Strata No. 1...

The past two years I have donated a piece of "art" to the music department at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, OK. Below is the wall quilt I stitched this past week for tomorrow's silent auction. The monies from the auction will go to benefit the music department where our friend's son is an adjunct instructor. 

It was fun trying out some of the new techniques and ideas I picked up at the recent retreat and then even more fun adding some embellishments to this small quilt (approx. 12" x 17"). I have named it Strata No. 1 with plans to continue this series of multiple landscape themes.

Here are close ups of the fabric and beading.

Thanks for stopping by and hope your coming week is good.

37 Sketches...

This is the cover of Gwen Marston's newest book we used as a study guide along with the original 37 mini wall quilts featured in the book. The size of this small "art book" (8"x 7") keeps with the subject of this year's retreat: Small Studies. 

Here's the design wall showing Gwen's 37 mini quilts. You can see we didn't lack inspiration.

Stay tuned for more photos to come...

Auditioning some fabric...

Attended Gwen Marston's Beaver Island Quilt Retreat (http://gwenmarston.com/index.htm) in Elk Rapids, Michigan last week with my friend Vicki. We had an awesome time both at the retreat and exploring the area around Elk Rapids which included Traverse City, MI, Charlevoix, MI and the Sleeping Bear Dunes (http://www.nps.gov/slbe/index.htm). Michigan has to be one of the prettiest destinations!

This year's retreat focused on creating small wall quilts based on Gwen's newest book, 37 Sketches. We came away with lots of new techniques for sewing fabric together the "Liberated Quilt" way in addition to several e-mail addresses from some of the lovely and talented women we met and promises to meet up again next year. I will share some of the photos from the retreat and trip in my next posting.

Tonight I am working on a small wall quilt donation for a silent auction. The idea behind this mini quilt is to show the earth's many layers and the piecing method(s) was learned at the retreat last week. I have the earth's layers done and am "auditioning" blue fabric for the sky. I plan to embellish the fabric with beads and thread before finishing. Since the auction is this coming Sunday, I better go back to my sewing machine. So till the next time, thanks for visiting and thank you for all your lovely comments.