Maritime Beauty Workshop

Preparations are underway for several fall workshops based on my Maritime Beauty Pattern # 108. Please email if you are interested.
Amherst will be hosting the Nova Scotia Fibrearts Festival in October and the Cumberland Quilt Guild is organizing a one-day workshop at the Baptist Church. More information on the Festival may be found on the Creda website. I have several tentative bookings for the same workshop in various spots around the province, so stay tuned for more information. Photos and class info may be found here: http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/sewkaren/workshops.html
It's a great pattern to try out curved sewing, and I'll share binding know-how gleaned from over 20 years experience. The next few months look so busy that yesterday I actually bought a new Day Timer to keep track of where I am supposed to be and when I should be there. This is s-o-o-o-o not my style. My darling hubby has bets on me either losing the book or tossing it in frustration before the week is out. Doesn't that sound like a challenge to you? I've never been known to turn one down!

Beauty and Bounty Abound

Wonder of wonders...the persnickety sewing machine finally decided it wanted to play. This New York Beauty wallhanging has been stalled out for a couple of weeks, so I worked till late Friday getting as much done as I possibly could before the day ended. It still needs more quilting, but it was a relief to get this far. And what fun! I love how colourful this piece is.

Yesterday hubby and I checked the progress in the beeyard. The bees are having a wonderful summer; most hives have 3 honey supers and some are almost ready for another tier. It's going to be a busy fall getting all of that bottled. The hives are located in an apple orchard, and the fruit is quickly ripening (dare I say the fruit is coming to fruition?) Here is an August Apple:

In the home garden, our late variety clematis is in bloom, spilling over the railing on the back deck:

Quilt It For Christmas 2008

The latest Quilt It For Christmas from Quilter's Newsletter Magazine has arrived on the stands!
I am very pleased to have one of my projects featured in this lovely magazine. "Yuletide Jewel" resembles the old-fashioned glass ornaments my Gram used to hang on her tree. It looks super hanging on a door (or wall) and the best part is that it uses only four New York Beauty blocks, making it super quick to stitch.

As always, editor Vivian Ritter has assembled a wonderful collection of holiday projects including one from Dilys Fronks whose work I always admire. I encourage all of you Christmas fans to check out this issue. Only four months of stitching till Christmas!

Sew It In A Weekend

This morning I recieved copies of the new book from DRG Publishing entitled Sew It In A Weekend. This book features my "Pearl Needlework Set". The project uses Michael Miller Fairy Frost; with the pearlized sheen on the fabric it is perfect in this application. The needlecase opens like a shell, and it's easy to imagine finding a pearl inside.
Editor Julie Johnson has done a fabulous job of choosing quick and timely projects for this book. It's available from amazon.ca or amazon.com

Back to the Bee Yard...

Quilting ground to a standstill on the scrappy New York Beauty on the weekend. My sewing machine is having issues and we both needed a time out to cool off. The way it's behaving lately, it would take less time to hand quilt...
Hubby and I returned to the beeyard to check on last week's swarm. We were greeted by an unusual number of hornets. Upon investigating, we discovered they had built a nest inside a vacant beehive.
It was interesting to compare the work of the hornets to that of the bees. The materials are very different, but the cells look quite similar; you can see baby hornets with their hind ends sticking up out of the chambers.

Here's a shot of what the bees have accomplished this week. You can see how they are working very industriously building up the chambers with wax . The little white dots you see inside the comb chambers that look like grains of rice are actually eggs that the queen has laid.

And here's a wee peek at me, glamourous rubber boots and all!