Quilt Mafia Gathers Again

I missed our last gathering and was so happy to make it there yesterday. We met at the very lovely Gaspereau Valley Fibres a farm yarn shop in the very beautiful Gaspereau Valley. I it was a beautiful day and nineteen of us sat around an array of tables and stitched all day. I can't think of a better way to spend a day!

Leslie, Cathy, Laurie and Alex

Uta's wonderful Leopard Who Hides His Spots

Margi's wonderful stick puppets of herself and Brain and four of their grandchildren

Celeste, Kate and Linda

Val's wonderful embroidery that she brought back from her recent trip.

Linnet's vibrant animal quilt

We were watched over by various characters!

I loved all the various textures around us from our own work to the beautiful years and the wonderful old barn boards.

It was really quite wonderful to be surrounded by such inspiration not only in the shop but in the scenery around us. The Gaspereau Valley is fast becoming known for its vineyards, we past three on our way there. It really is a unique spot in Nova Scotia.

The members of the Quilt Mafia are all doing such interesting things. Penny and her amazing dedication to embroidery, Margi and her dolls of all sorts, Alex and her stitching and daily drawing in her journals that are amazing. She dedicates part of her day to drawing and I think she said she had over 2,000 entries!

I wish we could get together more often, we all travel a distance to get together. Plans are in the works for another day soon and perhaps a sleepover! Can't wait. Be sure and see more pictures on my Flickr page.

After Swissair

Sea Change is hand appliqued, machine pieced and hand quilted.

On September 2, 1998 Swissair flight 111 crashed into the ocean not very far from where we were living.  All 229 people on board died. It was a moment in time that affected our community deeply - so many people on shore from the fisherman to the first responders, to the clergy to the "families" came together to do the best they could.  The search, the recovery, the mourning - we all have our own memories, some good some not so good. On the one year anniversary, a local well-known author Budge Wilson read a commentary on CBC Radio.  She spoke from her heart about what she and our community had been through.  She spoke of a "sea change", and according to Wikipedia, "sea change" is an idiom for broad transformation drawn from a phrase in Shakespeare's The Tempest.  For me that term fit perfectly and I made this small quilt.  The log cabin blocks symbolize the families of the victims whose lives had been torn apart.  As well, they symbolize those of us on shore who were home that night.  The traditional Log Cabin block signifies the harmony in the home.  The centre square usually was red, for the hearth, the centre of the home. It seemed an appropriate block to use but in an un-traditional way.  The lives and homes of these families would never be the same.

It is the first in a series of three quilts I have made that commemorate those early years after the crash. We had not lived long in the community but we quickly became part of it.  We met some incredible people and became lifelong friends with two of the SwissAir families. My quilt Sea Change is meant to subtly illustrate the affect on the families in our community as well as the families of those who lost their lives.  I used the traditional “log cabin”  quilt block (which represents the home) but pieced it in a rather chaotic way to reflect the upheaval in so many lives. The circles represent the ocean, always changing and yet in a way comforting.

After Swissair by Budge Wilson 2016, Pottersfield Press. The book and my quilt! I was so honoured when Budge asked me if my quilt could be on the cover of her book of poetry. I was so honoured when Budge wrote the poem about Nancy's Quilt and included it in her book. Budge had been working on this book for a very long time, carefully and respectfully putting into words what so many felt that night and the days that followed.

Yes, Spring Did Finally Arrive

We are finally enjoying spring like weather, the leaves are out, the daffodils are up and my fingers are crossed we will have some tulips this year. I hope they bloom before the town deer find them. I think last year I had one. Stay tuned!

I have had a busy few weeks. I participated in the 52 Quilters project. This project was begun January 1, 2015 by a British quilter, Chris Webb. Each week a new quilter takes over the blog, the Instagram account and the Twitter account from somewhere in the world. Chris is looking for more quilters to take over in the coming weeks, so if you are interested contact him through the link above. It was fun to participate and share some of my quilts and quilting in Nova Scotia.

Making Do, machine pieced and machine quilted (by Lynn Jones)

My quilt Making Do has flown all the way to Lethbridge, Alberta! It will be in the Canadian Quilters Association's annual National Juried Show. It has been a few years since I entered and I was thrilled to be accepted. There were very few east coast quilts on the list, I am glad I entered!

My nephew (who was married early last August) and his wife are expecting a baby in July so I just had to make them a baby quilt. I love using the "Falling Charms" (a Missouri Star Quilt Company tutorial) pattern for baby quilts so I made two as my niece and her husband who were also married last August are expecting a baby in October! They don't live in Nova Scotia but they do come home as often as they can, I know how much they love it here so the fabric I chose was "Beach House" by Kate Nelligan. I love the images of lobster, nets, waves, mussels and fish - all very Nova Scotian!

My Brunch Bunch got together this week, it has been ages since I have been able to join them all. We have been getting together for 32 years now having gotten to know each other through volunteering with our provincial craft council, NSDCC and working on their exhibition "Profile '81" which traveled nationally. We enjoyed those meetings so much we kept on going! I had forgotten that Shirl was the recipient of one of my Christmas gifts one year.

Circle of Friends was hand appliqued, machine pieced and machine quilted. I love the effect of the wavy fabric on the lower right and border. I must look and see if I have any more of that!.

I have new projects coming up, a 2 day workshop with Becky Goldsmith (Piece O'Cake Designs), she is coming to Nova Scotia to be my Guild's "Extraordinary Quilter". She will present a lecture at our 15th Annual Dessert Party and then give 2 workshops. I have old projects I really must re-visit and accomplish something. I am really looking forward to Becky's lecture and workshop.

We continue with the house renovations though every nice day (when he isn't golfing) Peter can be found up a ladder re-shingling and painting the exterior of the house. The pinky beige is going replaced by a lovely blue. Upon removal of an old shingle he found a previous paint colour that is very close to what we chose. After the winter we had, we are hoping for a good spring and summer for painting!

The front hall is done too, the old plaster had to come down and be replaced by gyproc, the floors have been sanded and refinished, the carpet is gone from the stairs and they have been painted but we don't know yet who Barry was!

The mysteries of this old house continue!