Longarm Quilting - A Whole New World!

The "guard bear" greets visiting quilters, watch along the long driveway for other critters!

Last Wednesday my MBQG bee, the Cove Quilters went to Lynn Jones' longarm quilting studio outside of Bridgewater. I had been before but not many of my bee had been. Lynn was quilting Donna's quilt so she waited to quilt the last few block so we could see how the machine worked and how the whole planning and setup worked too.

Awhile ago Lynn quilted my Fireside Log Cabin, a quilt I made in a Heather Stewart workshop last fall. That quilt was the first one on which she used a new computer program which illustrated how the chosen quilting pattern would look on the quilt. She did the same for Donna's quilt. A picture is taken of the quilt top, then the image of the quilting is superimposed on top of the quilt top so you do get a good idea of what it will look like.

Donna's quilt with the quilting pattern on the computer.

It was fascinating to watch the longarm machine stitch. I could have watched it all day! They are quite the machines and there are so many thousands of patterns to chose from.

Lynn has a great setup, a separate building down the hill from her house. It is bright and clean, lots of windows that have a wonderful view across the rolling hills. A perfect place to work. Lynn has a great selection of battings and backing fabrics for her customers to chose from.

Donna, Sandy and Linda talk about different battings with Lynn. Her favourite is a "soy/cotton", a new Pellon batting that had a wonderful soft touch.

Donna and Lynn watch the Gammill at work.

Thanks Lynn for a wonderful and informative afternoon!

Been Gone Too Long!

The Nova Scotia flag flies proudly in the Robson backyard, it snowed almost everyday we were there.

The last couple of months have flown by. We had a trip west to see our Calgary grandchildren (and their parents!). It seemed to take two weeks to get ready, then another two weeks to decompress when we got back plus I came home with my winter cold which took the wind out of my sails for a while.

Marcus and his BMW!

We usually go west later in the spring once the golf season has started and it usually coincides with the Heritage Park Quilt Show but this year we went for Molly's March Break which meant we had a whole week with Molly everyday. Great fun and adventures to Monkeyshines (the children's bookstore), Ikea, a few quilt stores and a wonderful trip to Lake Louise.

Andrew and Molly at Lake Louise

Peter went skiing three times with Molly at Nakiska, Sunshine Village and Lake Louise. Molly has been doing the Nancy Greene Ski program for a couple of years now and is a pro on the black diamond runs - pretty impressive!

Pretty impressive for an 8 year old!

Molly loved the "cupcake" house at Lake Louise! There was a lot of snow in the mountains.

We went to a Calgary Flames NHL game (they won!) but sadly they didn't make the playoffs. Marcus is a going concern at 2 1/2! Constant chatter and on the move! Give him a hockey stick or a car and he is happy! And like Molly he loves his books!

Life in my quilt world has been busy too. My local Guild just hosted their 14th Extraordinary Quilter weekend with Ana Buzzalino from Calgary. She was a wonderful teacher and brought a huge pile of quilts to share with us at our Dessert Party. You can read about it here.

The after floors are done and before paint shot! I'll be back soon with more house renos and quilt stuff!

Fabric Travels & the Kitchen Reno Adventure

Last year when I was in Calgary, I visited all my favourite quilt stores. Each one is very different. At Sewing Sensation, I spotted a bolt of fabric that had just arrived, it wasn't even on the shelf yet. I had to have some. I loved the whimsy and the colours. I brought it home and added it to my stash, knowing it would be useful one day.

Then a few months ago, a baby was born prematurely, she is the niece of a dear friend of my daughter's who lives in Tasmania. Olivia was very tiny and had to spend many weeks in the hospital. Memories of Liam flooded back when I saw the pictures of this tiny baby. Had Olivia been born here in Halifax, Nova Scotia she would have received a preemie quilt, a gift from the quilters of several local quilt guilds. I decided to make her a quilt and send it to Tasmania. I decided to use that fabric I had bought in Calgary.

As I started to cut and sew I cut off the selvedge to add to my stash of selvedges. The name of the fabric is "Mind Your P's and Q's" and the designer of the fabric is "Keiki", it was made in Japan. Although Moda has information about their fabric designers, I couldn't find out anything about "Keiki". I began to think of the journey the fabric had taken, It was designed and made in Japan. Who knows where the cotton came from, it could have been anywhere cotton is grown in the world. Moda is an American fabric company that began almost 30 years ago. So the fabric would have come from Japan to the US then shipped in my case to Calgary where I bought it and brought it back to Nova Scotia. After cutting and sewing, then quilting it the quilt made it's way to Tasmania about as far away as possible from Nova Scotia. I have no idea how many miles that fabric has travelled but it must be alot!

Olivia snug and warm for a Tasmanian winter!

Thanks to my friend Phyllis who took the quilt with her to Tasmania when she went to visit her daughter. More pictures of Olivia's quilt are on my Flickr page here. Thanks Alison for the wonderful pictures!

In other news, our kitchen is almost done! Just the exhaust fan for the stove to go in, some tiling to do and a grate for the cold air return. It has been a great experience working with our kitchen/floor guys at Woodshapers and Brady and Clayton our electrician and plumber. It was a bit of a challenging space with 7 doors! We are now down to 5 doors and it is going to work just fine. I love the butcher block that was handmade using local NS wood (maple, yellow birch and white birch).

The new and the old! The floors are spruce, some of the boards are 14" wide, the are well worn with lots of character.

Beauty!

Crisp and bright, more pictures to come soon. The dining room floor will be sanded and refinished next (it is the same wood as the kitchen) then painting, new windows...the list goes on and on!