Nicaragua is fast approaching!

Once I get my Christmas orders completed then it will be full steam ahead with the planning and packing for Nicaragua! We have our suitcases packed- Many thanks to everyone that donated supplies. Any thing extra will be boxed up and sent down in a cargo container in the new year.

One of the PAN Missions reps is in Nicaragua now and e mailed us some information.

There are 25 sewers which works out well as I have assembled 25 sewing kit gift bags for the women. Currently they are making bedspreads and pillow cases. 5 women are new sewers. There will be 10 sewing machines for us to use when we are there. The sewing will take place in a newly build church and the congregation is taking pride in keeping this facility neat and tidy and it appears to be in a "very very poor" area.

There will be 120 children who will be coming to learn crafts as it is their Summer/ Christmas break for the time we are there.

Specifically the Co-op has asked us to teach them how to make school uniforms which consist of white blouses and nave blue pleated skirts. They have never attempted this kind of garment before so we are in for a challenge!

Can't wait for January 3rd!

Anglican Prayer Quilt

Here is a photo of the finished prayer quilt for their Conference this weekend where it will be presented to the Bishop. It was nice to see all the different blocks supplied by various churches and see how they depicted the theme of prayer.

Quilt Show in Nairn this weekend

There will be a quilt show in Nairn on Friday and Saturday this week. New quilts and antique quilts will be on display and they will have a vendors mall as well.

Here is a link for more information:

http://www.ourquiltingreflections.org/visitors-1

I attended the quilt show this morning-WOW did it look great! It was beautifully displayed and there were so many volunteers to help that it was working like a well oiled clock!

There was a nice assortment of quilts including hand quilted, machine quilted and antique quilts. The vendors had their own rooms to display their products which made it easier for shopping.

Overall a great show- Congratulations Ailsa Craig Community Quilt Festival!

Church Quilting Group- Fireside Log Cabin

Tomorrow will be our second meeting for the learn to quilt group at church. Here is a photo of the Fireside Log Cabin block we will be making. Last meeting we learned how to cut the strips in desired lengths. Tomorrow we will be piecing the blocks. Eventually we will have enough to make a queen size quilt that we will auction at the Ham and Strawberry supper in June.

Pad Party fundraiser

Here are some photos from last night's Pad Party. Once again thanks to Jane and Sharon for all their planning and organizing. 185 pads made and $1500 raised for our trip to Nicaragua!

WAY TO GO EVERYONE, THANKS FOR YOUR HELP!

Sew A Thon Tally

$1500 and 185 pads from tonight's fundraiser ! Way to go everyone. Thanks Jane for all your planning.


- Posted from my iPod

Sew A Thon

Almost packed and ready to set up for the Sew A Thon today at Jane's. Will post photos and a recap of the day when I am back.


- Posted from my iPod

Sew-A-Thon fundraiser this Friday in NOTL

On Friday I will be heading to Jane's in Niagara on the Lake for a sew-a-thon fundraiser to raise money for our Humanitarian Mission to NIcaragua in January. Jane has nicknamed it a Pad Party as we will be sewing (assembly line style) sanitary pads for the women in the village where we will be teaching. These women lack the daily necessities that we in Canada take for granted and believe me we take sanitary pads for granted!

Jane hopes to arrive in the village with 3 pads per women so we are going to be sewing all night long! The sewers are collection pledges for the evening either a dollar amount, per hour amount or even per pad completed amount. If you would like to sponsor our evening, just let me know!

For those who don't know Jane, she is so full of life and always happy and encouraging. I know she will make this night so much fun and full of laughs. Get ready for a sew-a-thon to remember! Here is a link to her info: JANE'S BLOG

Will post a recap when I get home on Saturday!

Pig Roast fundraiser for Nicaragua

Tonight we held a pig roast fundraiser to support our group trip to Nicaragua. There were close to 200 people there all enjoying the roast pig, salads, apple stuffing, buns, veggies and cheesecake. Everyone did such a great job with all the jobs and the evening ran smoothly.

Next fundraiser will be a sew-a-thon at Jane's in Niagara on the Lake. Will keep you posted on how that even turns out!

Thanks to everyone who participated and attended the pig roast fundraiser!

today's SOLO meeting

Just back from a fun SOLO meeting hosted by Helen Mary and Debbie Winn Talullah. We all enjoyed a pot lunch which included delicious salads and many calorie free desserts! Who needs anything other than salads and chocolate?

