Fair Season Has Begun

On the weekend, we took a quick trip to Beachburg to see what we could see. They host an agricultural fair annually that has been running for 168 years now (which seems incredible to me) and it's been a while since we went, so I was keen to see what we could see.

Much of the livestock showing had happened a day earlier, but there was a barn with some animals on display so we were able to enjoy that.

and a judging circle that was busy with young 4H members learning their way around a ring. This little fellow was Patches II and his turn was coming up. He had a lot of personality.

The biggie for me was getting into the handicrafts exhibit hall to check things out.

For a small fair I thought that they had a great showing of items, particularly quilts. 

And the workmanship was second to none.

Originally, I thought that this was a temperature quilt but I've since realized that it goes by another name - Postcard from Sweden? It was beautiful hung up high in the rafters.

As was this appliqued Christmas quilt.

The one that we were keen to see was this paper pieced fish quilt. Just a week earlier we learned that the young gal who runs the diner that we go to most Sundays for breakfast is a quilter and made this for a girlfriend's 40th. 

For a first effort I'm thinking that she did amazingly well. She will be thrilled.

And this was the last little fellow to catch my eye. He was a winner too, and you can see why.

What a terrific beginning to fair season 2024...M

Speed Binding For The Quilt Show

In addition to hosting our annual Holly Bazaar, the gals at the church decided that it might be fun to hold a quilt show and afternoon tea this past weekend and I was happy to be able to provide both quilts and baking towards the effort. The church setting was exceptionally beautiful and our visitors thoroughly enjoyed not only it, but the show and the tea.

It was something to behold, with quilts draped over two pews to make it easier for our guests to get a good look at them.

Approximately half of the church was filled with the collection from one man - Mennonite quilts that he has collected over the years. Apparently this is only a portion of his collection.

And his wife shared an expansive collection of her hand-hooked rugs, some of which were her own design. Amazingly, she was fine with folks walking on them.

This is a section from one that really appealed to me; apparently it takes her about 400 hours to make a rug.

This delicate cross stitch quilt looked like an heirloom.

I pulled together eight quilts to share...

and it was fun to see them mixed in with the rest of the show.

I had some last-minute binding to do to get Wintersweet ready for the show. It's been waiting to be bound for a couple of months now and of course I'd left it to the last minute, but I made it! (I'll share more about it next time.)

I baked pecan tassies for the tea...

and in the hall you could tell that they had lots of fun decorating, including these tea-themed centrepieces. The quartet playing throughout the tea was a nice touch.

This was the first time we've undertaken a show like this but from the comments I've received, folks would love to see it done again. 

With friends offering up their quilts to show, I would hope that there would be enough interest in a repeat. It was a wonderful way to spend an otherwise dreary autumn afternoon...M

One More Sleep!

This time tomorrow we will have landed in Ottawa to spend the day at Quilt Canada (actually, 'landed' may not be the correct term - we're lucky this year in that it is a 90 minute drive from home). It's been years since I've attended - it was in Toronto - and I am getting more and more excited with each passing day. None of us (Jane, Linda, Anne or I) are taking any workshops - it's purely a 'gawking' tour.

And I have no doubt that there will be a little shopping in the Merchants Mall, too. Anne recently started pulling colours for a new quilt so she'll be looking for additions to ramp up the scrappy factor.

She's using the Snow Goose pattern from Miss Rosie's Quilt Co. but in a totally non-Christmas palette of turquoise, golds, oranges and cream.

This fabric was her jumping off point.

The more she brings together the better it gets. I picked up a few fat quarters during our travels last week and it looks like they will fit in quilte nicely. I particularly like the two little mottled little checks - very different.

It's a pretty good guess that there will be image overload in my next post or two. Bon voyage!....M

Shopping Someone Else's Stash

What started out as a trip to find a backing for Danuta's Garden became an expanded shopping trip with Jane and Linda and I came home with a tidy little haul. They are keen to scale down their stashes and have hit upon a great idea.

Jane has been to the Hintonburg Fabric Flea Market over the years and found great deals on quilt fabrics, including beautiful vintage pieces. Last year she tried having a table of her own and moved out lots of pieces that she knew she would never use so she's keen to try it again and has convinced Linda to take a table, too. They have been busy bees of late, prepping packages of coordinated fat quarters to sell and let me have an advance viewing. Great timing, and great deals!

It turned out to be a good way to get me focused on my Holly Bazaar sewing (I know, it's months away, but I need to start planning now to avoid a last minute crush). These browns will become a table runner...

and so will these lovely Christmas prints.

















Not sure what to do with these plums, but I couldn't leave them there 😉; placemats perhaps...

and this delicate Christmas palette will become something for me. Not sure what yet, but something.

There was also this bundle of creams/browns with a bit of teal and red, and Jane threw in a surplus block from a quilt that she had made with this fabric line, so that will be the focus of a topper.

