Bandon Art Retreat 2014

Eight adventuresome artists headed for the Southern Oregon coast, on the way we stopped at a members home/studio for a studio tour and lunch. Landreth was a wonderful hostess, she had set up her Gamill long arm quilting machine for us to play on.

Cheryl took her turn on a lime green section, with a yellow flower or sun. There were lots of samples of Landreth's quilting patterns to follow. Most of us took turns trying to get a smooth quilting line. Her machine is set up with a stitch regulator, which most of us had never sewn with. It stops when you stop, and keeps a consistent stitch length. This made the daunting task of learning free motion quilting seem simpler.

Look at the smile on Tricia's face, is she having fun, or what? We had a delicious lunch of salmon loaf, crab puffs, clam chowder and green salad. Landreth out did herself feeding us a coastal extravaganza! We wandered around her studio, looking at all her art work, and she gave us each a chicken pincushion pattern with precut pieces. After lunch we headed South to Bandon and got checked in to the Retreat Center, above Forget-Me-Knots quilt shop. click here It is a wonderful space to work, large sewing tables, with a whole wall of design board, the opposite wall is floor to ceiling windows with wonderful sunshine and a view of "Old Town Bandon." A large kitchen, 2 bath, 3 bedrooms to sleep 8 artists with beautiful quilts on each bed. Extra rooms are set up as ironing stations and cutting tables. We got right to work, getting our sewing machines set up and beginning our projects.

Amy began by free motion quilting a large wall hanging that she had started at our first retreat 3 years ago. Two whole days of quilting, lots of texture and pattern in each of the petals. The flowers are all made with her hand dyed fabric from Vera's dyeing workshops.

Lorrie worked on her barn pattern, it had lots of small pieces. She tried very hard to make the Stream-a Seam work. She was very frustrated trying to remove the paper backing from the front or back.

Meredith worked with some black and white silk noil, trying very hard to get "balance" with her asymmetrical pieces. I'm not sure what project this is for. The rest of the time she spent with a jade green silk, making sections for her "Tombs of China-Terra Cotta Warriors" the project has been percolating in her head for ten years, and she finally feels she has the expertise to meet her vision. Vi worked on finishing a UFO, traditional piecing with white and bright fabric prints, lots of half square and quarter square triangles. We were up until at least 11pm, sewing and visiting. Dinner was potluck with Meredith making a stir fry, and lots of pasta salad, green salad and other goodies.

The next morning started early with 5 of us making a visit to the beach, it was beautiful, sunshine and no breeze, with a low tide. You can't ask for better from the coast.

Tracy and Cheryl found a driftwood throne to sit on. Lots of rock collecting and sea shells. Walking down the beach to the large rocks that give Bandon a distinctive look. Tricia walked the furthest and even walked back to the center.

The Retreat Center shares a parking lot with the new Face Rock Creamery, which replaced the old Bandon Cheese Factory. Meredith and Tracy's pair of yellow Smart cars, were getting lots of curious people taking pictures of their license plates BSMART and BSMARTR. We indulged in ice cream, cheese curds, and wine sampling at the Creamery. Several people walked back to "Old Town" to do some shopping in all the cute shops and touristy things.

We all had lunch out at the "Wheelhouse" with a view of the Marina. After lunch several of us went to the "Wool Factory" in Langlois, about 15 miles South of Bandon, she had a wonderful variety of fibers to choose from, and a nice display of needle felted art work by local people. Tracy and Amy got a selection of Merino/Silk blends in sky blue, darker ocean and a deep rich blue/brown combo.

Crystal joined us Tuesday morning and began to add sashes to her collection of Kaffe Fasset quilt blocks. She made great progress, even getting some of the borders on.

Then Crystal went on to sash and put together a set of children's "book pages" into a baby quilt.

Lorrie, Meredith and Vi consulting on a project.

Tracy spent her time making two large and one Jumbo size pillow for her daughter out of very glitzy fabrics. Her cute old Singer Feather Weight had difficulty with some of the fabrics. The glittery parts gummed up her needle and caused trouble. Sewing machine expert Vi, helped get her unstuck.

Tricia started the day with her fused applique of a flower, the pattern is her original drawing and her bright colors of yellow and gold was a stark contrast to the black background.

Tricia added her collected beach stones to her hand made batik stones, and worked on some design issues, trying to decide how to use them. Cheryl had been doing very small work making arms and legs etc.. for her tiny Teddy Bears. She hand stitched the small parts out of furry fabric.

After bears, Cheryl helped Tricia learn to do a needle felted face.

Cheryl and Tricia inspecting her large bin of hand dyed fabric. Lorrie and Vi, look through several magazines for ideas.

Amy ended the retreat by using Jacquard Decolourant on several T-shirts. She used stencils and a foam brush to apply the paste, then ironed to activate the bleaching process. After lunch on Wednesday, we all pitched in to clean up, and pack away our projects. We ended by trying to finish off the left overs, cantaloupe, salmon dip & crackers, bagels, pasta and stir fry. Tracy passed around her jars of home made jams and jellies, apple butter, peach, blue berry, almond/cherry to very appreciative participants.

And finally a black mail photo of Lorrie vacuuming, her husband does the vacuuming at home, so we have proof Lorrie knows how to do it! We all had a wonderful time! It was great to share space with creative, artistic like minded people. Thank you, all who participated!

I've connected this with Nina-Marie's "Off the Wall Friday" click on the badge in the right hand column to see other wonderful artists.