What a Lovely Day for a Quilt Show

Heritage Park in Calgary puts on a huge quilt show every May.  They have, usually, over 800 quilts.  Some are draped over beds and couches in the old houses, but many are displayed outside - weather permitting.  There are many years when weather does not permit.

Their quilt show was last weekend.  The Monday before, I checked the weather.  Rain!  Yikes!  I continued to watch the forecast, and it changed frequently from rain, to cloudy, to downpour, to partial sun.  Thursday and Friday, it rained buckets, and I wasn't holding out much hope.  Saturday wasn't bad, though - just a few sprinkles.  I went to see the show on Sunday, and it was glorious!

Sunshine, blue sky and the perfect temperature for walking around.

Look at that sky!  These are the vendor and special exhibit tents, with some of the outdoor quilts under canopies to the right.

I entered a quilt in the show for the first time - my Stars Around the Garden quilt.  Here I am with the quilt.

Do I look maybe the teeniest bit excited?

Here you can see it (behind the pregnant lady) with one of the old houses in the background.

This is a non-judged show, but I did get a little ribbon for being a first time exhibitor.

I won't put all my photos in here, as it would really bog down the old blog.  But, if you want to take a look at all 80, you can go to my flickr page.

Trip to Windsor

Not the castle, the city in Ontario.  A week or so ago, I visited Windsor for the first time.  I was there for a conference at the University, and tacked on a couple days vacation, so I could visit the place, and, of course, do my own little shop hop.  I brought Mr CQT with me - now that he's retired, he can come along, whenever he wants.  That's kind of fun!

We stayed at the Windsor Hilton.  I highly recommend this hotel - lovely rooms and great service.  This was the view out of our window.

This is the Detroit river, and the Detroit skyline.  Detroit is NORTH of Windsor, which really got me confused with directions - I couldn't wrap my head around the US being north of Canada.  Of course, my family would tell you that I'm confused with directions most of the time.  Thank goodness for Mrs. Garmin.

Here is the skyline at night.  Our view was spectacular!

We did not visit Detroit.  Somebody forgot to bring the passports.  (OK, OK - it was me.)  But we did tour around the Windsor area.  We visited Rose Cottage in Amherstburg, which was a pretty store, in a new building.  Amherstburg is a very pretty town, on the edge of Lake Erie. Then we went to Essex, and visited Sewcraft, which sells all kinds of fabrics, not just quilting fabric.

We then visited Ella Quilts in Tecumseh.  This is in a tiny house, hidden from the street.  We couldn't find it, even with the help of Mrs. Garmin.  But we phoned and got directions and I was pleasantly surprised.  The store was packed full of fabric and supplies, and the owner was very welcoming, even treating me to a quick lesson on how to do a disappearing four patch block.

Finally, we went to Quilting Confections in Windsor itself.  Mrs. Garmin got confused by the address, and wanted to send us in a strange direction.  We knew from the ads for the store that it was across from the airport, so we ended up finding it ourselves.  This store is in a strip mall, but very bright and cheerful, and a good supply of fabric.

I didn't buy a lot.  Ontario has 14% sales tax, so that made the prices a little steep, when comparing them to home.  But, I couldn't go away empty handed, so I did buy a few fat quarters.

Birds, owls and monkeys!  I seem to be on an animal kick lately.  The fabric lines are Song of Joy by Victoria Hutto (Timeless Treasures);  Owls in the Hood by a Danish company called STOF and Lollipop by Sandy Gervais (Moda).

Nametag

At the Calgary Modern Quilt Guild meeting that I attended last month, we were told to make a nametag for the May meeting.  At first I was stumped.  Most of the nametags that I have worn have been about 2 inches by 3 inches, and I had no idea how to make something quilty that was that small, and still left room for my name.

But at the conference I went to last weekend, we were given fairly large nametags; pouches actually, with room to store a flash drive and one of those little voting things that seem to be so popular now with the powerpoint crowd.  It hung around our neck, rather than being pinned on.  When I saw it, I had an "aha" moment!

So, I made a tiny churn dash block - 3 inches, and added an extra bit of fabric to write my name on.  A couple strips of colourful stripes for binding and straps, and I was done.

Or so I thought.  I then remembered that I had some sewing themed buttons that I had bought on a whim.  Why not?  I added the scissors, sewing machine - and that little orange blob is a thimble.  Finished!

And that is all the sewing I have done this weekend.  Spring has finally arrived here, and I had to spend some time outside!

I'm linking up with Mary for Sew Sunday.

I Have an Excuse, Really!

I haven't been doing any quilting in the last week.  I spent four days at a conference in Lake Louise, which is in Banff National Park.

It is just a beautiful spot.  The weather wasn't great - it was pretty chilly and snowed quite a lot one day.  But who can complain about these views?  We ate our meals in a room with floor to ceiling windows, all looking at this:

There is a lake in front of this mountain.  Lake Louise, as a matter of fact.  When it isn't frozen, it is the most gorgeous blue you can imagine.

However, I wasn't there just to look around.  We had full days of lectures, and I learned a LOT.  And, of course, these conferences give you an opportunity to network with with others in the same business, and catch up with old friends.

When I was away, we received word that some of the government workers, including the courthouse security staff had gone on a wildcat strike.  Some of the court staff walked as well.  But, I was reassured to find out that none of my staff did.  They are so wonderful.  One of my staff said "How could we walk out?  There was a lineup of people who needed help?"

Today, though, we HAD to walk out - someone tried to bring a suspicious package into the building.  Luckily, it was caught at the entrance, going through the security scanners.  We were all evacuated, and spent the rest of the day waiting to hear what was going on.  Thank heavens for Twitter - it was our source of news as the day dragged on.  They brought in the bomb robot and removed the package.  We haven't heard yet if it was a bomb or something innocuous.  I'm just glad that everyone is OK, and that the security staff were back at work!

Hopefully, things have settled down for awhile now, and I can get back to the peace and quiet of my sewing room!