Still In My Blue Period

I spent several days this week at the Trinity Valley Guild Retreat.  I love retreats.  Where else can you sit at your sewing machine from morning until midnight?  Where else will someone prepare all of your meals and do all of the cleanup?  Where else can you get a daily massage to soothe your aching back?  Where else can you sew with 75 of your closest friends?

The Trinity Valley Retreat is held at a hotel and spa on Lake Texoma.  It's a lovely place, and very quiet in January.  We had a beautiful view out of our bedroom window:

We each had plenty of work space, and Wendy and I put up design walls near our sewing stations:

Wendy was working on a large "wonky square" quilt.  Mine was much smaller.

Since it is still January, I had taken a pile of blue fabrics with me.  My first task was to finish the third bouquet quilt:

Blue Bouquet #3, 26" x 38"

The next day, I made two improvisational pieces with my blue fabrics and the scraps from the bouquet quilt.  I had taken along some fabric that I had screen printed and some fabric I had clamp dyed (itajime shibori), so I threw them into the mix.

Subdivisions 17, 23" x 33"

My fellow retreaters decided that the largest circle looked like a big eye, so they embellished it for me while I was out getting a massage:

The "Eye of Sauron", a collaborative effort

For the record, I removed the eye-lashes.  I don't like my quilts to stare back at me.

I noticed as I made the second improvisational piece that each successive quilt seems to lean more towards the turquoise end of the blue spectrum. I am very fond of turquoise.

Subdivisions #18, 26" x 18"

I am officially done with the January palette.

I spent the last two days of the retreat working on a new Tuning Fork.  Riffing off Mondrian.

Tuning Fork #30, T with Mondrian, 22" x 31"

At the end of the retreat, my wall looked like this.  Pretty good output for a week of sewing!

Now it's time to pick a palette for February.  Any suggestions?

I'm linking this post to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday, Friday Fabric Frenzy, Confessions of a Fiber Addict and Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it up Friday.  Go see all the wonderful work there!