New Directions

Well, with life, comes change! As I sneak into my "golden years," I have made a decision to retire from teaching and lecturing. As my photo shows, hauling around 50 lb. suitcases with teaching supplies all over the globe has resulted in a full rotator cuff tear. I had surgery on May 20th of 2014 and I will probably have to wear this stabilizer for a total of three months!
For some reason, Comcast has decided to no longer let we users update our web sites, so I will be posting on my blog more often, showing some of my more recent quilts and letting you know what I am up to!
At present, since I can't quilt, what I can do is type on my ergonomic keyboard so I am working on my first quilting novel. It is really fun, although kind of hard to find my "voice." I am constantly trying to make it more interesting which is a bit of a task but hopefully, it will be ready to submit to a publisher in the next nine months. Before that, however, I have to find an agent and set the wheels in motion! 
If any of you have questions or comments, please feel free to e-mail me at JBecker3@hotmail.com. For now, I am going to include some photos of new quilts. The first quilt, "Dreaming of Tuscany," was inspired by the artist Haiben. Originally, I planned to create this quilt in a 6-day workshop with Lenore Crawford at Empty Spools in Asilomar, CA. However, another landscape teacher slated to teach at Empty Spools during the same session broke her arm and I was asked to step in to teach. Having been there the year before to teach, I immediately said yes - especially since you have the same students for six whole days. Trust me, having the students for that length of time is a teacher's dream! Anyway, I decided to create the Tuscany quilt using my methods and I am happy with the result.

The second photo is of nearby Monterrey Bay, and a quilt made by one of my students at Asilomar, Janet Coggins.
I will posting more often so please check back frequently, O.K.? I have more quilts and photos to share! xxoo Joyce