Lopez Island through my husband’s eyes

Today feels like a good day to play in my sewing room. So while I’m playing with my fabric, here are a few photos my hubby took of Lopez Island for your enjoyment.  We are still talking about what a great time we had on the island.

1. Latte art at Isabel’s Espresso.  This was part of his daily routine.
2. The Victoria Clipper sailing by the island.
3. Mailboxes by the side of the road.
4. The road less traveled got a little non-motorized traffic.
5. A fawn and her mama.
6. Mt. Baker in the distance.
7. Driftwood creature.
8. The Center Church.

Bars upon thars

And on the other end of the spectrum from the Gwen Marston workshop is this quilt that I just finished.

It is a quick an easy quilt… my newest Easy Peasy pattern called Bars. It’s made with In The Beginning’s new Modern Solids fabric.  The fabric is similar to Kaffe’s Shot Cottons, but a tighter weave (more threads per inch).  It has a really nice drapey hand.  My friend Richla quilted it with these crazy arrows and I love it.  She also talked me into trying two layers of batting. It has a layer of Dream Cotton on the bottom and Dream Wool on top.  I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it but I think it works with this looser, less dense quilting design.

The finished quilt size is approximately 60″ x 72″ and there are kits available at Gathering Fabric.  If you are going to be participating in the Western Washington Quilt Shop Hop next week, stop in and take a look!

Quilting with Gwen

My mom and I had the privilege of spending four days with Gwen Marston in her Liberated Medallion workshop on Lopez Island last week.  Can I just say that it was AMAZING!  She is such a sweet, patient teacher, encourager, story teller and all around interesting person who is preserving and passing on the art of quilt making.  And the class was full of amazing & talented women.  I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to meet Gwen &  all the women in her workshop.

My tablemate was Sharon at Grass Roots Quilting and we had so much fun!  You have to go check out her blog.  She gave a much more complete rundown of the workshop.  The next table over was LeeAnn of  Nifty Quilts, who is also an amazing quilter.  And I got to see her green Lone Star in person! Wow! I am always inspired by what she is working on.  And I got to meet so many lovely women who live near & far. It was truly an inspirational weekend!  Now, if I could just preserve that energy in the days to come. I think my sewing mojo might be back.

This is my medallion at the end of four days.  The wedges on top are going to be baskets.  One day.  I started with that old charm pack of Flea Market Fancy that was sitting in my closet and just started building from there.

One thing that Gwen & many of the women in class talked about is slow quilting.  Taking the time to let our quilts grow and develop in their own time.  Rather than making a whole quilt in a weekend, letting the parts come together slowly and letting them speak & tell a story.   Life happens while we are quilting and many times this comes through in the quilts we make.  Antique quilts were made over months of time, often in the winter when there was less work to be done. Fabrics from old clothing were used.  The quilts told stories about the lives of their makers. And from this, their quilts became interesting.  Fabrics changed throughout the quilt. Corners may have been cut off. Things may not match just right.  All give a clue to the life being lived behind the making of a quilt. Sometimes I think we get lost in this technological, informational, need it right now, kind of world we live in.  While it’s nice to have the internet at our fingertips and be inspired by quilters around the world, it can also hinder our quiltmaking by quieting our own voices.

One thing that has been on my mind these last couple of years is to slow down, simplify, and find my own voice in the things I make. My quilts only need to make me happy.  While it’s a joy when someone else likes them, it isn’t the reason or the purpose for the journey of quiltmaking.  Gwen mentioned that in her earliest days of quiltmaking she learned many of her foundational techniques from some Mennonite women that took her under their wing stitching in the basement of their church.  I would love to stitch & learn & let life speak through the quilts I make.

We also had the opportunity to see Gwen’s medallion in person. It is even more amazing in real life!  You just don’t have any clue in the book on how to visualize the scale of these blocks.  So I had to take a photo with the iron in the foreground so you can see that some of these blocks are tiny.

One of my favorites was this fussy cut bunny in the center of a liberated star.

The class was held in the historical Port Stanley Schoolhouse.

It is located in the middle of the island surrounded by farms.  It was so peaceful. And the weather couldn’t have been better.  No rain!  Sunny.  Just gorgeous.

After class one day we took some time to drive to the Center Church. Just down the hill were a few cattle grazing.  My hubby bicycled all over the island while we were quilting and then gave us a rundown of what he had seen that day. When he gets the photos off his camera I may post a few more pics of the island.

The house we rented couldn’t have been more perfect.  It was the cutest cottage just a few yards from the beach.  We could watch the ferry come & go throughout the day.

And we loved watching the sun set each day out the living room window.   We are dying to go back to Lopez Island again!

Charcoal “Charlie”

Meet Charlie, the newest member of our family.  Before we knew what was happening he was going home with us.  He’s 6 months old and part Persian. But he doesn’t have the squished nose of a Persian.  It was hard to get a good photo because he was on the move sniffing out everything in our house.

It’s a good way to start a Monday.

Random Shots

Occasionally I post photos to Flickr without posting them here on my blog. But maybe I should randomly insert a photo here now & then.  These are a couple from this last week.

* Dinner last night ::  homemade mushroom & olive pizza

* A bumble bee pollinating the raspberry bushes  ::  I never knew there were yellow & orange bees!

As always, you can click on the photos and it will take you to Flickr where there is more info & larger sizes.

Have a great long weekend in the U.S.! My hubby will be painting door trim & I will be sewing on some quilts with deadlines.  It would be nice if we could get a sun break or two and be able to enjoy a short ride on our bikes!