Gwen's Beaver Island Retreat: Meet Linda Schmitt

Linda's work in soft browns

Linda started her medallion with a lovely floral piece of fabric, she fussy cut pieces of floral and framed them for one border.

Linda is from Illinois and came to the retreat with her sister Nancy from Texas.  They really had fun together, sewing and discovering the area.  I enjoyed talking to Linda and watching her have such a good time being with her sister Nancy, it sure makes me miss my sisters.  Nice meeting you Linda,  Happy Sewing,  Kim

Beaver Island Quilt retreat: Meet Mary Kimberly

Mary during show and tell talking about her quilt ( not in the picture)

Mary beginning to add borders

Sorry this one is blurry, but you can see all the sewing Mary finished during the week.

Mary is a bird lover, well so am I, but she does amazing things like traveling to South America to help in the study of hummingbirds.  Mary brought a piece of printed fabric with state birds, given to her by her Mom, which she used for the center of her medallion and build out from there.  Mary also is a
dyer and dyed her own shirts....they were subtle and beautiful like bird eggs.  I enjoyed meeting you Mary :0).   Happy Sewing, Kim

More 6 inch blocks

underside of a castor bean leaf, all kinds of bugs were living under there :0), this habitat will be gone as soon as we get out first hard freeze.

Meet Susan Eaton

Susan is from Minneapolis, Minnesota, you can see one of her quilts in Gwen's "Liberated Medallion Quilts" book on page 71.  Susan in not afraid of color!  She is a fast sewer and her ideas seemed to flow like water,  she was trying new things left and right and had several things to show by the end of the retreat.  Always a smile and a word of encouragement too.  I enjoyed meeting you Susan,
Happy Sewing,
Kim

Mary brought the printed butterfly fabric with her

Then built her borders

I believe Susan already had this star finished when she arrived too

the solid brights with the black added so much to this medallion.

more 6 inch blocks

catching up with the red block too

more 6 inch blocks

each time I made this block I cut the fabric squares 1/4 inch to big, each of these 6 inch blocks was made twice!

Blue blocks

 Happy sewing, I'm down in North Carolina at the Beach shopping for a new home :0),  Kim

Gwen's retreat: Meet Ann VanBalen

Ann was working small, lots of tiny pieces put together in amazing ways. 

Sorry I did not get close ups of all the little inserts, slices and use of color going on in these pieces.....you'll have to trust me is was gorgeous to see.

I have these 3 pictures and I am not sure who they belong to, maybe Ann

I hope one of the ladies from the retreat will claim these so I can give credit where credit is due.

Ann taught me this technique of cutting and piecing to make great curves......I thought this looked like a vase, but I was informed  by the other quilteres that it looks like a woman's bottom from the back :0).....ahhhh art!

Ann is from Bozeman, Montana and is a repeat retreater with Gwen, there were many repeaters, I bet half of them were!  Ann sat at the other end of the room and we only chatted a little bit but I certainly  admire her work.  Nice to meet you Ann, Happy Sewing, Kim

More 6 inch blocks

darting birds in red and blues

A rose after the rain in Hyde park at the Cooking Institute of American.........up here we call it the CIA.

More 6 inch blocks

I'm only a few behind on this "sow along" with Randy :0)

now done in red and blue.

Gwenny

Gwen letting us know what to expect at her retreat

Showed us some of her works in progress

Showed us some of her well loved medallion quilts

Gwen giving a demo

Gwen helping to spark ideas

Gwen's quilt left to be studied, handled and to inspire us.

Gwen's amazing hand quilting

embroidered label

more hand quilting

study the use of fabrics and their placement in a quilt

Beautiful applique

easy shapes are just as effective as intricate ones

the wicker room where the quilts are left for study

more close ups

a liberated star made by Gwen for Andi :0)

Gwen doing her trunk show

Gwen knows how to teach adults.  She tells about how she tries something, and how she learned it but knows many quilters have a different way to achieve the same goal.  She allows the student to come to her  with their questions and not teach something that they may already know.  Her style is pure fun, no perfection but liberation from the quilt police and overly accurate piecing and applique.  No cookie cutter quilts! Her love of sewing and teaching just follow her around like a bright aura drawing us all into her happy world of creating what pleases us.  Thank you Gwen, I enjoyed your retreat and have a new outlook on quilting :0)...Priceless :0).

Will it bloom or will it freeze? 10-15-2012

this rose bush was given to me by my friend Norma, it blooms so beautifully in my fenced in area of my yard where the deer can not eat it.

I wonder if this little bud all alone on the bush will bloom before it freezes?   Happy Fall  I'll let you know :0)

Design wall Monday 10-15-2012

Here are some wonky stars I learned to do at Gwen's retreat.
I am using the glorious fabrics from Cherrywood.  I'm linking up over at Judy's,
go on over and see what everyone is up too :0).

Happy Sewing, Kim

wonky stars

Gwen's Beaver Island retreat: Meet Kathy Clarke

Kathy is one of those people who's smiles light up their face making you want to smile too. Her laugh is infectious too!  Kathy was just a few tables down from me pointing out onto the vista of the ever changing lake, she work away on her medallion which she named " creatures of the world".

Look at all those  spikey strips around her focus fabric!  Each house has an animal inside, and so does each liberated star.

When her medallion quite "talking" to her Kathy took her black and white fabrics and started making dozens  of HST, half dark half light for the next border.

You can see these HST that have been chained pieced hanging down in front of her medallion.

these are bits that she cut off to square up before cutting her fabrics for the HST that she gave me

I sewed them together using Gwen's techniques and made my own study in black and white

I added the blues of the lake, then quilted it all over in a wave pattern in variegated black and white thread.

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We had some good laughs, learned some cool stuff together and worked out some of the problems of the world.  It was my pleasure to meet you Kathy.   Happy Sewing back in Wisconsin,  Kim