VCQ Celebration 2018

It's been a busy month and we've fallen behind on the blog posts, so time to catch up!  Last weekend Sue and Elizabeth participated in VCQ's (Virginia Consortium of Quilters) biannual Celebration retreat at Smith Mountain Lake.  Every 2 years we gather for a a long weekend with 2 days of classes with nationally known teachers.  The 4-H Center at Smith Mountain Lake provides an all-in-one facility with dorms, dining hall and activity center and classrooms.  It's a lovely setting.

Along with classes other activities fill the weekend.  The first afternoon starts with a "meet the teacher" event where teachers have books, patterns and other items for sale as well as being available to meet and greet the attendees.  The after dinner program on the first night always includes a show & tell of projects from past Celebrations that people bring back finished. Here are some from this year.

This is Equal Rights, a pattern by Susan Emory of Swirly Girls that was taught in 2016.  There were quite a few of these in the show & tell which must have been gratifying for Susan as she returned to teach again this year.

These 2 were from a Bonnie Hunter class several Celebrations ago.

These 2 were from Victoria Findlay Wolfe's Double Wedding Ring class in 2016.

Another feature of Celebration is Block Lotto.  The committee chooses a block and makes kits, which members purchase, make the block, and return them to the committee.  For each block you turn in, you get a chance to win a set of blocks, or as was the case this year, one of 3 finished quilts.  In addition to the finished quilts, there were also several sets of blocks.  Sue won one of the sets of blocks, but will have to make the quilt herself.

 

The theme of the retreat was "Circle of Friends: Silver and Gold".  As in the past, there was a challenge based on the theme to make a wall quilt that illustrates the theme.  (Sometimes the challenge is a wearable item instead of a wall quilt.)  The picture above is the first place winner.

Sue's first-day class was called Circle Play with Karla Alexander.  We learned to set in an exact arc, and also to sew improvisational arcs.  Karla was also the speaker for the Friday evening program. Elizabeth was in a class with Susan Emory (Cosmos) which you'll see pictures of in show & tell.

Vendors for the weekend included Kelly Ann's of Warrenton and SewLoveLee from White Stone.  A knife sharpener was also there for one day.

Sue and Elizabeth were both in Karla's Paint Chip class on Saturday.  Above are Sue's completed blocks - it was nice to get all 20 blocks done in one day.  This pattern is in Karla's book Stack, Shuffle and Slide.

Mary Huey was the Saturday lecturer.  Her talk on color emphasized the importance of value, and made some memorable points.  In addition to previously mentioned activities, there was also a silent auction, peddler's table and raffle items.  On Sunday morning we wrap up with a show & tell of the classes from the weekend.

Melinda Bula taught fusible applique - a zinnia on the first day, and a rose on the second day.

These are some the blocks made in Susan Emory's Cosmos class. Her 2nd class was a Happy Place wall hanging.

Augusta Cole taught a strip-piecing class (above) and a mystery class (below).

Laura Blanchard taught this reversible table runner on the first day and "blocks on the move" the 2nd day.

Carolyn Friedlander taught a paper-pieced Envelopes class; her 2nd day class was hand applique.

Mary Huey's first class was a feathered star; pictured here is her 2nd class, a diamond star.

We had a great time and look forward to going back for another retreat in 2020, hopefully with some finished projects for show & tell!

Block Lotto Blocks

At our Virginia Consortium of Quilters (VCQ) biannual retreat we call Celebration coming up at the end of April, we have a "block lotto".  Whoever is in charge of this activity has selected a block design and fabric and created kits that participants can purchase for a nominal fee to make blocks.  Upon arrival at Celebration, blocks are turned in and for each block you have made, you get a chance to win a set of blocks.  If you make one block, you have one chance; if you make 5 blocks, you have 5 chances.  The number of blocks in a set will be determined by the total number turned in, but will be enough for at least a lap size quilt.

Last weekend (National Quilting Day), Sue set about making her blocks.  She completed two.  The block pattern for this year's event is paper pieced and is from the Quilters Cache website.  They call it Night and Day; we are calling it Crystal Facets, since our theme for the retreat is "Its Crystal Clear We Are Quilters".  Participants are to choose gemstone color fabrics to use along with the provided background fabric.  These are her two completed blocks, which ended up not being as difficult as she anticipated. (Figuring out a method to keep the largest piece on straight grain was a big help.)

She has one more block kit left to make, so plans to tackle that this afternoon.  Who knows, maybe a tutorial will follow?  Stay tuned.

More from the VCQ Meeting

As mentioned in a previous post, our VCQ meetings include a business meeting after lunch and show & tell at the end of the day.  Since this May meeting was at the Blackstone retreat center, we also shared Saturday morning breakfast.  Here are some scenes from those parts of the day.

 Gathering for breakfast.

 Business meeting after lunch.

A quilter consults "Madam Crystal" about Celebration 2016, our biannual retreat at Smith Mountain Lake.

 Show and tell of crumb piecing taught by Jenny Driskoll.

 Thermofax screen printing taught by Elizabeth and Sue.

 Abby Geddes taught a class on wool applique.

 Above and below, other show and tell projects.

Our next meeting will be August 8 in Culpeper.  Specific information about classes will be published in the next newsletter near the end of June.  This meeting is also the opening of registration for our 4 day Celebration 2016 retreat with national teachers that will be held at the 4-H center at Smith Mountain Lake.  Information about Celebration including teachers and workshops will be published August 1 on the VCQ website.  You might also see some preview information on our VCQ Facebook page.  We hope you will join us at an upcoming meeting to see what we are all about!

International Quilt Festival

Have you ever been to Houston to the International Quilt Festival?  The Big One?  Lucky you if you have!  I have not been so fortunate yet, but it is definitely on my bucket list.  The winners of this year's quilt competition were announced this week and if you have not seen them yet, check them out at this link.  So why am I writing about this, you may ask, if I've never been there?  Well, the Best of Show award went to Nancy Prince and Linda French, for "On This Winter Day".  Both of these quilters taught last April at our Virginia Consortium of Quilters Celebration retreat.  Nancy is known for her thread painting, and Linda is a long arm quilter.  In Nancy's newsletter that she sent out earlier this week, she says she spent 7 years (!) working on the thread painted elements for this piece, and finally determined that she needed someone else to quilt it, so asked her friend Linda.   Obviously, the pairing paid off for these quilters and their exquisite work.

Both Elizabeth and I took classes in April from Nancy.  I took her class on Thread Painting, and Elizabeth took one called Thread Sketching.  She is a very good teacher and shares all her techniques to achieve the detailed look of her thread painted quilts.  Of course, my piece has not been finished beyond the thread sketching, but here's what it looked like in progress and with stitching completed.

The first 2 pictures show a section of shrubs and forsythia stitched separately that will be applied as an applique after the other elements are in place.  Below is a tree canopy that we stitched.  A pre-printed house gets fused in front of the tree, and the shrubs fit around the front of the house.  Sorry, no completed picture yet!

The picture below shows Nancy demonstrating how to hoop the fabric for stitching.

The photo below is from the Thread Sketching class that Elizabeth took on the second day.

 

As I looked through the winners of IQF, I noticed there were a few others that have also taught at our Celebration retreat in the past.  Becky Goldsmith is an award winning applique artist, teacher, and author who taught for us in 2012.  Karen Eckmeier is another teacher/author who taught at 2 previous Celebrations, 2012 and 2010.  We have been fortunate to have an array of award winning quilters visit us here in Virginia to share their expertise and love of quilting.  Who might we see at Celebration 2016??  Please enjoy viewing the many lovely prize winning quilts of IQF 2014.