A 'Green' Quilt Retreat

Just returned from our annual summer quilt retreat, this time held in Pawleys Island, SC.  We had a great week of weather and got lots of sunning, quilting, catching up with old friends and of course, lots of good eating!  I was in charge of the retreat theme this year and chose "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" as the theme.  I gave everyone a recyclable Home Goods bag filled with more bags.  I filled those zippered bags that sheet sets come in with older Home Dec fabric and other misc. fabrics.  I threw in zippers and thread  and a WalMart bag.   Then told everyone to make their own grocery bag, using the WalMart bag as a pattern. I encouraged them to make other bags using up the zippers.  Some decided to tear out the good zipper in the plastic sheet bag to create other bags.  When I spied someone being 'green', they got a prize out of my prize  bag.  Some were, ahem, recycled.  hee hee  and others were 'green' products, like a bamboo cutting board.

Bad news, I did not take ONE picture!  I know, bad blogger.  But we did have a serendipitous moment.....that went perfectly with our theme.  The Quilts of Gee's Bend was on exhibit at the Art Gallery in Myrtle Beach!  What a perfect field trip showing how these women really knew how to use up everything they could get their hands on.  I had some ambivalent feelings about the exhibit, thinking why would I want to go see...hmm..how to say this nicely.....quilts that were not the most perfectly made.  But their stories....their perseverance....their creativity and their ARTISTRY floored me!  There might have been a few 'clunkers', so to speak, but there were so many others that really had a modern, liberated look that so many quilters are emulating today.  Is their knowledge of art learned?  innate?  However they came up with their designs, it was truly a fun exhibit to see and I'm so glad that I arranged for this to be here this exhibit was here during our retreat. Okay, I lie...but how lucky for us to see these quilts, no matter what our theme! If you get a chance to see this exhibit, it will be worth your while.