Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Scant Sightings of Quilts in PEI

I've been at the Canadian Student Leadership Conference in PEI with 12 Weyburn students and 3 other advisors.  The conference literally kept us busy from 7:15 in the morning until 10 at night so I had very little time to look at quilts or quilt shops.
 
Shelley Hoium told me the largest quilt shop is in O'Leary and I did get to drive past it, but that was all. 
 
I blogged my activities of the trip at www.brendaswitwalking.blogspot.ca and that blog shows what a wonderful time we had.
 
Here is the little bit about quilting I can tell you.
 
One of our tours was to Fanningbank House which is the official residence of PEI's Lieutenant-Governor.  You could only take photos in the entry and in one other room.  That other room had these three quilts in it along with other artifacts and I thought it was neat that the three quilts showed three styles of quilting:  patchwork, whole cloth, and applique.


Will and Kate stayed here on their visit and we toured the room they were given.  Poor Will and Kate!  They didn't get to sleep under a quilt, just under an ordinary bedspread.  Thank goodness I'm not royalty and I get to sleep under a cozy quilt.
 
During the pre-conference we went to a corn maze which had a little store and cafĂ©.  In the very narrow hallway leading to the washrooms, there was this wall hanging.  I committed the quilters' sin and turned it over with my bare hands to look for a label.  I was having a difficult time deciding if this wool wall hanging was handmade or commercially made. There wasn't any label and I do think it was hand done.


How pitiful is it that those are the only quilts I saw?  I didn't even read a quilt magazine on the plane.  Will this be just cause for ousting me from the guild?  I hope not.
 
 


Saturday, September 14, 2013

Quilt Patch Introduces New Book

The ladies from the Quilt Patch were at the Weyburn Public Library on Saturday, September 7th to promote their new book and to do a trunk show.  The event was well attended with approximately 45 people at it.
 
I remember that last time they did a trunk show here, they were very adamant:  no pictures!  NO PICTURES!  I didn't think to ask it I could take photos, so I will err on the side of better judgement and just show a few that don't show any of their creations.
 


On Monday we had our first work day at the library for this quilting season.  There was a good group including Bonnie's sister-in-law who showed us what she is working on.
I'm blogging this at the Toronto airport waiting for a flight to PEI.  We'll be there for a week and I'll be blogging it at www.brendaswitwalking.blogspot.ca.  Follow along if you wish.  Shelley was kind enough to tell me the largest quilt store on the island is at O'Leary.  She kindly told Bob there's a potato museum there.  I was more impressed with her information than Bob was.


Friday, September 6, 2013

What I Saw in "Canadian Quilter"

We had a great first meeting of the quilting season with lots of good ideas like NAMETAGS.  Yes, we are now so large we need nametags or else we have to deal with the embarrassment of not remembering everyone's name.
There's good show-and-tell for you, but first I want to show you what I found in "Canadian Quilter." After the show-and-tell I have a shocking confession!
 
I have an addiction for "Canadian Quilter" but made a New Year's resolution about not buying books or magazines this year, so I quickly snapped up the two newest editions at Tuesday's meeting.
 
One of them shows that Jaynie had a piece sold at the national show and te second shows she won second place in one of the "Canadian Quilter" challenges.  I can't wait for the next issue to see where and how she's mentioned.  The one issue also had a photo of one of our friend Martha Cole's works; I hadn't heard anything about her for awhile.

At Tuesday's meeting, members had the opportunity to sign up for some classes...
...pay their very reasonable yearly due of $25...
...and get up-to-the-date information about the September 20-22 retreat.
President Donna started us off with some laughs and then introduced the executive who just happened to be the same as last year.  I'm so happy they all signed up to do their jobs for the next decade! 

 
Barb S. had a great mixer which had us laughing and visiting.

The first show-and-tell is the quilt we will donate to the Communithon.  I was at a Communithon meeting on Wednesday and they plan to use our quilt as a raffle rather than as a silent auction item.  They hope to raise $1000 with it.  The quilt's so lovely (thanks, Lydia!) that I'm sure they'll reach that goal.
 Rose made this quilt from last season's mystery quilt pattern.
 Remember the pattern from Lyn from Australia?  Vera has put it to good use and I know others have too although we haven't seen theirs yet.
 Here's another quilt from the mystery quilt pattern.  Vera's border adds pop.
Here's what Leona showed us.
Jaynie always does interesting thread painting and this has both that and some paint-painting too.
 Sharynne showed her mom's blue jean quilt and we all "oohed" when she showed that the backside is pieced too.

 I showed this piece that my friend Marielle from Holland made for me.
Eileen created this cute quilt.
 
Eva worked on the embroidery part of this while she was traveling.

Vi got busy and made this in two colors.

As usual, her hand quilting is exquisite.  Can you see here that her quilting imitates the scalloping on the dresses?
Best for last!  Renee has become my new quilting guru with this appliqued quilt.  I can't begin to guess how many times she changed thread so the colors were right.


Look, Lyn, here's the Aussie boy.
And my favorite - the Ukrainian girl who has stream rising from her plate of perogies!
Tuesday was a great kick-off to what's going to be an amazing quilting year.
 
Want to stitch and visit at the same time?  We have the public library programming room again this year starting this Monday.  The time is 9:30 until 3:00.
 
And, now, my shocking confession:  Bob and I are going on another trip!  We'll be in Prince Edward Island from the 14th until the 22nd and I'll be blogging it over at www.brendaswitwalking.blogspot.ca