They are a very special daycare, vital to our community as we found out six years ago when our twin grandsons were born. Mary Ellen and her tem just were wonderful in helping to care for our 2 year old grandson, when we all needed to be in the city at the hospital. They are a "not for profit" daycare, they offer subsidized spaces for those who need it and they work hard to give our local kids the best care possible. So for the last 5 years I have donated a quilt to help with their fundraising. 

Mary Ellen, some of the kids and "Backyard Fun" thanks to the Mellow Yellows!

While in Calgary, I went to the Heritage Park Festival of Quilts. If you ever can plan a trip to Calgary try and plan it for around the end of May in time for this Festival. There over 800 quilts dipslayed inside, outside, in tents, over fences, hanging from balconies - everywhere you look there are quilts. A huge undertaking for a 2 day show!

Quilts at the Wainnwright Hotel, they didn't stay up long as they showers persisted!

I loved all the Halloe'en quilts.

I loved this skeleton fabric - anyone know the brand/designer or where I might get some?

This quilt was wonderful, see my Flickr page here for detail pictures of this one and many others! 

A favourite picture for Father's Day (a little late!) Andrew and Molly heading for golf lessons. My Dad and Peter's Dad (two of the best) would be so thrilled to see this!

I have a lot of catching up to do! Two weeks in Calgary visiting our son and family combined with visits to three wonderful Calgary quilt stores (I know there are more but that is all we could manage!) plus the amazing quilt show at Heritage Park plus Lynette Anderson's wonderful trunk show at Traditional Pastimes. The list goes on and on. So may pictures to download, process and edit then sort for Flickr!

This lovely display greeted us as we walked into "Out Of Hand" in Calgary

I missed my Mahone Bay Quilt Guild's 14th annual Dessert Party with an "Extraordinary Quilter" and 2 workshops. Our Guild started this event 14 years ago and this was the first one I have missed. From all accounts it met with expectations and those who took the workshops really enjoyed them. Pictures are here and here. 

I got back just in time to attend my Cove Quilters bee and see the grand unveiling of our last challenge "Lotsa' Dots". Everyone really did a wonderful job with this challenge. Mine is still a work-in-progress, the first one (of 8) I have missed the deadline. I hope to get it done for our Guild meeting Monday.

Some of the store samples at Traditional Pastimes of Lynette's patterns.

I was so pleased that we were able to time our visit to be in Calgary when Lynette Anderson would be doing a trunk show at Traditional Pastimes. I booked my ticket even before we had our plane reservations, just in case. Lynette was born in England but lives in Australia now, on the Sunshine Coast where she has a wonderful shop called Little Quilt Store. Lynette had just been in Portland, Oregon at Quilt Market and had brought with her lots of wonderful quilts, both old and new to share with us. About 40 eager quilters sat around the store and we could easily see Lynette's quilts up close. It was wonderful. Her deigns are whimsical and endearing, beautifully stitched by hand and by machine. She was a gifted story teller and we hear great tales of her dog Hugo who is featured in some of her quilts.

I also loved her Christmas quilts. For someone who lives in such a hot climate at Christmas, she certainly captured the feeling of Christmas. It was great to hear that she changes her decor at home for each season and holidays. Her very supportive husband Vince did a great job as her "quilt sherpa".

I came home with the pattern for this sewing kit. Can't wait to get started, the tiny EPP hexagons are going to be a challenge for sure! Be sure and visit my Flickr Photostream for lots more pictures from Lynette's trunk show.

My very patient quilt sherpa Peter, waiting at Out of Hand.

The three quilt stores I went to are all so very different. Out of Hand is still one of the best - Deirdre's use of space is amazing, every nook and cranny is filled with treasures. I had to go twice this time to see and enjoy it all.

I loved this quilt, Pies and Tart - bought the pattern, a Sue Daley Design! Pieced by Nan Tuer and quilted by Arlene Hidahl at Cairnhill Studio.

The pies and tarts are EPP (English Paper Pieced). This could very well be a wonderful project to take to work on at my bee, a hand project to have on the go for quiet times when hand piecing is most enjoyed.

My April garden, the Daphne is in bloom, the rhubarb is coming, here I am looking out St. Margaret's Bay to Peggy's Cove. Sure wish we didn't have all those power lines!

My "Ocean Garden" machine applique, fused, machine quilted. The rest of the flower challenges can be seen here.

With almost an acre and a half of land, there is lots of room for the garden of my dreams, just wish I was about 30 years younger! Vicki has chosen "Lotsa Dots" as our last challenge - should be fun. I certainly have lots of polka dot fabric to chose from!

