FABULOUS QUILTER'S ESCAPE GIVES US COLOR,FUN, FOOD AND FRIENDS!

Above are my six new friends who I chatted with, sewed with, created with and enjoyed this past week. I asked each girl to please hold up one of their blocks. It was a small class but what a joy to get to know everyone so well and enjoy each of them. We had alot of laughter and fun.
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It is always so nice to meet up with old friends again and I had a chance to go to dinner with Carol and Nancy who live in the area and took a five day workshop from me last year (story quilts). We spent the evening catching up and had a nice chance to check out the ocean and Carol's cabin outside of Trinity. Both of these girls are a real blessing to me. Aren't we lucky to meet such lovely friends through quilting?

Below is darling Dixie McBride who puts on the Quilt Escape. She works so hard and everyone has a lovely classroom, wonderful treats and the best food I have ever had at any large conference. We had chicken kiev, pork loin, salmon, prime rib and tons and tons of beautiful salads, fresh fruits of every kind at every meal there and a wonderful wonderful mexican lunch of all homemade Mexican foods. Everyone raved about the food and the conference center and how nice a venue this is.

Here are the teachers all together at the night of the banquet. I had such a lovely time with them. All fun and all positive and with the way that Dixie ran the event we were all very happy. You get your money's worth out of this venue for sure.

Here is a rather dark photo of Lynn's darling chicken. I also designed a rooster for her to face the chicken. It was fun to have time to design some new things people wanted for their quilts and that they wanted to piece.

Below are Beth's fabulous blocks that will be in the quilt she does about her trip to Paris. I did not get a photo but one of her blocks is of Lourds Cathedral and she both pieced and appliqued it and it is incredible. Her quilt is going to win prizes for sure. She was a good addition to a small class. Each student I had this time was fun, positive, creative and inspiring. I came home charged and happy.

The most wonderful buildings are in a little town right next door to the Quilt Escape. There are unbelievable Victorian houses there and the little town where you shop is in this same style. There is a trailer park where we were that was lovely and many travelers staying there to enjoy the beauty and charm of this area. I want to go back with my husband and a little trailer to just look around and take photos. It is closer to our home than many of the wonderful places I have been and easier for us to drive there. This would be a great vacation destination for those of you with travel trailers or just a yen to travel somewhere fun. Come to next year's Quilt Escape and you can stay in a lovely hotel priced quite reasonable and see what you want to see and take classes too. I plan to take a class if I can work it into my scedule. Dixie has wonderful people hired for next year and if you want, you can take her, walk along the river and have your own travel guide. She honestly puts on a fabulous retreat. She knows what we want and she gives it to us. Come and take a class and we can enjoy the sites together when we are done sewing. :0)

A Quilt from My Santa Fe Class in November-Isn't this Wonderful?

As many of you know I loved Sante Fe and this quilt by Mary Ann gives me a huge smile on my face-the color, the composition and the story are super and I know this is a prize winner. She likes to do small projects and this is a big quilt and was a big undertaking but hey, anything done well is worth it and this was done well. Can't wait to hear what prizes it takes and how much she loves it when she gets over the time she spent on it. :0) She is a great quilt artist! It is always fun to see what imagination can come up with!
Here is what she said in the letter to me. It made me smile.

This is your Santa Fe New Mexico friend who has finally finished, photoed and become really sick of my Sanctuario de Chimayo-It's so not me-Mary Lou Weidman Quilt. My long arm quilter was fantastic! It is only 83" X 100". I thought it would go on the spare bedroom bed until I realized it compromises the design completely. I will hang it for our neighborhood Studio Tour on the 15th and 16th of this month. I hope to find a public venue for it. You were inspiring, but for now I will stick to smaller sizes and purses. Mary Ann Onstott

Just Some of the work at Mary Lou's Design and Dine Retreat-if you weren't there you missed alot of good stuff!

