Nancy Eha will be teaching 4 beading classes at Road to California 2020 – 25th Anniversary Show:
On Thursday, 4011C – Happy The Hedgehog
On Friday, 5010C – Inky The Octopus
On Saturday, 6010C – Penny Rug Poises That Sparkle
And on Sunday, 7010C – Beaded Kaleidoscopes
While Nancy Eha is a quilter and quilt teacher, she was doing beading way before she was introduced to quilting.
Inspiration vs. Meditative Beading
Recognized as a national beading teacher, Nancy most enjoys the inspiration process of thinking of a beading idea and fine tuning it before doing the actual beading. Nancy says, “The inspiration process is exciting and invigorating, always so many possibilities of what I could make. By contrast the actual beading process is meditative. The repetition of picking up beads on a hand sewing needle, and hearing the thread pass through the fabric. Time goes by so quickly beading and the process is so relaxing!”
Nancy’s quilting and beading style is most influenced by Crazy Quilts, specifically Victorian Crazy Quilts because she loves all the fine details of stitching both imagery and the opulent embroidery on the seams of fabric segments. Nancy shares, “Obviously, working with very small beads I relish detail. When I saw my first crazy quilt I thought, ‘Oh this is such beautiful stitchery, now how can I replicate that stitchery with beads?’ My second book, Bead Creative Like Crazy: Beading Inspired by Crazy Quilts is the result of endless hours of exploring that question.
Creative Space
Nancy has two side by side rooms as her workspace in the lower level of her home. One is her beading studio, the other the quilting studio. Both have large windows that look out onto her wooded property and a small lake. White tail deer and wild turkeys provide Nancy companionship. Nancy believes that other quilters might be tempted to take the wall down between the rooms, but she has decided to keep it intact. Both rooms have office cabinetry and tables that are modular and not attached to walls. It allows her to rearrange the furniture to her liking, and has plenty of storage for her millions of beads, teaching supplies, and quilting supplies.
What is her favorite tool? “Size 12 sharps needle for hand beading and the only threader available that actually can thread fine needles.”
Teaching Beading Classes
Nancy Eha has been teaching nationally over 20 years. Regarding teaching, Nancy says,” I love my students and I enjoy teaching beading skills and techniques to make time spent beading pleasurable. Many students have hesitations and self-doubt as to what they perceive as the complexity of beading when they enter the classroom. Thus, I break down every technique into small teachable steps along with showing videos of my hands beading each step. This assures that even an absolute beginner can be successful. After an hour or so the self-doubt has left the room and shouts of glee such as “I can do this, it is not so difficult’ can be heard.
Nancy will be traveling in January from the Minneapolis/St Paul, Minnesota airport to teach at Road 2020. While she has been a part of other Road to California shows, she is looking forward to participating in Road’s 25th Anniversary Show to “acknowledge what a great show it truly is and celebrate longevity for putting on such a great show!” She is hopeful that her students will gain both the skills and the confidence to use what they learn in class not only in her class but in their future projects as well.
To learn more about Nancy Eha, please visit her website.
