Tag: Cotton Patch Quilters

A scrappy Retreat

Tomorrow I leave for 5 days at my quilt guild retreat.

Our retreats are SO much fun and I am truly excited about it. We meet in one large room with the cafeteria on the floor beneath us. We sleep in rooms a few hundred yards away.

The schedule is simple…..

Sleep…..Quilt…..Eat……Quilt…..Eat…..

Quilt….Eat…..Quilt…………REPEAT!!

It doesn’t get much better than that!!

At this point, I am normally struggling to figure out what to take with me to work on, but not this year.

That is because I am going TOTALLY SCRAPPY!!

Last weekend I told you about the new quilt that I have designed to use up my 2-inch squares…..

A NEW quilt in the midst of the madness!

So, I spent bit of time cutting white squares to add to the scraps….

….and now it is boxed up and ready to go…..

Then there is the scrap quilt that I started several retreats ago. I had lost interest in it but decided to throw the blocks up on the wall anyway…..

….and was pleasantly surprised how the reds pop out. Then I started thinking about ways that I could quilt it to FURTHER emphasize those red strips.

SO….. it is also being added to the retreat bag…..

Then there is a quilt that I started at another retreat to use up my marbled fabrics from MANY years ago. ….

I’m still uncertain about what the layout will be but I hope to continue making strips to play with!!

FINALLY, a number of years ago I purchased all of the hand-dyes from a friend who was going out of business. She also threw in all of the off-cuts that came from the trimming process…..

LOTS of off-cuts!!

I have thought about these for a while, wondering what I could use them for. Then I had an epiphany…..

STRIP BLOCKS!!!

Okay…I will throw it in as well.

Do you think that I am taking enough???

PLUS, I want to leave some time for sitting in my favorite spot and THINKING!!

This Spring retreat is a perfect time for planning what I want the summer to look like!

Come back this week for progress updates!!

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One of my favorite things about quilting is motivating others and helping them in their quilting journey. As part of this endeavor, I LOVE to present programs and workshops to groups and guilds around the world. All of my programs work well with Zoom meetings, and I would love to speak to your group.

You can find out more at this link…..

My Guild is “Pretty In Pink”

As you know, our latest guild challenge was “Pretty in Pink” and this was my entry…..

….but you already know that because you toiled with me thru the process!!

Here are the rest of the amazing quilts in the challenge…..

The Best Use of Color award went to Pat S.

Innovative Design award was given to Sharon R.

…and Best Overall Design was awarded to Rosie C.

Here are the rest of the quilts and their makers….

Mary G made this from a design that her granddaughter found…..

Pat S ALWAYS makes more than one challenge and this kaleidoscope was her second….

Scott M used some old blocks and transformed them into this quilt…..

Barbara R. gave us this pink dahlia…..

….while Betsy V provided this darling flower and bird…..

Mai W and her sister made this “Home for the Holidays”, complete with real lights on the roof…..

Jan G framed a wonderful embroidery with some fun blocks…..

I apologize for not remembering who made these last two, but I love the Chenille….

Finally, this very sweet tulip applique. Look at the embroidery that was added to the rick-rack….

Our guild stepped up and accepted this challenge and the quilts that came from it were perfect, perky and most importantly…..

We haven’t heard what our next challenge will be but I can’t wait!!

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The Quilts of Cotton Patch…..

Here are a few more quilts from my guild’s latest show.

This first one was one of my favorites…..

“Winter’s Last Laugh” by Pat Schroder

I love the fabrics that she chose…especially the gradation in the background.

She also made this quilt as part of a “deconstructed” challenge…..

“Improv” by Pat Schroder

I love how she used the chains to connect all of the pieces.

Another of our quilt designers is Christina Dickerson. This is one of her designs……

“Cross Track” by Christina Dickerson

You might want to check out her website….. CMarieQuilts

I also enjoyed the geometric lines in this quilt…..

“Kozmic Debriz” by Mai Whigham

and, have a look at the quilting on this improv pieced quilt….

“Rose On A Hill” by Janelle Lang

We showed a number of collage quilts and this one was a favorite…..

“Phoenix Rising” by Sue Trinrud

Finally, I love this quilt that was part of our “Bear With Me” challenge…..

