Crazy Quilting Retreat in Colorado

Wow, did we ever have a blast at our 3rd Annual Crazy Quilting International Retreat in Estes Park Colorado from September 30-October 3, 2010.  We affectionately call it our “September Stitch Shenanigans”, and it definitely lived up to its name this year!

This was our cabin.  There were something like six or eight bedrooms and three bathrooms.  Three of the ladies stayed in a separate, smaller cabin nearby.  The cabins are run by the YMCA, and other than a power outage once (only noticed by those of us with C-paps in the middle of the night) and the need to acquire lots more toilet paper (19 women, LOL), things were perfect!  We were even visited by elk every evening!

On Thursday evening after everyone arrived, we ate homemade soup (courtesy of Leslie and Lauri).  Yum!  Then we all sat in the living room, introducing ourselves formally and giving a little bit about our stitching backgrounds.  We had a Show & Tell, and everyone shared beautiful crazy quilting (and other things, too) that they had made.   What a way to get fired up!


Ingrid brought the Piecemakers Bird Quilt (see full quilt on their website here).  Here are just a couple pictures (I photographed every block, including detail shots).

I definitely want to include birds and flowers in my CQ by 2012.   However, if I don’t get started on it soon, I’ll have to call it my CQ by 2022....   But I digress....   Isn’t this lovely??

I brought my vintage (1882-1885) crazy quilt for viewing as well.  For detail shots, see my posts in June of 2008 (there are 5 of them) here.

On Friday morning, we had a visit from the Fabric Fairy to kick off our Stash Dash.  PAY NO ATTENTION TO ANY RESEMBLANCE YOU MAY SEE BETWEEN THE FABRIC FAIRY AND MYSELF!!   The Fabric Fairy had wings and a tiara.  She was draped in luscious fabrics and trims.  Her ample bosom diminished during her short visit as she grabbed and threw out fabric samples to all the good crazy quilters in attendance, even Connie!  (LOL).   However, I  knew she wasn’t real because her wand was only a spatula with gold lame’ !!

There were loads of fabrics (from pieces to yardage!), cottons to silks, satins and velvets.  Trims, laces, buttons, more!  Everyone attacked the piles eagerly, and managed to stop just short of running with their scissors!

Below, Lauri Burgesser, Ingrid Gardiol and Gerry Hookstra cut up a wedding dress.  Lisa Boni is in the background.

During the afternoon on Friday, we had a large dyeing and painting session, where everyone played and experimented with dyes, Adirondak inks, Shiva paintsticks, Easter egg dyes, etc.  We produced a lot of lovely fabrics, laces, ribbons and threads!  


Here, the Owners/Moderators of Crazy Quilting International pose (and I use the term loosely) for a picture.  Left to right are Hideko Ishida (Japan), Leslie Ehrlich (Colorado, USA), Kerry Leslie (Alberta, Canada), and Cathy Kizerian (Utah, USA).

The following two shots are of most (not all) of the group who went to the Dunraven Inn in Estes Park for dinner on Saturday night. 

I have pictures of everyone in following pictures, so I won’t try to caption these group shots. 

The highlight of the Retreat was the Chinese Auction, where everyone selects a number (from 1-19 in this case, since there were 19 of us).  The first person selects and opens a gift.  Person number two can either open her own gift or steal the gift from number one (number one would get to open another present).  It goes on this way until everyone has a present.  However, a particular gift can only be stolen twice.  The second “thief” (the third owner) gets to keep it permanently.


Kerry drew Number One and the gift she opened was a stunning crazy quilted teddy bear made by Lauri Burgesser.   Here she is, loving it (briefly), already heartbroken because she knew she wouldn’t be keeping it!

Hideko was Number Two.  She naturally stole the bear from Kerry and was very happy!  At least for a few moments.

Josie Trevino was Number Three, and there was no doubt about what her intentions were!  She stole the bear from Hideko, giving it a permanent home.   See how happy she is???  

Here is the (as yet unnamed, but Josie is working on it) bear, front view.   Don’t short out your keyboard by drooling on it too much!

And the back was as meticulously stitched as every other square inch of the bear!

And so the Chinese auction went on with lots of stealing and laughing and fun.  Here are Janet Popish and Freda Butler. 

Below:  Diane Matheson looks on as Connie Kalina opens a gift.

And Shari opens a gift while Jacque looks on.  There was alot of that going around, LOL.

Juli Levine shows off a vintage rocking chair pin cushion she won.  It’s been re-covered in crazy quilting.

Here’s Claudina Hruby.  Yeah, she looks demure and innocent, but don’t believe it!!  She was my "partner in crime" in the hot tub last year, so I know better.  (We constructed makeshift swimsuits of fabric scraps).

Leslie shows Ilys the beautiful tea cozy she won.  It was made by Diane Matheson. 

