Learning Opportunities and Resources

The Guild offers a variety of learning opportunities throughout the year. Look for announcements about guest teachers and lecturers, workshops, Turtle Camp, and learning retreats. Be sure to check the Guild's calendar for special events and "challenges."

National Workshops

Several times during the year, Las Colcheras invites national teachers to Las Cruces to teach their specialty to our members. Workshop participants pay a fee to cover the guest teacher's expenses while the guild pays for transportation. The guest teacher lectures and provides a trunk or slide show to the membership at the regular guild meeting.

Sally Collins

Sally is an award winning quilt maker, teacher and author who has been quilting since 1978 and teaching since 1985. Although she is most recognized for her quality workmanship, attention to detail and teaching expertise, her continual love and interest is in the process of quilt making. Her classes focus on how to achieve quality workmanship in any scale and are designed to help students advance and improve their own creative and technical skills as well as how to critique and correct their own work.

Sally loves the challenge of combining design, color and intricate piecing in a traditional style and this interest is illustrated and explained in detail through her books, Small Scale Quiltmaking, The Art of Machine Piecing, and Borders, Bindings and Edges. Her most recent book, Mastering Precision Piecing, shares her approach and methods for achieving quality workmanship in any scale, to help quilt makers critique and correct their own work, improve and advance their creative and technical skills, and find joy and value in the process.

Sally will present a Trunk Show at the October meeting and teach two workshops. Information about the workshops are fully described on the Sally Collins Registration Form.

In-House Workshops

Workshops are given throughout the year by guild members or friends of the guild. There is usually no charge to members for these workshops and the focus on these classes is to improve quilting skills or to create new projects. These workshops are listed in the events calendar and complete descriptions will be in the newsletter. Workshop signups are at the meetings or by email/telephone the month prior to the scheduled class.

Las Colcheras Library

Our library is large and open to use by all members. We have over 250 books, tapes, patterns, and templates that you can check out for a month at a time. If there is a book you cannot find in the library but want to read, tell the librarians.

The links below will take you to library listings by title or author or the library's rules.

1. Title
2. Author
3. Library rules

Magazines

You can donate your old magazines to the Guild. We sell them at meetings for 25 cents each. This is a great way to pick up issues you've missed or misplaced.

Turtle Camp

This is a biennial, two-day, in-town retreat held in odd-numbered years. It is a gift to ourselves for the work we contribute to the biennial Quilt Show. You may spend two days at Turtle Camp, all day, or any part of either day. There are demonstrations, workshops, door prizes, and a complimentary dinner is served the first night. Turtle Camp is FREE to all members in good standing.