North Star Quilt Guild Quilt Show 2016

Welcome to our guilds 2016 Quilt Show, this is the reason my blog as been so quiet this past month.  I was co-chair of the show along with my good friend Audrey.   I thought I would share pictures of our show with you and I’m sure you will recognize many of the quilts as I did the count and I quilted 40% of them.  These ladies are the reason I have my longarm business and I’m very grateful they have trusted me with their quilts over the years. I would not have developed the skills I have without their support.
Our show is held in our Community Hall as it is the largest suitable venue in our town.  We have 6 large quilt trees that each hold 8 large quilts, a cable on the west wall that holds 18 twin, lap size quilts and we made PVC frames to hold large wall hanging and baby quilts.

We include a tea and cookies with our show and a place for viewers to sit, chat and enjoy the atmosphere.

We have two entrances so have two admissions desks, this is the view from the second entrance and you are welcomed with our Lug Nuts Raffle quilt this year and our guild banner.

And like with any event there are always last minute jobs to be done before the show is open and Audrey was right on it.  (We forgot to add a label to our Raffle Quilt!)

We also had In House raffles which was three quilts and one tuffet.

We had a guild challenge this year, it was  Black and White Challenge and members also had to pick a marker out of a bag (while not looking) and the colour they picked was the only accent colour they could add to the Black and White fabrics.

We had 25 entries and had the show viewers vote for their favorite.   The winner was Rae’s “Whoops” quilt.

Second was Helen’s quilt.

And third was my Hunters Star quilt.  We each received a fabric ribbon and a quilt kit.

Now lets wander around the show a bit!

We had a special display from our guild members Robin and Nadine. They have been very busy making quilts for Ronald McDonald house in Saskatoon, SK and focused on quilts for teenage boys as that was the kinds of quilts the charity was always short on.  They are not anymore as I think they have made between 80 to 100 for that project.  We are very proud of you ladies and that is what quilting is all about!



We also had a Toonie Parade fundraiser were members donated baskets or new items and these two lovely ladies, Moira and Iris, created 16 beautiful baskets and a gorgeous display.  Great job ladies!  If you’re wondering why it is called a Toonie parade it is based on the same idea as a Penny Parade and when we started the tickets were $2 ( in Canada that coin is called a Toonie). But now that we have change our ticket to a sheet of 20 for $5 we might have to change the name!



Now besides seeing all the quilts having two vendors at our show is a huge highlight for us as we do not have a local quilt shop.  So Mami’s Country Quilts from Duck Lake, SK  filled the stage with their beautiful Judy Niemeyer quilts as they are certified teachers for her patterns.

Had to get a closure picture of their Lug Nuts quilt sample under this beautiful Judy Neimeyer quilt!

We also had Road 17 N Quilt Shop from Winkler, MB drive 900km to come to our show!    Thanks from coming to our show Shari and Leroy, we hope you come back again for our next show!

And last, but not least, our Viewers Choice Red Ribbon went to my client Linda for her beautiful Sunday Ride quilt which will be a wedding gift for her granddaughter!  Congratulations Linda!

Now that I have my blog post done I plan on doing NOTHING for the rest of the day!   I hope to be back to my regular quilting and blogging schedule this week now that the show is over.

Broken Herringbone

This is Terry’s Broken Herringbone quilt and the pattern is by Violet Craft.  I love the fabrics she used but don’t know the name of the collection.

She asked for simple quilting so I thought this would be a good time to try a new pantograph called Water Wings by Barbara Becker, which I purchased from Urban Elementz.  The thread is beige So Fine and batting Quilters Dream Blend.

Now that the weather has warmed up we have been watching the otters playing out on the ice!  But of coarse as soon as I get my camera out they disappear.  So I went for a walk out on the lake (there is 24” of lake ice so still safe) and found the opening where they are popping in and out of.  They were not too happy to see me approach and starting making a snorting sound. 

Then they tried to hide!

But this is my favourite picture.  I was getting pretty close so one of them disappeared and suddenly popped through the ice and started snorting again!  I was prepared to run but I had to get a picture first and it was worth it!

City Slicker #2

This is Sheri’s City Slicker quilt and it is the second one she has made.    This time she used a jelly roll from a Moda line called Little Black Dresss and a light Grunge for the background, it looks fabulous.   This was the same fabric that Road 17 N used for their City Slicker  sample and has kits made up if you’re interested!

We finally have above freezing temperatues so the snow on the lake is melting like crazy.  I froze again last night so I was able to run out there this morning to get a few pictures on the ice.  Probably won’t get many more of those this year!

Sheri requested the Mimosa panto and it looks great on this quilt. I used a medium beige So Fine thread on top, a ligher beige of Bottom Line on the back and Quilters Dream Blend batting. The backing is a wide Grunge in the lightest colour they make.

Feels good to be back at the longarm after a week off.  When I came home from the Quilt Show my house was torn apart and my Shack full of furniture as we were getting new carpet installed.  When my husband ripped out all the old carpet he said he found a beach under the it!  Yes, piles of sand had collected over the years and now we know what all the lumps were under the carpet!  He swept up a few piles like in this pictures just in the livingroom.

Here is the new carpet!  Much nicer colour for taking quilt pictures on than my old teal carpet…and it will hide the sand!

