Retreat Report

I just got back from the weekend Retreat at Bakers Narrows Lodge and had a great time.  My favorite part was meeting quilters that I had never meet before. Lots of laughs, good food, great conversations...and a little bit of quilting! You can check out our guild's blog post on the retreat here.  Sandra took some great pictures.

We all set up our machines in the lodge's log cabin Great Hall and had our meals here too. It was so nice to not have to cook or do dishes!

The inside had nice high ceiling and a large stone fireplace.  The lighting was not the best so next time we will all bring our own little desk lamps.

I was able to finish piecing one of my projects.  I had to use my 'design wall' to layout my blocks as space was at a premium.  It is just an inexpensive vinyl tablecloth with a flannel-like backing and the fabric blocks stick to the backing very well. This picture was taken before I sewed all the blocks together...I didn't get a picture of it sewn together but it is done.. honest :)

I also started my second project this morning but didn't have enough time to get all the block together.

Here is the little cabin I slept in.

And here is the view from the Hall looking out onto Lake Athapapuskow.  You can see just a little ice left in this area of the lake. 

Before I left on Friday I was able to get a few good shots of the loons in our bay on Schist Lake. They finally started to cooperate and let me take their picture. 

I also took two videos with my camera so the quality and sound are not the best as it was windy out.

There were three loons...and this time of year three is a crowd!

I loaded my videos onto YouTube to improve the quality, much better now.

Weekend Retreat!

 I have been trying the last couple of days to get a picture of the loons that have returned. I had to hide behind the trees so they wouldn't dive under and swim away, they usually are not so shy. You can see another pair in the open water in the distance.

This weekend I am going to a quilting retreat at Baker's Narrows Lodge.  I have only ever been to our guild retreats which were just during the days and then you go home at night. But at this retreat we get to stay overnight in the cabins and have our meals prepared!!  And if I forget anything the lodge of only 5 minutes from my house so it isn't far to run home and get! I am looking forward to meeting new quilters from the other surrounding towns as there will be 25 of us.

The only down side to this weekend is I pinched a nerve in my back on Tuesday and it is still bothering me.  Can you believe it happened when I threw a teabag in the garbage can....WHAM...I couldn't move!  I can't believe I got knocked down by a teenie weenie teabag....seriously...why not when I was raking the yard or helping Tim put the dock in water!!  How embarrassing!

Anyway here are my two projects I am going to work on at the retreat and that will put me in a better mood.  I hope to have two complete tops to show you on Monday!

Orange HST Strip Quilt

This is the second quilt I have quilted for Dawn this month and this one is a beautiful orange and white quilt that just says 'spring'!

I used the Feather Curls panto and just love the border fabric she used.

She pieced the backing with extra fabrics from the top.

I can finally use the neighbors clothesline again!  Love how the green in the quilt matches the evergreens.

Candle Ice

A few more days and the ice will be gone.  :)   The ice is starting to candle and when you play with it it makes a very distinct clinking or tinkling sound like breaking wine glasses. 

View from the top.

When you grab a piece it has a long narrow crystal or 'candle' shape and about 4 or 5 inches long.  If we get any strong winds in the next few days the ice will go quickly.  Once it starts moving around our bay it makes a loud 'tinkling' sound as it hits the dock and the rocks on our shoreline. I love to listening to that sound as it means spring is here.

We had another cool experience with ice in 2007 and I wish I had taken more pictures.

Yes that is a layer of ice a foot off the ground stuck in the trees...any guesses how this happened?  I'll give you a hint....spring melt, freeze then thaw.

Our ditch across the road floods every year until the culverts that drain the water to lake side thaws out.  One night it went below freezing and created a 1/4" layer of ice but by morning the culvert had opened and all the water drained from underneath leaving the layer of ice in the trees. It was so cool!!  

The ice covered the road and this is what it looked like after the boys had fun walking on it and cracking it.  Okay I got into the action too!  :)  Who could resist that fun?  Crinkle, crunch, crinkle, crunch!!

Just Takes 2 - Part 8

Here is part 8 of the Just Takes 2 project.  I am happy to report I got all my blocks done before May 1st when the next set of instructions come out.  Part 7 had included the layout for the set of blocks done up to that point and I just now got around to laying them out to take a look at how it is shaping up.   You can see I have a hole in mine...that one block is suppose to be hand pieced and is still waiting to be made.  I think seeing this all laid out might just motivate me to get it done.

  

I'm not sure where my recent blocks will go in the layout but here they are with the rest of them.

The jury is still out whether I like this project or not.  I'm definitely working out of my comfort zone color wise and I usually don't like to make sampler quilts!  But I really like to try new things and it is using up a lot of my hand dyed scraps so I won't judge it until it is all done.

Chickens

See the chickens!  This is Dawn's quilt and she used fun chicken themed fabrics to make her quilt.  I think this is a variation on the Hunters Star pattern.

