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Hubby and I took advantage of a beautiful Saturday afternoon to walk downtown and check out some of the displays in place for this week's Fibre Art Walk.
The colourful signs and banners create a festival atmosphere all over town.
Jackie Estabrooks, the designer at dayle's, did her usual stellar job creating this display of some of my New York Beauty quilts for the store front window. I especially love how she wrapped the mannequin in one of the quilts.
It's difficult to take a picture through a store window without getting glare and reflection from the activity in the street, so look past all the shadows and blips.
If you are in town this week, I invite you to come have a look at the window, 129 Victoria Street in Amherst, Nova Scotia.
The new Thanksgiving antependium was dedicated in church this morning; I can now share some pictures of the process. This is the background fabric I used, Blessings II from Studio e Designs. I saw images of the fabric online when it was previewed at Spring Quilt Market in Cincinnati and knew it was perfect for my project. It took some doing to find it, but I finally located it at a shop in Indiana.
It has words such as Peace, Faith, Give, and Love printed in a grid fashion. My original idea was to weave a background with these words with a light source in the centre, in the manner of artist Anna Faustino. I love how effective her woven quilts are. Because I didn't have an abundance of the Blessings fabric, I did my sample using a fall print weaving it into complimentary colours.
In the end, I decided this was too busy for my purpose and that it would distract from the message of the piece. I opted to use the background just as printed - sometimes simple is the best way to go.
I auditioned various sizes of lettering for my banner, from a 100 point font all the way up to a 400 point.
The letters need to be as large as possible so they can be read from a distance - i.e. the back of the church - and yet not overpower the other elements.
I won't admit how many times I made the grapes...first they were too small, then these too large ones.
Finally, Goldilocks was satisfied with the proportions. The antependium features an appliqued vine that flows and connects a sheaf of wheat, a pumpkin, grapes and leaves. As the appliqued pieces are embellished with stitching (thread-painted) this brought me to my next conundrum: to hoop or not to hoop. It was vital that the piece be perfectly flat with no ripples, as it hangs against the lectern. Hmmm...what to do. Unsure of how to proceed, I telephoned master stitchery artist Monika Kinner-Whalen in Saskatchewan for advice. I know she dislikes using a hoop and on a piece this large, it was going to be a pain to use one. She gave great advice and even suggested thread colours that would make the stitching pop. Thank you, Monika, for being so generous with your wisdom :)
In the end, I hooped the parts with the dense stitching, and did the rest just with tear-away stabilizer underneath. The letters are satin stitched for emphasis but the rest of the stitching is free motion.
The piece came out perfectly flat - I could not be more pleased.
I layered it with a wool batting and quilted feathers around the main shapes, echo quilting the fill.
It came out looking very much like my original sketch...except for the blueberries which didn't work.
I used hanging tabs on this one instead of a rod pocket since it's more of a proclamation.
Used to be we had 3 R's - readin', (w)ritin' and 'rithmatic. Now, with inflation, there are 4: reduce, reuse, recycle and repurpose. Check out this very cool bag Mary Farrow Sinclair made for me out of old plastic grocery bags. It feels like straw, and I expect will wear like iron.
Mary saves different brands to use for the colour; I understand that's a blue Sears bag at the top. How clever!
The Nova Scotia Fibre Arts Festival is only a week away and Amherst is busily preparing for the influx of visiting fibre artists. Posters have begun appearing around the downtown and shop windows are sporting arrays of beautiful handwork. I have piles and piles stacked up around the house; one pile of items necessary for the workshop, another for my quilting display at dayle's. Later today I will haul quilts out of my closet and begin deciding which ones will go in dayle's window display, so that will be yet another pile. I am thinking it will be all New York Beauties this year; I seem to have a lot of those.
Although not directly involved in the festival as such, hubby has his own pile: jars of honey to be sold at Festival Headquarters.
The diningroom table is buried under almost 50 aprons from the collection of Diane Shink. Diane has amassed a rather substantial apron collection, currently numbering around 1000 vintage aprons. Shortly, these aprons will head to the library where they will be on display throughout festival week.
