Let's meet at Squam Lake...

Something very exciting to share: I'll be teaching at Squam Art Workshops next June!  My class will be making this customizable embroidered monogram piece....

SAW is a lakeside art retreat on Squam Lake in New Hampshire. I went last year and was so inspired by all the creativity and passionate makers around me. (Here's a post I really enjoyed writing about the experience + my flickr pics.) 

I'm looking forward to this and trying to convince either my mom or boyfriend to come with me, so we could get our own little cabin. Yes, cabins on the lake and just chilly enough to sit by the fire at night! Then, make all day...

The new SAW site is really pretty and I'm so jealous of anyone going to the retreat in Italy, especially if you're taking the photography class with Nikole Herriott! Her work + images are amazing. Oh, and I'm hoping to meet Ann Wood there! Eks, I love her little creatures and dream boats...

So, let's meet at Squam! OK? Ok.

connecting to your craft at SAW...

At the beginning of the month I spent a few days in the woods of New Hampshire for a creative retreat called Squam Art Workshops or SAW. I had heard great things about it and was so excited to spend a few days teaching embroidery at a beautiful, lakeside camp surrounded by makers....

This was my cabin that I shared with about 12 other ladies, who knitted (& embroidered) every night while a fire was burning. We also had our own little private dock....







SAW is all about connecting with people and yourself through making! Everyday, all the time I was surrounded by people knitting. They would also be wearing lovely hand-knit shawls, socks and sweaters. I was so impressed by their creative passion.  Being vegan, I think a lot about the disconnect between the food we eat and where it comes from. Seeing so many people knitting also reminded me of the disconnect between the labor of our hands and the products we buy, like clothes. (It can take up to 16 hours to knit a sock!) It makes me so proud to be a maker! It's also a challenge– I want to learn how to sew some of my own clothes now!



I taught two sessions of my Pictures & Stitches class in an old cabin, called The Sugar House, that used to be a nature center and had such a blast! People are so creative & it was totally energizing to see the works in progress by these first time embroiderers...

Learn more about Squam in this interview of Elizabeth MacCrellish, the brainchild of SAW. A big thanks to Elizabeth for the opportunity to teach, to all the lovely ladies who took my class, and to everyone I met there...

(click the pictures for more on Flickr!)