Retreat 2015—It’s a Wrap!

by Christine Barnes

Oh my gosh, I don’t know where to start, we had such a wonderful week! I’ll begin with our “student body” photo, taken by Rejeanne’s husband. (They came from Canada.) This was taken on the last morning, and our retreat mascot, Pinto the cat, even made it into the shot.

Sandra and Heidi will be posting in the next two weeks, and they’ll have lots of pics and observations to share with you. Their students and classes were amazing, just amazing.

Mary Boalt, our Artist in Residence, set up shop in my classroom, and we were fascinated and inspired by her work. You’ll hear more about her painted canvases and her trunk show in next week’s post. Here’s one canvas in the early stages.

See how she lays out her palette.

We checked on Mary’s progress on each and every canvas. (Note the brownies front and center, thanks, Cindy.)

My workshop, “Transparency,” far exceeded my expectations, and I came home tired but elated. This mock-block is an example of a parent/child transparency, as if the center fabric is the logical “child” of the light and dark “parents.” (By Sally? Trudie? My apologies.)

An ethereal parent/child block.

Blocks by four students. Fascinating how varied they were.

Layered transparency blocks, as if a light area in the center of each block is hovering over a larger darker area:  Here the inner shapes vary more in value, and pattern adds another element.

Cindy brought even more pattern into the equation, with lots of Marcia Derse prints and Grunge semi-solids.

The illusion that a two large triangles, one light and the other dark, overlap to make a smaller triangle of see-through color. By Marjorie. Love the black and white and gray.

Linda hard at work on her violet star. Did you know this block is called “Party Hat”?

Some layered transparent circle blocks by Ellen, in shot cottons:

And Ellen’s quilt takes shape . . .

Mary Ellen’s fabrics, looking very Zen:

And her units, which will be joined into oh-so-modern blocks.

Marjorie’s circles, in serene style.

Karen’s mysterious circles:

Pattern really helps to “fool the eye” in transparency.

Trudie’s circles. Do you get the idea that I loved watching these circles take shape???

Our room the day of “walkabout” (open house), the walls “papered” in color.

One final exercise, created by Rejeanne.

Pinto was kept busy with the toy Carey brought for him. Every time he rolled it, a treat came out. It will be great to see him next year—he’s quite the celebrity.    The sunset on the last night. Take our word for it, that sun was ORANGE. A big thank you to all our students for making our second retreat such a success. You were the best! And for those of you who couldn’t come, thanks for going “on retreat” by way of pictures and commentary. Be sure to tune in for more inspiration and fun from Sandra and Heidi in the next few weeks. And start making plans for next year—we are!

Christine