We all tried to help Helen figure out what to quilt on her bear paw blocks and saw wonderful show and tell. There was some CMQA news about upcoming classes and the plans for a members only juried quilt show to coincide with the CQA show in London in 2011.

Jane and I also let everyone know about our trip to Nicaragua and our fundraising events. THANK YOU to everyone for being so generous with donations of quilting and sewing supplies and monetary donations as well. You are all so supportive of our humanitarian missions!

Thanks again Helen and Debbie for a fun afternoon.

Nicaragua Mission Trip in January

WOW, once again I am blessed to be able to use my skills to help others. In January, I will be traveling to Nicaragua with a group of women including my friends Pauline and Jane and we will be teaching women how to sew and quilt.

The area we are traveling to is called Niquinohomo and it is a remote village in the hills. This area has many agricultural farms producing limes, oranges, mandarins, bananas and avocados. Nicaragua is the second largest country in Central America and the second poorest as well. It's population is just under 6 million people. 48% of the population lives below the poverty line and 80% of the population lives with less than $2 per day.

These women will be learning how to make some items they need within their community such as diapers, crib bedding for the hospital, hats for children, aprons, slings to carry their children and other household items. We will also be teaching them how to hand quilt on Q-Snaps and a large wooden quilt frame.

This sewing program will need all the support they can get and once again I will be collecting sewing and quilting supplies. If you had anything you wished to donate please contact me and I will come and pick it up.

They will need the following:

Pins and Needles

Scissors

Thread

Elastic, Snaps, Buttons and Velcro

Fabric pieces at least 1 metre

Keep watching for more information and thank you again for your support!

August SOLO meeting

SOLO meeting

Satuday Aug. 28, 2010

11:30 – 4:30

Grace United Church

174 Caithness St. E., Caledonia, On.

Hosted by Helen Hubert & Debbie Winn

Pot Luck lunch starting at noon.

Theme: bring your brain. Seriously!! We will have flip charts and/or white boards to show & share quilting ideas. Think specifically about weird blocks you have felt really good about quilting. Personally, I hate Bears Paw blocks, so I’d love ideas on that.

Quilters Dream batting

Just letting everyone know that I am now carrying Quilters Dream Cotton on the 98" roll.

It is a 100% Pure Cotton Batting made with the finest USA natural and environmentally friendly cotton and specially processed Dream Cotton so that you can quilt up to 8" apart. No prewashing necessary!

I have both the select weight and request weight in the natural colour.

HST news

WOW, is there really good news regarding taxes? For me there is! HST will be implemented on July 1st and when doing my inquiring about how Melon Patch Quilts should get ready for it, I found out that the GST rules are the rules they will use for the new HST.

THE GOOD NEWS IS..... businesses that currently do not collect GST are not required to collect HST. PST is being eliminated by the HST therefore I do not have to collect any tax starting July 1st. (HST, PST or GST)

That will be a welcome change for anyone paying for their quilts! And no additional paperwork for me.

WOO HOO

Church Prayer quilts

Well we have had 3 learn to quilt meetings at church and the ladies are doing wonderfully! Everyone is so eager to learn how to cut and piece the prayer quilts. We have 1 quilt almost finished (just needs the binding hand sewn), 1 quilt that needs to be quilted and bound and then enough blocks for a 3rd quilt. I think that everyone wants to continue with our meetings in the fall and hopefully they will all be challenged to make a queen size quilt that we can auction at the Ham and Strawberry Auction in June 2011. Here is a photo of the 1st quilt.

Kansas Troubles Block of the Month

Here are some photos of the Kansas Troubles block of the month that Quilts and Calicos is offering. It is a beautiful quilt with some wool applique flowers and birds.

Vanilla Orchid pattern

Here is one of my newer patterns that I just love. It is a larger flower with some swirls and leaves and looks beautiful on simple fabric or floral fabric.

Painted Quilt Block Murals- from the LFP

Lorna Svendsen of Wardsville paints a quilt in the foreground with Josie Easton in the distance as Wardsville gets ready to display the painted quilts on buildings to celebrate their bicentennial.

A painted quilt up on a credit union in Wardsville, is but the first of many that will be mounted on buildings to celebrate the bicentennial of the town.

Denise Corneil and Bob Davis of Wardsville with the painted quilts that are being painted.

WARDSVILLE - A big old-fashioned quilting bee - only with paintbrushes instead of needle-and-thread - is one of this community's 200th birthday gifts to itself.

As Wardsville celebrates its centennial next month, it is also telling the story of its founder, George Ward, in 30 large murals that will be affixed to buildings in and around town.

