Zentangle Workshop and To-Do List Update

I joined the Ancaster Modern Quilt Guild, partly because I know some of the members, and partly because they seem to have a pretty vibrant program.  Last Saturday I attended a Zentangle Workshop hosted by them, presented by Kim Mastromartino.  You can find her on Facebook as The Inspired Quilter.

Here's some of the little cards we were working on...

Here's my same card after I (maybe?) finished it.  The class was lots of fun AND INSPIRING.  Which we all need, especially in January.  Right?

TO-DO LIST
Yep.  Knocked another item off my list.  The mending & hemming item - complete.

My plan for today was to start the drapes, however that was slightly interrupted by ... oh, let's call it TECHNOLOGY. This is how my day has progressed so far:

• 7 am, go for a pee then crawl back into bed.
• 8 am, try to shut off the alarm before it wakes DH up, but inadvertently turn the radio on.  Oops.  Sorry.  Get up.  Let Sadie out of her crate and give her a morning massage.  Lucky dog.
• 8:03, take my morning pills and head out with Sadie for a pyjama walk.  She's recovering from knee surgery back in November, so in the morning she gets a massage, Range Of Motion exercises, and then a short walk.  Usually it's DH who takes her, but sometimes it's me - jammies & housecoat, yoga pants, ear muffs & winter coat.  It's surprisingly refreshing.  And I really Do.Not.Care. if people call me the weird old woman out in her pyjamas.
• 8:30, coffee & internet - read the forums, check the news, decide to investigate the KETO diet, and message on/off/on/off/on/off...etc. with the Beach Girls.  Discuss diets with them and pretend I have no idea what they're talking about when they mention the number of calories in alcohol.
• 10:00, beg DH to go get us breakfast from McDonalds.  Continue internetting & messaging while waiting on food.  Decide that KETO is never going to happen in this house.  DH would not eat 90% of the required foods.  Salmon?  Avocado?  ZUCCHINI?!**?!
• 11:00, breakfast is finished, go down to the "real" computer.  Search out "low carb diet", print out recipes that have a slim chance of passing muster.  (ha ha - "slim" chance - get it?)  Let's face it - if we're going to continue having McDonalds for breakfast we need to cut down somewhere else.
• 1:45, finish and send the letter of concern to one of my sales reps - yeah, I'm not particularly happy about something.
• 2:30, update the Caledonia guild blog after having gone through the photos I took at the January meeting.
• 2:45, start working on my blog.

Did you notice anywhere in that timetable a place where I mentioned "brush teeth" or "get washed" or "put on real clothes"?  So, here it is, 3:30 in the afternoon, and I have yet to make myself presentable.  Do YOU think I'm going to get those drapes started today?  

Stay tuned for the next instalment of The Caledonia Quilter's "Never-Done-Because-She-Won't-Get-Off-The-Damned-Computer List".

A Little More Of Tobermory & The Prince Exhibit

A little yoga is good for the body, especially if you will be hunched over a sewing machine for much of the day.  Anni didn't seem to understand that Savasana (the Corpse pose) is just a nice rest.  I'm not dead.

See?  Proof that I'm not dead.  This was Friday before we departed.

I managed to complete my wee project.  Next I need to learn how to do binding on those weird angles.  (Well, actually the next step is getting it quilted.  Then the binding.)

One of the reasons I love the Beach Girls (there are many reasons 💓) is the field trips we end up on.  I see things I would not otherwise see.  This time it was in Seaforth, On.  We went to the exhibit of Prince quilts.  This is a competition dreamt up by Cherrywood Fabrics, to feature their fabrics. I've seen both the Van Gogh and Prince exhibits now.  They are incredible.  Here's a sampling...

This will give you an idea of the size of the pieces.  I think they're 20" x 20".  There were 150 quilts on display.

If you can zoom in on these pics you'll get a much better idea of the work - both hand and machine, the beading, and the abundance of crystals.

Here's one...

And a closeup...

Here's another...

And a closeup...

Another closeup...

I liked this one.  You can see that it was a ribbon winner.  It made me think of my brother, who also has a 'vette.

And a closeup.

If you're ever within driving distance of one of these exhibits, GO!  Seriously.  Just GO! 

In other, more boring news, I've finally started painting that gawd-awful brick around my fireplace.  That's been bugging me for more than 20 years.  DH is not happy with me, but since he's managed to walk past this vignette for two days without even noticing the ladder & plastic, should I really care?

Nouveau Muses, Buckhorn Quilt Show, Zucchini Report

This is called Nouveau Muses.  I had to get help spelling "nouveau" because it seems my brain is not as sharp as it was 30 years ago.

These lady panels are drop-dead-gorgeous.  If you've been hearing about the new digital prints, this is an excellent example.

They were paired with some beautiful William Morris prints for the borders & sashings & panel insets above and below the ladies.

I did some pretty quilting in the piecing, but in the panels I just did outline quilting along the printed lines. 

This used wool batting which added a perfect 3-D effect to the women.

These bottom pieces were quilted with the identical motifs as the upper windows.

Last night I got home from Margarets where I spent a few days with quilting buddies at the Buckhorn Quilt Show.  The quilt I am taking a lesson from is this one... I love, love, love the motifs stitched in the blocks!  Embroidery is a skill I use very little of these days, and this example has been done with thread painting.  By machine.

