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.