Today is the last full day of my quilt group’s retreat in Central Oregon. Our fellow Quister Deborah had to leave early but Peggy and Vickie and I are still here enjoying the brilliant sunshine, crisp air, and each other’s company. We are also taking great pleasure in surveying our various and sundry completed projects and works-in-progress.

Vickie is working on two wool appliqué projects. In my last post, you saw one of them in a tableau. Here is a close-up of that project, bursting with vivid color and texture:

The project measures 12″ x 15½” and contains 35 multilayered wool discs, each uniquely embellished.

Vickie is also working on a series of seasonal pillows. Here is her Summer Sampler pillow, designed by Debbie Busby of Wooden Spool Designs. It measures 14″ x 16″:

I finished another sewing machine dust cover, number four. I didn’t need another one but I was teaching a class at the Pine Needle recently and needed to demonstrate a particular construction technique. This one is made with three prints from the Madrona Road line by Violet Craft for Michael Miller:

I’m working on some other projects that I can’t show you yet. Birthdays coming up. ‘Nuff said.

Peggy finished the most wonderful quilt while she was here. Last summer she took a class from Janet Fogg called “Illustrating the Past” in which a fabric piece from the past — it could be a quilt, a quilt top, a fragment, a block — is updated with piecing and appliqué techniques to create a new original work. Peggy had been given a vintage quilt containing blocks of appliquéd flowers. She transformed it in the most amazing way:

Here is a close-up of that sunshine face:

The sun is pieced and then appliqued to the original quilt. Peggy hand-quilted parts of the face and some of the rays.

Here’s another look at the quilt, which measures 74″ x 88″:

The batting in the appliquéd blocks had migrated so badly that Peggy made a slit in the side of each block, removed the batting, and replaced it with new batting. Then she sewed narrow strips around the blocks to cover the slits. The strips add more color to the quilt and tie the old and new elements together. The result is a highly original quilt that honors the past while celebrating the present.

Peggy is also a talented rug hooker who has designed and hooked several rugs. Here is a look at her current work-in-progress, an image of her beach house on the Oregon coast:

This wool rug will measure about 25″ x 48″ when it’s finished.

As you can see, my creative Quisters and I have had a great week!