“Bear In The Woods” by Linda Murray

There are so many things that I like about this quilt…… the alternate colorway, the look on the bear’s face, the bird in the corner, and the tree trunk!!

So….there are a few more quilts from the amazing quilters of the Cotton Patch Quilters Guild in Athens, GA.

Now I can’t wait for our next show in 2025!!

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If you have an interest in ruler quilting, check out this online course…..

Click HERE for more information

More from the show….

You have waited for a week, so let’s look at a few more quilts from the Cotton Patch Quilters Show in Athens, Georgia.

This first one was a favorite quilt……

“Little Amsterdam” by Mary Beth Tawfik

In particular, I love the shape and design of the houses. They look EXACTLY like pictures that I have seen from Amsterdam. Unfortunately, I haven’t been there myself but hopefully, sometime I will get to experience them.

It was made even more enjoyable when I realized that Mary Beth had actually designed the quilt herself and that the pattern was for sale. Check out this ETSY site for more

This next one is a piece of quilted art…..

“Time & Relative Dimensions in Space” by Charles Nicolossi

Charles joined the guild 10+ years ago, starting out as a traditional quilter but quickly moving his talent into other, more non-traditional work. His designs are quilted onto canvas and then stretched over a wooden frame. As you can see, he makes good use of his machine’s decorative stitches!!

And HOW can you not like a quilt that has a Dr. Who Tardis on it???

This quilt was a work of great patience…..

“2000 in 2022” by Carol Ann Burns

It is made of 2-inch squares….2,000 of them to be exact!!!

I especially love the way it sparkles!!

Speaking of sparkle, have a look at this one……

“Raindrops” by Hanna Chupp

Personally, I would LOVE to take a walk in the rain if it was in these colors!!

Finally for today are two quilts by the same artist. Sharon took an online class during COVID and has gone to town with these…..

“Flower Garden” by Sharon Rockholt
“Leaves” by Sharon Rockholt

Don’t you love the dimension and colors in both of these pieces??

As you can see there is SO much talent in our little group of 100 quilters. Come back tomorrow for more!!

If you enjoy this blog, please share it with your friends!!!

Thank you…….

More from my local guild show…

Yesterday I showed a few of my favorite quilts from our local guild show. Today let’s see a few more from some of our newer members…..

Laura Leiden has been a locally known artist for many years. When our kids were in school together, she was known for her much sought-after calligraphy. In March of 2021, she decided to make a quilt for her new grandson and things took off from there!!

In her newest quilt series, she has started combining two of her loves…..alcohol inks and quilting.

I am actually the proud owner of TWO of her alcohol ink designs……

But, alcohol ink doesn’t translate well on fabric!! One of her friends sent a photo of her design to Spoonflower and had it printed on fabric. Laura then added lots of free-motion quilting and came up with this great quilt…..

“Bursting” by Laura Leiden

What a great way to merge two loves!!

I particularly like this piece…..

“The Passage” by Laura Leiden

Just look at the faces…..

Oh my….. I would have NEVER seen that in the design!!

Another of our newer members is Rosie Crockett. She brings so much creativity to all of her quilts and they are such fun to see!!

For our “Animal Portrait” challenge, she presented this Steam-punk bird…..

“Maggie Vern Bird Steampunk Magpie” by Rosell Crockett

Just look at the zipper in the tail and the scissors for the beak…..

This is one of those cases where “my mind doesn’t think that way!!”

She made this quilt for our “Silhouette” challenge….

“Walking in the Shadows” by Rosell Crockett

Then there is this portrait of her 14-year-old grandson…..

“Theo@14” by Rosell Crockett

Her desire was to make a portrait quilt in the “Modern” aesthetic. She definitely accomplished that!!

Rosie is so versatile in her work. This quilt design was based on the “Franciscan Desert Rose” china pattern and was appliqued on vintage hotel napkins…..

“Aunt Mary’s Desert Rose” by Rosell Crockett

This was one of the first quilts that she showed to our guild and my first indication that she was someone to watch!!!

Finally, I will show her “Bear With Me” challenge quilt…..

There are SO many fun elements in this quilt…..from the bear in his den, the salmon in the stream and the bee hive in the top corner.

These are just TWO of the amazing artists in my guild…..don’t you want to join us???

I will be showing more show photos over the next couple of weeks so stay tuned!!!

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