Bandon Art Retreat

Our annual art retreat to Bandon on the Oregon Coast was a great success. 8 talented textile artists went to spend 3 days creating and having fun. Forget-Me-Knots Quilt Shop has a Retreat Center upstairs, set up for quilters, with a large design wall, well supplied kitchen, work space with excellent lighting and enough electrical for all the sewing machines. Of course each bed has a hand made quilt on it. We met for lunch in "Old Town" on the waterfront, at the Minute Cafe, we had oyster baskets, fish & chips and omelets. Feeling stuffed we went to haul all our supplies upstairs and get settled in. Amy had goodie bags for everyone with "Fabulous and Diva" printed on them, the artists had to choose which they were to get a bag. They contained chocolates, rubber stamps with ocean themes, and cards of lace & trim, with decorative clothespins.

Amy set up one counter space with her fabric painting supplies. She had an 8 x 10 Gelli Plate, as well as a homemade 8" round gelatin plate, acrylic paints, stencils and printing tools. Some of Amy's finished Gelli prints, 2 layers of mono printed fabrics, then stamped and embellished with various stencils and mark making tools.

Meredith was cleaning up her studio and found some cotton fabrics made in Thailand, that she brought to share with us. We chose from an array of rich colors and patterns, some with border prints. Thank you Meredith for this generous gift.

Crystal used the design wall to work on her blocks, the cute animal prints were bright and colorful, in peach, aqua, grey and gold.

Crystal finished her blocks off, with a white on white sashing. She likes the "Modern" look in her quilting, she will add borders later.

Cheryl began her mice making efforts, by needle felting cute little mouse heads, then arms with claws, and a quilted blanket of bright colors. She is making class samples for Knotty Lady yarn shop in downtown Roseburg, classes begin in August.

Each mouse has quiet a personality, even when sleeping.

Vi is making blocks with strips and triangles out of 1920's reproduction conversation prints. The pastels have a nice vintage quality to them. She used the design wall to plan her layout.

Vi took a break from sewing to look at some of the magazines Crystal brought along.

Tracy spent her time trying to make "Goat Tubes" from a crushed blue knit jersey. The are for Annaka's 3 goats that she is showing for 4H at the County Fairy. After they are all cleaned up for presentation, you need to keep them clean before the judging.

When Amy got tired of painting fabric, she worked on a baby quilt for her niece. Flannel black and white penguin fabric, was the staring point, with a yellow-gold mottled accent fabric. Black and white pinwheels surrounded the print. A flannel blue and white ice print with groups of penguins is for the backing. We began dinner with appetizers of crackers and cream cheese and humus, with Tracy's homemade jams and pepper jelly, We had a wonderful dinner of crab salad, taco soup, cheese and crackers and a few of us had some wine that Crystal provided. Crystal also made the wonderful cheesecake we had for dessert.

Cheryl slept well under her extra layer of wool.

The next morning Amy and Lorrie snuck off early for a walk on the beach, a no fog, beautiful day, we picked up some agates and sea glass.

It is wonderful to have the quilt shop downstairs, many excursions were made during the time we were there, to get supplies or future projects. Amy purchased two packages of pre-cut Hexagons, about 6" across. One was Moda's spring line of prints, the 2nd Moda's fall solids. The colors went well together, they came with a plastic template, with holes to mark the seam point on each corner. Amy put them together with her sewing machine, stitching each piece mark to mark. After some assembly, she used the design wall to lay them out, to balance and scatter the colors. She doesn't know what she is going to do with them yet.

Tracy worked with some fabrics that Meredith had stack & wacked. She put them together with a heavy filler, to make bowls, she cut darts into the fabric to curve the bowls, and Now Meredith does like the fabrics.

Meredith has a figure 8 knitting loom, and she asked Cheryl to help get her started. The yarn she had wasn't right for the loom, so Charyl gave her some worsted weight yarn to use. Many of us walked down to Old Town to do touristy things like shop and get designer coffee. We met at the Bandon Bakery, for sandwiches on home made bread. A tour of our favorite book store, got us some goodies. Four of us went South to Langlois for the Wool Shoppe, she had a lot of wonderful hats and scarves, felted pictures and yarns and fibers. Meredith got a few supplies for Annaka to play with. On the way back we stopped at a wood carvers and posed for pics with the giant praying mantis and two headed Dragon.

Cheryl spent the afternoon making a needle felted chicken. She also taught Annaka to do some needle felting with the supplies she got.

Annaka's dolphin was just as good as the one she saw at the wool shop.

Anna also made a peacock, with the head & body 3-D, and was working on a side view of a peacock as well.

Cheryl certainly inspired Anna's creativity. Anna loves dragons and this 3-D sculpture was a start for her creativity.