They're called "barn quilts" because the squares look like traditional quilting blocks.

And this may be the first such collection in Ontario.

"This is really rural, country folk art," said organizer Denise Corneil.

Painting, taping, and sealing the 8 x 8-foot blocks has taken place for months in the basement of Beattie Haven retirement residence.

When finished, the blocks will go up outside select barns, sheds, stores in a 60-kilometre radius, with a map that will direct drivers to the various sites and explain their meanings.

Volunteers have also stitched a fabric quilt that includes the same blocks.

IPM Quilt Show this weekend

IPM Quilt Show Entry

Well it is the night before I hand in my entry for the IPM Quilt show later this month. I bought the quilt top from Quilts and Calicos and then it was up to me to do the machine quilting! I have clipped threads, picked lint and pressed and starched until I think it is ready to go. Now I have cold feet about the whole entry idea. Each colour of fabric in the star has a different design and the cream corners were the perfect area to do some freehand feathers. I spent about 2 weeks drawing and redrawing the feather areas and then marked them so that I could then quilt. It took me 6 days to quilt the top during the March Break and then a few hours here and there to do the binding, sleeve and finishing touches. Wish me luck and I will keep you posted on the show later in May.

An e-mail from Africa

Just recieved an e-mail today with news from Africa so I wanted to post it and let everyone know how well the program is doing. (I have posted a few photos from a craft fair where the Mzansi Quilt Centre had a booth a few months ago.)

"The quilting program is still on track and it seems as if we are selling more that ever before. Last month was a banner month with sales over 30,000 rand. We have some responses from the web site, and more of the local quilters are bringing their tops in for quilting. The Midlands Meander has attracted many tourists that come here to buy, and since the prices are so reasonable many buy quilts for presents. The local missionary outfits have found that the centre will make table clothes, so we are turning out literally dozens for the price of the fabric plus a small charge for binding. Added to this we have been selling wall hangers that we placed at several of the hotels for décor."

"We were visited by sheep ranchers from the Karoo that are interested in starting a quilting outreach program among the staff on their ranches. They wanted a long arm machine and Linda Taylor helped us become Gammill agents here in Africa. We ordered the machine and after much back and fourth paperwork and questions the new Vision was on the way. The machine and shipping charges came to about 140,000 rand, but customs and vat added another 23,000 rand. OUCH! We will have an interesting time transporting the crates to the Free State, and then Elisabeth has to set the machine up and train the crew."

Double Wedding Ring note pad

My longarm machine quilting friend Jane send me this note pad since I just quilted the Double Wedding Ring quilt a few weeks ago. Isn't that thoughtful? Now I can write notes on fancy paper!

Thanks Jane.

Double Wedding Ring Quilt

I just love quilting feathers and the double wedding ring quilt is the perfect design to showcase MANY, MANY feathers. In the rings I quilted a continuous curve design and then in the white background you can see the feathers. My eyes are going a little buggy as this is the 3rd day of working on this quilt. I think I will be dreaming about feathers tonight again!

Just finished it and posted the photo of the back of the quilt so you can see all of the quilting. LOVE IT!

Daisy quilt pattern

Here are some photos of a Daisy quilt pattern that I just quilted as a shop sample for Quilts and Calicos. It is a really cute children's quilt with bunnies and ducks and daisies of course. It sure makes me think of spring today even if there is a bit of snow coming down.

Learn to Quilt class- April 12th at 7:30PM

Thought I would update everyone on our learn to quilt group after tonight's meeting. There were a bunch of us that brought all our purple fabric so that we could learn to cut tonight. Everyone cut the strips in random widths and then we all divided it among the group so that our blocks would be made of the same fabrics. Everyone will try to do 4 blocks for next month's meeting where we will then square up the blocks and sew those blocks into rows. The ladies all learned so well and enjoy the night out! Keep up the great work and see everyone next month on May 3rd at 7:30PM

On Monday April 12th, I will be helping some ladies from Grace and St. George's Anglican churches learn to quilt. We will be starting at the very beginning by learning how to cut with a rotary cutter and ruler. This night we will be cutting purple fabric strips that will be used to make some sting blocks and then sewn into prayer quilts that we use at church to give to members that are ill.

Anyone can come out and join the group whether you are a member of the churches or not.
St. George's Anglican church: 12656 13 Mile Road just off of the Denfield Road.
April 12th at 7:30PM

Please remember to bring your purple fabric, quilting supplies and sewing machine. Supplies and fabric will be supplied if you do not have them.

