Hello,
This wonderful little blue flower filled in the neighbors front lawn and made me smile on my walk yesterday. They are so small only about a fourth on an inch across and so plentiful. I wore a smile for a long way down the street were it was refreshed several times as I came across several more mini fields of the little blue bundles.
I have had a full week with three days of Quilting Retreat at the Schweinfurth and the meetings of both QuIG’s and Divas. The retreat was great stimulation. It was good to see old friends and to see all that folks were doing. Norma was making hostess gifts. One of the five she did is in the background of this shot. 
Susan was quilting away at pieces that needed that to be completed. Great colors here.
Sally was piecing and assembling a one block wonder that was based on a fish print fabric. Watching her do the arranging of the blocks was wonderful because every time I looked up the work looked different.
Nancy G. did hand work on one of the row by row projects and this little quilt of NYC.
Linda L used the retreat to add boarders and based a big quilt of 110”x 110” that her sister had asked her to finish. She had to crawl around on the top of the tables to do all the basing in the center. 
The work is wonderfully complex and will look great on the bed when it is complete.
Victoria worked with the fabric she had created in Pat Paulie’s class 
in the fall. This shot is of one of the early layouts. She made lots of changes before the retreat was over. I love the bright colors.
Seated behind me was a gal named Janet W. She made her fist quilt at the retreat. I sure enjoyed working with her too. I think she is hooked.
Lots of wonderful things were going on at the QuIG’s meeting too. Both Linda and Angela were showing off pictures that are going to be inspirations for new work.
Liz is still working away on the Splendid Simple Blocks project. 
Getting a new pattern every three of four days, is that is only a 8” block is very doable she says. She also is working away on big projects too. I just love this whole silk cloth work that she intends to start quilting soon.
Most of the Diva meeting went to talk about the up coming show that will open on June 3. Ruth did a great job with the post card.
Noel is doing service project quilts for the Tow Path guild. They are beautifully colored.
It is really great when folks bring works in progress. That is what Anne did. This is a Water quilt 
she shared with us . She asked for suggestions on how to quilt it. Now how she quilts chooses to do this will be interesting to see.
Lori also brought a project that is in an early stage. She has felted, fused and already added paint to the surface. All this before she begins to stitch on top. I am looking forward to watching it grow over time because I already love all the texture.
Progress Report: Ice on Vincent This quilt is in the stretching/flattening stage. I got help from Nancy Bales at the retreat on how to get it flat and now it is drying after a lot of steam ironing. Hopefully I will get a back on it this week.
Blue Stone I am still building 
up the surface with stitching on this work. I like this process,but it is very slow and tiring. Only about three more hours of work until I am done…… I think.
Along the Shore This is another of Ethel’s UFO’s I am completing. This is also my hand work project for the time being.
Wine and Cheese
I stared this project to relieve the pressure that all the free motion work on Ice and Blue Stone were creating in me this week. I did use a lot of the fabric that I had altered in this project. Most of the commercial orange is Ethel’s material.
Memory Map- Columbus Junction I did not do a lot of work on this project this week. I did add the spring flowers however. I like the Jack in the Pulpit the most. The Dutchman’s Britches are well shaped, but I wish they were a bit whiter. Perhaps I will add some paint to the surface.
Lion King –Cherrywood Challenge At the retreat I started this project. I had purchased the kit at the Chicago Quilt Festival when I was visiting with Sharron. 
First I did a little research and some drawing.
Then I stated building up the background. One of the limits on this challenge is to use only the Cherrywood fabrics. The pack was two shades of gold and dark brown fabric. Most of the piece is to be from these fabrics. The background is one of the gold’s. But it is not the full 20” that is required on a side, so I added the gray at the bottom.
That is were I will put the masks when they are done. At the end of day one I did the loin’s body. I was tired and it was made backward. Fixing that was the first job of day two. 
I then made the main and stopped working on the project because I want to do the face with embroidery work. The whole thing is not due until July so I can take my time.
New Work Before I left home I had pulled out all my purples to do a new project using this collage as my starting point. It is early in the building of this work but I feel I am staying with the feel of it at this point.
Label Block # 50 I will take help were ever I can get it. The label at the top “ worker pant” is from my grandson.
Keep Creating
Carol
Hello-
I did rubbings with chalk and paint. This example is of one of my early works. Susan’s daughter Rebecca worked up stairs and completed a quilt top.
Then she tried another color combo of the same block and this little work is a corner example of that. I like how the high contrast creates a glow effect here. It was a good day and I enjoyed myself.
Progress Report: Dappled Sunshine This three challenge quilt is done now. It is 58” l X 45” w. I have not worked this big in a long time. There is pebble quilting in the orange areas and strait quilting in the tan and brown areas. 
I used some very old altered fabric like the cream with lines of paint at the top of this photo. The area under the brown strip is ice dyed from this spring. There is also some canvas in this
and a print I did in paint using a doily as the resist.
Deep Jellies I have started doing hand quilting in the areas of solid blue in this quilt. I like the contrast. It will be a slow project too as there is lots of blue.
I have now completed the top assembly of this work. Ethel had collected all the fabric in one bag. I have put together all the squares and done the lay out. Now on to the quilting step. Great fun.
Generational Whispers I continue to work away on this project. I re drew Alexis’s head because it was too small. I decided I did not like my drawing of Gwen so I re did her too. I took this work with me on Monday and got some help from Susan about how to move forward on this challenge.
Wool work The base is mostly down on this work. I will start to add in fabric and yarn this week.
This work got buried under the other stuff this week and did not get any attention. That sort of thing happens when one has so many projects going on at the same time.
Label Block #66 I just keep plugging away on these.