When I first saw this quilt I thought I would quilt feathers on it to go with the chicken and feather prints.  But after some thought I realized that feathers would just compete with the print on the fabrics and be too busy of a quilting design.  So freehand 3's and E's became the final choice.  Swirls always look great on any quilt!

 For the backing Dawn chose a cool chicken wire print fabric.

One Pattern, Two Different Results

This week I worked on two quilts of Donna's that were made from the pattern called BQ 2 by Maple Island Quilts.  She bought these two as kits at Quilter's Cottage in Stonewall, MB.  The first is a cute quilt for a girl with butterfly fabrics so I used the panto "Butterfly Charm" on it.

And the second quilt is a Hockey themed quilt for a boy.   I used the panto "Plush" on this one.

I love how different fabrics using the same pattern can really change the look of a quilt.

Hand Dyed Fabrics at the Show

At our guilds Quilt Show this weekend I was able to set up a table with my hand dyed fabrics and Lori sent up her fabrics along with her dyed Bamboo scarves and Mandala's.   My husband Tim made us a few trees to hang our fabrics on.  Here is Lori's scarves and Mandala's on her tree.  Note the cute little owl that Lori felted to go on the tree.

You can see one of her Mandala's in this next picture.  She also made a few baby quilts with them and added fleece for backing.

Here is my half of the table. I pulled two of my quilts from the main display area as I had entered more than my fair share and we were short on space.  I think they worked well in our display as I had snow dyed the backing of my "Check out the Stars" quilt and the front was made with about 60% of my hand dyed fabrics.  I had also dyed the backing of my "Beach Batik Quilt" so it fit right in. I made a few feathered fleece throws as well.  

Here is my tree that Tim made for my Snow Dyed fabrics. He even made me a little Tamarack tree and a wood shack to put at the bottom of the tree :)

Lori and I were not expecting to sell that much as our goal was to just show what we have been up to but I am happy to report the sales went well :)  

I just did a post on our guild's blog about the show so if your interested in seeing those pictures you can check them out here.

Quilt Show Recovery Time

Look what I got to bring home from our guilds Quilt Show this weekend!  Yes that is our Bargello Raffle quilt that I have been blogging about for the past year.  I still can't believe I drew my sister's name as the winner....seriously what are the chances of that happening?  I bought her 10 tickets for her birthday present so "Happy Birthday Betty"!   I just had to borrow it to take a little nap as I was quite tired by the time I got home after 3 days of fun and shopping :)

I will share pictures of the show soon but thought I would start with what I bought.  Mami's Country Quilts is going to teach a workshop at our guild in the fall and we decided on Island Sunrise at the project.  I bought my pattern and fabrics with Michele's help. I asked her for navy, brown and purple and she did a fabulous job  picking the fabrics and I only substituted a few to get some of my favorite batiks in there :)

 We hope to have a date booked for the workshop by the next meeting so guild members can sign up for the class, decide on their colors and order their kits from Mami's.  

Then I bought these goodies at Prairie Chicks!  I had borrowed Scrap Basket Sensations from a friend to make my Twinkle quilt and thought I better just get my own as there were so many great patterns in that book that I want to make.  I also picked up her other book too....plus a Bali pop and super cute Cupcake fabric  fat quarter bundle.

 I think I'm ready for another nap...now where is that Bargello quilt?  :)

Twinkle Quilted

I finished quilting my Twinkle quilt which was a pattern from Kim Brackett's book Scrap-Basket Sensations and am now putting the binding on.  I decided to do free hand swirls in the center and the echo curves in the border.  I think I need to buy the rest of Kim's books as they are great!

At first I thought I would SID around the purple stars but then changed my mind and just did the swirls right across.  I had my Rulermate extended base plate on my machine for doing the ruler work in the borders and found doing the free hand work in the center a little trickier than normal.  I kept bumping into the roller bars as as it reduces the usable quilting space I have when it is on and I kept forgetting I had it on.

I used Quilter's Dream Cotton Deluxe on this quilt to give it extra loft and once I wash it that should crinkle it up nicely.

I dyed the backing to match the light coloured fabrics on the front. It is hard to see in the photo but it is a beige/peach colour and I used the MX Procion Chino to dye it.

Still lots of snow as the temps are still getting down to -10'c at night and only highs of 4'c during the day so very slow melt this year.

Well last night was my last meeting as guild president and it was a great meeting. Lots of members showed up help with our quilt show preparations and our volunteer sheets are filling up. That was great to see. I am feeling very excited that our show as it is going to be a lot of fun as we have such a great group of ladies.  Today all I have planned is to bake cookies for the show, get all my and Lori's hand dyed fabrics tagged for sale....and yes we will be offering a discount at the show on our snow dyed fabrics.   Then load up my car with quilt frames, hangers, etc to deliver to the hall tonight and tomorrow the set up begins. 

I'll take pictures and share on the weekend.