Quilts from The Creative Retreats

Wow. Wow. Wow.

At The Creative Retreats on my Australia trip I had 12 students in each retreat create some amazing work. They were tasked to bring an idea - an image, a feeling, fabric, a concept - along with fabric and a willingness to play. We started with a warm-up exercise to unleash our sense of play and went from there. Over tea and a wonderful cookie called an Afghan Biscuit we developed our ideas and then people got sewing. And sew they did!

Original ideas ranged from an homage to a family property and the Outback, a trip to French cathedrals or Eastern Europe, simply wanting to play with colours or a specific block, showcasing a fabric. We could have started all with the same idea and ended up with 24 different quilts! The creativity and the creating was intense and fun.

As a teacher I worked with each student on technique, layout, and design difficulties. I spent as much time with each student as possible to make sure they were happy with their own project. It was all about each student creating the quilt they wanted to make. That being said, I was totally impressed by how they each pushed themselves to try something new - whether that was improv, a colour grouping out of their comfort zone, or a different technique. Their spirit was infectious! 

Because we were in a space where we could sew all night if we wanted to, our every need was met by our awesome host, Jules, and the laughter was contagious it was just as much fun to hang out as it was to sew. There may have been some champagne (and margaritas and scotch) along the way. To be able to spend three uninterrupted days (until I made them go for walks to see birds or the beach) was a luxurious treat for many and we made the most of it.

Thank you to the wonderful women in both groups. You came from Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Ballarat, and Perth. You brought your humour, creativity, and sense of both adventure and play. I returned home totally inspired and excited. 

If you would like more details about any of the quilts or their makers leave a comment and I will try to point you in the right direction or answer any questions.

Arkison in Australia

So, I went to Australia for 2 weeks. It was rather incredible. My first, but hopefully not my last time! Enjoy a quick slide show of my trip. I was there to teach at a couple of amazing events organized by The Creative Retreat. Jules did everything to create a space for action, imagination, creativity, and laughter. More on the creativity in another post.  A few highlights:

... I had no idea how fitting it was that one of the first images I would see would be a sheep photoshoot in front of the iconic Sydney Opera House. You cannot even imagine the number of sheep in Australia.

... After a morning in Sydney and sleeping off my jet lag in Canberra we went on the road to our first retreat location: Kangaroo Valley. A glorious spot among farms, Fitzroy Falls, and creating by the fireplace. 

... The birds! I never thought of myself as a birdwatcher, but now I am totally obsessed. To see a million different kinds of parrots, rosellas, cockatoos, plus kookaburras was phenomenal. Then to spot and hear the unique Lyre bird was mind blowing. I am totally obsessed with birds now.

... After Kangaroo Valley we made our way towards Melbourne, stopping in country towns where I was introduced to the pie shops, RSLs, old buildings, and what counts as mountains in Australia. Road tripping is awesome, my favourite.

... 48 hours in Melbourne! A city I really would like to explore more. They care about architecture and public art in a way I've never seen before. We ate well, we played with Leslie at Maze and Vale (that's a whole other post), and visited Jen Kingwell at Amitie Textiles.

... The second retreat was in Point Lonsdale. The ocean!!! Long time readers know how I love the ocean, no matter which ocean or where. There I was taking my morning walks along the Pacific, but seeing the sun rise over it instead of set. Mind blowing. And, of course, I went for a swim! How could I not? Such a lovely location and another group of hysterical and creative women.

... More roadtripping and then the long flight home. (Right after that last photo Nicole Kidman walked by.)

Such a amazing experience and I am forever grateful to this job. These sorts of trips are so appreciated and I get as much out of them as my students. Their work, commitment, and creativity is inspiring. Thanks Jules, for making this all happen!

Improv Curves Within A Daily Practice

My morning practice, is paying off in spades. It helps me focus and manage my emotions for the day. It acts in a very similar way to a meditation practice by centering me and filtering the noise. And on top of that - I finish quilt tops!

These blocks started as samples for teaching a class. One day I grabbed a stack of solids and just used them. Well then I really liked the accidental combination so I did some editing and adding. Over the course of a few classes more blocks were made. When I was pulling blocks for my daily practice I came across these. Perfect! It was quick to get the blocks done, it took much longer to figure out the best layout.

Quarter circles, like half square triangles, give you many, many, many layout options. Because I'd gone with an only somewhat controlled colour scheme I was trying layouts to give me order more than anything. Random is awesome, but sometimes it doesn't give you a good design. Because I'd included many colours, in both lights and darks, there was no clear cut way to get a successful design. For me, however, that's the fun. I LOVE the challenge of finding a good design.

If you follow me on Instagram you probably saw the many iterations for this quilt top. I wavered, I played, I experimented, I wavered some more. Finally I found my order by focusing on colour and the interconnecting of the one print in the quilt. This design may not be everyone's favourite, but I am in love.  

It's definitely going to be a fun one to quilt!

If you would like to know more about Improv Curves look for a class of mine near you (or book one) or check out my Inset and Applique Circles by Machine class on Craftsy, we cover it in one of the lessons.

Samsquanch - A Bigfoot Quilt

Samsquanch

90'' x 90''

Take one Legendary pattern, multiply it by five, add in a family of five sewing, and you get one crazy quilt.

Our family winter project is finally finished. We took a jaunt to the mountains yesterday to capture the quilt in the wild, in some truly squatchy country. It's already made a debut at a local quilt show and is in good use on the odd chilly night in the basement. 

I quilted it with a combination of thread and techniques. The white background is done with a walking foot and using a white Aurifil 50wt. The trees are straight line with the magical olive green from Aurifil. The Bigfoot herself (we decided she was female while making her) is done with a brown variagated in 40wt from Signature. She needed fur and a face so my free motion skills got a lot of practice - once my BSR was replaced!

To make the face my husband and I spent far too much time researching Bigfoot art and representations. Then we compared them to primates and sketched and resized. Total nerds. I gave myself a chalk outline and went at it contour drawing style. Thank you Melissa Averinos for teaching me that!

The backing is a mishmash of greens and leftover browns from my stash. The only fabric we bought for this quilt was the binding. I simply had nothing at home that worked so the girls picked this ombre and it's perfect. 

It really was an incredible project to work on together. From picking fabric to sewing together I had fun. It's easy to get annoyed or stressed when the kids are sewing, but we learned to go with the flow - and their enthusiasm. I gave in to all the requests when my little guy wanted to help, including having him on my lap while doing some FMQ! We had fun stomping through the trees for photos, complete with photo bombs and blurry pictures from laughing. 

It's summer now so there isn't much couch snuggling going on. And Hubby rightly pointed out that the white background is more wintery. I had hoped to shoot this in the snow, hence that white background. But believers know, Sasquatch is always out there...

And one word on the name. My husband is a wildly sarcastic man with a unique sense of humour. He likes to make up words and stories to mess with people, the kids especially. So in our house it isn't Sasquatch or Bigfoot, it is Samsquanch.