Hilary's Classes Day 2

I can hardly believe it is Tuesday already! It was such an intense weekend with 2 full days of classes with Hilary Rice and her trunk show/lecture on Friday night.This is the fabric kit we received for the friday "Easy Peasy Curves" class, hand dyed by Hilary...gorgeous! I love the look of these fabrics, but I don't like the production process, so I think I'll stick with the hand painting that I do enjoy and do more of
 that once the warm sunny weather is here to stay. These are the fabrics I started with to make my curved landscape, which was on my last blog post. I have a lot of work to do on this little piece, so I'll show it to you again in the next week or two (hopefully!).

The second day was an embellishment class called "Imagine and Create". Hilary taught us a long list of techniques including couching, bobbin-stitching, cut-away applique,  using 

sheer overlays, encasement, free machine embroidery, ribbon threadplay, and free machine applique. Some of these things I had tried before, but it was great fun to play with these techniques without a thought(worry!) abou

t how the finished product would turn out. Here is a close up photo of my experiments with sheer overlays and lot of sparkly things encased, and you can see a little of the edges of couched thread.

 I did have a few tension problems, but I must say I enjoye

d torturing my little sewing machine! My regular machine was at Triangle Sewing Machine Spa getting a tune up, so I had to use my little Janome Platinum.  I really put it through the paces with the bobbin stitching, dramatically adjusting the bobbin tension constantly,  and using all kinds of thick thread, but it turned out amazingly well. I was happy with this swirl of bobbin stitched perle cotton.

Here is the "Imagine & Create" class photo...lots of energized, happy quilters with the beginnings of their wonderful art quilts.

Today my brain is still spinning with ideas, techniques and thoughts about refining my ideas about what directions I might like to go in my own quilting journey.  Unfortunately there is no down time for me this week since it is Quilt & Fibre Art Festival and there are so many exciting quilting events to see. Does the fun ever let up!?!?!

Gifts received and sent

I have been having a fantastic time with Hilary Rice, a quilter from Newfoundland, who is teaching at our guild for 2 days. I have waited a long time (since I found out last year that I could not get into her classes at Quilt Canada, even though I mailed my registration on the very first allowed date) to take a class with her! 

However, my wait is now over and I feel like I have received a creative gift...2 days with Hilary!! Today was a curved piecing class and can you believe I am actually making this?!? Each student received a fabric kit made of beautiful fabrics hand dyed by Hilary. I don't love doing landscapes but I wanted to learn curved piecing, and Hilary made it seem as though it was easy. I hope I can still do it when I am working on it at home!

Tonight we were treated to a slide/trunk show of some of Hilary's amazing quilts, full of curved piecing. Truly inspiring!

Tomorrow is an embellishing class, which is something I really enjoy, and am so excited that I hope I will be able to sleep tonight!

And a surprise gift I sent in the mail has been received, so I can tell you that a while ago I was talking about loving scraps, and fellow blogger Rhonda very generously sent me a box of her scraps.   I was on a roll making these blocks, so I made a mini quilt for Rhonda out of her own scraps and sent it back to her as a 'thank you' for sending me the fabric.

You can see a better photo of the quilt on Rhonda's blog, but this photo shows how I quilted it, even though the colour is way off.  I'm so glad to hear that you liked your surprise Rhonda!

Permission to Play - blocks finished

The blocks are sewn for my "Permission to Play" quilt top. They were fun to sew and I am ready to add the corner triangles, but need to decide the layout before I can do that step. 

I played around with the blocks on my design wall and here are my 3 options so far.

If you have a preference, leave a comment and help me to decide!

Layout A

Layout B

Layout C

Permission to Play

Don't you just love starting a new project?!? I couldn't resist cutting into one of the kits I bought at Hancocks in Paducah. I opened up the kit called "Permission to Play: Kaleidoscope" to find that the fabrics in my kit were not really like the fabrics in the photo or the sample quilt I saw there.  I have mostly green fabrics, no dark blues at all, mostly light, yellowy greens and blues and a bit of medium green. I know that there is often a lot of colour variation in batiks, but I am sure this is not the "right" fabric. I guess that is the downside to buying kits...you don't always get the fabrics you think are are getting. 

The colours do remind me of spring with all the different greens that I would never ordinarily put together in a quilt, but it seems to work for Mother Nature!

So, I started cutting and sewing the blocks together, hoping for the best!  My first block was like a little bowl, so I started checking the angles after each seam and shaving off bits as I went along and it worked much better.  You wouldn't think that these tiny shavings would be so important, but they sure made a big difference in getting my blocks to lay flat!