The sampler above was taken too early and she kept doing cool things. Daisy who had never made a quilt before showed us all how to be creative and fun. We had alot of original work done in this class. I was blown away by the samples of creative blocks.

TIP-stay tuned for Mary Lou's new book next year that will have alot of these tips for designing your own best work-"Out of the Box Blocks" will give you a hint on how to be original, creative, use color wisely and have FUN!
I have to say that I gave some handouts to the class and they ran with it! Even those that had not sewn much or at all before. Whimsy & joy took over the class!




The blocks below just grew and grew and you know how it is, the quiet student that
does awesome work and doesn't call attention to herself! This California girl did fabulous and was fun to watch!

Our Miss Penny put on her thinking cap and came up with unique and fun blocks that we all cheered on....by the way, she also brought me a fairy gift of two blue bottle and a red one for my bottle tree with tulips in bloom (lovely)-she got an A but didn't need to bribe me...she is good!

There were so many differnet birds in the class that not even the birders could tell us what they were! I never get tired of seeing what people create with the bird ideas....they are so much fun and so cool in any quilt!

This bird is looking for a girlfriend! Isn't he (she) fun???

Antoinette thinks about the handbags she is creating in her own design, original sense....she is a Southern girl with extraordinary taste
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YOU MISSED THE GREAT FOOD AT MARY LOU'S RETREAT? Julia Child has nothing on Laurie Latta !

Laurie takes a much deserved rest at the quilt shop as everyone else shops....she is pooped! She bought all of the groceries, planned the menus, chopped, prepped stirred and served fabulous meals, and then did the dishes and cleaned up ready for the next meal. Laurie is a retired teacher and I think she was in the wrong business. :0) Catering could have been her thing- Martha Stewart is lucky Laurie decided to teach.





Every meal was well planned and delicious.


We never got a chance to even be a teeny bit hungry. Plus we had a snack table with fruits, gorp mix with 10 different things in it (wonderful) and chocolates as well as cookies. Laurie worked like a busy little beaver the entire retreat and her food was fantastic!

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YOU MISSED MARY LOU'S RETREAT? LOOK AT OUR FUN AT BEAR PAW AFTER HOURS NO LESS!

LOOK AT THOSE CHEDDARS!
BEAR PAW in Coeur d'Alene showed our class a great time after hours no less! NO wonder they were selected for this year's Quilt Sampler Magazine! They are awesome in every repect and I love shops that have NICE people who work there and they have that covered WELL. Darling girls. And fabric up the kazoo! WOW!


Another stack of the bolts we went through- once you learn how to use color and a stash that works, you can't wait to begin with these types of great fabric!

This is part of what I bought- look for these in the samples of my new book next year! "Out of the Box Blocks" with Mary Lou and Mel McFarland

This is Eleanor who we loved and exhausted and our darling Karen who helped fold everything that Eleanor cut...and for free! :0)

This sample was hanging up and I thought it was adorable- who doesn't love aprons?

Speaking of greens for the perfect green stratas! Wish YOU were with us!

Speaking of green lightgivers, Molly shows the class what to use for those killer strats -great color and design! Karen who used to own a quilt shop in Pennsylvania looks on and agrees-they were both big help with the retreat

I said "Hurry and cut these so I can pile more on the counter"-the lady just looked at me and then her watch....

Green was a color alot of people said was their favorite! Terry above LOVES green and her outfit shows it-isn't that a cool coat???


Kathy chose these fabrics to work with-aren't they dreamy? Color and Flowers!

Walk this way-on the sidewalk are all kinds of Bear Paws-so wonderful!

Hey I adore these colors and the cheddar at the end sings to me.
I talked about the types of fabrics you should buy for a winning quilt and what your stash might be missing....this is in my Out Of the Box book


The samples here are so much fun and color everywhere...you know I am a sucker for color and fun design!



OK, this is only part of the bolts we went through-they had amazing fabric and if you come to my retreat this summer in August to do a story quilt or you plan to come next year for another design class, you can see this and more in my area

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