Tuesday 21 June 2011

Longest day of the year, first day of Summer

I took this photo in Moses Lake Washington on Saturday, I think it says it all.  Enjoy the fun times this summer!

Friday 17 June 2011

Mary Lou Weidman retreat days 4 and 5

At the end of day four Sandy from Davis California had almost finished all her hoochy mama blocks for her frame.  She is using 1930's fabrics to honour her grandmother's memory.  She was a traditional piecer and Sandy likes to try things "Out of the Box.
 Sandy from Bozeman Wyoming is working on finishing her blocks after approximating how big her centre block will be.
 Lynette has a great start her frame.  Notice how she used her flying geese to make a flower stem!
 Dawn from California has a wonderful whimsical piece happening!
 Lissa has all her blocks ready to sew together.
 Sue from Idaho is having fun making hoochy corn, Idaho potatoes and hoochy mama blocks.
 Nancy from Newport Oregon has turned her flying geese into a forest!
 Dawn from California, what a lovely lady to meet, she is part of Mary Lou's yahoo group I belong with and participated in the bird swap.
 Sue from Idaho make some lovely glass beads, sorry I forgot to take a picture.
 Sandy from Davis, California another member of our yahoo group and bird swap.
 Wendy has been a close friend of Sandy's for almost 30 years.
 Heather owns the Charm Shack in Oregon and Val teaches for her and they were both at the retreat last year.
 Lynette from Redding California owns a new shop called Wild Iris. Doesn't she have a great smile?
 Our friend teacher and inspiration Mary Lou Weidman with a bowl of cherries!
 Wendy was our amazing chef and also offered words of encouragement and suggestion when we were stumped for ideas.
 Our merry group under the rainy skies of Post Falls with tiaras and smiles saying good-bye to Nancy in the white jacket who had to leave us early.
 After sketching my idea and getting a few suggestions from Mary Lou I got it enlarged and looked to see how it would work with my blocks.  Now to get everything to fit together and decide on the centre and borders.
 Sandy got her top together and started to work on her story sketch.
 Val started working on a second story quilt depicting her empty nest.
 Aija's fabric choices are coming along nicely.  Notice the sailing ship she has added under the palm.
 Every day Mary Lou gathers us together and sparks some ideas and creativity.  Here she presented us with three drawings.  We started with the lady in the centre then the rabbit and then the cowgirl.  Our goals were cut out the images without drawing them first.
 Here are our efforts.  Interesting to see what we accomplished!
A bit closer looked at the rabbits.  Some have a few interesting additions to design!
 And finally the cowgirls.  Not too bad! 
 This is Val's first story quilt of when she became engaged.  Under the drawing was a much smaller version that she has already appliqued.  She is going to redo the piece with the larger image.
 Aija\s piece with a new design detail, the sailing ship has become a cruise ship!
 Dawn's master pattern for reference for her applique.
 Dawn's needle turned applique is coming along nicely.  Love the colours in the hat.
 Sandy from Davis is going to applique the birds to her background and then add some details to bring them all together.
 My top is together awaiting some applique.
 Sandy from Wyoming standing beside her top ready for applique.
 Lynnette has a big question mark as to what her story will be.  Love the inner border.
 Oops! Aija decided to change the colour of her palm leaves.  Thank goodness for her fellow quilters for some new fabric choices.
 Dawn's progress by day's end.  Well done!  Ready to fly back to California.
 Sandy's son holding the WCU banner from the Duomo in Florence.  She is below with her scarf blowing in the wind.  Later her husband was added holding the camera and taking the picture from an adjacent bell tower.
 Lissa standing beside her self portrait
 Wendy is piecing the blocks and then her friend Sandy will do the applique in the centre to gift a friend of theirs.  Sounds like it will be a fun piece.
 Sue standing with her blocks, love the striped evergreen she designed.  They will frame a story about her family and their home.
 Three Sandi/Sandys and a Mary Lou!
 Sorry to say that's the end, time for a road trip home.  Now to prep the applique and start stitching.
Thanks to everyone that made this a lovely retreat, to everyone for all our fun fairy gifts.  Laurie thank you for some wonderful food and Mary Lou a great big thank you for all your guidance and encouragement, wit and wisdom.  Hope to be here next year.

Wednesday 15 June 2011

Mary Lou retreat days 2 and 3!

Somehow I forgot to take pictures of our projects yesterday, but I remember to take a quick picture our Laurie Latta, Mary Lou's friend and our wonderful chef.
 Each morning we start out with a show and tell of Mary Lou's quilts and a discussion of the coming day. Some I can't photograph because they are featured in her new upcoming book Out of the Box Blocks, a follow up to her Out of the Box book.
 She will pack so much into each quilt.
 Love the expression of the bird with the lovely berry in it's mouth.
 Aiea has a lovely story about her grandchildren unfolding.  She had her frame done before class started and has done a lot of woke with her drawing.
 Lissa's blocks making some progress.
 Nancy is building some trees along with her hoochy mama blocks.
 Aiea has copied her master pattern and getting ready to trace her blocks to applique.
 Val is planning her background and is doing some interviewing.
 Sandy from Davis showed the quilt she made her daughter for her 21st birthday; she is wearing a crown she made for her 6th birthday.
 Eileen from last year's group dropped by to say hi and show us her small story quilt.
 Here is a picture of my story quilt coming together.  My mom and I do a lot of road trips together and this depicts some of the places we've been together.
 Sandy from Davis and Wendy from California's blocks growing in numbers.
 Aiea starting to pick out fabrics for her various pieces to applique.
 Laurie and Eileen doing a Mexican dance celebrating our lovely chicken fajita dinner.
 Dawn's story is coming together.
 Lissa has her frame for her story all ready.
Sandy from Bozeman's frame is nearing completion for her Italian story.
 I also made two more birds, one for Mary Lou and this one for Karen in Tennessee.  It will take flight before I leave home on Saturday.
Lots of progress over the past two days of creativity and we still have two more to go!