And then, of course, I made the usual piecing errors and sewed a few pieces together that didn't go together. It's always a reminder to pay closer attention to what I am doing!

Here are my pieced blocks lined up for pressing...I thought they looked so cool lined up like that!

Anyway, I am enjoying sewing the blocks together and am already planning to make another Kaleidoscope - in miniature of course! 

The seam matching has been a challenge, but I am satisfied with the first few blocks, so I'll keep on going!

To view the quilt in it's proper colours and/or to download the free pattern - click here.

Anniversary celebration

We are back from a wonderful relaxing visit at a country inn, celebrating our 25th anniversary. This is the view from our room and you can see my husband sitting on the bench enjoying the refreshing spring weather. 

Of course I brought my sewing machine along, just in case! 

I set it up on a card table right in front of the patio door of our room, so I could sew while I enjoyed the scenery. Am I a lucky woman or what??! My husband just rolls his eyes and pretends to be annoyed when I start dragging in the sewing machine, but I think that secretly he really enjoys reading while I am sewing. 

I finished piecing the John Flynn "Wheel of Mystery" quilt top and in spite of all the trouble I had at the beginning of piecing these blocks, the rows actually came together fairly well. 

In fact, the top went together so quickly, I even had time to go shopping at the local quilt store for a border fabric, and start a new project...does life get any better than that?

25th Anniversary

It has been a happy/sad week for us.  It is our 25th anniversary and I was hesitant to go away because I did not want to miss quilt guild meeting, and also we had been too busy to sit down and organize anything. But after a "tongue lashing" from my quilting friends, I got busy and started planning a little getaway for us.

Here is our wedding party in 1984. How is it possible that 25 years have passed since that day?!?

As I was planning our getaway, we found out that David, our little ringbearer, died suddenly. He was a wonderful person, whom I babysat since he was born, until he was too old for a babysitter, and after that we remained friends. David was born with Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus, and had a multitude of challenges throughout his too short life. He had a wonderful sense of humour and an infectious giggle. I loved him since the first day I held him in my arms and was always so inspired by him.  My career choices evolved out of my life changing experiences with him, his mother being one of my references for my first job in social work. Eventually I had my own children and named my son after him. He was engaged to be married in August and it is still hard to believe that now he is gone. I wish I would still be planning what quilt pattern to make him for a wedding gift.

It will be good to have a couple of days to be away, to remember the friends that we have met and loved and celebrated with over the last 25 years...to drink a toast to the friends we have lost and to remember that every day with loved ones is a gift to be treasured. 

Finishing and Shamrocks

It's a busy week as many quilting classes wind up for the spring session.

Here is my senior's centre class working on finishing their UFO's. Class members were helping to pin baste a lovely summer quilt made by Lois.  Aren't we all so happy when that quilt is done and on the bed instead of sitting in a bag in the UFO closet?!?!

And here are some of the finished St. Patrick's day shamrocks from last month's mini quilters group. I know I say this all the time, but I just love how each quilt turns out to be so different.  My shamrock will be hanging on my front door next March!

I am hoping to make some progress on my little Wheel of Mystery blocks this week and hope I don't "snatch myself bald", which is a great saying from Bonnie in her comment on my last post...thanks for the smile Bonnie!

Poor self control...new project started!

Okay I tried to work on a project from before Paducah (otherwise known as "BP"),  but I could barely remember what I was working on "BP"!!!

I was innocently putting my fabric purchases away and cleaning up my sewing area, and then a strange thing happened...

I started making another Wheel of Mystery quilt! I know, I have poor self control!  But seriously, who could resist opening up these cute little John Flynn pre-cut kits from Paducah?!? Not me!

I was so excited and took out all the little pieces and started to wonder why I had chosen a kit with such small pieces!

Still, it looked like fun. 

It wasn't!

I could not, for the life of me get the centre seams to match up. This is how most of the blocks are looking after unsewing and resewing each block 3 times. I have a "3 times and you're out" policy...after the 3rd time, however it turns out is final!

The other thing I did not like is that when you press these fabrics, there is a strong smell of smoke due to the lazer cut edges...not pleasant. I usually love pressing batik fabrics because of the smell of wax that most batiks have, which I enjoy. So this smokey smell took some getting used to.

Anyway, these blocks are painstaking...each block is taking me about 30 - 40 minutes to sew.

And the pressing of the seams is trickey too. Here is the back of one of the blocks. All seams are split pressed with a swirl in the centre.

