Volunteers needed!

Hello to all Ailsa Craig Community Quilt Festival Volunteers

Last year's Festival “Quilts from Denmark” was a great success due to the dedication of many hard working volunteers as well as the support of the public.  Many thanks again to everyone.

Under the Festival's Quilting the Community Grant Programme, cheques totalling $5000 were presented to eight community groups.

This year's Festival : “Quilts of Israel” will be held May 20-25, 2013 and over 100 quilts from Israel will be on display at the Community Centre.  

The Festival opens on the holiday Monday and is open late on Thursday and Friday. 

Lots of volunteer support will be needed again.

Volunteers assist in many ways, for example:

-Quilt Cafe and Kitchen

-White Glove volunteers 

-Parking Support Team  

-Info desk 

-Monitors at workshops

-Monitors at vendor demonstrations. 

-Construction, take down and clean up teams

I'm very much looking forward to seeing you at the Festival in May and hope to hear from you soon. 

Best wishes

Colleen Pavlech

Volunteer Co-ordinator

519 293 3738

email: jocoll3738@hotmail.com 

Quilts of Israel Festival

Quilts of Israel Ailsa Craig Community Quilt Festival May 20-25, 2013 www.ailsacraigquiltfestival.ca   The Ailsa Craig Community Quilt Festival is unlike any other in the world. The week long exhibition is completely run by volunteers. In 2011 we presented the incredible Quilts of the Netherlands, followed in 2012 by the equally exquisite Quilts of Denmark. A Quilter's haven, perhaps, but equally a destination for many individuals who enjoy the artistic beauty of the quilts.   This year we are proud to present the  Quilts of Israel 2013.  Once again we will be exhibiting this unique fibre art in Ailsa Craig from Monday May 20st to Saturday May 25th when we will be hosting a group of Israeli quilters and exhibiting over 100 Israeli quilts. Ailsa Craig Community Centre 155 Anna Ada Shipley St. Ailsa Craig, Ontario Monday - Wed - 9:30am-6:00pm Thursday - Friday 9:30am-8:00pm Saturday - 9:00am-4:00pm

Update from Nicaragua

Here is an email from Nancy who is the sewing co-op coordinator in Nicaragua.  She says our girls are doing very well sustaining their sewing co-op.  Very proud of all our students!

    On a more brighter note I seen Pastor Julio and he tells me he has a contract with someone from Canada to make wall hangings with the Nicaraguan flower and bird on them. They continue to move ahead. I feel very proud of them. Pat yourselves on the back girls. You have given these women a hand up rather than a hand out. They don’t need me much anymore.  BlessingsNancy

Dulux is such a big help when quilting!

Well if you look in the previous post, Dulux is fast asleep while I quilt.  Today-not so much.  It was hide and seek under the quilting table and under the roll of batting.

Time to bring out the baby gate I think!

WELCOME Sir Dulux Lerman- the Earl of Paint

Here's our new dog we rescued from Michigan.  He loves helping me quilt- more like sleeping in my way but that's OK since he is so cute!

Quilt natives’ untold history

Quilt natives’ untold history | Local | Entertainment | The London Free Press

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE

Cheap Trick Meet and Greet June at the ACC

Here is one more post about my Cheap Trick quilts.  This summer I bought the meet and greet package for before the concert just to ensure I would meet the band and be able to give them one of my quilts personally, instead of just throwing it up on stage.  Here is the quilt and a photo of myself and my husband and the "BEST ROCK BAND THIS TOWN HAS EVER SEEN!"

Little Uncle Dick

Well after having Rick put my quilt in his exhibit, I wanted to thank him so thought I'd make another quilt for him.  This is the Little Uncle Dick quilt from their Rockford CD.  I was at the Seneca Casino in Niagara Falls, NY and was lucky enough to meet them before the show.  This makes twice this year!  Here are 2 photos, one of Rick with the quilt before the show and the other is him showing the quilt to the crowd after the show.  SO EXCITING!  Thanks Rick for being the nicest guitar player ever.

My Cheap Trick guitar quilt is in a museum!!

OK, so last year I made the Uncle Dick quilt to give to Cheap Trick at the concert in London.  The guitar player seemed to like it as he was hugging it when he left the stage.  The Burpee Museum is having an exhibit of some of Rick's collection- Rick's Picks and he picked my guitar quilt to be included in the fan gift section.
Here is a video that shows my quilt at 1:03 into the video.

VIDEO

and some screen shots of the video too

Such an exciting honour!  I think I will have to get down to Rockford to see it in person!

Remember the Fisher Price doll house toys?

Doesn't the little girl look so happy sewing?  I forgot all about the little doll house I played with until I came across this photo online.  So cute!

War of 1812 Barn Quilts tour

http://www.barnquilttrails.ca/

Today, Longwoods Rd. is a country highway that twists and turns along the Thames River, speckled by small Southwestern Ontario communities, farmland and forest.

