Retreat Results

I'm exhausted.  But very content.  I worked on a project that's near and dear to my heart and I got to do it with some very fine folks.  I love my Lib Quilters group.  Have I said that lately?  I'm not sure how many people were retreating this time, but there were close to 70 photos added over the course of the two days.  And still more coming!  That's the fun of a retreat.  The chatter and photos feed excitement into you project and suddenly it's bigger and better than you ever thought it would be.  It becomes ... more.  You borrow ideas from someone and in turn, your ideas become a springboard for someone else's project.  Can't be replaced! 

Here's what I worked on.  I have progression photos!  Do you remember this?  I did this clear back last November.  Well, I decided to devote myself to this little baby for the whole weekend.  I thought I'd make some borders for her.  Her name, btw, is Prairie Children - Wind.

So, using Karen Eckmeier's book "Layered Waves", I made wavy strips of green and layed them out in the pattern I wanted. 

Then I sewed them together into this lovely panel.

I have to tell you that I pretty much had to grit my teeth to slice across that.  But, slice I did.  And then I resewed.  This is what I finished with.  My plan was to put this as the bottom border of the other.  This is Prairie Children - Grass.

I didn't like it.  It bored me, putting them together.  So then, I got this great idea!  What if, instead of borders, I took what I had planned for borders and made them into individual quilts as part of a series Prairie Children?  Wow!  Did I like that! 

But, what if one of them gets separated?  Or lost?  I can't let that happen, so I might sash them together like a shadow box.  I don't know about that yet.

Okay, so that was all yesterday.  Today, I made trees.  I went through the same process as the first two steps for the grass, but stopped after making the first panel (the lovely one I didn't want to cut again).  Sadly, I don't have a pic of that.  But I cut this panel (much easier than the first, I might add) in a bit of a diagonal direction, both ways.  Then sewed them together.  Here's the trees.  They aren't sewn together or anything yet.  I'm still playing with them.  Don't mind the extended green at the top.  I left that so I'd have room to adjust.

So, that was my retreat.  I'll set this aside for awhile and get back to work on some other projects.  These trees will stay as they are.  Oh, they'll be titled Prairie Children - Trees I.  I think I want to make another trees panel of poplars.

French quiz tonight.  WooHoo!

ttyl

-Wendy