August 20, 2023

Dear Friends,

Saturday, we finished up with a fantastic three-day class and retreat.  Our first guest came in Wednesday evening from Austin.  Two more came in on Thursday, one from a relatively-nearby Texas town, the other, along with her husband, from Pennsylvania.  The class, taught by Donna, was Intermediate Pro-Stitcher, a class that goes well-beyond basic Edge-to-Edge quilting and gets into numerous techniques for custom quilting.  Rather than me telling you more details about the class, I’m going to copy/paste here the feedback from two of our retreaters.

Dee says:

“This was an unforgettable class, the perfect mix of computer work and practical application at the longarm immediately to reinforce the lessons. 1 person to a longarm! Time in the evenings to continue your learning. Dr Donna Smith has an education background and her class was very organized with supporting materials. Her staff was fantastic. Imagine moving to a computer simulation session to the longarm with a project pre-loaded on the longarm! One was a different pieced quilt top for each participant. You could get right to work. The lessons allowed for personal choices and built on the computer work. She made certain each student’s retreat goals were met before they left.

There were so many extras with this retreat that set it apart. The retreat center area is well designed, very comfortable and the shop is well stocked with a generous classroom/workshop that has big tables, comfy chairs, a huge design wall and first rate technology for classes. We even had visiting calves several mornings [ed. they had escaped from a neighboring ranch].

The class size was small allowing for in depth 1:1 interactions. One classmate flew in from the NE. Most traveled several hrs and no one had any regrets! Our group bonded and plan to do another PS retreat early next yr. Book in if you want to KNOW you can apply what you’ve learned!”

And then Robin wrote:

“Fox Country Quilts is a fabulous shop with a great selection of fabrics and helpful folks.

I just took the Intermediate Handiquilter class with Donna and can’t say enough about how much I learned.  I went from only being able to do E2E quilts to being able to design and stitch an entire custom quilt with the knowledge Donna shared with us.  The team at Fox Country Quilts made us practice tops which enabled us to put the skills we learned to use immediately making a custom quilt. Donna answered all our questions and explained a number of topics based on our interest levels.  The retreat center in the shop is very nice with plenty of room and spacious dressing and bath areas.  I highly recommend visiting this shop and taking classes with Donna”.

Have to love the feedback from these ladies, and we loved them for the great students they are.  They were a delight in both the classroom and as guests in the retreat.  Have to tell you also that our crew, our workers, were also great during this time (as they always are).  Kim and Penny both did a lot of prep work, cutting and piecing fabric, making the quilt tops for the ladies to work on during the class.  And of course the continued to offer their expert help during the class periods.

An added bonus occurred Friday night when circumstances prevented me from preparing a dinner for everyone.  James and Penny jumped right in and saved the day!  Ran to Walmart, bought the needed supplies, and created some great tacos for everyone . . . . and then topped that off with a great dessert of ice cream sandwiches.

The whole retreat was great, but I feel compelled also to mention how impressed I am with my own wife, Donna.  Of all the educators I know and know of who teach longarm and Pro-Stitcher quilting, she is the finest, most knowledgeable most versatile, and most advanced.  A truly impressive person.  (Donna, don’t edit that out, because that’s what I really observe in you.)

Chip