Quilt Canada 2012

Quilt Canada 2012 will be in Halifax, Nova Scotia from May 29 - June 3, 2012 at Dalhousie University. This is the third time that Quilt Canada has come to Halifax, in 1984 it was held at Mount Saint Vincent University and in 1994 it was held at Saint Mary's University. At both the '84 and '94 conferences I was involved in the local organizing committee specifically with the workshop planning and teachers. Both times it was a gratifying experience. I met lifelong friends and learned so much.

This time I am thrilled to be teaching. I was unable to work on the committee due to family commitments, I missed being a part of all the planning but it is kind of exciting to not know and to be able to look forward to all aspects of the conference. It has been a while since I was last at a QC. I have taught at 3 previous ones, Ottawa, Saskatoon and Montreal.

This time I am teaching 3 workshops, all by hand! 

I'll be teaching Stab Stitch Quilting. I was taught to quilt this way almost 39 years ago by Polly Greene.

Penny Candy (inspired by the traditional pattern Chinese Coins), machine pieced and hand quilted.

I will also be teaching hand applique.

Running Around in Circles inspired by Kandinsky's Colour Studies: Squares and Concentric Circles, machine pieced, hand applique and hand quilted.

The great thing about applique this way is that there are no templates, it is needle turned, hand stitched with a blind stitch.

The third workshop is based on a quilt in the Nova Scotia Museum collection.

The Waternish Star quilt is hand pieced and mine is hand quilted. It has approximately 4,000 pieces. The original quilt was found inside another quilt. When the original quilt wore out around the edges and became well worn the frugal maker used it as a filling for another quilt. Fortunately the interior quilt was discovered, the second outer quilt was carefully "unstitched" and removed. To date we have not found an original name for this quilt so it remains the Waternish Star, named for the small community of Waternish, Guysborough County, Nova Scotia where it was found.

Several years ago I purchased a copy of Quilts in a Material World by Linda Eaton which is about the quilts in the Winterthur Museum collection. Much to my surprise there are 2 examples of this quilt in this book. That is the first time I have come across the Waternish Star anywhere else! I have been in touch with Linda about the pattern but to date we still don't know anything more about it.

I loved piecing this quilt. It went everywhere with me and I stitched the diamonds into hexagons then sewed the strips together adding the connecting triangles. I worked on this quilt over many years. I jokingly would refer to it as "my life project"! I never knew when it would be finished!

Can't wait for May 29! Hope to see you at Quilt Canada 2012.

Bee Challenge - Part 2

My Mahone Bay Quilters Guild bee, the Cove Quilters have just completed our second challenge. We have been inspired by the Twelve x 12 Challenge that a group of art quilters have done (and I believe they are now on their second round), they have had an exhibition and have written a book about their experience. We are happy to just complete our challenges!

Our first challenge was just called "Birds", thanks to Sandra R, who was the instigator of this project. For this next challenge, Linda M selected about 15 bars of chocolate and types of candy, put them in a bag and we each drew one. This blind choice was to be our inspiration for the next challenge. We could use the name, the colours of the wrapper or the bar/candy itself to be the inspiration. There were some easy ones and some challenges for sure. The only criteria is that they have to be 12" square and finished. We are encouraged to try new techniques and to be challenged, create out of our box or comfort zone.

My challenge is "My Very Educated Mother..." (Just Showed Us Nine Planets). My chocolate bar was the ...Mars Bar! The sun and planets are fused, I used stitches on my sewing machine (Pfaff 2046) that I had never used before and I used beads for embellishment, something I had done very little of and I think I sewed each one on differently, Is there a "right" way?

All eight challenges. Can you guess the chocolate bars or candy? 

Vicki's challenge - a Wish bar

Linda H's challenge - a Cherry Blossom

Linda M's challenge - Coffee Crisp

Sandy T's challenge - Oh Henry!

Donna's challenge - Turtles

Heather's challenge - Starburst - Heather also wrote about her challenge on her blog.

Sandra R's challenge - Mirage

Our next theme is "paint". I chose a lot of different paint chips and put 2 in each envelope (I did 12 envelopes so that the last person would still have a choice). On the front of the envelope I wrote "house paint, painted lady and paint the town..." They can use one, two or all three of these themes and they must use the 2 colours of paint in their bloc. It will certainly be interesting to see what they come up with.

To get the afternoon off to a wonderful start Linda M served these beautiful strawberries dipped in chocolate. We finished the afternoon with Linda's wonderful Bailey's dessert. It was a sweet afternoon!

Maritime Fibre Arts Retreat 2012

Another Maritime Fibre Arts Retreat has come and gone. We gathered at the Atlantica Hotel at Oak Island for 3 lovely days. The event has been held there for the past 3 years and it certainly is a very suitable venue. Most of the 186 attendees gather in the large room overlooking Mahone Bay. The light is excellent with windows all along 3 sides.

I love the way the room is set up with the spinners in the middle froming a circle, around them are round table where knitters, rug hookers, felters and weavers gather. Then around the outside are long tables for the quilters (close to electrical outlets!). It works really well and is a beehive of activity. This year there were so many spinners they had another circle in the adjoining room. It was wonderful to walk through there and hear the hum of the wheels and the chatter of the spinners. I must say I was thrilled to see so many "young" spinners and knitters at the Retreat. I wish we could get some young quilters to join us!

I am part of a wonderful group of (mostly) quilters fondly known as the "Quilt Mafia". We try and get together several times a year to see what we are up too and catch up on exhibitions we have seen, books we have read and fabric we have acquired.

Alex, Barb, Linda, Laureen and Betsey

Of the 20 or so members of the Quilt Mafia there were 14 of us at the Retreat! We had a wonderful time, lots of chat, lots of wonderful food, great stories and liquid refreshments! Once again we have all booked for next year...can't wait.

I was actually able to get quite a bit done this time. I finished the beading on my Cove Quilters challenge, I finshed the binding on a Christmas wallhanging and I started a new circle project for my class that I am teaching at Quilt Canada. 

My challenge - we had to blindly chose a chocolate bar from a bag and use that as our inspiration. I drew the Mars bar. I used stitches on my sewing machine I have never used before and did some beading. I am thinking of calling it "My Very Educated Mother..." (Just Showed Us Nine Planets) with thanks to Linda and Donna who taught me the mnemonic! I learned another one "Mount Vesuvius Erupts Mulberry Jam Sandwiches Under Normal Pressure".

Be sure and check my Flickr page for lots more pictures, with thanks to my daughter Kate who is a wonderful photographer.