Quilt Canada

Oh my goodness. What a great couple of days it has been at Quilt Canada, here in Calgary. I went two days. Wednesday I was there most of the day cruising through the merchant mall very slowly. I loved looking at the Juried Quilts they were amazing and so inspirational. The workmanship is unbelieveable. I can't imagine even beginning some of these quilts, they are life time achievements. Thursday we had a spring snow storm, so I didn't venture out. (yes it is usual for this time of year). Today I went to look at all the vintage quilts and sewing machines (but forgot my camera).

I hope you enjoy these pictures of some amazing quilts. Not necessarily ribbon winners but some of my favourites.

All of them unique in there own way!

Photos later of what I purchased!

Tomorrow in between soccer games, practices and community clean up I will be attending the Lakeside Quilters, quilt show out at the Chestermere Community Center 10-4. Stop by if you are in the area.

Are you coming?

Are you coming? I am going on Wednesday, Thursday and maybe half day on Friday. If you are going to be there let me know and we could meet up.

I have decided to join a guild.. Lakeside Quilters. Lovely group of ladies that meet twice a month, have retreats, classes etc. They are having a Quilt Show this Saturday May 1st. So if you are in the Chestermere, AB area drop in and say hello . Show will take place at the Chestermere Community Center across from Tim Horton's on 17th Ave., from 10-4pm. It's the guild's 10th anniversary so they are excited to show off their work.

Back to doing laundry and catching up after a busy weekend with my girls at their dance competition. They did really well, coming home with some great awards. We are so proud of them both for their dedication and talent. I love watching them dance. Sometimes it is hard to believe they are my girls on stage!

I have only been able to do some hand stitching lately, but it is a secret project so more on that later.

I will be back...

Sorry for my absence, but I have been rather busy. My girls were both in the first of 3 dance competitions, this past weekend. This meant lots of driving to the opposite end of the city to the university and back. My mother came from Ontario to watch the girls .

Guess what? ....we do it all over again this weekend with another competition, but in Lethbridge, AB. So needless to say I am not doing any sewing, because I am never home! I do plan on going to the LQS in Lethbridge.

By the way the girls are dancing wonderfully, making me so proud. My son did get his head shaved for 'Shave Your Lid of Kid' program and raised over $1400 himself.

If any of you are going to Quilt Canada April 26- May 1, here in Calgary and want to meet up, let me know. I am excited to see all the quilting!

Shave Your Lid for a Kid

Today is a bit of a nervous day for me:

My almost 18 year old, son has graciously offered to "Shave his Lid for a Kid" as part of the Kids Cancer Care Foundation of Alberta fund raiser.

To date his high school has raised over $10,000.

If you are interested in helping him to raise some more funds, click HERE.

A charitable receipt will be sent for donations over $20.00 Cdn

I am so proud of what he is doing and such a selfless act. I will post pictures later.

Have a great day

String Fling!!

Stephanie over at Loft Creations challenged us, I think, back in January to create something with strings in the No Strings Attached Challenge! Well I took up the challenge in a big way creating a quilt for my niece that turned 20 in March. I didn't quite get it done in time for her birthday, but it is completed now. (I partly didn't get it completed in time because I knew my mom would be visiting in April and could take it back to Ontario for me.)

The borders were challenging, trying to decided which colours to use. I had to make more crumb blocks, which bt the way are fun to make, because I was running out of the solid blue. In the end I only had 1.5" left over! whew

The other reason I didn't finish it on time, was because I wasn't sure how to quilt this one. I finally settled on using a serpentine stitch across all the string blocks hortizontally. I stitched in the ditch around the purple border and then 4 rows of serpentine in the blue border using a varigated thread. It measures 60"X 80". I used up all my bright strings. So now do I do one with my light and dark strings too?

I love the backing fabric. I wanted something not too funky incase she doesn't like the front anymore, the back is a little tamer!!

What do you think, does this shout SPRING??

Please vote...

Remember this quilt I made back in November. well i entered it in the Quilting Gallery's weekly themed quilt contest.

If you like mine vote for me..... HERE

Practice practice practice....

I have been wanting, for some time now, to work on making HST's. There are many patterns I adore that use them, but I haven't felt comfortable making them. So many of the patterns call for 3 7/8" squares and that just scares me! Reading Bonnie Hunter 's website introduced me to the Easy Angle Ruler and I couldn't be more pleased with my HST's using this ruler. Most of the fabric is from Connecting Threads .

This table runner I made very quickly! My daughter is visiting a friend of a friend's cattle ranch for a couple of days for her spring break and I wanted to send a gift along. It is super long and I hope it goes with their decor (I haven't been to their place).

Finished string quilt in the washer right now.....stay tuned for those pictures.

a quick finish

A quick finish to show today.

We attended a lovely Easter Brunch yesterday at my friend Jennifer's house. she wouldn't let me bring a thing even though we come with 5 of us. I just couldn't go empty handed. On Saturday I made this table runner for her. It is made from a charm pack of Northcutt's Cure for a Causeline. this makes it even more special as her mom passed away from Breast Cancer years ago. I machined quilted it with a meandering tulip-loopy pattern.

I am busy spring cleaning the house the next few days. Also waiting for my washer to be repaired! Working on the binding of anothher quilt which I hope to show you real soon.

Have an awesome day!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter!

My first attempt at hand applique and I think next time I will continue with the machine. I really didn't enjoy going through 2 layers of heat and bond and 3 layers of fabric...ouch! I did enjoy having something to do that I could easily pick up and do just a few stitches here and there. Sooo today I picked up a few little embroidery projects to work on. I will have some extra time on my hands while waiting for my girls during dance competitions coming up. Plus they are easier to carry around then a big quilt.

I hope you all have a lovely Easter weelend and find some time to spend with family and friends.(and maybe a little sewing too!) We will be sharing Easter Sunday with mulitple families as we are invited to a brunch and a dinner!