Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Retreat Day Three- Stories starting to develop and percolate-food galore to keep us going....

Laurie Latta and Eilene Hamilton make dinner a lasting memory....can you say "delicious?" "A trip to Mexico this evening" was the theme and it was wonderful. We had fabuolous pasta Figule (I spelled that wrong, sorry) for lunch with hot bread and vegies, Dessert tonight was cheesecake with huckleberry sauce. This year Laurie made breakfast each day and today she came in early to make hot biscuits with homemade raspberry jam, granola, eggs, fruit and yogurt. Someone found a delicious loaf of cinnamon bread Laurie had too and so many people had wonderful toast. The coffee is flowing each day too. Such fun!
Here Aija gets her Grandkids on the quilt and is ready to audition fabrics for the story. So cute.

Dawn has her background finished and is ready to put  her son's girlfriend into a fun story of color and whimsy. Such fun!
Eilene shares her story quilt with the class-a snowman with great color and fun!

Lissa shares her flying geese with the class and we like that they fly free instead of in a line....Great colors and imagination

Above is Nancy who is working and has the smile we all enjoy and the positive attitude too. This class has all positive, fun people and you might think I always say that....I don't. Nancy has a good sense of color and she is from Oregon.
Sandi from Canada (we have three Sandy's in class spelled different but sound the same) has had her story about the road trips she takes with her Mother blown up to size. She is shrinking her background to fit the story she has on paper....her blocks are really creative and so is her mind.....she is very generous and she is from Vancouver, BC

More photos of dinner
The flowers and the ideas in this class just grow and grow and grow! Makes us all smile at the fun we have sharing and discovering together! These story quilts will be around to tell people who and what we love!

A background awaits the story...it should be a fun one and happy...always happy.
Here above is Dawn's background waiting for the girlfriend of her son in the hat. Look at the caterpillar on the lower left. Click on this photo.
And hey we would all LOVE a comment or two on the blog to encourage us. :0)

Here is Lissa's background and she is ready now for her applique of her in front of a large tree with lots of flowers and friends in the forest....wonderful! Two days left!
Heather finishes her son's story quilt of dirt bike racing and starts a bird quilt! FUN.

Val puts her flower up to see where it should go in her background blocks...love the strata! This is Val's second retreat and she is having alot of fun "aha" moments. It is easier the more you do these and once you get all of the concepts....bringing out that artist within you is the most important goal. :0)
Sandy from Bozeman is doing her trip to visit her son in Italy and she is adding poppies both pieced and appliques to the bottom. She will have the most delightful village in this and I love how she has introduced greens into her borders. Wait until you see this tomorrow...it really came together before I left to go home tonight....long hours, fun and well worth each minute....a wonderful retreat for all of us.
Sandy from California is doing a quilt about her Grandmother who taught her to sew and how times have changed and how her Grandmother would be shocked at hoochy mama blocks compared to her traditional ones and how everything has changed today -Sandy is an awesome appliquer, and hand quilter!
Do you remember the quilt above? Sandy from California did this and it is a story of her daughter who made a crown out of purple paper and put glitter on it in the shape of a big six. It is of the things she loved and that memory. Her daughter really cherishes this quilt for the memory and how much it means that her Mother made it. Wouldn't you love to have a story quilt your Mother or Grandmother made? I would!

Val's quilt above is ready for the story of her stage of life and how delightful it is!
You can see from the first day how things have started to develop. I have a collection of bowls to take home and put away. We have plenty of fun plates and bowls to do until Friday afternoon.
Here Sue tries to explain why one block is more wonderful than the next-Linda and Lynette agree-everyone got out of the box this week and it is all so much fun.

And finally, I had to show you Sandy's (California) quilt bottom and how her daughter's little sandels are undone and how she used buttons for the dogs paws...so darling!
This week has been delightful for me and it is fun imagining and sharing memories with such a nice group of ladies. Stay tuned tomorrow for day four.

5 comments:

  1. way to go, ladies!!! your quilts are looking fantastic!!! love, love, love them all!!! someone really should make a story quilt about this great retreat!!! you could have little mini-story quilts and sewing machines surrounded by such colorful and yummy fabrics and awesomely delicious food and all of the happy, smiling faces ~ oh, i could go on and on. :-)

    only two thing "wrong" ~ ALL of us aren't right there sharing in the fun with y'all and there are only two days left to go. :-P

    i'm so glad that everyone is having a great time! mary lou, you surely do make a lot of us very happy!

    stitch on, joyologists!!! :~D

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  2. Thanks for the lovely compliment Mary Lou, you bring the best out in all of us in creativity and imagination.

    This has been an amazing retreat. I never thought I'd get to drawing my story this year, it just came for our converstions each morning.

    Thanks for the jump start.

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  3. Great group of ladies and ideas, love seeing the sketches and the details are so fun.

    Debbie

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  4. OMG! These are fantastic! Makes we want to go sew, sew, sew! Looks like you all are having a blast and I can't believe how fast the quilts are coming together. Can't wait to have a look at the finished products. I'm setting up a special savings account right now so I can go next year. Have fun girls! Keep em coming, very inspirational!

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  5. I am soooooo jealous....Geezzzz!

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