Quilting Pitfalls

Here's one I hadn't previously considered: the holes in the Swiss eyelet are the perfect size to catch the little toe of my Bernina #24 foot. That took some care to avoid.
Despite that, the double heart border is all quilted.
Now to find some matching fabric for the binding. Nice to have another finish!

Special Delivery

Once the dreaded basting was done on the stork quilt, the actual quilting went very quickly. The rationale in choosing what to quilt was to make it secure enough to launder well but to leave enough"pouf" for softness.
All that's left now is the outer border and binding, which is one of my favourite parts. Hopefully there is a bit of that yellow to be found but I'm not holding out much hope. It may end up blue, like the centre.
I used Konfetti thread, which is a 50 weight cotton by Wonderfil. Konfetti has become my dependable "go to" thread, and always works well in both piecing and quilting. I've ordered in a bunch to have available during the N.S. Fibre Arts Festival workshops in October.

Quilting Weather Persists

The rain has actually stopped, but it's still too wet outside to do any gardening. The lawn is desperately needing to be cut but the grass has to dry off a bit. In the meantime, I have finished another sample for my workshops for Fibre Arts Festival and worked out the class description and supply list. It will be posted to the website shortly.
I dug out another "flimsy" to quilt, this one from a few year's back. Originally this was to be a nursery wallhanging, a companion piece to a baby quilt featured in a Quilter's Newsletter special issue. However, the editor decided there was only room for the quilt instructions so we went with just that. This got tossed in the huge pile of tops in the closet. With the addition of a couple of borders, it is now crib sized and ready to finish.The stash yielded a piece of flannelette the right size and colour. Now for the dreaded basting. If only there was a way to skip this part...

Rainy Days and Mondays

Unlike the song, these make for good quilting days. I am taking advantage of the indoor weather to stitch up some samples for an upcoming workshop. During the N.S. Fibre Arts Festival in October, I will be doing classes on beginner free motion quilting and the class project will be a small wholecloth sampler of stitches. Details will be posted on my website shortly.

Hive Update

While in my dreams I am with the rest of my profession at Spring Quilt Market in Salt Lake City this weekend, in reality I am here with hubby getting the beehives ready for spring. Last week I mentioned we took an observation hive of live bees to a local Earth Expo. Here's what an observation hive is all about: a vented wooden box with glass sides just large enough to fit a single frame of bees inside. Hubby selected a frame containing the queen, which was an added bonus as viewers enjoyed trying to spot her. It isn't always easy to do.
On the top of the box is a a spot where a mason jar of sugar syrup may be inverted, to provide food for the bees. In this case, hubby chose a frame which contained honey so the feeder was not necessary. The mesh over the hole also allows air to get in...but prevents the bees from getting out.
Here we are returning the bees to their hive after the Expo. You can see a puff of smoke wafting up through the top vent.
There are also mesh-covered side vents, and these were used to smoke the bees. The smoke is said to calm them, but I'd have to say it makes them stick close to their hive and queen and less apt to fly out or attack.
After smoking, hubby lifts the lid of the observation hive. It is cleverly secured by strips of velcro which make for a tight seal and easy removal. What did we do before velcro!
Yes, bare hands and no, he did not get stung. The frame was successfully replaced in the main hive. We expect those bees had spent the day wondering where their queen had gone.
The weather has warmed a bit and there are lots of flowers around, so it was time to unwrap and remove all the winter insulation from the hives.
It's a big job...worse than wrapping them for the winter as all the boxes are unwrapped, opened up, cleaned out, frames scraped and replaced, etc., etc.
Fortunately, the hives are looking very healthy and have wintered well. The bees in this hive had been busy building burr comb on the bottom of a frame.
We saw lots of eggs and larvae (below); good signs.
In a few short weeks, the blueberries will be in blossom and we will begin the arduous task of moving the hives. A beekeeper's work is never done...

