Maine and More

The busy days and weeks have slipped by all too quickly! I really meant to be better at posting more often, now I have way too much to catch up on...again!

Sails at Sunset - jo Diggs

We had our annual trek to Maine to visit with my dear friend Jo Diggs. This has become and annual visit in between Remembrance Day and American Thanksgiving - before the silly shopping season begins! I always feel so inspired and refreshed after visiting Jo. She is such a gracious, fun host, wonderful cook and a friend. It is always a busy week for her as it is in-between the Designing Women craft shows where she sells her work. We were able to help her set-up her booth at the Freeport fair and do a little shopping at the other booths. We hope to go back in late June when Jo wll be the featured quilter at the Vermont Quilt Festival - such an honour for a wonderful quilter.

We went to Portsmouth for a day and had to stop in at Portsmouth Fabrics of course. Just has to be one of the best quilt stores anywhere! We stayed overnight at the lovely Inn at Tanglewood Hall and has a delicious dinner at the York Harbor Inn - all to celebrate our 43rd wedding anniversary!

Inside Fiddlehead - love the tin ceiling.

On our way back home we stopped in Belfast, Maine to visit a new-to-me quilt store called Fiddlehead, it is right on Main St. next to Darby's Pub. What a terrific find! It was filled to the brim with delightful fabrics, lots of books and art supplies in the back. We arrived at 10am on Sunday morning and it was constantly busy while we were there. This will definitely be a must stop on my favourite quilt store list!

So sad to see this house near Belfast, Maine. It must have been a beauty in it's day.

I'll be back soon, promise, with more scraps from my life!

The Quilt Mafia Meets Again!

We are 22 quite diverse quilters, well mostly quilters. Several are knitters as well and we have a couple of doll makers (but not your usual dolls - these are one of a kind, collectable art dolls). Some dabble with paints both on paper and fabric, some use paper as their medium of choice. But what we all love best is just getting together for a day to stitch, knit, use threads and fibres, talk and eat! There are more pictures here.

Uta, Polly, Deb, Anne and Val

Penny Beren's daily "scratching". Penny started on January 1, 2012 to add a row and stitch/embroider every day something, a memory or an event from that day. I so admire her dedication to this project, the humour she stitches and the artistry.

Just how Penny felt the day after she visited the quilt shows and the merchant mall at Quilt Canada in Halifax!

I am always amazed by what everyone brings to show, finished pieces as well as works in progress. We are so varied by what we do from traditional to contemporary, from functional to "art" and Val shared some wonderful stitched pieces from her African Threads.

Linda explains her work in progress "The Habituation of Mr. Morris" inspired by "steampunk" - something I had never heard of. This is going to be a stunning piece when it is done.

But what also inspires me when I look at the pictures afterwards are how our hands always show up. I can remember as a child being awed by my maternal Grandmother's hands.

My Mom, Norma Mitchell Paterson and my Granny Mitchell, 1949

She had terrible arthritis in her hands but that didn't stop her, she was always knitting, crocheting, quilting or weaving. Despite the arthritis her hands were always soft and lovely, always busy, I don't remember her ever complaining. Luckily I have about 6 of her quilts, several placemats and a skirt she wove. Granny died when I was 17, I have always wished I could have talked to her about quilts, about knitting socks and I sure could use a crochet refresher!

Yesterday's gathering was just what I needed to get back to my needle and threads. I've found that after the busy-ness of getting ready for Quilt Canada and teaching at Quilt Canada plus just day to day family stuff I was not feeling like quilting or sewing. A rare time for me. So now I have a list - so much has to be accomplished by September 27, our MBQG bi-annual quilt show and then there is my Cove Quilters Challenge to start (an idea would be good!) and so much more. Time to get to work!

Cove Quilters Challenge

Early in December, one of our bee members, Sandra, suggested we have a challenge. She had bought a copy of the Twelve x 12 Challenge book and was very inspired by what this group of art quilters had done. She suggested our bee should embark on a bit of a challenge with a finished size of 12" square, we should try out some new techniques and it had to be done by January 25. She suggested our first theme be "birds".

Top, left to right - Vicki, LindaH, Linda M, Barb, Heather, Donna, Sandy and Sandra

Eight of us took her up on the challenge and though we gather bi-weekly we didn't bring our challenge to bee or discuss them. We had the grand unveiling at Sandra's last week. We were delighted to have our long distance member Heather join us via Skype. This was the first time we tried it and it worked very well.

My challenge is called "The Empty Nest". I was inspired by a post on Jane Sassaman's blog for the bird's nests she made for her Christmas tree. It was fun to make and I will do some for next Christmas for our tree. The background of the block I cut and slashed and inserted the branches, if I was doing it again I would make the branches more irregular. The leaves are raw edge applique and I did a bit of machine quilting. a fun and quick project once I had the plan! Vicki is keeping a journal of each piece and what she did, techniques used along with notes of what worked or didn't. I must do that before I forget.

Sandra, Jane, Donna, Sandy, Vicki, Linda, Terry and Heather visiting via Skype!

Our next challenge is based on chocolate and candy! Linda gathered a selection of chocolate bars and candy and put them in a bag. We each drew one to use as our inspiration or theme. Some of us are going to be really challenged! Mine is a Mars bar!

We drew for Heather and she got the box of Starburst candies. Sandra outdid herself with "bird" themed treats - birds nest cookies and a little bag of bird seed tied with cardinal ribbon. It was a great afternoon with a great flock of quilters!

In keeping with the bird theme, Sandy brought along one of the penguins she has made from the pattern found at PurlBee. Several other bee members are making them too, Heather has 3 done and Sandra and I have several in various stages of completion. They are just so cute!