JOE RETREAT DAY FOUR

Today will be our last day of all day sewing.  Joe gave us a pep talk, reminding us to just "Cut, Sew, Repeat."  He gave us all stillettos that his friend had made for us with the instructions to focus our attention where the pointy end is pointing.  Patricia was videoing the talk, which Joe has since turned into his Quilt Report #40.

It was a day to try to finish up our projects.

I'm way behind and somewhat frustrated.

I'm not really happy with the way it's looking.  Joe says this is normal at this stage and to push through.  I realize that if I was at home doing this, I'd probably give up.  Being here, with nothing else to do, I feel like I might as well keep working on it.

All week, while all of us are working away, Joe entertained us with his guitar.  It's one of the great things about being at a Joe Retreat.

My new friend Patti loved picking through the garbage looking for usable chunks of fabrics that others have cast away.  I'll admit to grabbing a few of these myself.

Another participant, David, was really good at taking portraits.  He wanted to take advantage of the natural light coming through the window, next to my sewing station, to take a portrait of Joe and Patricia.

Here are some closeups of things I've been working on.

Here's what my project looked like at the end of the day.

HE MAKES A VIDEO - I SKETCH

I flew into Indianapolis on Sunday, picked up a rental car and met Darrell at the hotel where he's been staying while he taught a class last week at Marc Adam's School of Woodworking.  Finished with the class, we left there Monday morning and drove to Cincinnati where Darrell will be filming a video with Popular Woodworking.

I was curious about the process, so I hung around occassionally to watch for a little while.  

I sketched...

Before I left home I minimized my take-along sketch kit to just one fountain pen and only six colors in my watercolor box.  

And here is my sketch:

I got bored and walked to a local park, Bechtold Park,  to look at the birds.  There are some very interesting birds around!

I saw a few Northern Cardinals, Goldfinches and a Warbling Vireo, among others.  Fun.  I enjoyed a short walk through the woods that went by a little creek.  It was nice to get out of the sun.  It's 87 degrees, with about a 90% humidity.   Too hot.