This week I give the students in my recent Summertime Quilt Retreat a chance to shine—such as Joanne Hannon Shaw and her flower bedecked feline above. Last week my husband guest-wrote an in-depth piece about one student, Jerri Stroud. This week I want to share the work and experiences of the other eleven students who attended.

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Summertime Quilt Retreat participants: (back row, l to r) Jerri Stroud, Marilyn Davidson, Gail Wilcox, Sharon Waggy. (middle row) Susan Marchette, Karol Strang, Nancy Robins, me. (front row) Jacky Walters, Becky Shippy, Darlene Determan, Joanne Hannon Shaw, Marilyn Wright.

Harpswell, Maine Summertime Quilt Retreat 2016

The banquet room at the Harpswell Inn was full of color last week. Just take a look at some the fabric stashes!

Twelve students—some new, some returning—gathered from around the country to attend. They each chose their own subjects, which included portraits, butterflies, large animals, birds, amphibians, and more.

Here are their quilts:

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We didn’t spend all four days cooped up in the classroom, however. Besides a visit to my studio, we also had a group dinner at a local seafood restaurant, visited Land’s End, and took short lunchtime strolls down the hill to the shore of Middle Bay.

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Stevie the croc was on hand to greet visitors to my studio.
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I answer questions while we have a buffet style dinner in the studio.

Here’s a slideshow of our other outings:

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Returning student Marilyn Davidson finished a lot of quilts in the past year and brought them to share at show and tell. I have to say she is one of my star pupils. She’s got a great eye for the subtle value in her subjects. Honestly, I’m not sure why she keeps returning, but I love her energy in class, so it’s always my pleasure. Marilyn bases her quilts on photos that her husband, Joel Davidson, has taken from all over the world. What a photo library she has to choose from!

Nancy, Gail, and Karol showed off a group project they completed with quilting friends in North Carolina. The fish is based on my lionfish pattern. One of the women enlarged the pattern, then cut it into pieces and distributed the pieces among the eight participants. The twist is, the other participants didn’t know that they were creating part of a fish. When the pieces were assembled, there were a few gaps to fill in, but otherwise they used the sections as is. Wow! It turned out great! They then placed the pieced fish on a whole-cloth background and quilted it.

Hover over the images below to see captions, click on them to see enlargements.

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