ALMOST HEAVEN IN WEST VIRGINIA- Developing story quilts a great experience for all of us!

The quilt above was made for a charity by Carol, isn't it wonderful? She used Hoochy blocks and a pattern for my cupcake in the "Quiltem Memories" book which you can still purchase on Amazon.com Building borders first is an approach we take for story quilts. 21 ladies drove from Phio, Washington DC, Michigan, Kentucky and West Virginia to come to Cedar Lakes West Virginia to make story quilts over a five day schedule. Five days of fun, getting to know each other, stash talk, developing blocks hoochy style,talking about stories and enjoying the beauty of West Virginia in the meantime. Sharon announced "HOOCHY is a VERB!" And we all laughed. Carol used the pattern for the ice cream cone from the "Out of the Box with Easy Blocks " book. SHE is fast and really talented!

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This quilt all came together in a wonderful way. In the end of the workshop, she had three generations of sewing ladies in her family along with this sewing machine. If someone got a good photo of this, please send it to me to show. It is quite wonderful and her blocks were beautiful for the border. Grandmother, Mother and the designer will all be remembered in a beautiful story quilt about the gift of sewing.

This quilt is a memory for her husband. She has a detailed drawing of vegetables, and things in the garden that he tends. The colors of the vegetables on top of the quilt will be fabulous!

It is so much fun to watch everyone share their blocks and the story and the whole thing comes together. A productive and FAST five days provided lots of time to sew and think and learn from one another. It is really fun to watch. If you are coming to Idaho, take note that this is what we will be doing in Post Falls. :0)

Here I am (above) with my mouth open and telling about getting your artist outside and how to keep it out and how good art doesn't need a whole paragraph of explanation....you should know what the story is about by looking....this is what we do at Museums and art centers....think about it. I have my new creative necklace on with inspiration built right in....and why do I always choose blouses that are LOUDER than anyone else's? I guess it came from how I wanted my Mom to dress me. :0)

It is always fun to hear someone's story who grew up somewhere different than we did. Margo grew up in Australia in a house with stilts and she has a passion for kooaburra birds. :-)

Or some people do story quilts about their family leaving and coming here to ths US as in this photo-I hope you can see how beautiful her parents were-they came from China.

These two photos are quite wonderful because Debbie was a beginner and wasn't sure she could do "Out of the Box" quilts and she was fabulous and got her drawing of her in the middle of a log cabin with all of things that make it special. She is going to make herself BIGGER because bigger is pretty much always BETTER>

The drawing above is of her husband with a shovel and all of the things that made him special. The quilt is going to have the words "Goodnight Wife" across the top and across the bottom will be "Goodnight Husband" -Mary did the coffee cake story quilt if you remember-I will post my photos of that again because it is worth seeing many times.

One thing we all enjoyed was a Mom daughter that came to play. The daughter has interest in all kinds of art and tried story quilts out. She is hooked and she and her Mother are now going to start to sew together. It was fun having a coouple of younger girls in the workshop. Now the people in the workshop can guess if I am talking about them. :0)

The quilt above is quite exciting. The final quilt will be an elephant with the quilter on top of him. Each block that she made had wonderful photos of her trip to Thailand in the middle. She wanted to do a small quilt but it grew much to my delight because the impact will be MORE. It is such a cool story that it needs to be bigger and in the end she will be really happy it is bigger (I think she already is). This is just the beginning of the elephant design.

Tiffany did a dionsaur quilt for charity (other than her story quilt) and I wanted to snap this before she put it away. Fun!

Here is a block show and tell above and below is her fabulous drawing of her (Sandy) from behind in the garden. Isn't it wonderful? This is going to be a FUN quilt that is sure to bring smiles. This girl was a true artist who came "Out of the Box" i a wonderful way and shared ideas with all of us.

Everyone gets handouts for new blocks and most people have bought the books I have written. Here is a great example of how you can do the blocks and then add something from the Out of the Box with Easy Blocks book-aren't these cats darling? It is really a fun pattern to do and out of my plaids from benartex, it is even more fun. :0)

It always gives me great satisfaction to watch as people develop their ideas, colors, blocks and stories. I didn't know if I could make the trip as my Doctor told me I couldn't go and I ignored him (for now). I have a herniated disk and a pice of the middle of the disk has come out and is pushing on my nerve in my back so I am in some pain. Terry Chilko and the entire class was so nice about maiing sure I did not bend over to pick something up (a habit) and they lifted for me all week long. A nice nap instead of going to lunch made the week a great experience for me. Next year in West Virginia everyone signed up to come back and keep going so that is always nice too. There is a reason the song say "Almost Heaven." It is! NOW that you saw this blog on West Virginia, look at the many photos of the stories people drew and are in the middle of their quilts! http://marylouweidman.blogspot.com/