Sweet Colleen Anderson shows off the CQ heart and other goodies she won.  Did I tell you that Colleen’s hubby (they live in Nebraska now) and my hubby went to high school together in Utah?  It’s a long, goose-bumple-y story - one that I won’t tell you now - on how we discovered that, but we think it’s sooooo cool.  We see “reunions” in our future, LOL!

Hideko kindly gifted each of the other moderators with a vintage kimono and obi from her collection.  Here she is helping me put it on.  The obi is lying in the foreground, aqua with lovely bright pink roses and gold butterflies.  Yeah, it looks lovely over my jammies, eh??

If we weren’t already on fabric and gift overload, the Ugly Tie Swap clinched it.  Actually, all ties, ugly or not, were welcome.  Everyone just brought theirs, and we all cut pieces off the ones we liked.  If you’ve ever disassembled a tie, you know how much fabric they contain.

I’d like to thank everyone who took pictures and posted them into the CQI photo albums in our group.  That was where I got these photos (I was one of the planners of the event and was so busy that I never got my camera out).  There were alot of activities and fun that aren’t captured here, but many of the other ladies have posted them on their blogs.  Check my sidebar for links to Connie’s Stitching Like Crazy, Ivory Blush Roses (Lisa), and I’m Going Crazy You Come Too (Janet).  Plus, I know Kerry (Kerrykatiecakes2) will be posting hers soon.


Hugs,

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!

Vintage CQ Pix Day 5 Final Pix

Showing the pictures of my vintage crazy quilt has sure been fun and enlightening for me. I hope you've enjoyed it too and will let others know. Todays post is the last, and I'm including shorts of miscellaneous motifs, fabrics and seam treatments that were either not shown before or may haveonly been partially photographed.

I'd love to see pictures of YOUR vintage CQ's, so if any of you have them and can share, please invite me!

So, I'm just going to post these pictures without further ado, but if you have any questions or comments, please contact me! Thanks, and enjoy!

Vintage CQ Pix - Day 4

I'm a bit late in getting these posted this evening. I've got a summer cold (yuk!) and I've spent more time horizontal (napping) than I realized! But on to the pictures.......

What crazy quilt would be complete without a spider and her web??? This one is missing some threads, but that's understandable since she's been spinning away for over 125 years!! And isn't that blue dotted silk interesting?


Below is another qppliqued leaf. It's just an area that I hadn't previously highlighted, plus it contains some lovely fabrics (love that beige brocade over the black fan-shaped patch!)

And, of course, more nice stitching. Below are more stitched chenille flowers. AND ISN'T THAT OMBRE FABRIC TO DIE FOR?!?!?


In the very upper left portion of the picture below, you can see a fabric flower. There is a matching one in the same square, but it has shattered badly. There are also the initials "VC", an embroidered playful pup, and a good view of some of the tabs along the right border. Some of the tabs have embroidered motifs on them, others just have stitches. Can you spot both the embroidered and the appliqued butterflies in this picture?

Finally, an overall shot is below. It doesn't show everything, because I have to find a way to hang it (no sleeve) to get a proper angle and complete picture. But it gives a good feel....

Tomorrow, I'll post a series of miscellaneous motifs that I haven't posted up to now. Everytime I study the quilt, I find more interesting things....... like the switchblade motif, the cat in the hat, and........ well, just check back!!

Vintage Crazy Quilt Pix - Day 3

Today I'll be showing you some interesting motifs and things on this Vintage Crazy Quilt . Let's start with the Centennial Ribbon.
As you can see, it's not in the best of shape. However, it's the metallic fringe at the bottom that fascinates me. It is actually a separate trim in and of itself, with the header part of it stitched on with a purple herringbone stitch. The fringes are coiled.

On Monday I showed you the 1888 patch. This is the other dated patch - 1885. Presumably the quilt was made between those dates.

Above is some more incredible stitching and applique. This daisy motif is one of my very favorites.
This shot shows several motifs. The maker was apparently very fond of applique, as we've seen previously with the horse, leaves, palette and other items. In this picture we can see a hare and a crescent moon. We can also see an embroidered cat in the upper left and stitched flowers. And, of course, many more lovely seam treatments.

More symbols and traditional motifs. The initials in the friendship rings are F, L, T. There are other circles and other initials on different parts of the quilt; we'll see those as we go along. Then we have the traditional Masonic symbol of the square and compass. Perhaps the family had Masonic affiliations. The bug is very finely stitched. Usually bugs, in symbolic language, meant death or disease. Tomorrow we will see the spider and its web - probably THE most traditional crazy quilt motif. It's symbolism is generally interpreted as good luck and defense against disease (per the AQS appraiser of this quilt). So, the seamstress ran the gamut of symbols (and we haven't even talked about the meanings of the flowers!!).

More pictures to come tomorrow!!