On June Friday, June 5, 2009, Lopez Island hosted quilt teacher Gwen Marston from Beaver Island, Michigan. 
Island-to-island, quilter-to-quilter — diplomacy at its best!
The weekend began with a free Lecture and Show & Tell of Gwen’s quilts at the Grange near the south end of the island followed by a two-day workshop for those who had pre-registered. 
JUST CLICK ON PHOTOS TO ENLARGE
(left: "Gwenny's Variable Star" 1992)Your Roving Reporter decided to be brave and sign-up for the workshop because she knew of Gwen’s reputation as a teacher:
....i. e. the student can do no wrong! (Besides, she had heard there were no points to match and no triangles to be cut on the bias. Yippee!)
(Above: "Liberated Log Cabin With Appliqued Borders" 2008. Left - a corner of "High Dessert Country III" 2008 - by Gwen Marston)
The workshop was held at the restored Port Stanley one-room schoolhouse on the north end of the island.
Oh what fun! It must have been 20 years since I had done a quilt workshop where you drag your sewing machine to the workshop, PLUS fabric, needles, thread, scissors, pins, rulers, rotary cutter, rotary mat, special marking pen and brain. There was color everywhere as each participant began to unpack her stash!!
(stash #1)A lot of work goes into planning one of these events! Nancy Calechu and Anne Dawson out did themselves.
Here we catch Anne rushing out the door to take care of still one more detail. Flowers, food, fabric and friends!
What more could you ask for on a day's outing!
After a brief introduction by our hosts Nancy Calechu and Anne Dawson, Gwen called us all together around the Big Table and outlined the day and its goals....
Have fun! Have fun! And have MORE fun!
Soon everyone was busy at work. The low hum of chatter as well as the quiet hum of sewing machines did not affect concentration at all. What did break my concentration was the eager desire to see what everyone else was doing. But how to get any work of my own done!
Everyone's fabrics were so different! (stash #2 and #3)
Our only Mother-Daughter team!Nancy Calechu and daughter Clarie.
Of course, no quilting event is complete without fabric to buy! Needle Nook outdid itself to be sure we had the extra supplies we might need.
The next post will show each person at work and her work in progress.
Thank you for visiting the EQ Blog! It's fun being your Roving Quilt Reporter!
Karen Alexander
PS: Keep on eye on those stashes to see what emerges in the next chapter of this creative drama!
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