Marco Polo Quilt Guild Show Virtual Tour Part 3 of 3

Welcome Back! Here are the last of my pictures from the Marco Polo Quilt Guild Show held last week in Saint John, NB. There were many, many more fabulous quilts and smaller pieces that I didn't photograph, but hopefully these have given you an idea of what the show was like.

Above is Celtic Wedding Quilt by Sandra Reeves.
This is Line Dance by Cathy Kennedy.
This is Carol's Delight by Carol Lee.

Cabin Fever by Alma Robichaud.

Twilight Kaleidoscope by Carol Ann Barton.

This was SO cool and really inspired me. It won for Quilted Articles and is called Is This My Home? by Sandra Betts. The photo doesn't do it justice.

And another piece that the photo doesn't do it justice is this NB Coat of Arms by Judith LeClue. It won first place for Medium Traditional and won the Machine Quilting award. It was so regal and stunning and you can easily see why it won for machine quilting.

And a final photo of some of the smaller pieces. Thanks for joining me on my tour.

Marco Polo Quilt Guild Show Virtual Tour Part 2 of 3

Today I have some more pictures from the Marco Polo Quilt Guild show ... Broken Star by Mary Craft
Fish 2 by Susan Johnson, which won a Judge's Choice Award

Star Bright by Joanne Thomposon and A Touch of Ice by Juliet Nowlan, which won first place in the Traditional Small category

Spring Time also by Juliet Nowlan, which won second place in the Small Traditional category

Scrap Happy by Shirley McGovern

Chocolate Stars by Lillian Clark

Fireworks by Jean Foglein

President's Thank You Pineapple Quilt by Cathy Kennedy

Rose and Tulip Garden by Carol Ann Barton, which won the Marco Polo Award

What Was I Thinking? by Lillian Clark, which won 2nd place in the Large Traditional Category.

One more post of show quilts to come!

Marco Polo Quilt Guild Show Virtual Tour Part 1 of 3

Hi, and welcome! I'm glad you're here for the quilt show. First, to help us all get oriented, I thought I'd show the outside of the museum. The Marco Polo Quilt Guild show is being held until Sunday at the New Brunswick Museum in Market Square, Saint John, NB.

The one quilt outside is the raffle quilt. All the show quilts are inside.
But before we go in, let's first turn around and check out the fountain. There's also a library book sale taking place. (I bought some fabulous books for my kids.) As you can see the whole building is great.
See what I mean? This cool art is just down a corridor. My son is saying Hi to the statue.
And since it's the Marco Polo Quilt Guild, here's a huge model of the Marco Polo also just down the corridor.

But now, on with the quilts!

This bright lovely is Thick and Thin Log Cabin by Jane Palmer. It had such fabulous energy with the colours against the black. I spoke to Jane at the show and she said she had trouble getting enough bright fabric scraps to use, that no one in her guild seemed to have any brights. Well, let me say here that my whole stash is brights and if anyone in the area is looking for colourful scraps in the future, call me, I'm in the book. I'm not kidding, I'll totally set you up with some wild and crazy stuff.
This quilt won a Judges Choice Award.

I was intriqued by this quilt because it is 100% flannel. Turquoise is also my favourite colour so I was predisposed to like it! It is Swirling Bright by Carol Ann Barton.

Pretty cool, right?! You should see it up close. The lines are sooo well done. This is Frank Lloyd Wright Tree of Life by Sandra Reeves. This quilt won 2nd place in the Large Contemporary category.

A cat! Of course my kids loved it. This is 2009 Christmas Tree Ornament by Sandra Betts. The detail was awesome. Sandra Betts had some incredible things at the show. I have more pics of her work to post next time too.

And I can't resist a good lighthouse. This is Swallowtail Imagined by Nancy Estle. I have visited this lighthouse on Grand Manan and it is in a painting I did for my son in his room. This wallhanging was lovely.

Here is Celtic by Mary Craft. Simply put, it was huge and beautiful!

And as the last quilt for today, here is Heart of my Heart by Jean Foglein. It is to be a future wedding gift for a grandchild. It is just the perfect design for a wedding quilt and so well done!

Until next time, Happy Quilting!

Marco Polo Quilt Guild Show

I went to the opening of the Marco Polo Quilt Guild Show at the New Brunswick Museum in Saint John, NB last night. I thought it was just a night to browse the quilts and have a sneak peek before the show opened to the public today.

My friend Tanya and I went. When we arrived no one was around and I thought that maybe the time had been changed. (When I dropped off my quilts on Sunday the time had been changed for set-up and no one let me know, so I figured it had happened again.)

Anyway, it turned out that everyone was in a theatre room for the awards announcement. I didn't realise there was an actual presentation; I had thought that the ribbons were simply placed on the quilts and people were given a program with the winners list ...

So it was cool to see the ribbons given out. It really added an element of excitement to the whole thing.
Sue McEachern who is in the KVQG with me won big. See the four ribbons on her quilt -- including Best of Show. Sue is a talented, kind and generous quilter who has volunteered to give me some tips on free-motion quilting should I ever dive in ...