Here's the artist statement with a story about the quilt.

ZUCCHINI REPORT

Picked this week:  5
Picked YTD:       121
Gave away:             3

I left on Thursday morning for Margaret's, and got home after dark Saturday night.  DH would never in a million years go out and pick zucchini, so I have a BIG SURPRISE waiting out in the garden for me today.  They could be all ruined by some stupid animal/bug/disease, or perhaps I'll find 10 cricket-bat-sized fruits lurking under the leaves.  We'll see, after I get dressed.  Pray for me. 🙏

Tales from the Lancaster AQS Show

I finally have my head back above water after my not-quite-a-week away in Lancaster.
If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook you might have seen the weather we were (ahem) blessed with.  This is a nor'easter.  None of us had a winter coat.  One gal on the trip was wearing sandals. Our bus driver was such a patient man, what with the bus sliding up the hills and getting stuck in the hotel parking lot, and all.

This is 100+ yards of wide backing that was preordered and waiting for me at the hotel.  You have no idea how heavy this is.  The neutrals are mine (for you, actually, at $17/m, a selection of whites and creams, all tone-on-tone) and the batiks are Diane's.

The AQS show itself was blissfully empty on our first day there, thanks to the weather.  People just didn't attend.  We had plenty of room to roam around, see the quilts, and shop the vendors.  However, the restaurants and malls were ALSO closed because employees could not get to work.  Yeah, so it was interesting for Diane (our tour organizer) to get us fed that night.

THE CUTEST QUILT I SAW

Very timely, considering that it was one week away from Easter, don't you think?

I attended a couple of lectures.  The more interesting one was by Kathy Doughty of Material Obsessions.  This quilt of hers made me laugh - it's a portrait of her husband.

You can poke around the web to see the quilts that won awards.

Below I am showing you why I will never waste my time entering any of these shows.

This quilt is by Claudia Pfeil of Germany.  She's a very well known quilter - you can check out her facebook page.

Do you see the identification tag on the right?  There is NO RIBBON.  Honest to God.  How could a pipsqueek like me ever compete with a quilt like this?  Yeah - no - not happening!!

Mind you, this quilt DID win $10,000.00 at the Road 2 California show in February. It's not like she wasted her money by sending it to the States to compete.

Here's another one by Carolyn Rider of Ohio.

Hokey smokey.

Again, NO RIBBON.  Now, I understand that the caliber of quilts at these AQS shows is crazy-high and they can't all be winners.  But this is a magnificent piece of work, between the applique, the quilting, the scalloped inner border and the piped accent along both the scalloped border and the outer binding.  My gawd.  I am definitely out of the running.

You can't come back to Ontario without going through Hershey, PA.  Well, MAYBE you could, buy why would you? And what the hell, you might as well pick up a date while you're there.  (ha ha ha, note to self:  don't complain about your job - you could have his!)

Retreat!

Sleep.  Sweet, deep sleep.   In spite of two glasses of wine and a two-pak of Dark Chocolate Reeces Pieces.
Yesterday I started at 5 am, so I could pick up Deb at 7 am, so we could be in Elmira by 9 am, so we could enjoy a trunk show/demo by Kelly Cline before we headed up to Tobermory.

Kelly was fabulous, she works with heirloom linens and creates beautiful works of art, drawing on her art degree and interior design background.  Excellent day!

Following that was a very tedious drive which seemed to take forever, up to Tobermory.  I slept until 8:30 this morning!  Cause for celebration!
Today my project is the Kleenex Box Challenge for the Caledonia guild.

Quilt Nihon at New England Quilt Museum **photo heavy post**

This was the reason I went to New England last week:  The Quilt Nihon Exhibit at the New England Quilt Museum.

This was the quilt you saw first as you approached the top of the stairs.  If you know me at all, you will know that I am an oversized crybaby.  I had to keep a kleenex in my hand while I viewed the quilts.

As you look at the pics, note the cards that indicate HAND PIECED.

As you also should know, I am a machine quilter.  But let me tell you - I have SO MUCH admiration and respect for the skill of hand quilters.

I love Dresden Plate quilts.  I've completed two so far and am working on a third, but mine will never compare with the likes of this one.

This is the style of Japanese quilt that first attracted my attention many years ago.  I got a subscription to Quilts Japan magazine because of these.  And that led me to my Asia trip in 2009 when I went to the International Great Quilt Festival in Tokyo (and a wee side trip to Singapore to visit my niece).

OMG.  I do not have words.

My index finger, just to give you an idea of the size of those appliqued circles.

I'm a huge fan of red/white/black quilts.  Japanese quilts are also where I developed my love of 'word' fabric.

As one of my traveling companions noted, this is a wonderful blending of traditional and modern styles.  Curved piecing is one of my favorites.

After a couple of hours upstairs viewing the quilts we browsed the gift shop on the main level.  This funky window treatment made me giggle.

You can click on a photo in this post and it will bring up a 'film strip' along the bottom of your screen.  From there, you can view all these pics in a large version.
This is a tiny sample of the quilts.  There are 32 quilts on exhibit until the end of April.  If you are able, don't miss this.  And take kleenex.  :-)