I must say that I am delighted that my blocks are laying flat after pressing, because that is a lot of curved seams in a small area, and I was beginning to wonder if they would all turn out like little round cereal bowls with all the handling they have endured!

I will stick with it though because I am anxious to see how this thing will turn out.

Well, that is if I don't get distracted and start sewing something else in the mean time!

More about Paducah...

Are you tired of hearing about Paducah yet? I'm not tired of thinking about it or talking about it, so here is some more information you will hopefully enjoy...

I have permission from Jenny Stratton of Checkers Distributors to post the link to this very interesting review of Paducah...click here. You can read about the Kentucky ice storm which resulted in so many trees being damaged, and the trials of coordinating this huge show. 

One of the things that really tickled me in Paducah was how everything was oriented to women...all the washroom signs were changed from "Men" to "Women" in quite creative ways! 

And at Hancocks, the men weren't even allowed to use the indoor washrooms!!

The AQS website has posted photos of all the prize winners and there are over 60 quilts sporting ribbons! Click here to see them. I loved so many of these quilts that I cannot possibly pick a favorite. I particularly enjoyed the miniature quilts, as well as the exquisite quilting, done both by hand and by machine.  And if you really want to learn all the details of the construction of the grand prize "best of show quilt" made by Mariya Waters - click here.

There were also unbelievable quilts at the Quilt Museum, but I haven't been able to find photos of them on the web, and photographs were not allowed. They had the Best of Show quilts from the last 25 years hanging there, and I have never seen anything like those amazing quilts. I loved a quilt from Sharon Schamber called "Sedona Rose". There is a tiny photo of it on her website - click here.  But the photo doesn't do justice to the beauty of this quilt. It is machine quilted in black thread and the backing was a bright yellow, which showed all the quilting, and there were something like 130,000 crystals glued on to the backing which was a sight to behold!

If you would like to read more from other quilt bloggers who were in Paducah...here are a few to keep you busy:

Jeanne from Michigan at Luv 2 Stitch 

Sharon from the UK at Shiny New Thing

Connie from Indiana at Cootie Bug 

Trunk Show and Paducah purchases

It has sure been a busy week to come back home to!  I have 2 on call shifts at the hospital, 4 quilting classes to teach and one trunk show to do...plus all those usual things like laundry, grocery shopping, cooking, and cleaning. I rushed around to get myself organized on Monday,  taught a quilt class at the senior's centre and then drove to Elmira to do a trunk show at the Elmira Needle Sisters in the evening. I took a photo of some of my quilts piled up and ready for their showing. For some of these quilts (the ugly ones!) it's the only time they get unfolded and aired out! Anyway, it was a lot of fun to be at the Elmira guild and I was able to visit with a lot of quilters that I haven't seen for a while.

I have also been struggling this week to learn how to use my Mac computer.  Everything is hard the first few times...especially getting photos to load on my blog.  It is taking me about 3 - 4 times as long to get a blog post finished these days, and I sure am counting on that improving asap because my patience is running a bit thin on this technology challenge!! I will try to load photos of my purchases from Paducah and see how it goes!

On the left is one of my favorite finds...FQ bundles from Back Door Quilts. People always ask "what are you going to make with that"? I have no idea, but I just liked it and I'll probably put it into my next Quiltville mystery.  These fabrics are from the Jo Morton fabric lines.

On the right are some additions to my collection of the "Oh Cherry" Moda line. Again, I have no idea what I am making with these but they make me happy and apparently I want to make a quilt from them, so here they are!

On the left is a collection of odds and ends I found that jumped into my bag...a kit from the Robert Kaufmann collection called "Permission to Play" that I bought at Hancocks because it just glows,  two packs that were 5 FQ's for $5...so who could resist that, and some guitar FQ's because I thought I was making a pillowcase, but I have way too many now to be a pillowcase,  so I'm either making a dozen pillowcases, or a quilt!!!

This is a black and white collection that I bought to split with my friend Marj who asked me to pick up some pieces for her. I guess I am secretly planning to make a black and white quilt also!

And this is my favorite purchase of all...a FQ bundle from Batiks Ecetera. This was one of my favorite booths...alive with colour and a lot of fun things to dream about making.

My other favorite booth was the Cherrywood booth...I could have filled my sewing room to the rafters with the fabrics they make...gorgeous! I just bought 2 "grab bags for crazies" because I liked the idea of getting little pieces of all their fabrics and because I am crazy, so it was perfect for me! 

