Saturday, October 23, 2010

BIQR 2010: Gwen Marston, Teacher!

Every retreat starts early Wednesday morning with Gwen's Trunk Show. Not only do we get to see her quilts "live and in person,"

but we get to hear in her words the stories behind the quilts...and how it relates to this year's theme.

When she is done she leaves the quilts out on display for the whole retreat so anyone can use them for reference and just to take a closer look at all those wonderful quilts!
Gwen's teaching style is relaxed, engaging and fun! She gears her lessons to the individual, but invites all to participate. If someone needs instruction in a particular method, she makes an announcement and all are welcome to join in.
Later in the week, she gave tiny demos of next year's retreat topic Small Studies.
These small studies focus on abstract quilts pieced using liberated techniques.

Gwen makes all her students feel welcome and makes sure the new ones don't feel out of place. She usually tries to join them for dinner on the first night and give them the scoop on all the best places to eat in Elk Rapids. Mary, who came with her mom Donna, told me how before they arrived, they stopped at the local grocery store in Elk Rapids and there was Gwen shopping! How excited she was to spot her favourite quilter at the grocery store, but too shy to say anything, she didn't know that later that night they would be dining with her!

Of course, Gwen is always ready to take photos with her students and friends!


1 comment:

Clare said...

I ghad no idea those quilts were so small and I spy one of my all time fav Gwen quilts, the liberated log cabins.