ROAD TRIP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love SPRING in Ontario. It means all kinds of quilt shows and while I would LOVE to go to all of them, I do not have the time. Yesterday was an exception - I decided the quilting and the cycling could wait and Mary and I were on the road by 7:30 AM.

We headed out to Ailsa Craig to see the Quilts of Israel.

Ailsa-Craig Quilt Festival


Check out the link above to get all the details. The show is on until SATURDAY. There are vendors, trunks shows, AMAZING QUILTS from Israel. It is WELL WORTH the trip. Of course I took LOTS of pictures, but I am NOT posting any of them here. NO - you need to go and see these quilts in person.

A detailed peek at one of the amazing quilts of Israel

This show is a GREAT example of how a small community pulls together to make a GREAT EVENT. The community people were so friendly - I LOVE LOVE going to this show.


They also have workshops and I would LOVE to take one, but I didn't plan properly.

However - NEXT YEAR they will be hosting Quilts from Great Britain. I am putting it in my calendar NOW so that I have some days blocked to go to the shows.


They also have a mini version of the barn quilts. Here is just one of the signs that were in a neighbouring park.

The Ailsa-Craig Quilt Festival logo

This week is ALSO the week for the Waterloo Quilt Festival. Unfortunately many of the events started TODAY, not yesterday. That was very unfortunate, but I had checked ahead so we didn't go to the places that we knew were not open.


Here is the link to the Waterloo Event.


Waterloo Quilt Festival


But after checking around, I had discovered that The Mill in St. Jacobs was open yesterday and there are FOUR displays of quilts. We decided to make a stop.

We also had another reason to do the road trip. I volunteered to drop postcards for our upcoming quilt shows at venues and stores along the way.

Postcard for the Halton Hills quilt Show

In case you want to mark the date in your calendar - Friday, October 4 and Saturday, October 5. I will have FIVE different quilts in that show. It was a great show two years ago and promises to be an amazing show again. There are some VERY creative quilters in this guild.

Anyway - I digress. Knowing that most of the stores were likely going to be closed because it was a holiday - well that was a good thing, but how would we drop off the cards???   The first store in Stratford (Ye Olde Fabric Shoppe) had a mail box by the door - that was easy. The store in Shakespeare (The Quilt Place) has a screen door - again - easy drop. The next store in New Hamburg (Heart n Home) (we both decided that we want to buy one of the houses in New Hamburg with a BIG PORCH and live there), well - when we arrived at the front door - no screen door, no mail box. Hmmmm - let's drive around back. And look the back door was propped open (the owner lives above the store) and was doing some work in the store. So a bundle of cards got dropped in the back door. And the final store in St. Jacobs (Reichard's) was open so we actually got to go in. It was pretty funny - we had loads of fun dropping those cards.


While we were at The Mill, we saw a show by Joan Hug-Valeriote who was the featured artist in The Mill. Her show is there until October 2013.

There were still THREE shows that we were looking for. We stopped on the second floor and realized that TWO of the shows we wanted to see were NOT open yet. BUT we saw the girls from the Group of Eight and the Guelph Embroiders Guild and they were both setting up. Since I knew people from both groups - we popped in to say hi (and of course - we looked at the pieces).

A SNEAK peek at at the Group of Eight display

BOTH shows are well worth going to. The level of creativity and workmanship is UNBELIEVABLE.

There was another group with work on display, also at The Mill. This VERY DIVERSE group is the Grand Guild of Fibre Artists.

Some of the work from the Grand Guild of Fibre Artists

Of course - my favourite piece!!!!!!!

Well - it was an amazing place to stop. There was so much to see and the ladies at the Grand Guild were so friendly. Holy cow - they had all kinds of bits and bobs for sale. And of course, Mary and I came away with a "challenge" kit with goodies in it and INSPIRATIONS that will last us a LONG LONG TIME.


And we saw this tree - anyone know what kind of tree it is???????

What an EXCITING day. Haven't had a fun play day like that in a long time and it was long over due. NOTE TO SELF: BLOCK off that entire week in 2014 because we are going to hit the shows, workshops, lectures and trunk shows. Heck - we might as well stay the entire week. I am sure we could keep ourselves busy and supporting Canadian art is VERY important to me.


You see, Mary will be retiring soon and then we won't have to worry about doing things on the weekends. That will be awesome.


I am happy to report that I came home PUMPED and INSPIRED and would have loved to do something wild and creative, but NO - I am practical and had things to do that HAD to be done. So I hit the long arm. I am almost done the raffle quilt - yeah - hope to finish it this afternoon (I have a class this morning)

But I also had some time to sew for ME and look what I accomplished.

Yes - I FINALLY got all those churn dash blocks done for the Snow Days quilt - even the extra one I had to make. So those on the extreme right are EXTRA and already in the orphan quilt block box

Here are the completed churn dash blocks

AND here are the completed Cut the Corner blocks. The bottom one in the middle looks weird because there is some embroidery attached to it with waste cloth strips on the sides. And I MAY make an extra small block. There is one that doesn't have a lot of contrast. But that is NOT a priority. 

Oh yes - I wanted to show you this. Remember I talked about the cellophane and drawing on the quilt????
Well here is a picture of that. The raffle quilt is loaded on the machine. In order to audition quilting designs - I take cellophane and lay over the blocks and then using a Sharpie - I draw some designs to see if I like it, does it fit?, does it flow? - that kind of thing. Oh - I have SO MUCH I want to share and there just doesn't seem to be time to get it all done.

So now - you have to wait to see how it turned out on the quilt.

Quilting design auditions

But there are a couple of things that I have decided I am going to do in the future................

1. I am NOT going to participate in exchanges (unless it is small and ONE AT A TIME - like the postcards where I can get creative with techniques). So far so good on that and I have NO DESIRE EVER to do group work. My time is precious and therefore I should be doing what I want to do - not making group projects. I have so many UNFINISHED ones - why would I want to start another.

2. I am going to LIMIT my time spent on guild events. I haven't figured this one out yet, but it will be something to contemplate while I mindlessly ride my bike this summer. I belong to three guilds and I enjoy something from each one. Guilds are only as good as the people who volunteer to make them work. I enjoy that process and want to feel part of the guild. So I will remain committed to doing something for each of them - just not sure in what capacity. Meetings, phone calls, etc - they all take time - got to cap it - SOMEHOW!!!)

3. I am NOT working on another raffle quilt EVER. I mean really - how many of these do I have to do before I have done my time?????   I have this one to finish quilting and then I have blocks for what was supposed to be the second place quilt and I will finish that one, but when someone asks me in future - I will happily say NO. I am not interested. Time for someone else to have a turn.

4. I WILL spend some time every week on being creative and doing the fun stuff that I want to do. I will have to schedule a time to make this happen. Mary and I both want to commit to this so we are going to schedule a day and work together. Well not together on the same project, but schedule an adult play date where we can focus on creativity. I can't wait until September. I must remember to get her to commit to a date NOW for September.

5. Then I need to figure out the rest of my time and see if it is being well spent. But doing the above will (and has) made a big difference in what I do and how I do it. Just need to take a couple of steps further.


On that note - It is time to get ready for my class.


Have a great day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (and think about how you spend your day - is that really how you want to spend your day????   If not - who is going to make those changes - ONLY YOU can make the changes.


Ciao!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!