Peterborough and Michigan Retreat

As usual, I'm behind on my blog posts.
My projects all seem to be nearing completion but not ready to share.  In other words, I have a great deal of machine quilting to do!
Last week I enjoyed my visit with the Kawartha Quilters in Peterborough.  Thanks so much for making me so very welcome.  Ruth and Terry allowed me to stay on their lovely farm just outside of Peterborough.  I fell in love with their black lab named Bear and their donkey (so cute!) named Jack.
The Peterborough gang had me do my trunk show lecture and also the Colour for Quilters workshop.
Here they are cutting and pasting swatches of fabric to complete their colour exercises.

I drove home after the workshop on the Thursday getting in quite late that night.  Crossing over the top of Toronto is always a challenge.  Luckily, Ruth had packed me a huge lunch so I ate the leftovers while "parked" on the highway.
Friday was our annual retreat at Memories Manor in St. Clair Michigan.  This was my third year going to this retreat.  I'm always impressed with their hospitality there.  Each meal the dishes and table decorations change.  At the end of the retreat, each person get a package of postcards that contain the recipes, compete with pictures of the meals we've had.  What a thoughtful idea.

You can see that we each had a table and Ott Lite as well as a big rolling chair.  At this retreat, we shared our room with some scrapbooking ladies.  They were doing some beautiful pages and we really enjoyed getting to know them.

I sent this quilt to my friend and fellow quilt artist, Gail Hunt a couple of weeks ago.  Little did I know at the time that she was going through some very difficult times.  Fate took a hand and she received the quilt when she most needed it.  Gail is a fan of red and purple so I knew as soon as I'd put the binding on that this quilt was hers.  It seems strange to give the gift of a quilt to a fellow quiltmaker but you can be sure that it will be appreciated and cared for.
For some reason the challenge quilts didn't show up when I made the post earlier.  It shows just fine on my computer but a number of people have told me that they just have a blank space show up.  Here's a photo of my "Winter" challenge.

Catching Up!

We are feeling quite a bit more settled here in the new house now.  I still feel like I'm on vacation and will have to go home soon though.
My new studio is a treat to work in.  There is room for everything and it is (for now) organized.  Having all of my show quilts done and in the exhibit, I've been able to chip away at some UFO's this week.

I've been playing with the possibilities using the EZ Dresden Plate Ruler.  This is my first, very simple quilt using the ruler.

The fabrics are shot cottons. Some are Oakshott and some are Kaffe Fassett.  Unfortunately, the photo doesn't do the fabric justice.  As you can see, I used the ruler as a template to cut the triangle shapes.  I could cut many fabrics at once by layering the strips of fabric that I cut to the height of the ruler.  The quilt is quilted with Superior's King Tut thread in a variegated navy through turquoise palette.  The back is a turquoise flannel.

The BIG NEWS this week is that I finally, finally, finished the angel quilt.  I was worried about machine quilting this one.  With fingers crossed, I began free motion quilting the quilt with my trusty Juki machine using Superior's Masterpiece thread.  The background is echo quilted at 1/4" intervals.

The quilt was finished a half hour before I had to leave to present my Trunk Show lecture to the Brant Heritage Quilters in St. George, ON.  They were the first to see the completed quilt.  I've decided to name with quilt "Faith".  You may remember from previous posts that this quilt was made using a photo that my husband took of a statue in California last year.

"Winter" Challenge

Below is a photo of the results of the "Winter" theme 12 " square challenge with my bee in Nova Scotia.  This time it was my turn to come up with the challenge.  I sent everyone a piece of white fabric with metallic silver that kind of looked like frost and some snowflake buttons.  They were to produce a piece using the fabric somewhere (back or front) on the quilt and use at least one of the snowflake buttons.  Here are the results.......
I think you'll agree that everyone outdid themselves this time!  Mine is the top centre one with the machine embroidered trees.  Usually, I join the group via Skype for the reveals but that was moving day so I missed it.Our next challenge is "Flowers".  Donna chose that theme for us.  

All Moved In........

The most important room is set up.........the studio!  Hubby took this shot with his wide angle lens to get most of the room in the shot.  The sewing room furniture was made by Eddycrest Sewing Furniture by Adam Eddy in Woodstock.  Adam and his Dad carried the two sewing tables and cutting table down the stairs and into the studio.  They set it all up including putting the sewing machines into the cabinets. I had Adam cut a hole into the top of the cabinet to fit both machines instead of his usual method of having a plexiglass top.  I don't intend to get another brand of sewing machine so I think I'm fairly safe.
There is so much storage in these cabinets that I actually have empty drawers.  That probably won't last long but I'm very impressed!

I love the pull out shelves for the cutting surface and ironing pad.  Each drawer comes with removable dividers too.   In the photo above you can see the extension between the two tables so I have lots of surface for machine quilting.

As for the rest of the house, I'll post some more pictures later.  We are unpacked and settled in.
I spent last Monday with the quilters here who meet every Monday at the clubhouse.  They were very welcoming so I look forward to quilting with them often.  They are making charity quilts too so I'm very excited about participating in that.

