OK - that was a bit close. Well not really, the recipient of the T-shirt quilt gets on a plane to Rio on Monday and I delivered the quilt to her mother today at noon! Of course, there is a family wedding in between so they are so busy - no time to look at the quilt. No worries - it is out of my hands and in their house!
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| T-shirt quilt - delivered. And yes - Little Sammy just had to be in the picture |
I didn't have a lot of time to do hand stitching this past week, but I watched part of a movie last night and was up early finishing off the movie and more hand stitching. Then off to the car dealership for over due maintence on the car. I knew it would be a couple of hours and it was more efficient time for me to stay there and hand stitch the binding. When the customer service rep came to tell me the car was ready, he apologized that they didn't take longer so I could finish what I was doing! Got a good laugh from that!
Then back home - well not before I made a stop which I will show you tomorrow and then back to the last part of the stitching. A quick label and then I was in the car.
Now that that is done - I only have five more custom quilts to get done before Christmas. Two of which are almost complete - well the tops, and the others I haven't started yet. No worries - it will go quickly! None are complicated.
Today though I want to tell you about the
CreativFestival. So I toodle off to the GO train. On my way there, I hear that there is a major delay on the line that I am taking. Oh shoot - should I drive down or chance it? I thought - who cares if I am a bit late in arriving. I have a good book in my purse and I'd be happy to wait. Park the car and proceed to the platform after tapping my card. Some day, I will figure out if I need to tap off at the other end. I think only when you don't do your normal route and does the system know my route?? Likely not.
Anyway - I get up on the platform and within minutes a train arrives and then leaves at 9:00 AM. The train I was going to take left at 9:03 AM. Regardless - I got on the train and was downtown in about 25 stress free minutes. I walked along Front Street and took these pictures. Oh yes - I looked like a geeky tourist because I carry my big camera. I don't like taking pictures with my cell phone - they are usually blurry!
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| Union Station |
Wow - the last time I was downtown, you could not see the front of this building for all the scaffoldilng. Refreshing to actually be able to see the front.
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| CN Tower |
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| Royal York Hotel (is it still called that???) - anyway they had Blue Jays flags out front |
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| Lots of bikes locked up |
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| More bikes |
And there is inspiration everywhere. These are on the outside of the Convention Center. I think it was the Convention Center. If not - very close to it.
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| Inspiration |
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| More inspiration |
Why the inspiration? Well each photo could be a color palette. Look at the play of numbers to each other. If you are into modern quilts - I see a LOT of design ideas in there. And well - I could go on and on. But I loved these walls!!!!!
I've always wanted to take a picture of this bike under the sign for Clarkson Village and I managed it on the way home.
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| Bike with Clarkson Village sign |
Oh my - there was a lot to see at the show. First, I have to say the feel of the show was quite different. Yes - it was in a different building - the North instead of the South. There was brilliant sunlight flooding the place so that did make a difference. But I heard over and over - how people (mostly quilters) were disappointed with the show. People - this is NOT, I repeat NOT a quilt show. This is a show about CREATIVITY. Just because we are quilters, does not mean it is all about us. There was beading, there was papercrafts, there was fashion stuff, knitting, crochet. Granted, the number of quilting booths was down (I think) from previous years, I still managed to keep myself entertained for most of the day!
I will have to say that the hottest item I found was adult coloring books. They were everywhere!!!!! But in addition to classes, there were contests throughout the day, there were displays of quilts, art quilts, modern quilts, conteporary stuff, fashion displays. If you wanted to visit a quilt show - then you should have gone to Waterloo - it was their quilt show this weekend. I didn't have time to go, but I heard others went. No feedback yet.
Anyway - enough of that. There is always a FABULOUS display by the
Crochet Crowd. I don't care if you crochet or not, but Mikey and Diva Dan, always put on a fabulous display. The theme this year was Winter Wonderland and wow - they had an igloo there. Made from crocheted snowflakes. Inside was their classroom. How brilliant was that.
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| The Crochet Crowd igloo |
And they had created over the summer (I follow them on Facebook and saw some of the progress) they built these two outstanding Nutcrackers. They were stunning!!!!!
