CQ Retreat 2 - Fun Events & Classes

Well, your comments made me realize that I forgot a few things in my post yesterday. I never did show any pictures of the Fiber Swap or the Prom Dress Cut-Up (because I was doing them). However, I did snap a picture or two of the "Fashion Show" that some of the craziest ladies put on. Their fashions consisted of lovely ensembles gleaned from the donations to the Prom Dress Cut-up plus whatever stuff was in their suitcases.

Here Gypsy Kate leads off the show. Although we weren't expecting Kate to attend, her mother's surgery was postponed and she surprised us by showing up just minutes before the evening events began! It was good to see you, Kate!

Above, Nancy Kirk explains how the Fiber Swap will work. Basically, everyone brought 30 or more separate yards of a fiber, in a baggie. Those baggies were placed in a larger bag, which was circulated around the group, along with the baggies of all the other ladies. All at once! So, you're constantly getting a bag and passing a bag. When a bag comes to you, you pick out a baggie of fiber, add it to your stash (at your feet or in your OWN bag), and pass it on. Within 5 minutes, everyone has all sorts of fiber varieties. Cute idea and lots of fun.
Tatting Chic also asked to see the "Troublemaker's" Purse. That would be Connie's, LOL. Well, although I didn't have pictures of it from the Retreat, I do have pictures of it from our CQ International Contest. It was one of my absolute favorites, if not THE absolute favorite in the contest. You can see why. Troub... I mean Connie added great rayon trim, plus a cool handle, which offset her exquisite needlework. Check it out:

The purse front is above and the purse back is below.

My class for Saturday was making a Fiber Collage postcard with Helen Gibb. I've taken several classes from Helen, as well as attending a retreat at her home a couple years ago. Like Theresa from Colorado (...talk about troublemakers! LOL) I'm one of Helen's biggest fans.

These are some of the finished goodies that Helen displayed for us. Wow, her beautiful wares sure get the creative juices flowing! Below is one of Helen's Fiber Collage postcards that we used for inspiration. Helen had prepared kits (image, background fabrics and all the trims) for lots of kits, and we were each able to select our own to assemble, Below are several finished or almost finished postcards from some of the students in the class; Helen had us stop at one point and go around to see each other's work (and snap pictures!). I'm sorry I don't know or don't remember who these lovely postcards belong to.

I was able to finish my postcard in class (with the exception of the zig-zagging around the edges. The print I selected was one of my favorites, and very cheery. Also, I couldn't resist adding two tiny lace flowers (can you find them?) that I'd dyed with potassium permanganate.

That night, Saturday, the fundraising auctions were held. First there is the silent auction, where items that were donated by vendors, attendees, or anyone else (usually smaller items like baskets of fabrics, books, small handmade items, and the like). They're set out on tables and you go around drooling and writing down your best offer on a slip of paper (with your name), dropping it into a bag by the item. When the silent auction closes, the bids are tallied and the highest bidder gets the item. Then the REAL fun begins, and one by one, the quilts and larger donated items are auctioned off. Here we see Vicki Clements doing her Vanna White imitation as she strolls around the room, showing off the lovely totebag donated by Janet Popish. There was lively bidding on this item!

By the way, the lady with the long white hair in the photo above is Karen Snyder Downs, who will be heading up the future Crazy Quilting Retreats. Nancy Kirk announced her retirement. There are discussions going on as to whether the Crazy Quilt Society (a non-profit group headed by Nancy Kirk) will continue, or whether a new non-profit will be formed (with an official Board of Directors at the helm to ensure longevity) to take its place. Watch for discussions about this. It's more just legal and accounting issues that need to be addressed; the average CQ'er won't see any difference except a possible name change.....

Above: lots of participation in the auction.

The hottest items this year were the memorial quilts made with blocks donated by volunteers and friends of Dieuwertje Kuijl of The Netherlands, who died last August. She was loved by all and remembered fondly. Here's a picture of Dee from the 2007 retreat - she was one of the fashion show "models", LOL! We miss you, Dee.

Below are the ladies who helped coordinate the RAFFLE quilts. Raffle tickets were sold for $1 each. Quilt blocks donated by ladies from CQ quilt guilds and online groups were made by these ladies (and others) into lovely quilts.

Left to right are: Mona Berning, Willa Fuller, Kate Hollifield and Sue Ockwig.

In addition to bidding successfully on a 3-block quilt, I won the Grand Prize quilt! It's a 12-patch beauty with work donated by many ladies. I will feature that in a separate post soon.

My class on Sunday was Machine Felting for Crazy Quilting (or some title like that). Our teacher was the lovely and talented Mary Anne Griffin. I'm also a big fan of hers ever since we had quilt blocks published together in the 2002 Quilting Arts Calendar. She was Miss April, I was Miss November. (Martha Green was at the Retreat, too; she was Miss June). But I digress......... here is our class project. Mine is not quite done (had to catch a plane home so I left early). The flowers, leaves and ribbon need to be tacked down and the Swarovski crystals glued in place properly. But I love it, and am sooooo charged up to experiment more with my Embellisher!! Thanks, Mary Anne, for a great class!

And then I got Karen South to snap a picture of Donna Johnson & I.

And in turn, I surprised her by snapping a picture of her! And our dear Freda Butler is on the right.
In the next post I'll share all the goodies I purchased and beautiful gifts I was given. And I'll get some pictures taken of the wallhanging I bought and the quilt I won.

Hugs,