Virtual Retreat 2016

[Dawn S.]

I LOVE it Dawn!! Wish I was up there so I could vote for you :P

Dorothy

[Jules M.]

Dawn! I just love your license plate! The birch trees & confetti colors just sing!

[wendy w.]

Lovely Dawn, they're great

[wendy w.]

Dawn,
Your license plate is soooo nice. Did you put a piece of organza over the confetti? I've not tried this technique, YET.

[Geneva C.]

Dawn, that is awesome!!! The colors and texture are wonderful.

I vote for you!

geneva

[Geneva C.]

Dawn its a wonderful license plate!!
Barb

[Geneva C.]

Dawn, it's beautiful!

Joyce, can't wait to see what you come up with for quilting the deer panel for your customer.

I enjoyed the extra virtual champagne and we survived the weekend of high school boys! Eight boys + the college student leader, plus myself, dh and our 10 yr old --- it was a busy weekend! MUCH food was consumed (only one meal was "officially" meant to be eaten at our house, but anyone who has or has ever had teenage boys knows.....we went through a lot of food!), and much fun was had. These teens were all very polite, cleaned up after themselves, kept the volume to a pleasant level, really nice house guests to have. We will likely do this again next time --- at the same time, thankful it's only once a year!

Today I run a million errands, then maybe sew in the afternoon. Hopefully a stop at Lowe's (hardware store) to get the board to use for a design board (I forget what it's called...the lightweight foam core board stuff). I've realized I had better not sew these blocks together until I see them laid out, so I can really get the placement/movement of the light to dark water right.

[Dawn S.]

Thank you everyone for your kind comments! It was a really fun piece to do.

Luann, the quilt is covered with black tulle. In my Noriko Endo class, she specifies black tulle. No other color. But, she does the background first, sets it with one layer of tulle and quilting, and then does the foreground, and another layer of tulle and quilting. Since this was a small piece, I laid everything out, and then placed one layer of tulle on the top, and then quilted it. It was a bit tricky, but I liked the outcome better. Each time you add a layer of tulle, it darkens what's behind it. But, in some landscapes, that is the effect you want for the background.

Heather, I'm glad all of the boys were well behaved! That was quite an undertaking. I admire you for being a young mom and still fitting into your schedule a lot of quilting and quilts! I didn't start quilting until I was in my 50s. Our three kids were in high school, but were, thankfully, pretty independent. But, I did have to share my quilting time with all of those high school sport practices and games! Being an at home mom, I was always volunteered to do the driving of part of the team(s) to the away games!

Dawn

[E.M. T.]

Love the lic. plate..Did I understand right? that the tree trunks were plain neutral and you did the markings with
marker?? Sure looks good !.

[Dawn S.]

Marilyn....sort of! Here is a picture of the fabrics I used. I was able to cut the larger trees, crosswise, from this really ugly fabric, and then I used the backside of the fabric, and just started working with pens. As you can see there is some character already in the fabric, which is a bonus. The short, fat tree in the middle of the picture was my first practice piece. That fabric is plain white. The black and white batik is the fabric I cut the smaller trees from. This is the backside, so has that wonderful splotchyness that some batiks have on the back from the wax resist. I painted the trees first before cutting. Much easier for smaller work. I used a black fine line Sharpie, a black fat Sharpie, and a silver fat Sharpie. I have a workshop in about a month where we will be learning to use the Inktense watercolor pencils. I'll try those for a couple of trees and share the results from that, too.



Dawn

[E.M. T.]

Thanks, Dawn...so cool what you can do with strange fabric, isn't it ?? I've been wanting to try those Inktense pencils,
so will will be really interested in what you may be able to share here.

[E.M. T.]

Dawn, great looking license plate, sounds like you had fun doing it.

Heather, congratulations on a successful weekend.

For light entertainment a short video about the city of York http://www.yorkmix.com/business/this-stunning-new-film-of-york-will-make-you-fall-in-love-with-the-city-all-over-again/ Lorna do you recognise some of these places?

[Catherine S.]

Rosemary, that was so very interesting. I would love to visit York someday.

Dawn, love the license plate and the info on how you did the trees. Great work!

Heather, I am glad your weekend went so well. You can be proud of your young men.

[Catherine S.]

Dawn--I love what you did with that "ugly" fabric. Thanks for telling your process. I have used the Inktense pencils and love them.

[Catherine S.]

Rosemary - Wonderful u-tube of York!
Sign me up
Barb :-)