Oh yah...and somehow 3 of John Flynn kits jumped into my bag...don't know how that happened! These kits are all coordinated batik fabrics and are precut, so it saves 2 steps for you! But I haven't yet sewn one, so I hope it works out well...I'll let you know!

That's it! Well, except for a few little odds and ends that I can't find today. That's enough damage to the credit card, don't you think?!?!

Back from Paducah!

I am back from an amazing, "once in a lifetime" trip to Paducah, Kentucky! It was everything I thought it would be...and more! There were over 400 vendors at the Convention Centre... can you even imagine how much fun and fabric shopping that is??!? It was absolutely mind boggling the amount of shopping that you could do, if you were so inclined! I will show you my fabric purchases another day (when I can take them out of hiding and photograph them!).

Today I will show you a few of the trip highlights, since I know my quilting friends will be checking in on their computers on Monday morning and if there is no blog report, I will hear about it for sure!

We saw beautiful scenery! Everything here in Ontario, Canada is pretty much still in winter hibernation...not much green to be seen. But in Kentucky, everything was green and it was lovely spring weather, which we enjoyed every sunny minute we were there.

There were fascinating people to see everywhere we went...and here is one of them, happy to pose for a photo for the tourists. I saw very creative outfits, quilted clothing of every description,

 funny hats, groups of women with matching t-shirts, etc. I wish I had taken more photos of the people to show you.

Then there was the fantastic entertainment...we had "tea" with Nancy Zieman, enjoyed an evening show with Eleanor Burns, and heard a fantastic concert from Ricky Tims. 

Who knew that this man was such an incredibly gifted musician as well as being an award winning quilter?!??! He has CD's of his original compositions for sale and I will be asking for one from Santa at Christmas time.

And, of course, I enjoyed the entertaining company of quilting friends! Here we are with a group of quilters that we know from home, which we just happened to meet up with, and we  enjoyed a laughter-filled meal together.

What a great trip we had! 

Oh yah, did I mention the incredible, breathtaking quilts we saw?

The AQS show was unlike anything I have ever seen. Exquisitely created quilts, both hand and machine quilted, that are so beautiful that your jaw just hangs open in awe! But I can't show you the quilts of course, because the rules explicitly state that photos of the quilts cannot be posted on the internet, without permission from the AQS and the quilt artist. However, I was just happy that we were able to take photos of these quilts for our own purposes, since the Canadian Juried Quilt Show in Newfoundland last June did not allow any photographs of any of the quilts, which was very disappointing for me. At this show I was able to take photos of my favorite quilts, and close ups of the techniques for me to study and enjoy in the future.

I now have my own little quilt show on my computer, so come on over if you want to see it!!

Paducah

I am packed and ready to leave early in the morning to head south to Paducah, Kentucky! I am hoping to go to the Quilt Museum and to see Ricky Tims, Eleanor Burns, and then have tea with Nancy Zieman. 

And of course, I might buy a Fat Quarter or two!!

How will I ever get any sleep tonight?!?!

I'll make a full report (including a purchase confession) when I return!

First blog post on my new Mac

I have been struggling with my old computer for a while now and hoped that by buying a Mac that my troubles would be behind me. I treated myself to a new laptop, hoping I could do my blogging at the park and surf my favorite quilting blogs while drinking tea on the porch, if ever it is warm enough to sit outside!!! Click here to see my brand new little computer. It is a steep learning curve, but so far so good. I even managed to download some photos, although I need some work on the editing program.

I'll try to show you what I was working on last week. Click here to see all my pieces being assembled. I was working on a challenge with a couple of quilting friends...we challenged ourselves to use the spool fabric and make a mini quilt. So of course I made spool blocks! I sewed 1", 1.5" and 2" blocks trying to decide which ones I liked the best and decided that I liked them all, and would just stack them up. So I call it "Stacked Spools".

Then I got the idea to embroider my favorite words on the top as if the thread was coming off the blue spool. But is was a varigated thread that I used and I think that the word "quilting" disappears where the thread gets too light. I'm not sure what I will do about that yet. 

Here are the mini quilt that my friends made. On the left is Judy's quilt called "Mom's Spools", and it has the cutest little spools of thread sewn down the middle of the quilt. She found these spools in her mother's belongings after she passed away. 

And on the right is Joanne's quilt called "Simple Spools". I hope you will be able to click on the photo to enlarge it and see all the dense quilting on the spools. (Apparently I can't figure out how to enlarge the photos anymore! I'll work on it!) 

This was a fun challenge and we are planning another one in the near future.