Naturally, I had to go through the group to see what treasures she had brought. This is my favourite.
I love the scalloped bottom, the fan shaped pockets, and that embroidery is over the top gorgeous. (Do you suppose she would notice if this one didn't make it home to her again?)
This apron is one of many which Diane has featured in her weekly minder entitled, "My Grandmother Always Wore One."
The books will be available during Fibre Arts Festival at Festival Headquarters.
This week in my mail I was surprised to find a postcard from France. It was sent by Sandra Reford, who curated the Canadian exhibit at Carrefour Europeen du Patchwork. It was such a thoughtful move on her part; she doesn't skimp on any of the details. I am so happy to have this souvenir. Aren't the houses beautiful? I expect they've been translated into patchwork many, many times.
I've also heard from several folks who attended the show in Ste. Marie-Aux-Mines, and even got some pictures. These were sent by Karen Otto's friend Diane. Karen, who lives in Germany, was kind enough to email me after the show with her wonderful, enthusiastic comments. Thank you, Karen - I appreciated hearing from you.
This is a picture Sandra sent along showing Log Canada hanging between two pillars at the front of the church. Sandra writes, "It was on the right when you came in as an announcement that this was the Canadian exhibit... In front of it was a table with a map showing where all the works came from, flyers with all the web sites of the artists, the photo album, another hand out with images of the works in miniature with the names of the artists and the comment book which will be arriving back with the quilts. I only had time to read the comments from the first day and those were great!"
Sandra had an incredibly busy time at the show, and she wowed everyone with her ability to converse in four languages. What a perfect person to curate an international exhibit.
This picture was taken by magazine editor Chantal Dupont. You can see Log Canada at the back of the picture, to the left. The picture was taken when the gallery was closed for mass on Sunday morning.
Sandra reports that the quilts are now all safely back in Canada and she is preparing for their upcoming exhibit at the Joshua Creek Heritage Centre in November.
Even though there hasn't been opportunity to blog about the summer much, hubby and I did do some tripping around, including around the south shore of Nova Scotia. One of our goals was to see the Bluenose II being rebuilt in Lunenburg. These pictures were taken in early August.
Now the work is finished and Nova Scotia’s sailing ambassador, the Bluenose II, is headed back to the water. Tomorrow - Sept. 29 -you can visit Lunenburg to witness the relaunch of this provincial icon. There will also be a live feed showing the launch and some of the day's entertainment. The relaunch begins at 7 a.m., and the celebration will continue throughout the day and into the evening with three concert stages ending with a burst of fireworks. We won't have a chance to go, but I will be watching online. One of the highlights will be hearing Michael Stanbury's The Bluenose Song, which was performed for the July 24, 1963 launch of the Bluenose II. You can read more in the article from The Halifax Chronicle Herald, and listen to this recording of the song from many year's back.
The Bluenose Song - Michael Stanbury
Now, I've got a story to tell
Of a proud ship that served her people well,
Well, the Bluenose was her name
And she never lost a race;
She won herself a place
In the history of Canada.
Blow, winds, blow,
For the Bluenose is sailing once again.
Beat to the windward once more,
And up, sheath the for's'l as before,
For your country will be proud once again
Of the ship and the men
Who sail her smartly into victory.
Blow, winds, blow,
For the Bluenose is sailing once again.
Built in a Nova Scotia town
Where the shipwrights had earned the world's renown,
It was a good day of sewing, and the Roundabout Again variation went together beautifully.
My plan in making this was to take it with me for my demonstration at dayle's during Fibre Arts Festival. I figured I would take my Bernina and show how I machine quilt a piece like this. However...this is really beckoning me to keep going and finish. I'm going to have to show real restraint not to finish this before the festival starts...I am itching to quilt bows on those red squares. I think that will look festive!
The pattern (# 112 Roundabout Again) is here if you'd like to make your own.
This morning on a trip to dayle's to drop off some patterns, I spotted this gorgeous black print.
