2011 Quilters Retreat

The 13th Quilters Retreat at Pictou Lodge, Nova Scotia is now just a very happy memory. It is hard to believe that we started this event in 1984 after my Guild, the Mayflower Quilters Guild, hosted Quilt Canada in Halifax and we decided we had such fun that we should do something else on a smaller scale. We never dreamt we would still be going strong 27 years later. We just wanted to bring the best teachers we could to teach and what a better place to do it - Pictou Lodge.

On the first night everyone (64 of us) gathers in the bar and on the verandah, time to see old friends and make some new ones.

Our teachers this year were Jane Sassaman, Daphne Greig and Elaine Quehl. Froom all accounts they were all wonderful teachers. I took Elaine's Machine Quilting Boot Camp...me, a die-hard 38 year hand quilting veteran! I learned so much, I can't wait to practice doodling and get going with my machine quilting. It will never take the place of my hand quilting but I can see there are small quilts where this will come in handy. Thanks Elaine for your patience with me!

Elaine demos, she makes it look so easy!

Elaine's poppies Kissing Joy, a stunning quilt with incredible quilting.

We had some great weather this year, no hurricanes! Even though the fog rolled in one day it was beautiful and warm. Lots of bright spots around with the colourful Adirondack chairs.

The view from our cabin, looking across the salt water pond to the Northumberland Strait.

We have a wonderful show and tell every year, we call it a "Progressive Show and Tell" and we go around to all the cabins to see everyone's quilts on their beds and wallhangings and lots more. We do this in the evening, kind of a quilter's Hallowe'en!

To commemorate our 13 Retreats at Pictou Lodge we gave them a quilt to hang in the main diningroom. It was pieced by Faye Palmeter, the applique and machine quilting was done by Debbie Vermeulen and the binding by Ann Carmichael. If you look closely, just to the right of the headland you can see that Debbie quilted in the PEI Cariboo Ferry, as we see it from Pictou Lodge! Thanks to Steve Goodwin at the Pictou Advocate for the photo.

Polly and Anne, Meredith, Betsey and Jamie

I have the best cabinmates! Polly taught me to quilt 38 years ago, her daughter Betsey came from Vermont, Anne from Cape Breton and Jamie and Meredith from Halifax. Have you ever seen the YouTube video of the dog talking about bacon? That is what they are watching! We all had such a great time, can't wait for September 25-29, 2013!

A Favourite Place

I am not so lucky that my son and his family have chosen to live in the wild west, Calgary to be specific. It is a long way from the east coast, too far to drive and it is a 5 hour plane ride if everything is on time but we love to visit. So we make a once a year trip for a couple of weeks, play with Molly, son and father golf and for me a little quilt store visiting. So I am lucky that there are about 5 great quilt stores, 4 in Calgary and one, Sugar Pine Quilts in Canmore. The 4 in Calgary are Sewing Sensation/World, Out of Hand, My Sewing Room and my very favourite Traditional Pastimes. The atmosphere is welcoming and cosy, the staff is very helpful and attentive and I love that they have so many samples from patterns and books. They love what they are doing, you can just tell.

Katie and Bernadette (r), the owner, they are both wearing skirts they made and I forgot to get the name of the pattern!

They are all ready for Hallowe'en!

There are lots more pictures of Traditional Pastimes in my Flickr Photostream.

And if you do get a chance to go to Traditional Pastimes, go hungry and have lunch or a snack next door at The Lazy Loaf and Kettle. My quilt friend Cheryl Arkison recommended it and I second the recommendation!

Everything Old is New Again

The new trend sweeping the quilt world today is "Modern Quilts". I am struggling with the term, with why a style has to be labelled and with why young quilters seem to be drawn to it. When I started quilting and for many, many years I bought fabric because I liked it, that is still how I buy fabric because I like it, not because of whose name was on the selvedge. There was hardly ever a name on the selvedge let alone the name of a designer or line of fabric. I was lucky if the brand was there like VIP, Cranston or RJR. I coveted what I did buy and mixed it altogether in my quilts, the more the merrier! I store it all on open shelves (I like to know if it is going to fade!) sorted by colour. And now I have sorted out the stripes, polka dots, batiks and conversation/novelty prints.

My solids are all packed away from the days when I was into Amish quilts...a great adventure thanks to Roberta Horton and her book An Amish Adventure. Roberta was a huge influence for me and her book is a great exercise in understanding and playing with colour. For someone who made quilts of many prints and no solid colours this was a real challenge, a good one! I went through the book chapter by chapter and di all the exercises. For a while a lot of family had Amish inspired pillows and wallhangings from all the squares I made. I am beginning to think it is time to revisit that era!

All Things Bright and Beautiful was inspired by an old quilt I saw in the 1979 edition of the Quilt Engagement Calendar edited by Cyril Nelson and published by Dutton. The original quilt was made of silks, satins, brocades and velvets and was heavily embellished with fancy embroidery stitches. I loved the geometric pattern behind all the stitches and rich fabrics so I drew it out on graph paper. Then I made templates for each of the pieces and carefully machine sewed them together. When I finished piecing it it reminded me of hot air balloons which is why I hand quilted it in a sort of balloon-like shape. Could this be considered a "modern quilt" today? I made it in the mid 1980's. Here is a detail of the hand quilting, it is stab stitched.

Or maybe this one, Sweet Dreams is a quilt I made for my Grandson, Evan, his first big boy quilt. It is machine pieced and hand quilted (stab stitched). I made it in 2005 before seeing any pictures of modern quilts, it just seemed like an easy way to make a simple, colourful quilt.

Penny Candy is a small wallhanging inspired by the pattern Chinese Coins, it is machine pieced and hand quilted (stab stitched). The fabrics are commercial batiks and hand dyes, some I dyed and some from others quitlers. I made this in 2000 could it be anther modern quilt? I guess I just love to be in both worlds, traditional and modern but with a twist. I think I'll stay away from labels though, make what I like and hope I can inspire others.