and back.........

I'm happy to report that I have safely returned from a 4,000 mile ramble through 11 states........

 New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Missouri and Kansas and back again.....

My first stop was the Shakerag Workshops in Sewanee, Tennessee..........

Where I attended a sewing workshop given by Natalie Chanin and Diane Hall from 

Alabama/Chanin.........

and for a week.....

 we stitched and stitched

...........all by hand for days and hours and more days.........

and learned how to 'love our thread'....

  modify and draft patterns and create encrusted frocks all from t-shirt fabric.....

and in that week,  I managed to craft together

a 'basic' skirt and corset........ta da

This is the second time I've been to Sewanee and a better place to fill the soul with love and food and creativity there is not.......

with opportunities for recreation, contemplation, nourishment of the body and soul

and to make new and reunite with old friends.......

I am buoyed with happiness, renewed energy and inspiration....

A personal thanks to 

Claire Reishman

the amazing woman who is at the helm of these amazing two weeks every summer at the 

St. Andrews-Sewanee School

for her persistance in getting the most amazing teachers and staff and volunteers to come together to make up this experience....called

Shakerag.

See Lotta's post here for another account of an amazing workshop with held the same week.