Tracy's next project was some microwave bowl potholders. She was using this great chicken fabric, for the gifts.

Crystal's next project is this fabric for a set of place mats.

After dinner Cheryl helped Amy get started on a felted rabbit, the head took most of the work, and it is all covered with a silver white angora rabbit fur.

Cheryl's last project was this cute owl, it is much cuter in real life than the photo shows. She will have quiet a selection of samples for her classes.

The front and back of Meredith's purse, she almost has it finished, just some hand stitching to do. We all had a fabulous time, and reserved an extra day for next year. So thank you all for joining us to see what wonderfully creative things we are all working on.

June Meeting 2015

New Business Several challenge ideas were suggested, Jana suggested the Oregon State Motto "She Flies With Her Own Wings." Everyone loved this theme, and it was chosen for our June to October challenge, 20" max per side, any technique. No participation required, if you want to do an art piece, then please join us, if you don't want to, that's ok too. Peggy suggested, "A Path Less Traveled" again we all really liked where this could take us. Having a continuous path to connect all the pieces, like the River challenge, was also agreed upon. Sherry suggested we do more of a jigsaw puzzle, with curved edges and a path connecting them. I made a quick sketch to give you an idea.

This will be our Big challenge for the April Umpqua Valley Quilters Guild Show. We will hand out pattern pieces and if you choose to participate, we need a commitment from you, to finish your piece. This will be due at our March meeting. Old Business The wet felting workshop was postponed, several people who wanted to be there could not make it on Saturday. We will reschedule for later. The Seattle Trip is canceled, as the show is no longer being produced. The Oakland Quilt Show booth was also canceled, due to lack of interest.

Show & Tell

Cheryl knit a colorful baby ball for her new granddaughter, she experimented with several different interior rattle making things, and wrapped the noise maker in plastic, so the ball could be washed.

Cheryl has been spinning Lorraine's Jacob fleece, from her ewe named "Sybil" and plying it into yarn, no project decision yet. Lorraine had trouble finding someone to sheer the sheep, her big ram has four horns, and it was hard to get a good hold on him.

Pat G. made two lovely purses, the beige/brown one is made from linen, the sunflower from regular quilting cotton.This looks like a fun pattern, with the pockets on the side.

Lorraine has been in contact with people from the class she took at Asilomar, who want to use the book "Modern Quilting" by Jacquie Gering and Katie Pedersen, and do each of the lessons in the 8 chapters. They have been emailing back and forth.

Lorraine has done the first two lessons, as individually quilted blocks. The one has 1/4" echo quilting the other a zigzag pattern. She will put them all together into one quilt when she is done. Sherry and Kay are recovering from lots of family & guests visiting for Kay's 80th birthday celebration. Crystal had quiet an adventure teaching painting to all 450 students at Hucrest school. She is an artist in residence for the Umpqua Valley Arts Assoc. She worked with one class at a time, each grade level had a different ocean theme. Up to 25 kids at a time, all at easels, with paint brushes flying in every direction. She is very proud of the art they made and each kid had fun and took home their finished canvases. Her new business downtown "Create and Sip" is doing well.

An upcoming trip to England has inspired Clare to mass produce some gifts to take along. The colorful microwave bowl potholders, are quick and easy.

Clare's weaving studio is up and running, all the shelving in and the looms set up. She has two large floor looms and an extensive array of yarn, with which to work from.

Peggy was inspired by our trip to the iris gardens in Salem. She made a homemade gelatin plate, and tried acrylic inks on it. She said they were very different to work with than regular acrylics, she was concerned they would stain the gelatin. They did not stain, so now she will try them on the large Gelli Plate. She made a paper mask for the iris shape, and also used watercolor pencils to add detail.

Jana has made her first skein of yarn on her new electric spinner. It is made from a dark plum merino wool and carded with "Firestar" fibers to give it sheen. Jana is looking forward to the "Toure de Fleece" sponsered by the website "Ravelry," it is a commitment to spin everyday during the Toure De France.

She has finished the first of a pair of socks, with a "crowsfeet lace" pattern. They are a gift for her college roommate who has a thing about crows. A discussion occurred over how to keep the heels of homemade socks from wearing out so quickly, Cheryl suggested the heel and toe yarn be spun with a blend of stronger fibers, a nylon or silk blend. They will wear better and longer that way.

Vi has brought several of her woven and beaded necklaces to show us. She had to make individual shaped looms on ceiling tiles for each one that she made. The one she is wearing is a traditional color for Native American art, the green one has an undersea theme, with lots of shells.

The other 3 necklaces are woven and heavily beaded. No Demo We had no demo this meeting, if anyone wants to volunteer to demo a technique or new product, please tell Amy. Also request anything you would like to learn about, and we will arrange it.