Quilt Reflections 2016

This past weekend I drove down to Dauphin to pick up my good friend Lori and we drove to Winnipeg to attend the Quilt Reflections 2016 show put on by the Manitoba Prairie Quilters. It the largest show in our province.  This was the guild that I quilted the Gravity raffle quilt for last year so it was nice seeing that quilt on display again.  We had a fabulous time visiting with other quilters and meeting our clients who we have only emailed with over the years.  Besides the wonderful quilts on display we enjoyed shopping the booths and visiting with the vendors.  We are very luck to have such great support from some Manitoba shops that carry our Highway 10 Designs patterns.  They all had quilts made from our pattern on display and along with kits so that is very exciting to see!

Here are pictures from Wendy’s Fabriculous booth.  She had a Pedal to the Metal ( which Lori and I pieced for her at one of our retreats), a Quarter Sections and Detour on display.

Keystone Quilts had a modern version of our Not Your Mother’s Rail Fence on display!

And Road 17 N had a beautiful City Slicker on display using the new Black Tie Affair fabric collection.  I have one on my  machine right now just like this so will be sharing more pictures soon.

Now to the really exciting part!  I knew that my client Megan was going to enter her Arcadia Avenue quilt that I quilted for her so I was looking forward to seeing it on display.  When I found it was pleasantly surprised to see a First place ribbon on it in the category of Large Commercially Quilted.  I was so excited for Megan!!

Then as I walked the show some more I can across another quilt that I had quilted for my cleint Lori.  And there on the quilt was a second place ribbon in the Large Commercial Quilted category.  So I took some pictures and just as I was walking away two ladies approach the quilt and one lets out a little squeel of delight and while her friend is snapping pictures of her!  It was Lori, her friend knew she won second place and surprised her.  Once they had there moment I approached her to introduce myself and we had a lovely visit. I was so happy to have witnessed her reaction to her ribbon, that was priceless!

Now I was pretty pumped my this point but the day just kept getting better.   I find another quilt by my client Heather and there on the quilt is a third place ribbon in the Large Commercially Quilted category.  Now before you smile to yourself and think  “there was probably only 3 quilts in that catergory”  I checked it out and there were 14!   So I think I’m entitled to say that was a clean sweep of that category.

Then I found one more, it was another quilt I had done for Megan and it was in the Small Commercially Quilted catergory and it had a second place ribbon.  I was so happy to also have meet up with Megan and her very proud mom Audrey.    We had a lovely visit and I got a picture of us together ( I’m the one having the hot flash).

So this is why my blog as been a bit quiet lately, not much quilting going on and I still haven’t touched my longarm since I got home on Monday as we are getting new carpet installed in the house and I came home to find my Shack full of furniture and boxes. Couldn’t even quilt if I wanted too!   Today should be the last day of the install and I can then get my house back in order and back to quilting.

Oh I did do some shopping at the vendors and got a pretty bundle of batiks and …

…something I have been searching for a long time, a 3m long retractable tape measure that has BOTH inches and metric!  Being a Canadian quilters I use both in my quilting.   If you are also searching for this wonderful tool just contact Fabriculous in Swan River, MB.  She has a bunch!

Chic Sisters Quilted

Got the binding finished up this morning on my Chic Sisters quilt so it’s all done!  My focus, since getting home, was to finish this quilt so I could get it to Wendy so she can hang it in her Fabriculous booth at the Manitoba Prairie Quilter ‘Quilt Reflections’ Show this coming weekend in Winnipeg.   I plan on driving down for the show and stopping in Dauphin to pick up Lori, so I’m looking forward to a fun girls weekend.   I’m hoping to get a chance to meet up with my blog readers and quilting clients from that area so if you’re going to be at the show please say ‘Hi’.  I’ll be hanging out at the show Friday afternoon and Saturday afternoon.

Don’t let this blue sky fool you, it was –22’c this morning and we had fresh snow fall this weekend!    Spring has not sprung here yet! 

I pieced this quilt using Zen Chic fabrics called Modern Background Essentials and Sew Kind of Wonderfuls Quick Curve Ruler.

I stitched in the ditch around the pinwheels and then added the feathers.  Quilted the background with swirls.   I used three different colours of So Fine thread, a light beige on the light fabrics, a medium grey on the grey fabrics and teal on the teal pinwheels.   Batting is Quilters Dream Blend

Beginner Class and Ice Cream Cones!

I was away last week, as it is Spring Break in our part of the world, and we took a drive down to Winnipeg to visit family and friends. I also spent a day at a beautiful quilt shop in Winkler, MB called Road 17 N and taught a beginner piecing class using our Highway 10 Designs pattern City Slicker.  I had 8 wonderful students and they all got a great start on this quilt top.    As I was driving to Winkler I realized I forgot my camera, I was so mad at myself!  So I do not have any pictures to share of the class or the students with a finished block to show their fabric choices,  I just have the blocks I used as my samples.  I’m making a scrappy batik version of this quilt, its a great way to use up leftover 2 1/2” strips from all my batik projects.

Before I left on our trip I had put together a baby quilt from Ice Cream Cone blocks that I won at our guild meeting in February.    At our guild meetings we like to teach a quilt block and then ask members to make two out of scraps and bring those blocks back to the guild next month.   We then use half the blocks to make a comfort quilt that we donate to a local charity and the other half we have a draw and a lucky member wins the blocks.  So I won 21 blocks and then made a scrapy single Irish chain setting blocks to highlight them.  Once I had all the setting blocks made I thought they might be too bright and distract from the cones so posted a picture on IG and was reassured that the blocks worked just fine.  Whew!

The Ice Cream Cone block was a pattern from Project Linus called Single Scoop and one our guild uses a lot for baby quilts.   You can find it in the January/Feb 2006 issue of Quiltmaker magazine.   We gave the members the cone fabric so that is why the all match so well.  I might still add a border but need to find fabric for that.