Our 'Workt by Hand' retreat is a collaboration. For 6 years Sally, Alice, Melissa and myself have taught this creative workshop once a year. It is a fabulous experience for the 4 of us as well as the 48 participants we usually have attending.
The last few years we have held it in a small town in Ohio called Tipp City. It starts on a Wednesday at lunch time and we are able to immerse ourselves in a project for 2-1/2 days.
The really fun part is that we all start with the same kit and then get to create our own unique piece.
This is what we started with this year.
A wonderful piece of Japanese linen and hand dyed wool. The tree and 'WORDS' was our theme.
A wonderful piece of Japanese linen and hand dyed wool. The tree and 'WORDS' was our theme. We were then to add our own borders and do our own thing........
Here are the wonderful pieces that were created by us. The four of us meet the night before the retreat and this is when we unveil our piece. It is always exciting to see how each of us interpreted the theme and also how individual they are and that we are able to hold onto our own style.
This is Sally's piece. What a great pillow! She added covered buttons and words, some stamped in leather.
Melissa created a very unique piece adding hand made buttons and words printed on all types of fabric using her computer.
Alice created a 'Faith Tree' adding rug hooking and buttons made out of clay.
My piece was about my 50 years of life. I added a few borders some pieced with textural fabric then 50 different birds and then 4 butterflies which are my wonderful children. My words were added using metal stamped pieces which my son Jason made. I worked on this piece throughout my travels across Australia so it has many fond memories stitch in the layers.
We also do a small project on Thursday night. This year we made a small sewing bag. Each one of us designed a small patch to be stitched on the outside.
More to follow!!! I will be updating with student pictures soon. Today we are packing for Quilt Market in Pittsburgh. Sign up on the blog as a follower and you will be notified when I post again.Creative stitching
Sue
Beautiful pieces! Have fun at the quilt show!
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun project for a challenge. Love the different ways everyone did theirs.
ReplyDeleteDebbie
Those are amazing! Yours has so many things on it it takes a while to see it all but they are so neat! How on earth did you come up with so many birds?? WOW!
ReplyDeleteWe are crying, or maybe dyeing to do this same type of challenge with our yahoo group, so much inspiration from each piece.
ReplyDeleteNancy
Wow, I love your blog, and your website. What wonderful quilts. I am inspired and I am pulling out several of my stalled applique projects and reinventing them. I hope you're coming back to Australia...I would love to take one of your classes, however, this morning I will be ringing Karen at the Quilters Store and seeing if she has any copies of your book!
ReplyDeleteoh wow! This is truly a many "gasp" post! :-) What a wonderful workshop it must be and how I love how the four of you have interpreted the theme. The covered buttons are gorgeous - and Sue, your tree is a cacophony of life - I can hear it singing from here! Have fun in Pittsburgh
ReplyDelete