Mary Lou Retreat Day Four...Quilts are coming along and we are having fun!

Heather finished her "bike" quilt for her five year old Grandson. Hoochy blocks and panel pieces made for an adorable and memory quilt for someone she loves. Very cool.

Here Heather and Val (her EtheL) look at a quilt to see if the truck size seems large enough for the quilt. NOTE- Heather owns the Charm Shack and she is a great shop owner...lots of cool ideas and fun workshops. Check it out if you are close!

Quilts that are waiting for stories sit while their artist's go to make larger copies of the story to cut out and applique on the top....exciting and oh so fun. Each student is creating a quilt that will be around for generations to tell something that the quiltmaker cared about- viewers will know something about the quiltmaker and not just that someone made the quilt. What would you say that you would want someone to see many years from now?

Quilting supplies sit at the ready to keep on creating....

Above Dawn Tonoli starts to make her son's girlfriends quilt-pretty wonderful already!

Below, Nancy and Wendy have fun agreeing they mutually like each other ALOT- quilters make great friends

Below, Val's first truck was teeny in the middle of this quilt and then we said "BIGGER is always better" and she made it bigger and you know what? It is BETTER

We love the cutting excercize...it reminds us of being kids again! And we discover something important about creating too!

 Below, Sue's blocks are awesome colors- this photo does not do them justice- notice the Idaho Potato blocks (she invented these blocks and we love them)-she did corn that is also quite awesome-Sue White from Orifino also does awesome lamp work beads, necklaces, earrings and buttons.....

Above, is Laurie's awesome salad for lunch along with a green salad, hot bread, and cookies. This after she made a wonderful breakfast and hot scones for us this morning!

She not only cooks for us but she taught everyone how to make selvage bags. She is super multi talented and we adore her quilts too!

Above is the gang in the rain...but we wanted a photo of the group-all lovely gals who love sewing, making new friends, eating Laurie's meals, shopping for fabrics and treasures and telling stories....

Above is Nancy and her nice friend Louise.

Wendy celebrates Halloween every year with all of her neighbors and they make a party of it so she has her borders done and we did a picture of her as a "pretty" witch (and nice) who gives out candy and treats and makes salad and snacks for the pot luck. She has included pumpkins, a caldron, her doggy the wonder dog and a large spider web and spider. It is going to be quite wonderful and she is excited about it, me too.

Aunt Gracie, traditional fabric is what Sandy used to make her blocks about her Grandmother who was really a traditional quilter- Sandy drew a darling picture of her Grandma in a rocking chair with her hands up and a look of surprise of how untraditional blockscan be now. Very fun and Sandy is a fabulous appliquer.

Everyone got bright and happy watches of different colors, and crayons, notebooks,tea towels as well as lots of fairy gifts of all kinds given by each other...such fun!

I was lucky enough to have the new book to pass around and show everyone since it comes out July 11th. People in class loved the book-hooray!

  Look above at the wonderful variety the new book will offer to you!

Sandy from California sets out her birds and gets ready for a fun bird quilt to make others giggle and laugh.

Aija's Grandkids quilt comes along with new fabrics and more ideas...it is going to be quite wonderful...can't wait to see what she does tomorrow!
Stay tuned for the reports from day five and some more from today...I am going to bed. I love it when you comment, thank you. It makes taking the time to show you these well worthwhile.