A road travelled

I visited a friend this past weekend with the goal being to finish up some UFOs and generally chit chat.  When I arrived it was close to lunch time so a little side trip to a quaint general store and tea shop was in order.  It was located in the village of Clayburn. Here are some shots of the inside of the store.

From there we decided to travel further down the road to Hamel's Quilt Shop to see if there was anything new.  On the front porch sat a flower pot with the most unusual petunias we had ever seen.

After purchasing some batiks to add to our stash and a jelly roll or two, we headed back to the house to get down to some serious piecing.  Did we complete anything?  Yes but that's for another post.

Practice, practice, and

more practice.  I was playing and practicing my FMQ.  Here is the result of the practicing, playing, and practicing some more.

 

This was the first attempt

A closer look.  My hand still not quite steady.

Getting there.

Why all the practicing?  I entered a quilt into a judged show.  The registration form stated that a picture was needed not for judging purposes but rather for planning where the quilt was to hang.  Terrific!  I could send them a picture of the quilt at the basted stage.

As the deadline for sending the quilt grew near, I knew it was definitely time to get the FMQ going.  So here is the quilt, completed and shipped off today.

Midnight At The Arroyo

This piece was done in a class presented at our Guild by Judy Farrow.  I had wanted to create a fantasy image of what a dry riverbend might look like if, by some magic, it sprang to life for a moment at midnight.  I was not initially happy with the piece. 

I quilted around the appliqued flowers and leaves trying to make it look like they had just fallen into the flow of the river.  Then I quilted wavey lines from top right to lower left for the flow.  The quilting was done with Sulky Invisible thread in the top and YLI 100wt thread in the bobbin.

You may notice that the appliqued flowers and leaves were enlarged from the floral print.  It took me some time to really enjoy the piece and now that it's completed, I guess it turned out alright.

A quilt show

Yesterday I took a ferry ride to what we in BC affectionately call the Sunshine Coast.  I went to see the Sunshine Coast Quilt Guild's quilt show and visit a fellow quilter for tea while there.  The show was held in Gibsons' Community Centre and held an amazing collection of quilts from traditionally pieced to artfully constructed. 

There were special exhibits from Studio Art Quilts Association (SAQA), and Fiber Arts Network (FAN).  Unfortunately we were not permitted to take pictures of these exhibits, but hop on over to their websites to see some of the pieces.  The piece from FAN I was most impressed with was the After the Fire Self Portrait by Brandy Lynn Maslowski.  You can see all of the pieces that were exhibited by the Fiber Arts Network here.

Then of course there was the vendor's mall where I not only added to my fabric collection but was able to take pictures of this interesting collection of tiny sewing machines.

Here are some better close up shots.

The collector of these pieces has stated that they all work!  Amazing!


Now I'm off to practice some more FMQ!