The Cherry Tree Quilts Retreat in the Okanagan

I`m home recovering from a big bad cold. My husband caught it in Venice, and I came down with it two days after getting home. It wasn`t so bad the first few days, but things got worse near the end of the first week, just as I was heading off for a week of teaching in British Columbia.

I flew into Kelowna, British Columbia a week ago this past Sunday to teach for a week at the Cherry Tree Quilts retreat. This is the fourth consecutive year I have taught here.

I found the weather in the Okanagan Valley perfect. Warm, but not too warm, and sunny every day The leaves were beginning to turn, and that provided a beautiful and strong contrast to the very blue skies.

Once again I stayed with my friend Barb, who is the owner of Cherry Tree Quilts. Can you beat this view of vineyards and the lake? Barb wakes up to this every day.

Cherry Tree Quilts has expanded several times in its first five years of business. It is a well-stocked quilt shop with lots of beautiful fabric, on the Main St. in Summerland, British Columbia, Canada.

Keeping true to my tradition of sharing the cats and dogs I meet in my teaching travels, let me introduce you to `Bing` (yes, as in Bing Cherry).

We had a large, bright and spacious classroom at the local United Church, where 18 eager students gathered to get creative.

On the first day we dyed fabric to be used for the nature piece each student would be designing in the last three days of class. My voice made it through day one, but it was very sore.

On Day 2 I had no voice, so our only option was for me to use a whistle to get the group`s attention, and then whisper the instructions during my demo to one of my students (Joan, who used to be a school principal). Joan imparted my instructions to the class in an authoritative fashion ;-) We managed. The topic was Liberated Radial Piecing. Although I am aware that for many students the main event for them was the three-day design class coming thereafter, they embraced a bit of liberated piecing with great gusto, and it gave them something to work on when the going got tough with their nature designs. I think Judy was the first to complete her radial design.

These are only a few of the designs that developed. There were many others, but I was sick and just didn`t get photos of all of them. This is Ellen.

 Brenda,

For the next three days I managed to have enough voice to impart what I needed to over an hour or two of talking throughout the day, and then one-on-one consultations with students. I rested my voice in the evenings.

Designing your own nature quilt (my class is called `Inspired by Nature, Designed by You`) takes a lot or front end work to choose a composition and create a pattern. After that it is a slow and painstaking process of choosing the most appropriate fabric for each part. Some great pieces were started, and I look forward to receiving photos of them when they are finished.

Beth:

Judy

Brenda

 Debra

 `
Lynne

Alicia

 Ann

 Joan

Again, this is just a sampling of pieces started in class. 

Some students brought Show and Tell of their own work, and I have to say this is one of the most experienced and talented groups of students I have taught to date. I will have to get permission to share some of their own work on my blog.

Here`s the group! What a great group, and how patient they were with me in my less than optimal state. Thank you Enid, Alison, Judy, Joan, Lynne, Carole, Val, Dianne, Beth, Anne, Grovenore, Brenda, Debra, Doreen, Ellen, Rita, Ann, and Alicia!

I had one day to tour around on Saturday before flying home on Sunday. Barb took me to a couple of wineries. We ended up having lunch at Hillside Winery, where the remaining photos were taken. Did a little shopping and headed home for a late afternoon nap.

My cough is improving, but my voice is still hoarse. I`ll be resting it more this month as I am headed to the studio soon. Stay tuned!

Teaching Visit to the Okanagan.

I spent last week in the beautiful Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, teaching at the Cherry Tree Quilts retreat. Cherry Tree Quilts is a full-service quilt shop, with a wonderful assortment of contemporary and modern fabrics, located in Summerland, British Columbia. It is owned by Barb Gillespie. She is featured in the photo below.

During my visit all my Northcott fabrics were reduced by 25%. I kept joking that "Elaine Quehl" was on sale.

My accommodations were in Barb's home, with this beautiful view of Okanagan Lake. If this looks familiar to you, it is because I have likely posted a similar photo before. This is my third year teaching here. There will be a fourth, as I am booked to come back the last week of September 2016.

Quails are a common sight in the Okanagan. I always try to get photos but am never very successful. This Mama Quail and her teenager showed up outside my window so I was finally able to get a photo.

Quails can run pretty fast!

Sunday morning I had a chance to visit Summerland's Farmers' Market on Main St.

My lecture took place in the store's classroom on Sunday afternoon. Check out these red chairs. Nicely coordinated with my Red Stool quilts and the red outfit I was wearing!

My five-day Art Quilt class took place in the United Church hall. You can see the class diving into some dyeing exercises on day 2.

Joan, who took my 5-day dyeing class last year, showed us the lovely cover-up she dyed after the class.

The class learned a lot about composition and design, and then had the chance to try out their design skills. The first exercise was a "seat of the pants" exercise, while the second involved designing a pattern.

We posted all the finished or nearly-finished works on the wall on Friday morning and spent some time discussing them and providing feedback.

Here's Beth showing her partially-finished poppy, that she designed a pattern for.

Not all my photos turned out great due to lighting issues (I wasn't using my normal camera as I was trying to lighten up on the amount of "stuff" I needed to take).

Here's an interesting piece by Effie. The jumping off point was a cross-section photo of some logs.

Connie and her poppy buds on a moody background.

Doreen's lines are simple and dramatic on this landscape.

A whimsical design by Kathy, featuring polka dots.

Wonderful abstracted cityscape by Elaine.

A landscape I could walk into by Marilyn.

Miriam did a fine job of creating depth with stairs that get progressively narrower and darker.

Roxanne created a story quilt about her travels from Alberta to British Columbia, with the deep purple triangles representing the Rocky Mountains.

We managed to stop for a class photo on Friday. 

Twenty eager and creative students! What a great week we had and I am feeling so inspired by them.

I see this same rose on Barb's property every time I teach there, but I don't always get a good photo. This time I'm happy with my photo :-)