S C R A P M A S T E R

Monday, June 16, 2014

Something very exciting to share!

Yes, Something very exciting! I have been invited to present a trunk show of my quilts to the Lawrencetown Sew-Ciety Guild on Thursday, June 19 . How freakin' awesome is that! I can hardly wait. I spent this morning sorting through my finished quilts and some quilt tops to show. I will also be taking along some of my scrappy cushions and a few smaller scrappy projects. KnittySister is going to tag along as my chauffeur/assistant. I hear that there are several knitters in the Sew-Ciety too. Here is a new cushion I made this morning to take along to show how I use up my hoarde of selvedges.

I am super excited to talk about my quilting journey with the Sew-ciety and share my passion for making quilts for my family and friends. Just hope I don't get tongue-tied in my excitement but I am pretty sure that once I start it might be difficult to get me to stop! Wish me luck and I will have lots to tell afterwards.

In my last post, I neglected to show you the pincushion I made and the one I received in the exchange at the meeting of my guild, The Maritime Modern Quilt Guild

Jeanette picked the one I made, this cute little owl. I made one for myself too! The two pins you see at the top were handmade for me by my BQFF, KathyB, from Saint John, NB

And I picked the one that Anja made. I love a skinny pincushion! And she used a gorgeous orange fabric on the back, her signature colour! Great FMQ stitching, Anja!

Friday, June 13, 2014

Amherst is still Awesome!

Here you see Karen Neary's original design quilt (valued at $3000.) that is one of two grand prizes at the Festival. Make sure to get a ticket!

This past Wednesday, the most amazingly beautiful Nova Scotia spring day, RetiredHub, #1Daughter and I headed to Amherst for the official launch of the 7th annual Nova Scotia Fibre Festival. This festival is held in October every year. This year the dates are the 14th - 18th.
I decided I wanted to be there to represent my lovely little guild, the Maritime Modern Quilt Guild. My lovely little guild will be participating in the Fibre Festival this year. Very exciting! We will be doing a two-day display of our members' work. Our display will be held in the Town Hall, Festival Headquarters, Friday, Oct 17 and Saturday Oct 18.
Our president, Adrienne of Chezzetcook Modern Quilts and I will share the leadership on this adventure, along with a few of our members who will make sure our display is wonderful. Just wait until you see our guild banner! At our meeting last night, we planned how it will look and everyone is taking part in the completion. What fun this will be. My part will be to do the machine quilting. A bit nerve-wrecking for me, but I can do it! It will be unveiled in time for the Fibre Festival.

I only had a very short time in Amherst, but of course I visited Mrs. Pugsley's Emporium (which is a hop and a skip away from Town Hall). I hadn't been to Mrs. P's since last October so I was trying to make up for lost time and became a bit overwhelmed with all the fabulous fabrics etc to look at. I managed to come away with a few things but I left lots behind for others. And by others, I mean Karen Neary. We planned to meet but we didn't plan that I would fall in love with the exact same fabric and I would have to share! But share I did and if you read Karen's latest post here, you will see what else she bought. (Which I now have to have!) ohhhhh fabric envy!

Here is what I ended up with.

Love all the quilt pattern names!

Love scissors fabric

A idea of what was in this charm pack.

This is a French text by STOF ... beautiful hand

Had to add to my MM Mirror Ball Dot collection. This one is my absolute fave.

Not a bad price for almost a jelly roll of fabric. Each Scrap Bag is different.

Just an idea of what was in the Moda Scrap Bag - 36 x 2 1/2" WOF strips

Aside from buying fabric, I am also working on one of my Library Challenge quilt tops, "Hugs and Kisses" by Jaybird. Here's just a little lookey because I have only just started to work on it. It's not a big piece so shouldn't take long to finish up. I am freehanding my feathers so each one will be a bit different.

Hope you have time to get some quilting done today.

Monday, June 9, 2014

"ScrapHappyChristmas" in June

I disturbed RetiredHub from a midafternoon snooze to hold my finished quilt top "ScrapHappyChristmas" so I could get a few photos while the light was still ok. I have to deal with a lot of shadowing in my backyard from all the trees. I had to holler at him a few times not to stretch the corners out too much! All the outside edges are cut on the bias so I had some major stretching going on. I staystitched around the perimeter of the top in the hopes of preventing any further stretching. Don't worry, RetiredHub is a trooper and will do whatever it takes to help me with my quilting. I just had to promise a carrot cake as payment!

This quilt was such fun to make and it was supposed to be a scrapbuster, but I still have a bin full of leftovers from this quilt. Oh well, more scrap quilts...that's what I do!
I now have a quilt top ready for quilting for Christmas. I almost feel like I am ahead of the game!

Hope you had time to do something quilty today.

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

My Maple Leaf Postcard.

I see a few postcards for the Canadian Quilt Talk swap showing up online so I thought I would show you mine. Selvedges and pebbling...two of my favourite things. There is still time to join in, so check out the link and add your name to the list.

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Thistle Quilt Guild Show (lots of pics)

Yesterday, an absolutely glorious Nova Scotia day, RetiredHub and I headed to Westville in Pictou County for the annual Thistle Quilt Guild's Quilt Show. This is my third year attending this quilt show. My friend, Sheila of Sheila's Quilt World, belongs to this guild and I get to see all the quilty things she has made over the past year. Plus I got to meet up with, not only with Sheila, but also with another friend, Lesley of The Cuddle Quilter who made the trip from Port Hawkesbury. We enjoyed a fish and chips lunch before the show and caught up with each other's news. The Thistle Quilt Guild is a very prolific, busy guild of 56+ members and they certainly put on a lovely show, with a tea/dessert room and a few vendors. A nice mix of handquilting and machine quilting, as well as several group projects. Hope you enjoy! I sure did.