Spring Fling - Our GVQC Quilt Retreat

The past two days have been spent at a lovely location nearby where we had the luxury of just talking and quilting and having a wonderful lunch served. It is a yearly occurrence I always enjoy! The desserts are always to die for and this year was no exception!

This was a lovely piece that Norma brought in to get some suggestions on how to get a mitered border with a Jinny Beyer print so that it lined up appropriately. Janet Root was right there to help!


This is a piece that Janet was working on which is a good example of the use of transparency. She was finishing it up as it was only on a design wall here.

I don't know who the quilter was but I thought these were very interesting small compositions.

Janet Root and Marcia Birken are working on measuring Marcia's Fall Migration quilt getting ready for the borders. You always measure an inside area as the outsides often stretch out of shape. Marcia's quilt is made up of very luscious batiks in browns and blue greys.

Judy Deyo was also working on her Fall Migration piece. The color combination was stunning and there are cute kitties inside each block!

Janet Guarino was on the table opposite me and worked on at least three projects while I was there and had more in readiness should time permit. This was a project started in a workshop with Anne Lullo a couple of years ago.

Charmaine Babineau was working on two pieces. The abstract one was started in a Cynthia Corbin workshop last year and the second livelier one was begun in a workshop with Sylvia Einstein. Charmaine had purchased all the fabrics for this originally for brightly colored flowing clothing but went with the quilt instead!!

Pat Pauly challenged a number of us to complete a quilt with the theme of the "Almightly Dollar" as the inspiration. Pat chose to focus on the portrait of George Washington and this is a part of her unfinished piece.

I decided to focus on the symbols contained on the dollar as well as the meaning of the phrase "Almighty Dollar". This is the beginnings of my piece which is making a bit more of a statement about the obsession with money that characterizes much of our society. It will be about 32" x 55 when completed. Right now it is a fractured flag. The title of the piece will be "Red, White and Blue and Green Allover" as the dollar bill has red and blue threads woven through it although invisible to the human eye.

I also decided to just have some pure fun so I cut up some fabric (pictured below) and am making a "One Block Wonder" quilt. I got about half the blocks completed in just a couple of hours so it should go fast. The fabric from which the triangles are cut is featured below. This fabric seems to work pretty well for this technique which focuses on using the kalaidoscopic images right next to each other but laid out in color groupings. I haven't come up with the final composition yet by a long shot as I have many more blocks to do before I can stick them all up on the design wall!