we woke up to the time we went to bed. I was usually the first one to finish or even complete all the exercises. I think this was because I wasn't worried about trying to make something great. I was just there to learn (as you will be able to tell from my pictures). The others were more concerned about doing a good piece and, hence, spent more time contemplating the arrangement (and staying up late).

Since we were at a horse ranch, there were lots of trails that we could walk on. But after two walks, I decided it wasn't worth it because you always had to watch your step so you wouldn't step in the horse stuff (and I don't own cowboy boots). I always tried to take some little breaks to go outside and enjoy the sun for a while instead of staying inside the entire time working. (This helped greatly in my mental well-being.) We were up in the woods so there wasn't much of a view. I found a porch swing that they had set in a clump of trees that faced on opening where you could see some distance pastures. This is where I often went if the sun was shining there.

The workshop was called Improvisations: Let's Experiment. Here is the first piece I did.


That was the morning exercise. In the afternoon, we worked with neutral colors. This is what I did.


My third piece is below. These are not strong pieces but I learned how to get the pieces sewn together and we were not allowed to use a ruler to cut fabric for the entire week (except to square up the edges of pieces when they were complete). That was new to me. Most everything we did was new to me. There were only 3 or 4 of us out of 17 that week that had never taken a class with Nancy before.