First Ladies Quilt

Lordy, I'm behind with my pretty-quilts-pictures.  I finished this at the end of October.  In general, I don't post pics until after the customer has picked up the quilt, just in case, and this gal was unable to get here for a while because her own life was pretty hectic at the time.

First Ladies Quilt

This is a very large quilt, and it was beautifully pieced.

There was lots of negative space for some pretty quilting.

The blocks were all quilted individually.

In order to keep some continuity between the blocks, I restricted the quilting to straight lines and gentle curves, with a bowknot motif inside the larger center squares.

I'm not sure why, but this was definitely my favorite block.

On the Social Life front, I've been to see the Cherrywood Exhibit in Seaforth.  This was a tribute to Bob Ross, the guy from PBS with the big afro, who would teach you how to paint.  I'm surprised at how many people have never heard of him.

There were over 400 entries in the competition, and this travelling exhibit included 120 of them.

This was my favorite - you may have to enlarge it to see what's going on, but all the little forest creatures are painting.  This reminds me of those paint parties which are often held at restaurants.  So stinkin' cute!

I also managed to get out to the theatre to see a production of Mamma Mia.  That was fun - I was singing to myself all night long.  Ear worms, you know?

Since then, I've been nose-to-the-grindstone, trying to catch up the quilting backlog.  There is finally light at the end of the tunnel - I should be back working on the currently scheduled quilts before the end of the week.

Happy Canada Day, and Quilt Canada

This is a great quilt to feature today, don't you think?  I feel so blessed to live in this great country.

Pantograph "Oh Canada".

Quilt Canada was held in Ottawa this year.  I had to grit my teeth to sign up for that - back many years ago when I was on the road with Royal Bank, everything "bad" that ever happened to me took place in Ottawa.  I accidently set a cash dispenser on fire, a childhood friend I bumped into stood me up for dinner, I was left stranded by a co-worker, etc, etc, etc.  But, you know, BEACH GIRLS, so I had to go.

THIS trip, my cell phone developed a bug that I still haven't managed to get rid of (must call Samsung...), and my credit card was declined at the Keg - even though it worked everywhere else.  Considering that I was there for the better part of five days I guess that's not so bad.

I took an Improv Piecing class with Krista Hennebury, which was a fun day.  Eventually I will set these bits into a quilt.

Here was breakfast one morning.  I loved the juxtaposition of the Froot Loops with the "healthy" breakfast.  That just made me laugh. 😄

This is the quilt that Diane had entered in the show.

Yes, those are all teeny-tiny little 9-patches.

Well, she was a big winner.  This is the ribbon for Excellence in Piecing.  Later in the week she found out she ALSO won Viewer's Choice.  Wow - big congratulations!!!

This was my favorite quilt from the show.  It evoked the fun times I always enjoy on my road trips with the girls.

A bit of a closeup.

This was the jaw-dropper for me.

One of the blocks.

Besides my improv class, I attended the lecture by David Taylor.  Hah, the guy is hilarious.  And he's very scornful of both fusible applique and raw-edge applique.  If you check out his his web site you will see why - all of his work is hand applique and it is INCREDIBLE. 

Another lecture was by Andrea Tsang-Jackson where she talked about the immigrant quilt and her summer as artist-in-residence.  She had the quilt with her and it was really something to see.

I was part of Laura Coia's Sew Very Easy Youtube Live show.  And when I say "part of" I mean that I paid money to be in the audience. 😉 This included a pattern and a bit of swag.

The free lecture by E-Quilter was very interesting too.  She presented a slide show from international quilt shows. 
Also this, in case you are working on any entries:

It was a great week, and now it's back to the grind.  Well, if you can call quilting a grind???

Away From Home Quilt

AWAY FROM HOME is a book by Nancy Rink Designs.  Link HERE.  If you went to the quilt show in Ingersoll last weekend you would have seen this quilt hanging in the show.

I really love the combination of pieced blocks, multiple borders, and applique.

There was a great deal of s.i.d. on this quilt.

Cross-hatching behind applique is a very time consuming endeavour.

Such a pretty back.

I didn't make it to the show in Ingersoll, but I did get to the Quilter's Tea in Hagersville.  It was hosted by the Haldimand Quilters' Guild.  They had a guest quilter present a trunk show - Ruth Kennedy from Fergus.  I know Ruth through longarm quilting, and she put on an excellent show.  The event consists of lunch, door prizes, gift basket draws, a penny-sale, and grab bag draws.  There were eight people at my table - six of them won a bunch of stuff but I was not among the lucky ones.  Well, it's not like I need anything.  Although it was a bit of a bummer going home empty-handed, at least I don't have MORE stuff to think about getting rid of.  A blessing in disguise.

Vacation: Port-au-Stay-At-Home

The winter holiday is here.  Time to stay at home and get some sh*t done.  And relax, too, of course.
I started off my vacation by heading out on a field trip with a friend.