The End Of The Paducah Tale

My "Farrago" quilt arrived safely back from Paducah this week. It was exciting to open the box and find more goodies inside. The organizers of the show have really made this a special experience for exhibitors. Even hubby commented on what a class act this show is. Already I have a keepsake ribbon which identifies it as a semi-finalist. Now I also have an event catalogue, the show tag, and the comment sheet from judges Donna Wilder, Katie Pasquini Masopust and Libby Lehman. Very cool.
Best of all was this printed fabric label which may (will!!) be sewn to the back of the quilt.
There will be a show book arriving shortly which has pictures of all the quilts in the exhibit. I have been sitting with fingers crossed that some benevolent soul attending the show would share some pictures and I was rewarded with not one but three sets of photos. How wonderful! Interesting to note that Gaile, Ruby and Lynn are all seasoned Paducah veterans, having attended other shows in past years although none had encountered flooding before.
Gaile S. from Yarmouth, N.S., whom I met at a Fibre Arts Festival workshop here in Amherst last year, was first in with these:

Here's Gaile: she has a good time wherever she goes!Ruby M. from Dartmouth, N.S. had the pleasure of attending the show on a coach tour with other quilters, stopping at all kinds of interesting places along the way. Ruby writes: "It was a treat to be able to see two Nova Scotia quilts in Paducah, the other was a beautiful applique, hand quilted bed quilt by Marg Ferguson from Glace Bay." I will be watching the show book to see Marg's quilt; thanks for the heads-up, Ruby.Lynn from Nebraska shared these, but has also posted several slideshows on her blog. I encourage you to take a look as the quilts are incredible.

My sincere thanks to Gaile, Ruby and Lynn for graciously sharing these photos.
Edit: I've just found Marg Ferguson's quilt "Cherries Jubilee" in Part 3 of Lynn's Paducah slideshow. Have a look!

Drum Roll Please

Thanks to all who entered to win a copy of Maritime Beauty and a set of foundations. The random number generator (my youngest born) selected Vicki T as our winner. Coincidentally, Vicki is also from Illinois as was Erin, the winner of the Quiltmaker 100 Blocks magazine. Congratulations,Vicki; we expect to see pictures when you are finished!
Someone asked about purchasing the pre-printed foundations. They are available in a set of 10 (you need 8 for the project, so this allows two extras for boo-boos) printed on an easy to tear paper. The cost is $5.50/set. I have been busy trying out a new paper which looks promising and hope to soon have more designs available and listed on the checkout of the website. For the time being, simply email your request if you are interested.

Blog Tour Aftermath

Whew! Remember the song by the Irish Rovers, "Wasn't That A Party"? It's been playing through my head since Friday when the blog tour ended!
Thanks to all the visitors for the great comments and emails. It sure would be easy to get used to hearing such nice things all the time. Here's the results of the give-away from my blog: using a random number generator (who doubles as my first born son), Sallie from Texas (who obviously kept her horseshoe and rabbit's foot close by on Friday) was chosen as the winner of a copy of the Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Vol. 3. Sallie graciously declined her prize as she also had won a copy from another blog. Thank you Sallie for being such a good sport. The new winner of the magazine is Erin from Illinois. Congrats, Erin! The generous folks at Quiltmaker have your address and will send the magazine directly to you. Since I had a spare copy of the magazine, I decided to have another draw... this one not quite so random. This draw was made from local comments and the winner is Lesley B. Thanks Lesley for your support.
Since today is Mother's Day and in the spirit of fairness (there is as yet one random number generator in this house who didn't get a turn) there will be one more give-away. If you would like to win a copy of my Maritime Beauty pattern as well as a set of 10 pre-printed tear away foundations leave a comment on this post.
As before, make SURE your email address is included in your comment. If you are not sure it's there, send a quick email to me with the info.
I hope everyone enjoyed this blog tour as much as I did; good luck in the big draw from Quiltmaker!
Edit: The Give-Away is now closed, will post the winner shortly. Thanks to all who participated.

Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Blog Tour: Grand Finalé

Hurray! I’ve waited (im)patiently all week but my turn to post is finally here! If you are a new visitor to my blog, welcome...or as the Celts in my beautiful province of Nova Scotia, Canada say: "Ciad Mille Faite". (A Hundred Thousand Welcomes). I hope you take the time to look around and become a regular. There are lots of pictures and tips and tutorials, my main website is here and ...who knows?...you may even learn a little bit about beekeeping on the side!Earlier this week, I challenged readers to pick which was my block from this shot of the mug. Linda and Gail, two dedicated quilting bloggers, both emailed to say they knew exactly which one was mine so... ladies, did you get it right?!
It's this one, plain and simple.
If you know me at all, you know I operate on the KISS principle. My favourite quote, attributed to Albert Einstein, is "Make everything as simple as possible, but no simpler." And that's exactly how this block was born. Essentially, I started with a square and added a narrow sashing with angled ends. It was fine but Albert would have viewed it as too simple. So I split the centre square into an HST and it was immediately better. I could place blocks side by side to get this...and thus the name Hidden Stars was born.
Placing the blocks on point was even more fun:
Here are some layouts you get when rotating the block:

It's cool how the stars superimpose themselves over what's going on in the background with the HSTs.
The good folks at Quiltmaker also liked the simplicity of the block and played around with their own layout. They decided to make a kit available with full instructions and yardage to complete the quilt shown below. You can check out the details here:
For those of you who have the block instructions from the magazine, here's a simple runner you can make using large florals and only three blocks. Finished, it will measure 12-3/4" x 25-1/2". Simply follow the instructions for the block, tripling the yardage given for the materials. I like how that centre star cinches the middle section together, almost like a tiny waist or a bow on a package.
Of course, you can also do it full sized and add a funky pointy border as well.
There's no limit to where simple can take you. If you'd like to win a copy of the magazine, leave a comment at the bottom of this post by midnight tonight (Friday), AST (Atlantic Standard Time) saying where you are from. Please make sure that your email address is included so I can contact you; send it to me here in addition to the comment if you are unsure.
I'd like to thank Quiltmaker magazine for such a fun week and so many wonderful surprises. I visited every designer's blog and really enjoyed the experience. There is one final surprise once you get a copy of the magazine in your hands and that relates to the signatures you may have noticed on the blocks. Scroll back up and see mine. There's a reason they are there...but you need to have the magazine to find out! So, leave your comment for a chance to win or check the newsstands on May 10th. You will not be disappointed. Thanks for visiting, and make sure you visit the rest of the designers on today's tour!
EDIT: I am getting a lot of comments without email addresses which means I cannot contact you. MAKE SURE your profile is enabled in the settings for your mail account, type your address in the comment, or email me after you've left the comment to send your address. I need to have your email address!

Quiltmaker's Tour/A Quilt Maker's Placemats

Today is Day 3 of the Blog Tour, and if you haven't been following along you've been missing out on a lot of fun! Click the button above to see today's listing of sites including Canadian designer Sharon Pederson. Make sure you swing back here Friday for my give-away day.
Rosa from Ohio has completed her String Placemats and shared this picture. Even though she professes to be a novice quilter, those mitred corners on her binding look pretty sharp. Great job, Rosa. I have a piece of this same mistletoe fabric in my stash so now I know what to do with it.
If you'd like to make your own, the instructions for these placemats may be found here.

Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks

The fun continues! Today the mailman arrived with another parcel from Quiltmaker. This box contains a button (pin) and mug which shows all 100 blocks in the issue.
Can you tell which one is mine? It's showing in this picture, a very simple block.
In the background is my Tempus Fugit which is STILL not boxed up to head to Quilt Canada. I was busily attaching the label when the mailman arrived. It's so easy to get distracted by all this fun!
Don't forget to visit the Quiltmaker Blog to see the list of designers on today's tour. Fellow Canadian Sarah Vanderburgh of sewjoycreations.com is featured today.

Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Blog Tour

It's here! And they're finally here! Just under the wire to kick off the start of the blog tour, the mailman has delivered my copies of the magazine. Whew! As with previous issues, this is a beautiful magazine and one which is sure to get the creative juices flowing.Here's how it works: Each designer participating in the blog tour has been assigned a particular day between May 2 and 6. The schedule is here for you to check each day: http://www.quiltmaker.com/blogs/quiltypleasures/ There are all kinds of prizes, so make sure you visit each designer's blog, as well as the main Quiltmaker blog, and leave comments. Don't be shy!
My day is Friday, May 6th so be sure to check back here to get your name in for a prize draw. Lots of fun!