International Plowing Match and a Parcel in the Mail

Today was the first day of the International Plowing Match in Central Elgin, just west of St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada. I volunteered in the quilting tent for the morning where I sold raffle tickets with another local quilter from the Elgin Piecemakers Guild. We had lots of visitors from all over the province and one lady was from Quebec!
This is the sign outside the quilt tent--Elly is the mascot of the IPM this year.
Here is my quilt on display. All of the quilts were covered with plastic in case it rained and the tent leaked! No rain today. Warm and sunny all day!

When I got home, there was a package on my front porch--it was my pumpkin wall hanging for the Quilted Table Yahoo group swap from Joan, a quilter from Denver, Colorado! She sent along a few goodies too.
Thanks Joan for the wonderful parcel!

Quilt Show

Yesterday, I spent the day in Shedden at the International Plowing Match Quilt Show. The quilts were judged on Wednesday and the show was hung on Thursday. Friday and Saturday, they were open for people to come and see the quilts. I volunteered as a "white glover" on Saturday. There were about 80 quilts in the show and around 700 people came to see the quilts.
I enjoyed the day, walking around looking at the quilts and talking to people I saw at the show. I took pictures of several quilts including mine, shown above. I really liked working on this quilt and loved how it turned out.

Here are some of my favourite quilts at the show:This quilt won a prize in the applique category. It was heavily quilted as was the pink and white one beside it, also a prize winner.
Here is a close up of another of the prize winning applique quilts. You can see the entire quilt as well as some other pictures from the show over at Nancy's blog.


I would love to make a house quilt someday!

The leaf shape was quilted into the black parts of the quilt.

A quilter from the Elgin Piecemakers Guild made this one.

This postage stamp quilt was made using a cross stitch pattern--one 1" square of fabric per cross stitch on the pattern--thousands of 1" squares... The quilt to the left was also a prize winner--an applique piece depicting the Canadian Parliament Building in Ottawa.

The organizing committee had a block competition and then put the submitted blocks together to make 4 quilts which are being raffled off. I took pictures of 3 out of the 4 quilts. (The 4th was not in a good place to be photographed.)




















Here is the block that I made. We had to use at least 4 of the 5 fabrics provided. There was a great variety in the blocks submitted--No two the same.
Of course, the mascot of the Plowing Match was there...
I haven't been doing any sewing lately. We are working on our garden these days: moving plants, weeding, purchasing new plants and planting them, thinning out some of the perennials, etc. There is a large pile of mulch in my driveway at the moment, waiting to be put onto all of the gardens. This job will take several evenings to do but should result in less weeding--always a good thing! Tomorrow night is MNIC at my house--"Mulching Night in Canada"--if anyone cares to join us, bring your own shovel and wheelbarrow--Did I mention we have 6 cubic yards of mulch to spread around???

While my husband and I were eating supper outside on Friday, we saw a red bird in the tree behind our house. I ran inside for my camera and my telephoto lens to get a picture to see if we could identify the bird. If you know what kind of bird this is, let me know. I have not seen one like this before. I hope he comes back to visit again!

Fly Away Home has flown the coop!

"Fly Away Home" is done. I finished the hanging sleeve when I got home from my vacation and I delivered it to one of the co-chairs of the International Plowing Match Quilt Show today. The quilt competition and show are this weekend--Friday and Saturday in Shedden, Ontario at the Keystone Complex at the Fairgrounds. If you are in this area, you might want to stop in and take a look at the quilts. There will also be vendors and a refreshment area. I will be there most of the day on Saturday. The judging will take place on Wednesday and the show will be set up on Thursday, and then open to the public on Friday and Saturday. The quilts will be displayed again at the International Plowing Match at the St. Thomas airport in September.

I just signed up for Amy's Online Quilt Show. I hope all of you enjoy my sampler quilt. Click on "Grateful Heart Sampler" in the list in the sidebar if you want to see close-ups of each block as I was working on them. I spent a few months piecing the blocks for this quilt and then had it machine quilted by a local longarm quilter. The original pattern came from a magazine.

I will do another vacation blog shortly.

Binding

I sewed the binding onto my Fly Away Home quilt tonight. I thought that I had made lots of binding, but in the end, I had to cut a little bit more out of the scraps that were leftover from the border of the quilt. These two small pieces are all that are left now that I have the binding on! Thank goodness I had enough!








I also hand sewed the binding on two more table toppers tonight. Only 3 to go now! I will be sewing binding again tomorrow night on the sampler quilt. Then, I will have to do the hanging sleeve...the hand sewing just goes on and on and on... I will be glad when it is finished!

Fly Away Home is back!

I went to pick up my sampler quilt from the longarm quilter's house tonight. She had it all laid out in her living room when I arrived. She stitched in the ditch in the body of the quilt and on the flying geese border. The outer border has a pattern called "Chantilly Lace". The pink border has a wiggly line quilted onto it. I just love this quilt! I took my time to make each block and I have learned so much piecing this quilt. I have enjoyed every minute of putting it together, except maybe adding the borders! Here is a close up of the house block. The door needs a doorknob. Any ideas on how to add one???
Tonight, when I got home, I pieced another table runner. I used hour glass blocks made from a charm pack for this runner. I bought some fabric to use for backings for all of the table runners today. It is being washed as I type.
I have a quilt guild meeting tomorrow night and I have lots to bring for show and tell--all of the table runners and the Fly Away Home quilt will be coming with me, even though they are not all done yet.

I just found some leftover blocks from my "Off My Beaten Path" quilt that I made a couple of years ago. I think I will use them to make a couple of table toppers and then I will be caught up with the gifts I need to make.

This weekend, I am going to a quilt show in St. Mary's, Ontario, Canada with a couple of quilting friends. I went to this show with Karen a couple of years ago and was very impressed with the quilts, the food in the lunch room and the antique quilt bed turning that they did at the show. I am looking forward to a fun Saturday with friends! The rest of the weekend, I will be quilting my table runners and adding the binding to my Fly Away Home quilt. Sounds like a perfect weekend!

A Trip to the Longarm Quilter's!

I spent my sewing time on the weekend adding borders to my Grateful Heart sampler. Last night and today after work, I finished piecing the backing. My label is pieced right into the backing and is made from one of the butterfly pictures from the panel that came with the Northern Solitudes fat quarter bundle that I used to make this quilt. I must say that I am relieved to have this quilt done and off to the longarm quilter's! Putting borders on and making the backing are my most un-favourite parts of making a quilt!

Here is a close up of the borders that I added to my quilt. There are 156 flying geese in this quilt and they inspired the name of the quilt "Fly Away Home". My SIL came up with the name after looking at some pictures of the quilt blocks on my blog while we chatted on the phone together. Some of the blocks, for example, the house block, the rail fence, the log cabin, etc., reminded her of HOME. The flying geese traveling around the outside of the quilt, reminded her of the movie "Fly Away Home" (This is an excellent movie that you should rent and watch if you have not seen it already!) so the name stuck! My SIL is not a quilter, but is a very artistic person so I value her opinions on my quilting endeavours. She calls me a "quiltaholic"--I told her she is an "enabler"--after all, she did buy me the Elvis fabric shown in a previous post as a gift from her recent vacation...



My friend, Karen, and I took the quilt to the longarm quilter's tonight. Here it is, all laid out as we discussed how to quilt it. I will post a picture of the whole quilt when it is all done. Her Gammil quilting machine is in the background. As soon as she is finished the quilt she is doing now, my quilt will go on the machine. I should have it back within a week!!!