The Maritime Fibre Arts Retreat was held at the Atlantica Hotel, Oak Island last weekend. There was well over 200 quilters, knitters, stitchers, tatters, lace makers, spinners and rug hookers there. What a gathering! The noise level when everyone was in the room was quite something!

Pre dinner gathering.

Several of us went a day early to relax and chat and sew a little. By Friday the rest of our group arrived and in all there was 20 of us from the Mahone Bay Quilters Guild and the Quilt Mafia and several other quilt/fibre friends.

I couldn't begin to count all the different varieties of spinning wheels!

The days just flew by, there was lots of visiting back and forth, new friends made and old friendship rekindled. There was lots of laughter, lots of shared stories and lots of sharing of techniques and advice. I am so grateful for all my fibre friends. They are all so talented, so gifted and so wise. I think we could have solved all the world's problems!

Sharon Orpin is our faithful organizer, she and her husband Richard have taken on this role and they do it so well. We are all grateful for her dedication and determination to bring us all together. My room is booked already for next year - can't wait!

I posted lots more pictures on my Flickr Photostream here.

Cheryl, Peter, Rebecca and Ian (2006) at Fox Point

While Cheryl was here she became a wonderful quilter, a stab stitch quilter and a respected member of our Guild. She jumped in and volunteered at every chance she could. When she moved back to England she was instrumental in starting a Guild there near where she lived. It is still going strong today. She has taught at many Guilds in England, a teacher by training she excelled at teaching patchwork and quilting.

We visited back and forth over the years, we mourned together the loss of our parents, we celebrated the birth of her two children and our 5 grandchildren, we mourned the loss of our grandson, we celebrated the wonderful accomplishments of all our children. We have been through a lot together but the last 3 years and her battle with breast cancer showed me a courageous side of her that I will admire for the rest of my life. She fought this disease with strength, courage and dignity but she left far too soon. I wrote a bit about our last visit together here. I will miss her immensely, I will cherish the memories.

"Friends are like stars, you don't have to see them to know they are there".

So many were wearing hand knit socks! This wasn't all!

There was some conversation around "should we or shouldn't we be known as the Quilt Mafia"? I don't have a problem with it but then I was around when Polly's Dan first started calling her quilt friends "the quilt mafia" and it just stuck! I was surprised the other day when I found out by searching google that we aren't the only ones who use that term. The Fons family of quilters - Marianne, her daughter Mary also refer to themselves as the "quilt mafia family". It is found here as "fabric mafia" in a conversation with Lynne Edwards. Just googling the term brings up other links! Who knew we were so ground breaking way back then?

It was wonderful to be surrounded by Laurie's art quilts. You can read/see more about her here. I especially loved her new series, yet to be named but using the image of the fish stores in Blue Rocks.

Here is a picture I took a few years ago of one of the fish stores in Blue Rocks, near Lunenburg.

I think Laurie captured it perfectly.

Unfortunately Heather couldn't be with us the day we had our grand reveal, she was moving that day and in another province! Heather did mail me her challenge...

Heather's challenge - machine embroidered and machine quilted. These challenges are all approximately 12"x12".

My challenge "Snow Apples" was machine pieced, machine quilted and hand embroidered.

Here are all 8 challenges with Sandra and Donna at our March meeting of the Mahone Bay Quilters Guild.

Our next challenge has been issued by Donna and the theme will be "Flowers". This will be a tough one, I have way too many ideas. The rest of the challenges are here on my Flickr page. They are all wonderful!

Most of the "Brunch Bunch".

Next thing we knew we were making plans for another get-together for someone else's birthday, as if we needed an 'excuse"! Next thing we knew we had a name "The Brunch Bunch" and now 30+ years later we are still gathering for birthdays, Christmas, Valentine's Day and just whenever we feel a need to see one another. Over the years we have lost Marian (our matriarch) and Sandra and we miss them both terribly. But hardly a gathering will go by without their names coming up. They both had a great influence on all of us.

"The Leading Light Award" was Marian's wonderful idea, though some hold it in higher regard than others! It is the epitome of tacky! We have accomplished a lot, we have been recognized by our peers for our craft, for our volunteer efforts, for our dedication to our provincial and national organizations. We have had solo exhibitions, group exhibitions, invitational exhibitions and we had a Brunch Bunch Exhibition at the Lunenburg Art Gallery. Many of us have had our work published and many of us have written about our craft for publication. A few have written or are writing books abut their craft.

