Showing posts with label Beaver Island Quilt Retreat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Beaver Island Quilt Retreat. Show all posts

Monday, October 14, 2013

BIQR 2013: Gwen's Show and Tell


One of the highlights of BIQR for me is Gwen's lecture/show and tell on Wednesday morning. This year, our theme was "Looking Forward" and Gwen picked some of her favourite quilts to show us.

Someone once told her that the borders should be in scale with the piecing. She obviously disagreed!

Simple piecing with a few rogue blocks.

Lots of baskets...love the handles!

Red baskets with dancing handles.

More applique, completed while travelling. The quadrants are not all the same.

 
Another wonderful two colour quilt.
 
 
Gwen's first liberated star quilt.
 
 
A more recent liberated star quilt. I love how the on point setting pops the starts out into the border.
 
 
Gwen's favourite quilt showcasing of the people, animals and things that bring meaning to her life.
 
 
Gwen is a big fan of string quilts.
 
 
Gwen gave us a mini lesson on how she makes string blocks without foundations.
 
 
 
Creative hands
 
 
Amazing hand quilting. She did a mini lesson on hand quilting too.
 
 
 
A look at Gwen's quilting frame posts.
 
 
 
These hands have done a lot of this!
 
 
Gwen always leaves the quilts out for us to look at them more closely. 
So much inspiration!






Sunday, October 6, 2013

Stash Enhancement!

As you know, Carol, Christine and I were recently away in Michigan for a week for the Beaver Island Quilt Retreat. We visited 6 quilt stores in 7 days and I did some serious damage to my stash report...

On our way to Elk Rapids, we stopped at Linda's Country Quilts in Davison and an Amish Quilt store near Clare. I bought a few things in both stores, focusing on enhancing my drawer full of lights and neutrals which has faced some serious depletion in recent months.

The next day, we went to Renee's where we saw this barn quilt on display outside.


A close up...

I don't think I would want to sew this quilt block!  More neutrals/lights were added here.

Next up was Now and Then in Elk Rapids where "Gwen's People" were given a 30% discount on everything in the store!  Again, I stayed focussed on purchasing more neutrals, even though there was lots of other fabric to tempt me!

On Thursday, we took a field trip to Cousins Quilt store in Belair:

 
 
 
 
 
 and Hearts to Holly in Charlevoix:

 
 

 It was at these two stores that I decimated my stash report...


I also purchased two cloth book panels, 6.75 yards for backing for the Lazy Sunday mystery (on the sale shelf for 40% off!) and some flannel for PJ's for my nieces' birthday later this month. (The flannel is not included in my stash numbers because it is for clothing, not quilts!)

Fabric used in the last 3 weeks: .75 yards
Total fabric used this year: 132.91  yards
Fabric added to the stash in the last week: 20 yards YIKES!
Total fabric added this year: 140.91 yards
Net fabric added this year: 8.0 yards

I took this picture at a farm where we purchased some apples.
 
 
Today, I did a little hand stitching and finished off my wonky house block that I started at the Becky Goldsmith workshop in early September. I hope to make this into a small wall hanging by adding some borders.

By now, you are probably wondering what I worked on at the retreat. I will not be able to show any pictures for a while since I worked on some gifts for Christmas. Have a good week.

Friday, October 4, 2013

The Fashions of BIQR

 
 
 
At each Beaver Island Quilt Retreat, there are shirts available for sale and this year was no exception. Here is this year's shirt, modelled by Gwen!
 
Here is Gwen again, wearing last year's liberated medallion shirt while she looks through the quilt blocks given to her by all of the quilters at this year's retreat for her birthday. The block I made her is on the right.   Here is a picture of all of the blocks.
 
 
 
 
One of Gwen's grandsons embellished her crocs with long grass he found at the beach. You can see from the design that he is already liberated, just like his grandmother!
 

Here is the BIQR 2010 shirt.
 
 
This is Gwen sitting in front of one quilter's design wall...we call this picture: 
Gwen...the Statue of Liberated!
 
Barb recently celebrated her 65th birthday with a liberated tattoo!
 
This shirt says it all!
 
This one even includes the English translation...
 
Some quilter's jewellery!
 
Deb's sketch
(Her jewellery matched her quilt...)
 
 
The shirt below belongs to me...more than one person at the retreat wondered if I had ever tried to snap some of the snaps!
 

A fun jacket...
 
and another one.
 
All quilters need comfy shoes!
 
 
How about these ones? (ignore the photographer's finger in the lower right corner....)
 
Here is a picture of Gwen's Birthday cake:
 
 Enjoyed by all!