Community

Thank you to Sew Sisters for hosting Blogathon Canada for their 3rd year. Also a big thank you to Linda at Scrapmaster  and Linda at Stitch Lines for being our Maritime hosts for today. Make sure to hop on over to their blogs and if you missed out on yesterdays bloggers, check out Stacey in Stitches and Momiji Studio from BC.

Each year I look forward to seeing what Canadian quilters/textiles artists are working on and meeting new people. It creates a wonderful sense of community! This summer I unplugged so that I could spend more time with my husband and children and fly to Alberta to visit family for the first time in five years. While there, we had the opportunity to check out the Western Threads exhibit at the Royal Alberta Museum in Edmonton. There is some pretty amazing textile and fibre art happening across this country. Once we got back to Nova Scotia my sewing room became our storage room and we embarked on kitchen and bathroom renovations. Today is my day off and I FINALLY get to reclaim my space now that all the work is done. (read as .... catch up on my We Bee Canada quilt blocks that I am months behind on and Teresa hasn't had access to her sewing room since July soooo .... no quilt pics to see for now ... sorry)

We moved to Nova Scotia almost 5 years ago from Ottawa, Ontario. My daughters' dance and music lesson schedules prevent me from joining any guilds. I have come to realize that one of the things that I miss most is the community of textile artists that I had around me .... those days of packing up to head to the Quiltin' Hilton for the weekend with my group of quilting friends. So, a couple of weeks ago, I packed up and drove to Cape Breton to seek out like minded fibre people at the Maritime Handspinners' Retreat hosted by the Unspun Heroes. 

I drove up on Tuesday to the beautiful Gaelic College to participate in a daylong Historical Knitting workshop on Wednesday and a Wet Felting workshop that spanned Thursday afternoon and Friday morning.

My first foray into Wet Felting .... the layout before felting. Today, my plan is to finish the embellishing (I'll post a pic of the finished project)

The retreat began Friday afternoon and lasted until Sunday noon. It is amazing how quickly friendships can be forged over a bag of fibre, a spinning wheel, shared stitching with over 80 spinners/weavers in one room. The Gaelic Singing at the Milling Frolic and the Ceilidh only added to the wonderful atmosphere in the room.

Sunday Morning in the Great Hall in the Hall of the Clans before anyone arrived to pack up and go home.

 I went knowing not a soul and came home with planned retreats in January and February to meet up with new friends in NB and Maine; I came home reminded what I love about quilting, spinning, and weaving....that lovely community! I have seen this clip floating around FB lately. It is so true!

If you are new to quilting (spinning/weaving or whatever your preferred textile passion is) or have never had the opportunity to head to a retreat, my advice is to find one and go. I'm a home body and introvert so I usually suffer about a week or so of "what the heck did I sign myself up for?" panic but once I get there, I have never regretted it....I learn new tricks, built lifelong friendships, and typically laugh until my sides hurt.

If you know of any textile related retreats that are coming up in  2015 then please feel free to share in the comments below. I would love to hear about what is happening in your community and who knows, maybe I might pack up my car and join you!

Heading to Oz

Welcome to my blog.  I'm so excited that Sew Sisters is doing their Blog-a-thon again.  Last year, I met so many wonderful quilters online and made new friends.  What a great way to see the awesome talent that we have in Canada.  Thanks Adrienne for being one of our Maritime hosts and for asking me if you could feature my blog on your list of Maritime bloggers ... what a nice compliment!  Half the time I think that no one reads other than my family ... actually, I'm not even sure that they know that I blog! lol  Take some time and see what Canada has to offer.  Head over to Sew Sisters to find the schedule.

I have called Nova Scotia home for just a little over 3 years.  I was born and raised in Ontario; I was married in Ontario to my wonderful and supportive husband ... also from Ontario...and had my two daughters in Ontario.  When my husband's work asked him to transfer here, we jumped at the chance and haven't yet regretted that decision.  We have met so many great people here and have had some fantastic opportunities that we probably wouldn't have had back home.  The past few months we have been spending a lot of time with the St. Luke's Community Players theatre group and I am blessed to call them my friends.

It has been pretty busy around here.  My sewing room has been moved up to my living room and kitchen and my patient family is just dealing with it.  I haven't done a lot of quilting lately.  My main focus has been learning my lines for the Wizard of Oz, making sure that I get my girls and husband to rehearsals and helping with costumes and props.  I swear that every surface in the house is covered with ribbon, glitter, fabric, suit jackets, dresses and crinolines....and I love it!  Oh, I forgot ... TV trays for the family to eat at and do homework on.  This has been our life since the end of August.  It will be so weird when the play is done!

If you are in the area, the play is at the end of the month.  The Sunday matinee is SOLD OUT!

Someone donated a bridesmaid's dress that they wore back in the 1980's for the Good Witch.  I brought it home to clean it up a bit and add a little glam to it.  I love coming up with costumes with what we have on hand.

This was the view from my sewing machine Saturday morning....sitting at my kitchen table

Looking into the living room ... yes, even my cutting table has been brought up

Adding the layers ... there was a lot of peach happening on Saturday!