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| Nutcracker Number One |
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| Nutcracker Number Two |
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| Detail of one of the beards |
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| Detail of the igloo |
You can`t tell me those aren`t spectacular!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I believe the Nutcrackers are going to be on display at the Intercontential Hotel (next door) after the show and then they are hoping the National Ballet will use them during their proformance of The Nutcracker.
A fabulous display of quilts from the
Niagara Modern Quilt Guild
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| Modern quilts by the Niagara Modern Quilt Guild |
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| More Modern Quilts |
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| My favourite - made with selvedges |
A gorgeous display of work by the
Connections Fibre Artists. I wish we could have gotten closer to see the detail but the area was roped off. I believe the show was called 18 Square or Square 18. Something like that. All the pieces were 18 inches squares. They were GORGEOUS!!!!!!!!
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| Show by Connections Fibre Artists |
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| Two pieces from the Connections Fibre Artists |
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| The members of Connections |
And then there were the challenges. The
Craft Hobby Association had a Mystery Basket Challenge. There were five in total over the entire weekend.
Northcott donated fabric for two of the challenges. Here are three of the four contestants hard at work making a Christmas stocking.
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| CHA Mystery Basket Challenge |
Remember - the participants had very limited supplies. No iron, no pattern, just five FQs, some trim and a sewing machine. I think they did pretty well.
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| The stockings |
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| The other two stockings |
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| And the winner is - the stocking on the right hand side |
Once there is a winner from each of the five categories, a grand prize winner will be chosen who will receive a sewing machine and a goodie basket. It is a fun way to pass a couple of hours!!!!
Speaking of Northcott - there were a couple of booths with big displays of Northcott. I tried on numerous occasions to get a picture at
Sew Sister`s booth, but it was always jammed with people rifling through her packages - which is a good thing!!!! This was the Stonehenge O Canada 4 - the new line. The one that I am supposed to have my free download on the web, but there just isn`t time. I had to rejig the pattern and never got back to it. But I am almost finished.
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| Sew Sister`s O Canada display |
I had great fun introducing myself or reintroducing myself to store owners and pattern designers. Made a few new contacts, established lines of communication and action plans for November.
In keeping with my role at
QUILTSocial, I also visisted the
Husqvarna Viking booth. Oh dear - that was NOT a good idea. This latest sewing machine they have introduced called the
EPIC is a to die for sewing machine. I want one. I won`t tell you how much they cost in the event that I do break down and buy one - you will think I have lost my mind. But there isn`t much this sewing machine won`t do.
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| Husqvarna Viking EPIC sewing machine |
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| Some projects done with the EPIC |
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| Stitch outs with the EPIC |
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| More stitch outs with the EPIC |
Anyway - let`s just say that I came away from that booth very excited and well - I will get to share some of that excitement with you before you (and I) know it!!!! Stay tuned for that one.
I think this booth was crazy the entire day. The designer is
Valerie Miller. I love her style, I love her methods and well I wanted to introduce myself since she does some designing for Northcott. I managed to snag some time with her.
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| Valerie Miller booth |
Saw other people and will meet some of them in Houston, so I didn`t bother to spend much time with them. By four PM, I was ready to go home.
On my way back to Union Station, I met Jane and we had a brief chat. Then off I went. ACK - I arrived at the station and well - where do I go???? So I pretended I was a lemming and just followed everyone else. The moment we went through the first series of doors - we were at the doors leading to the tracks. Great - but WHICH TRACK did I want to get back home???? A quick check of the monitors and I was looking for 7/8. Crap - can't find 8, but I see 7. So I went to 7. The train was waiting and I hopped on and snagged the last seat in that car. Turns out it was an express train to my station. Yipppeeeeeeee - 25 minutes (yes - the train was about to leave) and I was getting into my car. Took me almost as long to get from the train station to home as it did to take the train. I LOVE the GO train.
We had a good laugh on the train though. As a lady from my guild also got on the train. We chatted and then when she realized it was an express (I didn't at first), well - she didn't want to go that far. So very helpful people on the train, looked up the schedule on their phones and told her how long the wait would be once she got to Clarkson to take the train back. People were very friendly and we all had a good education about how to tell express trains from non express trains, what time is rush hour etc. It was pretty funny. They were probably thinking - oh these little old ladies got lost and we can help them. How sweet!!!!!!
Anyway - that is enough for today - I must get back to work.
Have an awesome day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ciao!!!!!
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