Feed Your Passion Sale at Quilts and Calicos

This Saturday, Linda at Quilts and Calicos is having a THREAD AND FABRIC sale. Here is one day where you don't want to sleep in as you miss out on extra savings!

If you arrive between 7:00 am - 9:00 am you will receive a ticket to get 35% off your purchase.

If you arrive any time after 9:00 am until 5:00 pm you will receive 30% off your purchase!

I wonder if we are allowed to shop in our PJs? Hope to see everyone on Saturday bright and early!

Spring Cleaning

Here is a cute cartoon that we can all relate to when we start our SPRING cleaning.

Pathways Stashbusters quilt finally finished

Yesterday at HITC I finished my February Stashbusters quilt. I think I will quilt it tomorrow because it is really pretty and I can't wait to see it finished. Also it is for a friend's birthday back in February so I have to get cracking!

Here is a photo of the top.

Jane at Kindred Spirits Quilt Co.

Today is the Grand Opening at Kindred Spirits Quilt Co. where my best friend Jane has set up shop with her longarm quilting machine. I will be leaving in a few minutes to spend the day in Jane's new home away from home. Congratulations Jane!

OK I am home from Niagara on the Lake and visiting Jane at Kindred Spirits Quilt Co. It was a very busy Grand Opening as everyone wanted to come out and see what the new shop was like.

Here is a photo of Jane in her new quilting room at the shop where she will be on Wednesdays. The rest of the days during the week she will still be quilting from her home studio.

SOLO meeting at Jane's

The last Saturday in February many of the local longarm machine quilters had a SOLO social at Jane's house. I was there for days getting ready for the event and to visit with Jane too of course. We Mari Lyn from Bytowne Threads displaying her threads and we all had to buy a few spools of Aurifil threads. The pot luck lunch was delicious and we even had a cake to celebrate Helen's birthday. Jane was showing us her newly expanded longarm studio and taking registrations for the longarm classes she will be teaching. April is booked up but there are still some spots available for May! Here are some photos from the event.

Quilts of Valor quilts

I will be dropping off 2 of the Quilts of Valor quilts I machine quilted for Quilts and Calicos. Linda has had a few sewing days to make the tops and I will be quilting them so expect to see a few more photos in the future! This organization donates quilts to injured Canadian Forces soldiers. Thanks to everyone who participated.

Here are some photos of the first QOV quilts.

February Stashbusters Class

Well my fabric is all washed- yes I said washed, and cut out ready to go to Quilts and Calicos this week for Heather Stewart's next Stashbusters class called Pathways. I am still trying to use up my stash of fabric so that I can have the excuse to buy more. Hopefully this class will make a bit of a dent. Here is a photo of the sample quilt.

Back from the class today and had a great time. Will continue to piece this quilt next Friday and post a photo when finished.

Cheap Trick concert in Toronto

Some of you may know that I am a HUGE fan of the rock band Cheap Trick. I have made a few quilts for the band and usually try to give the quilts to them at their concert. This past week they were in Toronto again and of course I was there. After standing in line for 5 hours I was guaranteed a front row centre spot to stand for the show. Here is a photo of the Sgt. Pepper quilt I made for them as they were doing some shows in Vegas this past fall. This quilt is like the bass drum that Bun E. used at the Vegas shows. I also have a link to an article that reviewed the concert. Here is the link or if you just want to read the exciting part this is a quote from the article.

Someone in the crowd even tossed a beautiful, hand-made Cheap Trick Sgt. Pepper’s quilt onto the stage. Rick wrapped it around himself like a shawl ......

I had an amazing time as always and can't wait until the next show.

Here is the photo of Rick holding my quilt on stage!

Quick Handle Bags

Here is a link to a cute and easy grab bag that I will be making this weekend at Memories Manor. They have other fast and easy patterns too so have a look around their web site for more projects.

GRAB BAGS

Will post photos when I get the bag done.

(I'm back and here is the photo of the cute bags I made. I am donating a couple of them to the Ilderton Skating Club so they can raise money at their silent auction this weekend)

I Believe BOM at Quilts and Calicos

I am just quilting this adorable BOM from Quilts and Calicos. They will be offering it soon so that we can all get a jump start on our Christmas projects and get them done in time! Here is a picture to tempt you add just one more project to your list.

New Patterns

Well I am back shopping on line again. Here are the first patterns to arrive. I am sure the others will be here next week and I will post them too. I must have been in a tree/ leaf mood when I bought these 3.