Colorado CQ Retreat

WOW! What a fun time we had in Colorado for the first (of hopefully many more annual) Crazy Quilting International Retreat. Leslie Ehrlich planned the 4-day event and was our hostess extraordinaire! We had classes and/or tutorials in beadwork and beaded seam treatments, Brazilian Embroidery, button painting, ribbon flowers and leaves, and much more! The food was great and the friendship was even greater!

Probably the highlight of the trip for most of us was the trip to the Denver Art Museum, where Leslie and Mary-Frances Main planned a behind-the-scenes trip where we were given a special showing of 5 crazy quilts (and a special treat of a tea cozy from Scotland). The curators and docents shared their preservation and storage methods with us and were able to give us information about the provenance of each item we viewed. We were allowed to take pictures (without flash), but we not allowed to touch. As quilters and tactile persons, that was difficult!

This is the group that attended the Museum, from L-R: Connie Kalina, Leslie Ehrlich, Mary-Frances Main, Debbie Quirion, Gerry Krueger, Gerry Hookstra, Cathy Kizerian, Lauri Burgesser, and Janet Popish.

Quilts in storage at the Denver Art Museum.

Gerry K and Janet cleaning up after the button-painting lesson at Jill's house.

One of the tantalizing quilts at the Denver Art Museum. Look at the stitching! The fabrics! This picture is just a teaser. I'll either post all my quilt pictures in the next few days, or provide links to a site where we attendees are attempting to pool all our pictures. To study the pictures is an incredible lesson in the stitching done by our early CQ sisters!