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Sunday, October 30, 2016

Busy week!

Well, it's been a very busy week, and the next 2 (countdown to retirement) look like they'll be busy too.
Friday was retirement party for my colleague and friend John T. Here's me making my speech before giving him his quilted gift. John is a published poet so I started my farewell address to him with a quote from my favourite book (can you guess ?)
"The time has come," the Walrus said, To talk of many things:
Of shoes and ships and sealing-wax. Of cabbages and kings.
"But wait a bit," the Oysters cried. Before we have our chat;
For some of us are out of breath, And all of us are fat! (except me!) 
No hurry!" said the Carpenter.They thanked him much for that."

I made a cloth bag for the quilt which is what I'm holding as John displays his quilt. John liked to walk along the creek on his way to & from work. The back of the quilt is a photographic print of fall leaves! I think he liked it :).


After work on Friday I was off to my sister's place to meet the new grand nephew!
That's me holding William Forest, with momma (Lisa) and his sister Claire, who just wanted to play ;).
And here's a Smith family pic - Great Grandpa Smith, me with baby William and my sister, proud Grandma. That's the Friendship quilt my guild gave me after the mater's passing, which I shared with my sister. William was 3 weeks early, and must have been tired as he slept through the whole evening ! His Fancy Foxes baby quilt goes to the quilter today - yeah!
When I got home my kitchen sink was TOTALLY backed up. 3 bottles of Draino later and nothing is happening - Grrrrrr. Guess I'll have to call a plumber.
TTFN



Sunday, October 23, 2016

Quilt Show!!

Hello all out there in blog land. I've been remiss in not blogging, but have been tres busy with numerous appointments all in aid of my upcoming (not soon enough) retirement!
It's another wonderfully sunny Sunday with marshmallow clouds drifting by and the sun peaking through my Japanese Maple. The autumnal colours are wonderful. Will I enjoy Sundays this much once I'm retired? Hmmmm, guess I'll find out. Speaking of colours I finally got the Fancy Foxes baby quilt top completed. I love the modern colours of this quilt, guess it's my first "modern" quilt :).
And none too soon as baby William Forest was born 3 weeks early (Oct 15th). So, now I have an excuse for his quilt not being ready ! This will go to the quilter next weekend, so hopefully we'll have it to William before his first month's birthday.
This weekend was the guild quilt show, and what a show it was !! Here are a few pics for you

 This is one of two from my quilting buddy June. She completed these after a workshop with John Willard. It's one of those techniques where you make up the top, slash then sew it up again. Not sure I would have the chutzpah to do it, but admit they are gorgeous!



These two wall hangings are the result of a stained glass workshop the guild held. I didn't go, but heard it was a fun time and the ladies produced some lovely works.

And of course there is my Wild Flowers on the right here. I think it was the only piece that was hand quilted in the entire show!

I have to admit I did not take pics of every quilt, not that I didn't like them all! And, I did not take pics of the labels, so I apologise, I can't give attributions.

I do love the colours of these two - aren't they gorgeous! Black backgrounds are so effective.



And, on the softer colour side ....

The label for the quilt on the left said the maker could not remember the "name" of this quilt. What's in a name? To paraphrase Shakespeare,  a Rose by any other name is still a beautiful quilt!

And this "Wild Thing" is just too cute for words!!!

Another guild project, last year's (?) row by row challenge. There were several examples, with small differences, making them all interesting. They were all beautiful but I only took one pic, as an example!

And whoooooo doesn't like Owls ? You may remember it was 2 1/2 years ago I was making an Owl baby quilt. I really like this Owl quilt, very imaginative with all the block different sizes.

La Passacaglai quilts !! Sorry the pics aren't better 'cause these beauties are just wonderful! I did download all the free patterns from the internet for this wonder, but haven't started it yet (still have my Lucy Boston to complete!)

I took pics of these two to show you how much fun and different a pattern can be just with colour!

Hexies ! Need I say more ?

Large hexies in nice subtle colours.

The hexie piece on the right is a finished example from the one workshop I did attend last year, and it was THE BEST workshop ever!!

I still haven't even started mine (darn) but my enthusiasm is still there, so one of these retirement days ....



And now for some stunners .....  The Toronto skyline, apparently this was her own design! Can you believe it? Wow, such talented ladies!




And this Black, White, Grey and Red stunner, well what can you say, it's gorgeous! The use of the ombre grey makes this one shimmer. I suspect it may have been a kit, but even so, this one is a stunner!

And now to the Southwest ....









Foxes, the hotties of the season,  were represented in a pillow and in this original (?) orange fox silhouette.

And foxes were added creatively as a row in this colourful beauty!


My quilt buddy and co-driver to most quilt events made these ltwo ovely ones. She's soooo good with colour and loves making scrappy things.


And to round off this quilt show here's another one done with the black background.

What a great quilt show - well done ladies!!


TTFN,