But 200 years ago, this scenic drive looked very different.

It was a battleground for British and American soldiers.

To mark the bicentennial of the War of 1812, communities along Longwoods Rd. have banded together to create the Longwoods Barn Quilt Trail.

On barns, posts, and other buildings on the 60-kilometre stretch of road between Delaware and Thamesville, you'll see giant quilting blocks.

Each tells a story about the war, often from a woman's perspective - a voice often overlooked in history books, says Denise Corneil, the project's creative director.

She hopes the trail will help Southwestern Ontarians learn about their past and discover the beauty of rural Ontario.

"The history is there, but it's eroded. We're not like the Americans. We don't preserve our history as well," Corneil said. "Our rural landscape is changing . . . This project has helped glue communities together."

The Longwoods route is a link in a larger network of bicentennial barn quilt tours taking place in five counties across Ontario.

Visit www.barnquilttrails.ca for tour maps for all five counties, or www.obqt.wordpress.com, home of the Wardsville and Longwoods barn quilt tours, to print route maps and guides.

Tech-savvy tourists can also download a War of 1812 app, which gives the story behind each quilt in text and audio form, plus a map and guide to local hot spots on tour routes.

Here is one of my flies on Superior Thread's web site.

Here is a screen shot of the Superior Thread's web site that has a photo of my fly.  It's not a very good fly but fun to have my photo shown!

Research and Development team for Superior Threads

A few months ago, Todd Purcell from Superior Threads, asked anyone who tied fishing ties to be part of  his research team.  I volunteered right away as fishing is something I do almost as much as quilting.  Superior Threads sent me a package in the mail of many different threads that I already use for quilting.  Bottom Line thread was by far my favourite thread for tying flies, and then of course the Razzle Dazzle for some bling to the flies.  Here are some photos of the flies I tied.  Tonight Todd emailed saying he will be posting photos on the web soon so hopefully some of mine get included.

Update from Nicaragua

Here is an update from Marian that went to Nicaragua again this Spring:


First of all I am working here with Nancy and 2 other women Hannah and Jalna who have been here several times on different sorts of teams (medical, building etc). So they are familiar with the way things work and are done. Our first 2 days Nancy took us to all the places that there is fabric available - quilt type fabrics are next to none, but they do have beautiful broad cloth for only a few dollars. Fabric for clothing is available everywhere.

We have been visiting 6 different sewing co-ops for either 1 or 2 days (one left to go) After visiting with 5 of them already including Iglesias Hermosa where we were - I have to tell you we were spoiled in a number of ways. Yes the community was poor - but we had some very talented sewers already in the group and they were and are still very keen. I think we were very good teachers also - leaving them with the skills to continue. They have a Pastor who is so supportive and very much hands on. Not saying that some of the other communities don't have the support - some do but not in the same way. They had a beautiful church and sewing facillity - and it is kept very clean (the dust in some of the locations is tremendous and impossible to keep clean - I was so glad to take a shower most evenings). The little warehouse that they built is awesome - no other church has such a place to store their things. The shelves were well stocked and Nancy thought that they must have bought more things lately because it was fuller than the last time she was there. On Monday when I was there I met with Lucia and Azecena and 3 girls who were not with us last year but they were very talented - Jalna taught one girl a welt pocket and she even made a teaching kit with all the steps so she can teach it to the others. Hannah taught crocheting and I showed the rest how to make mini stocking ornaments and wallhangings using quilt by numbers. They should have a host of Christmas items for the traveling store in the fall. Nancy showed Lucy how to make a wine bag.

Pastor Julio also took us to his farm (a project for the men with PAN's help) The grenidines are a very interesting crop and they are very sucessful. It was wonderful to see. The farm is on land between the church and school - probably just past where that tree fell down.

Other things - the warehouse - If you remember we though that things had been in the warehouse for a long time and weren't getting out. Things are going out of that place everyday. It is just really dusty down here. They are organizing it better then last year and things are being better labled in the warehouse in Guelph so that it is easier when it arrives here. It is a process. The PAN land is changing too. They have started to build dorms there and there is a pavillion for teams to relax and socialize. From the talk that I have heard the plan is to move everything from Jenny's to there int the next 2 years.

The other thing that I have learned is that PAN is trying to help the people to look after themselves with these co-ops. Some of the teams that come down want to just give and give - but the people down here are taking advantage of that. We need to try to help them to get work to make money and then they can look after themselves. So Nancy is leaving contract jobs with all the co-ops. Similar to the bed sheets we left for our co-op to make for Berta Caledron. One co-op is making diapers for the hospital, another is making crib sheets for the NICU...and so on. PAN supplies the materials and pays them so much a piece for the work and they are very appreciative for the work. I think this is a good thing