First stop Dundas, to the Carnegie Gallery.  They have a Christmas Market going on right now, with many artisans selling their wares.  There are no pics from inside the gallery - I was trying to avoid getting arrested.  Or being yelled at.  Not even a gentle scolding.  While we were in Dundas we made a stop at McGuire's Cheese Shop.  For the past several years I've apparently been making sure my pant size goes up a wee bit every Christmas so I treated myself to three lovely hunks of deliciousness.  A lemon stilton, a stout cheddar, and whatever it was they had on sample...it's from a local cheeserie and was absolutely delicious so I added that to my basket.  (It's also what I had for supper with a side of crackers and a glass of wine.  Not necessarily a healthy supper.)  However, in my defence:  we had lunch at the Bangkok Spoon where I had a S.A.L.A.D. with my meal.  So not a totally disreputable food day.

Next on the agenda was the Waterford Museum to see the exhibit of Red Cross Quilts.  This is on until Feb. 15, 2019 so try and get there if you're into quilts.
Excellent exhibit!!

We wandered around the museum to see what else they had out for display.
Hah. 😀 Thank goodness we have better equipment to stitch with today.

The museum is kind of next door to the quilt shop, so we also popped over to Quilt Junction and dropped a few dollars.  And bumped into a quilting buddy in the shop.

My vacation list of things that need attention, in no particular order:

I'm only on day three of "vacation" - this is quilted and off the TFUQ list.  And thank you, but NO, don't remind me that now, day three, is already past twelve noon and I should get my arse in gear.

Binding inside angles is something I haven't tackled before so there's a bit of a learning curve.  The YouTube video I watched (OMG, I swear you can learn anything on YouTube) demonstrates hand stitching the miter on the front side first, then folding the binding over to the back and hand stitching the back miter closed, and THEN stitching the binding down.  I need to figure that out, but working on BLACK is not my favorite thing anymore.

I'll keep you posted with my to-do list progress...

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?

9 Reasons Why Your Longarmer Might Be Late With Your Quilt In The Spring, and My Fave From St. Jacobs

I don't know where you live, but HERE we had a bit of nice spring weather and then we got blasted TWICE with more winter.  Now that the temperature is finally Helen-friendly, I check the Weather Network and see that the pollen counts are off the charts - which explains the sneezing and stuffy sinuses.  Nevertheless... I love spring!!! When the weather gets warm and I can strip off the jacket, scarf and mitts I have a difficult time staying indoors.

9 REASONS WHY YOUR LONGARMER MIGHT BE LATE WITH YOUR QUILT IN THE SPRING

1.  The asparagus is up and needs to be cut every morning.  Harvesting (heh heh, I love that term) is best done before noon, when the plant is fresh after a good night's sleep and has sent all it's energy up into the world.

2.  Lettuce has reseeded itself from last year's crop.  This needs to be inspected every day and overcrowding dealt with by judicious harvesting.  Don't buy baby greens from the grocery store... take those thinned out babies into the house, rinse them off and store them in damp paper towels in the fridge.  Eat later with a light salad dressing.  Yum.

3.  That damned garlic is at it again, sprouting everywhere it shouldn't.  Large clumps need to be dug up, separated, and replanted where they belong.

4.  Oh, the lovely peas you planted during the nasty rainy and cold weather are up.  Yippee!  Now to weed... you can't do that until the peas are sprouted 'cause you would be courting disaster.

5.  The Raspberry patch needs to be corralled.  Raspberries spread by runners and they will end up taking over whatever space they feel entitled to.  Chop off the offenders and rip them out, or transplant them into pots, to share with a friend.  DH and I used to throw a plant swap every spring.  We'd barbecue burgers and hot dogs.  Guests would bring side dishes along with transplants from their gardens.  It was a big horticultural free-for-all. One of the guys brought a zillion garden gloves from Costco. He had only recently moved and had no plants to share, but he was able to take home enough to make a really good start.  One year our neighbours came on their lawn tractor, and contributed a huge landscape rock. This type of event is best done in the spring or early summer because that's when we're all dealing with the over-abundance.

6.  Strawberries.  See issues with 3. Garlic and 5. Raspberries.  These things are EVERYWHERE.  Again - dig 'em out and either transplant or share.  Your friends will love you.

7.  Oh, your quilter has discovered the CILANTRO seedlings and is perhaps rolling around in them.  Just like 2. Lettuce, this will reseed itself into beautiful large patches of spicy, lemony, goodness.  On the downside it also must be weeded, as you can clearly see.

8.  Johnny Jump-Ups. 😊😊😊😊😊  These little violas are completely edible.  Bake a cake!!  Decorate it with petals!!  Your friends will think you are completely off your rocker.

9.  We cannot forget the Useless Assistant.  She wants to go for a walk.  How can you refuse on such a gorgeous day???

MY FAVE FROM ST. JACOBS
I always have a good time with the Beach Girls, and St. Jacobs was no exception.  I was disappointed that my quilt was not hanging at the show, they had it laid over a small table, which does not show it to it's best effect.  However there was not one single inch of space left in the building for hanging quilts, so I understand why it was displayed that way.

My favorite was absolutely this Dresden Plate.

Appliqued and hand embroidered.

Hand quilted.  So often I'm disappointed with hand quilting because there just isn't enough quilting. (Not that anyone cares what I think.)  But this one?... gorgeous!

Oh, love.

Kudos to Dorothy Sittler, whoever she may be.  Beautiful.