Granted, it doesn't look so gorgeous in this picture, but trust me...it is. They also had it in red and green; all three colourways were equally stunning. I couldn't resist and came home with a couple of metres of the black with no project in mind, but just to have. I petted and admired it as I worked away, all the while hearing this little voice whispering, "really, Karen? They had it in red and you bought BLACK?" So we all know I trotted back down to dayle's to get that red.
I introduced it to the rest of my Christmas collection and love how it goes with...well, everything. It is red after all. ( I've never met a red I didn't like.)
And of course, once that fabric was laid out there was nothing I could do except start sewing...
This morning are pictures on Sandra Reford's blog showing the quilts being hung for the show in France. Above you can see Log Canada spread out on the pews with some of the others waiting their turn to go up. Sandra reports that there was a line-up for the doors to open and over 1000 visitors to this exhibit on the first day. She also presented a lecture on "Quilting in Canada" which was well attended and enthusiastically received.
The selvedge project is coming along nicely. I've decided to make it into a tote bag...like this one: I found a piece of batik in my stash that works great with the varied selvedge strips: browns/greens/rosy plums/tans. I chose long selvedge strips with similar colours for the band around the top.
Another floral batik in my stash with the same colour palette is perfect for the lining. The batiks are both by Benartex, and work well together. I love it when you can find the perfect fabric right at hand. Now to find a zipper for an inner pocket.
If you'd like to make a similar selvedge tote, there's a pattern available on the checkout page of my website.
For the first time in what feels like years, Polly and I spent the day at the sewing machine. We had to. We needed to feel the fabric and hear the purr of the machine; most of all we needed the fulfillment of creating something lovely...from nothing . That's magic, you know.Because we chose to work with selvedges, the "nothing" was almost literal in this case. It was such fun to rifle through the basket of selvedges...old friends left from prior projects. Some of the ends are years and years old, so it's nostalgic to remember what was made from each, and from whence each was acquired. Some of the Moda and Kansas Troubles I recognize as coming from Joan. There are a few Darlene Zimmerman fabric edges which were sent by Robin, a reader from Henrico, VA. (Do you still visit, Robin?) Each of these leftover snippets is unique, as individual manufacturers word their edges to suit their needs. One in particular caught my eye as I stitched it in place. This one from Northcott reads, "Licence is required for any use beyond individual c..." That's where it cut off, at the "c". Naturally I had to go through the pile to find another with the same wording. Consumption. "Licence is required for any use beyond individual consumption".
I thought for a bit on how I am consuming the fabric...then I thought even longer about how fabric consumes me...it's a two-way street. Then it dawned on me because Polly and I are both involved in the process - and therefore not individuals being consumed - perhaps Northcott should be required to have a license to work with us... ?
It's a special thing to get interviewed for an online blog post, but it's an extra-special, out-of-the-ordinary thing to have it happen, independently, on two different sites on the same day. It happened recently for Kathy Tidswell whom I read about first here on the Canadian Quilter's Association blog and then a few minutes later on the NS Fibre Arts Festival blog . Way to go, Kathy! Kathy is well deserving of such recognition. Though long a fan of her work, I first met her only a few years' back when she came to teach at the N.S. Fibre Arts Festival. Last year I had the pleasure of taking one of her thread-painting classes. She is coming again this year to do a two-day class on thread painting a portrait of your pet. I'd dearly love to do one of Polly; just look at that sweet face :)
Kathy is a wonderful, patient teacher and in high demand; so much so in fact that she was invited to teach in Luxembourg. Wow!
I will be taking care of the registration for her class after September 2oth, but in the meantime you can contact Kathy directly for the details.
I'm a quilt and pattern designer, award winning quilt maker, author and teacher. Since 1989, I have published well over 600 quilting patterns in magazines such as McCall's Quilting, Quilter's Newsletter, Quilt World, The Canadian Quilter and Quilter's Connection. I have contributed designs to 16 different books and co-authored Canadian Heritage Quilting with Diane Shink. My latest book, Quilting Beauties Come In All Shapes and Sizes, was published by AQS in 2015. Since 2018, I have been an Island Batik Ambassador. I am a dealer for Aurifil thread, and enjoy teaching workshops as time permits.