And this panel will become a runner. I found a great pattern idea in one of Linda's books so that's half the thinking done already.

And a few odds and sods that I couldn't resist. I think the turquoise print would make beautiful placemats, the soft mauve will work nicely in a border that I have planned for Halo, and the little blue and white check, well, it just had to come home with me. The yellow I have always coveted and I didn't waste any time cutting a few pieces of it for Halo.

Whew! My head was buzzing by the time I got home so the browns and first Christmas bundle were washed, pressed and are ready to go. If you are interested in going to the Fabric Flea Market check on the link above; its on Saturday, May 4 from 10 am - 3 pm at 1064 Wellington Street W in Ottawa - there's nothing like shopping someone else's stash!....M

Fibrefest Finds

Last weekend a gang of us packed into cars and headed off to Almonte's 19th annual Fibrefest to see what we could see. I had gone for the first time a year ago and enjoyed it, but thought that this year it was even better. Of course a few bags of goodies were to be had...

I had a very pleasant surprise just after we entered the show - Mad About Patchwork had a booth again. They weren't posted as a vendor on the show's website so I wasn't expecting to see them, so this made my day. I picked up this lovely collection of fat quarters...

And this bundle from Up Parasol. I don't normally buy collections but I couldn't resist the turquoise print that was sitting on top, so these 9 fat quarters came home too.

BTW, they recently moved to a new, larger loft space and are offering a giveaway to celebrate - you might want to check it out.

I found a great tool for tightening the wing nut on my quilting frame. The one that came with the frame is horizontal and a little awkward at times, but if you look closely you will see that this one has a slot in the far end so that you can use it much like a screwdriver. Ingenious.

And I picked up a hook for wool rug hooking hoping that it will provide the incentive to haul out a cushion project that I started years ago (does that sound familiar?) and is languishing in a bag in my sewing room. The soft foam handle really appealed to me and the gal that I bought it from waxed poetically about it, so we'll see if it can work its magic on me too.


I'm excited about my last find too - lavender scented crushed walnut shells for filling pincushions. I've heard about this on various blogs but had never seen it to buy - apparently its is great for keeping your needles sharp; the fact that it's lavender scented is a bonus.

Again there was an fabulous textile exhibit at the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum - Japanese influenced pieces by Reiko Sudo hung in the gallery on the ground floor. It runs to November 22 so you still have time if you want to see it. A stop at the farmers' market, a delicious lunch at the Palm bistro, and a tour through General, an inspirational downtown gallery, were more than enough to offset the rains that persisted all day....M

Fun At Fibrefest

Almonte is a charming village nestled along the shores of the Mississippi River. It's about an hour's drive from us and in the mid 1800s was home to a thriving woolen mill. For the past 18 years the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum, which is in the annex of the former Rosamond Woolen Company, has been hosting Fibrefest. It celebrates textile and fibre arts and includes exhibits from local guilds demonstrating knitting, lacemaking, smocking, weaving, spinning, quilting, and penny rugs. Jane and Linda have been in the past and this year Betty and I decided that we could use a road trip too, so off we all went. Included in the festival were several vendors so we had lots of fun browsing and shopping.

I was particularly interested in getting to the Mad About Patchwork booth as I had come across her online shop recently. She has a great selection and wonderful prices. I had to restrain myself, but somehow all of these lovely little fat quarters followed me home.

I was also finally bitten by the Farmer's Wife bug and bought the book. I don't have any plans to make the full quilt but it's beautifully laid out and there are several blocks in it that really appeal to me. When I discovered that they finish off at 6 inches that was all the convincing that I needed.

This block is really pretty.

As is this one.

Lovely little basket.

And this is another favourite.

Nadine Sculland is another exhibitor that I was looking for. She makes these incredibly tiny paper pieced quilts and cards - just beautiful. The Ottawa Valley Button Club was there too (who knew that there were button clubs?) so I spent some time digging through baskets of shiny things and picked up a few lovely shell buttons that I'm thinking I'll integrate into the yoyo heart.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And these pretty little snowflakes were too cute to pass up - they are about 1.5 inches wide and will be perfect to tuck into a few Christmas cards.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a tour of the downtown shops - which was crawling with women from the festival - we dropped by the museum. It is one of Canada's National Historic Sites and now features a blend of the old and new. Upstairs was a small, but amazing, exhibit by Noelle Hamlyn called Sweetness of the Work, a collection created in homage to hand work to 'showcase the stitches, labour and hours invested in traditional women’s hand work. Many pieces have been washed and treated to encourage the formation of salt crystals to represent the sweat and salt tears of the seamstress - a gentle meditation on the loss of these traditional skills, the repetitive nature of hand work, and the social role of women'. Noelle was there so Betty and I had a great chat with her; such an amazing young talent. All in all, a great road trip, start to finish....M