Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Retreat! The Leaves are coming!

No, silly, not surrendering, but a Quilting Retreat!  I am home and boy did I miss a lot of stuff here!

I am not sure about catching up any time too soon, we are hanging our quilt show this next week, so I am going to be plenty busy.  But I did want to get this done at least to the quilt top stage. Thank you all so much for the leaves, this is one incredible quilt!

The leaves were a total hit with all the ladies!  The first thing I did was to just pin them to the design wall willy nilly without any direction.  Every time someone looked up from their sewing, they would rearrange a block or a strip.  I tried to get the blocks to look like a tree but there was no way it was going to work.


There were so many ways to rearrange each leaf. 
And they were so different. 


About mid morning Linda says, "You know, it would look good with frames around some of the leaves."  So I took a section and test framed it with some of the chocolate browns I brought.  I thought it would work and everyone loved the effect.



So here is the first group of leaves framed with the brown.  I had just three browns since I really had not planned on doing this with them.  When one of the ladies suggested a trip to the Local Quilt Store, I jumped into the back seat like there was no tomorrow.
I found the most incredible tan fabric that looked like bark with dark striations throughout.  As it was being cut, I all of a sudden saw ELEPHANTS in red thin line drawings!  And everyone in the shop began searching for something else.  We found a bird, a camel, the elephant and a tiger.  Later I wished I had bought more of that fabulous fabric but the quilt shop was closed and the next day was Sunday!  Aughhh! 

I need to look online, did you know the shop had the new Moda Fabric for $13.50?  Aughhh!

It was a  work in progress all afternoon as well.   The lighter brown really made a difference in the outcome. Lots of oohing and ahhhhing over the progress.  About mid afternoon I was putting in the last seam.  All work stopped everywhere in the room........waiting........waiting........waiting..........ta dah!

I am going to quilt it with swirls that look like the wind blowing the leaves around.  And I may get my friend Jessie from the retreat to do it, she does such beautiful work.

It is beautiful!  Incredible!  Can you see your blocks in there?  They are my favorite, but don't tell anyone else!


7 comments:

Mary-Frances said...

Oh my goodness Glen, this quilt is adorable. What fun you must have had at your retreat. Love it!

Victoria Findlay Wolfe said...

oh what fun!!! Glen, they really look great together! the swirls will be so cool with it too! fabulous!

Michele said...

Just look at those lovely leaves! They look great together!

Debra Dixon said...

totally fabulous!!

CharlotteP said...

Your leaves were a really inspired choice! Congratulations, Glen!

sheila 77 said...

Terrific quilt. It must have been hard to decide on a layout when so many combinations of these lovely leaves could look good. Great idea to make leaves in the first place and great result.

Nifty Quilts said...

Ooh, this turned out great!! You had a brilliant idea to start this, and more great ideas to finish it.