Design Class Weekend with Heather Ross

What an absolute ball of a weekend! Road trip and fancy hotel with Mark, fabric shopping galore, eating  delicious food in Portland, drinking champagne and getting to take an all-weekend long workshop on fabric design taught by none other than Heather Ross!!

Yes my head still hurts a bit -from all the thinking too hard and staring at a computer, not the champagne! -but I think I have walked away with a good basis to maybe actually be able to do some of my own fabric designs someday. For those of you who weren't aware, the Portland Northwest College of the Arts invited Heather to teach her method of designing in photoshop to a small class. When I heard about this opportunity there was no way I wasn't going to make this work. I'm so glad I did! Photoshop is a mammoth of a program that I wasn't at all familiar with, and I still have a looooooong way to go before feeling comfortable with it, but it is an incredible tool and really thrilling to get to see your own sketch come to life in a way that can be translated to fabric.

And look, not only did I get to meet so many wonderful talented and crafty women, but I got to hang out with John (quiltdad) too! Heather, by the way, is everything you would expect - stylish, witty, funny and brimming with creative ideas. I loved meeting and working with her and Heather, if you're reading this, I'm really sorry for being such a complete nit-wit to teach photoshop to!

So the design I came up with for the weekend was requested by Mark. He really wanted me to do a print of little bacon and pork chops. And because I wasn't feeling any of my other ideas I had I decided to humor him. I think it turned out pretty cute!

Here is a blurry eyed me at the very end of class with a print out of my creation. Yep, a cheater print of pork chops, bacon, dots and little piggies. I'm going to get a smaller scale of it printed on linen to make some dish towels and potholders for our kitchen.

And of course I had to hit up Sisters and Ruby Street Quilters on the way down to P-town. There are many hidden gems at these out-of-the-way quilt shops. I scored some Uptown, Summer in the City, lots of old Amy Butler and more. We also stopped by Bolt fabric boutique in Portland, where I made some additions to my Liberty collection and picked up some pretty new organic prints too.

Look at all the $5 a yard Amy Butler Ginger Bliss, Charm and Temple Flowers!

All in all, a wonderful trip. But the very best part was getting to come home to this funny little lady. She thinks she's pretty hot in sunglasses.

In my haste to pack and leave for Portland last week I forgot to thank all of you for your kind words, both posted and private, regarding this blog post. It was so incredibly heartwarming to feel all the love out there from all of you whom I've never even met. It just shows you that life can be tough sometimes and no matter how separate we are or how similar or different our lives, I think we all just want the best for one another. Thank you.