And it was really fun that I was there, because my lighthouse quilt won 1st place in the Large Contemporary category. Thanks to Tanya for taking this picture. (I quickly checked that the quilt police weren't around before not just touching, but grabbing my quilt).

The show is on until Sunday and I will be going back tomorrow with my family. I hope to get lots of pictures to post here. I was so, so impressed with all the fabulous stuff at the show!

Happy Quilting!

FQG Quilt Show Part 2 of 2

So, let's head back to the Fredericton Quilters' Guild Quilt Show for a little bit, shall we? The quilt above is by M. Monica Washburn.
And this scrappy lovely was interesting. It is by Lois Mehan. The quilting is unfortunately not showing well in the photo, but it was a neat mix of straight lines and scrolls. It really dressed up the quilt.

And for you Moose lovers out there, here's a nice one by Marg Wood ...

And no, I didn't load the same photo twice. ;-) This is like those pictures in kids' activity books, where you have to notice all the differences. Do you see the subtle differences? This moose is by Valerie Moreland.

And some cats done in thirties fabric by Barb Perry.

And another by Barb Perry. I loved the simplicity of this quilt. Very striking.

And now to wrap up the show with some wow factor. This Egret is by Kathy Tidswell.

Thanks for coming with me to the show!

FQG Quilt Show Part 1 of 2

I went to a quilt show today -Yay! It was certainly a rare treat for me to do something fun like this on a week day. I went to the Fredericton Quilters' Guild show. Wanna see some pics?
This was a super cute little wallhanging near the entry to the main room of the show. I actually took the picture to show my kids. They love cats! I like the rotary cutter the cat has. This piece is by Sandi MacMillan.

This was a great miniature display. I am fascinated by the skill and patience it takes to create something this intricate and small. See the hexie one? That was my people's choice for favourite miniature. Any guesses on how many hexies are in it ?????

1801 hexies !!! This was made by Barb Perry. I spoke with her at the show. She said she cuts all her own templates and all her own hexies (not just rough squares from what I understood, but actual fabric hexagon shapes before sewing). I think they are 1/4 inch hexagons (as in each side is about 1/4 inch). For an idea of size, see the thumbtacks just below the quilt. You can see that the hexies aren't too much bigger than the head of the thumbtack. To sum it all up : WOW !!!

I loved the energy in this quilt by Barb Cross.

Now, this quilt is by Trudy Corey. It's very nice, traditional, dare I say unassuming? BUT, it has a little surprise in store for you ...

Check out the quilting! Skull and crossbones. What a surprising whimsical touch.

And this was a cool one by Jean Ketch. The arches actually have piping.

More quilt show quilts to come in my next post. Happy Weekend!

I Heart Selvage Quilting: Progress

I've made a bit more progress on my latest selvage quilt. This is the center section. I would say it's currently about 45 inches square. I am slowly working along on it. As much as I enjoy the challenge and creativity involved in selvage quilting, there is definitely some tedium involved. As in, the tedious sewing of all those lattice strips. I LOVE the result, but it took a little while for sure.
Here's a close up of some of the latticing. That Amy Butler Love selvage is perfect. I am fortunate to have several more to use. (They were sent to me)
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I decided to put the lattice sections on to make it look like an old-fashioned Valentine.

For a laugh, I thought I'd show the back of the lattice section. As you can see I'm not keeping up on trimming all my threads like I am supposed to be doing. Also, I want to point out a little bit of poor planning (or I guess, creative afterthought?) on my part. See the seams under the latticing? I put the lattice on after I had pieced together the whole heart. It would have been better to just make the lattice on plain fabric then piece it in after. Oh well, such is the peril/fun of making the design up as I go.
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Speaking of design, I have decided that this is going to be a quilt for our local quilt show in the fall. I really want to be sure to participate as I am a member of the guild now. Well, this year's theme is Serendipity. It is a very wide-open challenging theme. But anyway, I am thinking Love-Serendipity-Family as my interpretation and that is the direction I am going in with this quilt. It will still take a while to make, and I will still be going on it after Valentine's Day, but at least when it's done I will have a show quilt. I am very early on this, but I am expecting a wonderful, exciting year that will get busier and busier as it goes on, so it will be good to get this done to quilt top form. Then of course quilting ... ????

Here are some little 3 inch squares I have ready for elsewhere in the quilt.
Here's a long shot. Thanks so much to everyone who suggested I put up a design wall. Mine is just a piece of fabric that a friend gave me (I'm not even sure what it is, it seems like some sort of jersey knit stuff). It's cool though, as long as the quilting fabric isn't too big or heavy it just clings to the "wall" without even pinning.

And finally, the other night a friend and I had a little SNIC (Sewing Night in Canada, ha!). She wanted to make a pillowcase so I made one too. I made this little Valentine's one for my daughter's bed.

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Happy Weekend!