TOMORROW (SUNDAY) FROM 2-4 P.M. IS THE OPENING OF MY QUILT EXHIBITION AT THE CREATIVE ARTS CENTRE IN INGERSOLL.  PLEASE COME IF YOU CAN.  (THERE WILL BE TREATS!)

Quilt Exhibit of my Bed Quilts

It would be wonderful to see you all at the opening of my exhibit at the Creative Arts Centre Gallery in Ingersoll.  Eight of my bed quilts will be on display for the 6 week period.

There was supposed to be a copy of my invitation here but for some reason it disappeared again.
So.....
The opening is Sunday, March 3, 2013 at the Creative Arts Centre Gallery, 125 Centennial Lane, Ingersoll from 2-4.

Things are coming together!

The Cherished Pieces retreat was a great success.  There were 39 attendees.  Unfortunately, the 40th attendee got sick and missed it!  Cynthia and her crew couldn't have done a better job of getting everything organized and set up.  This year we sewed in the ballroom of the Elmhurst Inn.  The lighting was perfect for sewing both in daylight and at night.  I brought my Ott Lite but never needed to plug it in.  Each of us had our own long table to work at with lots of room to spread out.
The rooms are just beautiful at the Elmhurst Inn.  The bathrooms are especially luxurious.  What I like best is how quiet it is.  Living in the country, I'm not used to sirens and traffic noises so I slept very well.
Food was really good with a variety to suit every taste.  There was a shortage of vegetarian dishes for one of the quilters but the rest of us had no trouble at all.
Cynthia provided us with a pre-cut project as well as a very generous goody bag as part of the retreat package.  She also had a huge selection of items from her shop to tempt us.
I managed to get one top made and sewn together and worked on two other projects.  It's so much fun to chat with everyone along with getting projects done.

The store area.

Sewing in the ballroom.

There are 18 days until we move to Grand Bend.  I spent the day at the new house yesterday installing this......

......my new design wall.  It's 7 feet high by 12 feet wide.  I've worked for the last 20 years with a design wall 4 feet by 6 feet so this is going to be a real treat!  It took 3 coats of paint to cover the deep pink styrofoam boards then I covered it with white cotton batting using a spray adhesive made by 3M.  There is a strip of double sided carpet tape along the top and some pins along the sides.
My office are was also installed this week.  There are some shelves still to go up on the right hand side under the bulkhead.

The most exciting installations this week were the kitchen and the living room cabinets.  I'm so pleased with how they turned out.  The countertops will be in two weeks from now (I hope!).

The powder room and guest bathrooms are complete and all of the painting is done.  There is hope that it will all be done before we move.  The only exception is the trim around the living room fireplace but we can live without that for a couple of weeks.  Whew!
In the meantime we're still packing boxes.  I've left the studio stuff until last so that will get done next week.

No, I Haven't Dropped Off the Planet.......

We've been busy packing, sorting, donating and pitching!!
Our lives consists of boxes and piles at the moment as we prepare for the big move February 20th.  Yes, the date changed from the house being ready the middle of April and us moving the end of May to February 20th.  The last buyer in the chain had an offer for a short closing so the rest of the people in the chain got bumped to make it happen.  Luckily, our builder could make the new deadline.
We were up to the new house yesterday.  The kitchen was being installed and it looks absolutely amazing.  Unfortunately, there were a few problems in other areas such as my office cabinets didn't fit and the laundry room "deal on the cupboards" has turned out to be not such a great deal.  The good news is that it all can be fixed.
The landscaper came yesterday with drawings............oh, dear!  We have a house in the middle of the woods and he wanted to landscape it like we were in some high end subdivision in London.  Hopefully he went away with the message that our mantra for the new house is "Simplify".
It has been an interesting experience building a new home.  This adventure has turned into a full time job though.  (This explains the lack of postings!)
On the studio front..........ta da!!!  I finally finished the design work on the Angel quilt.  I just have to quilt it now.  Here she is...

Yesterday I painted the areas that required shadow and blending.  You can see the shadow along her arms to make them stand out.  I'm very pleased with this piece so far.  The quilting is going to be a bit tricky.  I want to add some dimension but don't want to ruin the effect of the fabrics.  Misty Fuse was the fusible I used on the fabric so it will not be too thick to quilt through.  Misty Fuse doesn't have the staying power of Steam A Seam or other heavier adhesives so I'm afraid that some might curl up when I'm quilting it.  I'll let you know.
When I did the dog quilt, I used Steam A Seam 2.  It worked very well and I could move pieces around and restick them which made things easy to put onto the background fabrics but the quilt is a bit stiff.

Tomorrow I'm off to the Cherished Pieces Quilt Retreat at the Elmhurst Inn in Ingersoll.  We had a wonderful time there last year so I'm very excited to be going back once again.  There's nothing like getting away for a few days with your quilting buddies to a retreat.  I even have a massage booked for the spa there.  It will be a nice change from packing boxes!