The finished skirt tied over the original 80's dress ... front

Back

Not very clear ... too give the skirt some sparkle when the stage lights hit, I gave the top layer a coat of Krylon Glitter Spray (the nozzles clog up easily and it smells horrible so make sure that you are outside when you do this)

If you would like to make a lovely tulle skirt, check out Photography by Amy Mildren on Facebook 

(if you Like her page and msg her, she will send you .pdf instructions)

and her youtube tutorial

...and of course, every Good Witch needs a wand.  This was lots of fun to make and extremely easy.

Today ... I focus on constructing the crown.

When I haven't been working on lines, running kids everywhere, or working on props and costumes, I have been knitting.

This is the shawl that I was working on in my last post on using Lifelines.  It still needs to be blocked and the ends woven in.  I love how it turned out.

This is what is on my needles now (see that wonderful lifeline).  This is a hand dyed yarn by Fleece Artist called Sumac.  LOVE IT!  70% Merino 30% Seacell.  The pattern is by Laura Nelkin and is called Clarus.

I need to get to making the crown but just wanted to also mention that yesterday I read on Adrienne's blog that she is starting up a Maritime Modern Quilter's Guild.  I am so excited about this!!  If you are interested in joining go to her blog http://chezzetcookmodernquilts.blogspot.ca/ and message her OR go to the Maritime Modern Quilt Guild webpage http://maritimemqg.blogspot.ca/ for more information and to contact her about joining/helping/having fun.

Enjoy visiting the Maritimes!

Welcome to NS

Sew Sisters Quilt Shop is hosting a Blog-a-thon.  Each day between now and Nov 24th, bloggers across Canada are participating.  Yesterday we visited BC; today we are in the Maritimes.  If you are like me and still relatively a baby in the blogging world and would like to meet fellow Canadian Blogging Quilters or are simply in need of some awesome inspiration, then you should definitely check out these posts.  The host blogger lists other blogs from their home province in their post. Visit Sew Sisters at the link provided to see their list of host bloggers (pssstttt...there are also give-aways).

If you are stopping by for the first time via the Blog-a-thon then welcome to my relatively new blog.  I in definitely in learning mode!  Stop by frequently as I add and update.  

A little about me...I moved to NS almost 2 1/2 yrs ago from Ottawa.  My two kids (very soon to be 10 & 12) have forgiven me for all the Ottawa and area shop hops that I regularly took them out on and now willingly head to the Annapolis Valley with me to purchase fabric and fibre.  They have caught their own little bug...they have become avid knitters and love fabric.  I started quilting in '93 then took a break to go back to school, get married and started up again when I had my children.  After another brief hiatus I am happily picking up my needle again!  When I don't have fabric in my hand I can be found behind my spinning wheel....or waiting, waiting, waiting at various activities with my drop spindle.

What's new in  my little corner of the world???  We survived Annie weekend.  Both my girls performed in the musical Annie.  It was a blast; it was a lot of work...it is over.  Now we are all trying to re-energize and get back in to routine.  I had big plans for yesterday!  Lots of the list involved catching up on laundry, cleaning, tidying another corner in the sewing room and SEWING!!!!!  Reality...I curled up on the couch, read a book, and slept!

Today....trying again.  I went down and sat in my sewing room for inspiration.  My goal is to not start anything new until I weed through my pile of UFOs.  However, this little stack of fabric keeps calling me...

My 9 yr old aspiring quilter (she has a little tutorial here showing how she designed and made a pillow for her cousin a couple of Christmases ago)picked these bundles up for me at CQA in Halifax.  We arrived just moments before the vendors mall closed.  She ran in and surveyed the shelves and came back with these treats.  The bundle on the left was from Mad About Patchwork.  Their booth was stunning and deliciously colourful.  There is no way you could walk past without your eyes pulling you back in! The star shaped bundle and larger piece was from The Running Stitch.  It was so wonderful to see them there.  I frequented The Running Stitch when we lived in Ottawa.  We spent our last milliseconds in their stall wishing we had more time to check out all their lovely fabrics.  I have a Christmas gift to make for my father (and am still mentally stuck on what to do) but I have a couple other little ones that I adore and if there is time they might just get a little something using these fabrics.  Too many thoughts....so little time!!!

I was also perusing my fabric stash now that it is all tidied up and pretty much unpacked.

It is pretty small compared to other stashes that I have seen.  I gave away A LOT of fabric prior to our move to groups making quilts for charity.  I didn't relish the idea of slugging everything from Ontario to Nova Scotia.  My cousin in Saskatchewan warned me that I would regret it and...well...I do in a way but then I don't.  Looking at this photo I see a lot of earth tones...that is where my head used to be.  Then I had children and things got a bit more colourful but now all I can think about is bright, vibrant, and WOW!  I have colour holes that need to be filled.  I really must discuss this with Santa.  He has often been such a great enabler of my habit...fabric, thread, notions, etc...He knows it brings me joy and when I have joy then the whole family is happy!

I would LOVE to meet fellow quilters in NS!  It would definitely make it feel a little more like home for me.  Let me know if there is a quilt show (or shop) in your area, what craft shows are going on or what you are working on.  Is there a Modern Quilt Guild in the area?  Come along for the ride and follow me.