I received "The Leading Light Award" when my quilt, Waternish Star was awarded an Honourable Mention for Bed Quilts at the Canadian Quilters Association annual juried exhibition. This quilt was hand pieced (the 2 outside broders were machined sewn on to the quilt), hand quilted and it has over 4,000 pieces. I was thrilled with both awards!

"The Leading Light Award" comes with one criteria - it must be displayed! It is awarded when one of our bunch accomplishes something, does something extraordinary. The person who has it can decide who gets it next, there is no time restraint. I have had it for some time. It was displayed in my sewing room, on a shelf in full view! I really did cherish having it, to be so honoured by such a gifted, creative and supportive group. I recently passed it on to Jamie for her dedication and determination to provide students and artists with the best paper available from the Japanese Paper Place and for her amazing handmade books (and quilts). Jamie will get to enjoy this award for a while then it will be her turn to decide who gets it next. Can't wait to see who it is!

I was thrilled that my good quilt friend Anne Morrell Robinson "won" my ufo. Anne is one of the most dedicated and disciplined quilters I know. I knew she would finish it and she has!

I just love the touches of turquoise and how they add some "spark" to the quilt. I hope Anne will bring it to this year's Retreat so I can see it in person.

This has inspired me to dig out another ufo and really put my mind to getting it done. Several years ago Anne came to the Mahone Bay Quilter's Guild to teach a workshop on her "Antique Flower Vase" pattern. I loved the applique and decided that this had to be a full queen sized quilt. I finished the centre, added a couple of highlight borders then a hand pieced border. The next border would be an applique vine. I have one finished, one almost and then 2 more to go.

The triangle border is hand pieced and had to be "fudged" in to fit! 

I used this ruler, Terry Thompson's The Vine Line to draw the vine and it is wonderful, makes the drawing of the vine for the placement so much easier.

The applique border is hand appliquéd, the flowers etc on each side will be slightly different I will add another pieced border but I am not sure yet what that will be. I just want to really at least get the top finished to take to the Retreat in September.

The beige background fabric is a Jinny Beyer print. When I started this project I had no idea it was going to be a full sized quilt. The centre piece was pretty much all I had. Once the vase and flowers were appliquéd I soon realized it wasn't quite big enough so I took out the stitches around the bottom of the vase and added the border print for the vase to sit on, a tablecloth perhaps? I had just barely enough of the beige for the triangles. I looked on Jinny's website to see if they still had the fabric, there it was but there were 2 or 3 that were similar. In the meantime we had decided to go on a raod trip to the Virginia and Washington DC area to meet up with our friends from England. Cheryl, who is also a quilter, was keen to go to Jinny Beyer's studio so I took my quilt top with me in hopes of matching the fabric. Long story short, I was able to get another 4 yards, lots to finish the quilt! Now to get back to work. Thanks Anne!

I have just read a post written by fellow Canadian quilter Gail Hunt about her collection of miniature/toy/small sewing machines. It reminded me that I too have a "collection" though small of miniature/toy/small sewing machines. Just three, but it is a start!

My daughter was given this one by her Grandmother. I seem to recall it sort of worked but it hasn't seen thread for well over 30 years. It is a Kay an El Sew Master. I am not sure where it came from but probably a yard sale or flea market knowing my Mother-in-Law!

Then I found this one at an antique store in Berwick, NS. The paint is in rough shape, it must have been really quite pretty when it was new. It is a Gold Medal Sewing Machine probably made in the late 1800's. The company was in Orange, Massachusetts, it was established in 1860 by Johnson, Clark & Co. to manufacture sewing machines. The company introduced it's Home Shuttle machine in 1870 which was subsequently redesigned and improved. In 1882 the firm was reorganised and became the New Home Sewing Machine Co. In 1927 the company was taken over by the Free Sewing Machine Co. who continued to use the New Home brand name but Free itself was taken over by the National Sewing Machine Co. in 1953.

The third one came from the estate of a quilt friend, it is a Casige brand which was made in Berlin, Germany probably soon after WWll.

I found this "dreamy" picture ages ago while browsing on Google. I have no idea who the woman in the picture is or where I found the picture (my apologies to whoever originally posted it) but she sure looks like my Mother-in-Law and I just had to save it. From the looks of it that is a Singer Sewing Machine, maybe a Featherweight? I must go and look at the back of mine and see if it is.

It has been interesting to Google these sewing machines and learn more about them but also I am amazed by the huge number of miniature/toy/small sewing machines there are out there. Now, I need to stop in to a few antique stores and see what I can find to add to my collection, 3 just doesn't seem like enough! Thanks Gail!