Black and White Quilt

I drove to Elmira today to do some hand quilting on the Black and White quilt. You can read more about the block challenge here and see all the submitted blocks here.

I was wondering how they were going to set the blocks together, and this is the creative setting that was chosen. Each block has a thin red border, and then is set with a black sashing on 2 sides which gives a neat 3D effect. And then there is grey sashing between the blocks. There were enough blocks for a large queen size quilt and also a wall hanging for the auction. Around the outside of the quilt is a wider black border that has a cable design - one of my favorite designs for hand quilting.

Here is a photo of me quilting with the some of the Mennonite ladies. They gave me the honour of quilting my own block! I was really excited about that until I started quilting and realized that it was very hard to quilt because of all of the seams in my paper pieced block! It was a relaxing and fun day and a special treat to be included in the Quilting Bee.

As if that wasn't enough fun, I found out that I won first place in the block challenge, which was "viewer's choice"! I was delighted to win, but was further encouraged by the lovely comments that the voters wrote on their ballots. What a great quilty day it was!

Happy Easter

It is a beautiful, sunny Easter here and the Easter bunny has delivered her chocolate treats. A new Lindt store opened up near us and provided wonderful goodies for the Easter baskets. The children are in a sugar coma, and now the Easter bunny has some time to do some blogging and stitching! That worked out well for her!
Don't you just love a long weekend full of relaxing moments for sewing!?!
I finished up another block from Capricorn Quilts BOM (from last year). I think I still have 4 or 5 more blocks to stitch if I want to make the whole set and if I can find my patterns! I am planning to attend an old fashioned quilting bee on Tuesday and was thinking about that while I was stitching this block. I'm sure my hand quilting stitches will leave a lot to be desired by the experienced quilters, however they have agreed to let me join in for the morning.
Happy Easter! I am hopping off the computer to do more sewing!

Advice

I have been having a terrible time with my computer again. Apparently my PC has been sending my email into the ether for a while now...where does this missing email go? I know...it must be wherever my children's lost socks are! I have decided to buy a Mac to get away from all of this virus nonsense and hope my computer troubles will be behind me. I just have to decide which model to buy - do you prefer a desktop or a laptop? Can you offer me advice?!

And speaking of advice, my sister was "let go" after 18 years of working for Purolator, so I recommended that she use this found time to learn to quilt. She picked out an easy pattern to start with, purchased fabrics with a star theme, and mastered rotary cutting very quickly. Here are the squares she had cut out to start piecing together. Don't you love how she carefully organized all her pieces?!? She sewed up the 4 patches and here she is with her blocks layed out on the floor. Now she is sewing the rows together and so far is really enjoying it...I am hoping she will fall in love with quilting and it will help her to get over this terrible experience of losing her job.

Unpredictable

The weather here is unpredictable. I have to look at the outside thermometer everyday to see which I should put on to walk the dog...winter coat? rain coat? spring coat? no coat?
I was starting to get excited about planting my expanded garden, and thinking about turning over the soil, but when I looked outside this morning, this is what I saw! Look what happened to my daffodils! I guess I am rushing the planting season, eh?
Better stay indoors and sew. I have been putzing around in my sewing room, kind of aimless and not sure what I want to work on. I have cut all these tiny pieces for a mini quilt, but wasn't sure what size of block I want, so I ended up cutting pieces for 3 different sizes - 2", 1 1/2" and 1" blocks!

Any guesses as to what block I am trying to sew?!?

Busy with Birthdays

This was a very busy week for me, with my husband's and my Mom's birthday within 3 days of each other. My husband requested a pillow for use in his Lazy Boy recliner. How could I refuse such a simple request?!? I made up two little 12" pillows so he will hopefully be able to find at least one when he needs it. They are made from the leftover pieces from my Dad's plaid quilt (click here to see it). I did not cut into any yardage to make these pillows...even the flannel backing was made from the pieces of backing leftover from Dad's quilt.

I'm sure I don't know why it gives me such a thrill to know that I used up all those little pieces that other people throw in the garbage?!? I am glad that hubby likes his pillows, and hope he gets lots of use out of them. But when he's not home, guess who loves to cuddle up with them?!?

For her birthday, my Mom wanted a celebration with some of her girlfriends. I didn't sew anything for her, but together with my sisters, we made a dinner party for 16 of her friends, complete with Hors D'Oeuvres, honey ham, scalloped potatoes, salads, etc. and of course a big birthday cake. Here is my very young looking 70 year old Mom holding the fruit arrangement I bought her from Edible Arrangements. It was a pretty, colourful display, and the fruit was delicious.