Intuitive Landscape Design Retreat
At FivePine Lodge & Conference Center
Monday-Friday, Sept 22-26, 2008
$500 (includes instruction and meals)

Let the flowing forms in nature be your inspiration in this design exploration workshop. Land, water, sky, rocks, details in leaves and wood can all be starting points for this process. Line is the focal point of design in this workshop. Several exercises are planned to build your confidence in piecing, color, value, and design skills. Then the emphasis will be on the planning and execution of an original design focusing on a color palette that excites you using inspirational photos that you have brought along. In the end you will have documented your journey in a journal-like format and created a one-of-a-kind quilt.

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Art Images to Fabric Retreat
With Lura Schwartz-Smith
At FivePine Lodge & Conference Center
Monday-Friday, Sept 22-26, 2008
$550 (includes instruction and meals)

Working with images of your choice, produce a small art quilt top from your own photographs or drawings while learning to draft distorted traditional blocks and construct textures with free form paperless curved piecing techniques. Experience use of textile inks, markers, pastels and paints to play with imagery. Design and composition exercises are explored, as well as the opportunity for in-depth shading and drawing assistance in rendering images on fabric. Emphasis is on individual applications of techniques, and the fun of developing your own style.

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Designing Art Quilts Workshop
With Lura Schwartz-Smith
At the Stitchin’ Post
Sunday & Monday, Sept 28 & 29, 2008
$100

We are all artists, whether or not we have yet discovered it. In this workshop, you will learn some of the basic elements of design, do a few simple, fun drawing exercises, and become acquainted with some of the many easy tools and techniques available to help design and produce original art quilts with images you choose. Bring photographs or simple drawings and design your own art quilt pattern from these. We will be using textile inks, markers and paints, so come dressed to play and have fun. All skill levels are welcome.

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Forget Me Not Log Cabin
Betsy Rickles
Monday, Sept. 22, 2008
9:30 am - 3:30 pm
$30

These blocks are a whimsical version of the traditional log cabin block. Betsy will inspire you with design ideas, as well as color possibilities, and you will end up with an intuitive log cabin piece that is all your own.

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Inspirational Hike
Valori Wells
Tuesday, Sept. 23
9:00 am - 1:00 pm
$45 (includes a light lunch)

Bring your camera and a small sketch book and hike an easy trail, finding color and design inspiration along the way. A professionally trained photographer, Valori will share ideas for taking interesting photos, as well as discussing ideas gleaned from nature on the hike.

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Quilting Lines and Designs
Robin Ryan
Tuesday, Sept. 23
1:00 pm - 4:00 pm
$20

Robin is a renowned quilter with a unique flair for matching up quilting lines with design elements of a quilt top. Robin is the featured quilter for the 2008 Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show.

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Crazy Nine-Patch from Your Stash
Ruth ingham
Wednesday, Sept. 24
9:30 am - 3:30 pm
$30

Using coordinating fabrics from your stash, you will cut nine fabric squares, stack them, and re-cut them. The pieces are reassembled in different arrangements using a mathematical formula to make nine different blocks.

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Whimsical Container Style Appliqué Design
Tonye Phillips
Thursday, Sept. 25
9:30 am - 3:30 pm
$30

Tonye will help you design a simple quilt or block, pick colors and fabrics (if you need assistance), and give you a lesson on needle-turn applique. She has a new book out called Hand Appliqued Quilts.

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Cascading Kaleidoscopes
Judy Johnson
Friday, Sept. 26
9:30 am - 3:30 pm
$30

Judy has combines her knowledge of mathematics and love of symmetry to create a Kaleidoscope-like quilt composed of octagon blocks in several different sizes. It is a really simple technique with stunning results.

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Unexpected Combinations Retreat
With Janet Fogg
At FivePine Lodge & Conference Center
Monday-Friday day, Sept 28 - October 2, 2009
$575 (includes instruction and meals,
Friday's instruction ends at noon.)

In this workshop, Janet will help you explore the creation of unexpected imagery. Compositions form this class involve unusual juxtapositions of subject matter which do not occur in reality, giving your quilts concept and dimension that might not otherwise be achieved. Exercises in creative thinking will generate ideas for individual quilt projects to be designed and sewn in class. Janet will demonstrate how to combine images into a drawing for projection, pattern drawing, and curved machine piecing. Come prepared to unleash your creativity and design a quilt that is not only beautiful, but conceptual as well.

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The Value of Value Retreat
With Carol Taylor
At FivePine Lodge & Conference Center
Wednesday-Friday, Sept 30 - October 2, 2009
$575 (includes instruction and meals)

Want to learn how to use value to make your quilt stand out and "flow" from light to dark, while making a vertical or horizontal quilt? This retreat emphasizes a simple, hands-on method of learning to use fuse patchwork with couched circles. Here is a chance to use some of those fancy and unusual fabrics that you've been attracted to, but didn't know how to use. We will tame them by fusing, and learn to mix them with other textured-looking fabrics. See http://www.caroltaylorquilts.com/ for more information on Carol.

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