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.

Chic Sisters Quilt and a New Bernina!

A few weeks ago I started piecing a fun pattern called Chic Sisters by Sew Kind of Wonderful.  If you are a regular blog reader you know I love those patterns and the Quick Curve Ruler.  I bought a bunch of Zen Chic ‘Modern Background Essentials’ for this quilt at Fabriculous and got right to work on this quilt.  Well I guess I was too excited piecing it as I didn’t notice I had lost one of the light background fat quarters and then I cut one of the dark background fabrics wrong and it said right in the pattern ( they even underlined it)  to make sure “all fabrics are right side up before cutting”. Whoops!  Forgot to turn one pile and ruined that fabric.  So I was one light block short and one dark block short.  Drat!  Then I found the light fat quarter I was missing at the back of a drawer!

So a quick call to my favorite fabric shop Fabriculous and they came to my rescue and cut up what I needed!  While I was making that order I thought why not buy a new Bernina while I was at it!   Okay I had been eyeing it for awhile now and they just came out with the cutest design on it so how could I resist…I mean it has Dandelions on it!  And its blue and grey…it  matches my quilt!   Look how pretty she is and she quilts like a dream. I needed a new lighter weight machine to take to retreats and guild UFO days as my Janome is so heavy. 

So now I have a new machine and fabric to finish this quilt top.  Yeah it’s pieced!

Now to figure out how to quilt it and find the time!

Sunday Ride Quilt

This is Linda’s Sunday Ride quilt and the pattern is by Cherry Blossoms Quilting Studio.   This will be a wedding gift for one of her granddaughters, what a lovely gift!  The applique pieces are all fused and then she did a machine zig zag stitch to hold all the pieces in place.  Lots of hand embroidery stitches as well.   She asked for custom quilting and liked how the cover of the pattern was quilted so gave me that to use as inspiration.  I quilted the blocks similar to the pattern but then added the loops in the sashing and the feather curl design in the outer border.  I stitched in the ditch around the main elements of the applique pieces.

I quilted the whole quilt in white So Fine thread as all the applique stitching was done in white thread.  Made my job easy with no thread changes.   Batting is Quilters Dream Blend.

City Slicker #1

This is Sheri’s City Slicker quilt and it is one of our latest Highway 10 Designs patterns.  Sheri used the first Jelly Roll she ever purchased,  over 10 years ago, so not sure what Moda line it is.  I thought that was pretty amazing to hold onto a jelly roll for that long, but then again I bet many of your have jelly rolls that old too!  

I picked Rhapsody for the pantograph design, Light Beige So Fine thread and Quilters Dream Blend batting.

Next week I’ll be down in Winkler, MB teaching this pattern at Road 17 N quilt shop.  I’m really looking forward to teaching a beginner piecing class and meeting new quilters!