Dimac Quilt

Schedule changes November already

Unfortunately my lecture  for Art Focus at Westmount Library, scheduled for Nov 12 has been cancelled . sorry that I did not have a contract.. more time to quilt on the white wedding quilt. Regarding schedule I have accepted an invitation to do a trunk show for the Ottawa Valley Quilt Guild on February 1 so will be appraising at the Country Quilter  in Richmond, maybe Tuesday the 2nd. 2010.

Finally have most of the star quilts packed away until the next time..lucky there are lots of closets in this house. Have posted one last picture of that exhibit.

 This week I am focusing on preparing  quilts for my Fringes and Frills lecture. Somehow I always seem to have more quilts needing hanging sleeves and or labels seems that is the only time I get to my sewing machine.. This also gives me a chance to renew my scrapbooking skills as there are more samples to add .

Almost a dozen members of our Beaconsfield Quilt Guild made the trip to Quilters Mecca , Houston  Texas recently. Marion shared pictures of the Canada exhibit where Karen's Log Canada quilt featured on page 40 of  our book Canadian Heritage Quilting was part of the display.

 
  

Fall in Quebec

One of the highlights for quilters in Quebec is the opportunity to get together with other quilters in the province to attend to the Annual General Meeting of  Courtepointe Quebec Quilts( CQQ) association. This group formed in 1988 meets on the first Saturday after Canadian Thanksgiving. During the business meeting which is transacted in the two official languages we make quilt blocks for a specified design.  By the end of the day we have enough blocks for next years raffle quilt and  have all practiced our hand piecing . In the part 21 years we have gone from 5 to 48 quilt guilds .

Each guild brings their quilted  banner to  put on display some of which are pictured below. To the left of the banners you can see one of my Star quilts displayed in the corner where I was doing appraisals and selling our book. During the meeting bursaries are awarded to guilds to help with costs of charity work and costs of instructors. I was delighted to sign a complementary copy of our book given as one of the door prizes,for  dedicated member of Loose Threads Guild,Roz Agulnik . Information was given out about our biannual exhibit Salon 2010 which will be held  May27-30 at College  Andre-Grazet 1001 Boul. Cremazie Montreal. The workshop co-ordinators  Karen Desparois and Arians Hipsagh took advance registratations , pictured below holding a project. When quilters meet food is necessary ,we brought our own sandwichs and the dessert goodies were wonderful with crisp apples fresh from Cassidys orchard on Covey Hill.

Part of the fun of the day is Show and Tell where we get a chance to display our recent projects. I was delighted to see a selvage tote bag made by a member from Crompton using co-author of Canadian Heritage Quilting, Karen Neary's pattern,  published in McCallsQuilting, October2009.  

Quilts at an Art Gallery

When I visited Mount Allison in Sackville ,New Brunswick for a book signing in September I also gave a lecture on the History of Quilting in Canada at he Owens Art Gallery , the oldest University Art Gallery in Canada .Is this also the location of the first quilt exhibit in a Canadian Art Gallery ? When I studied Home Economics there ,many moons ago I was lucky enough to be taught a course in Interior Design  at that gallery by Alex Coville. In press release for the lecture participants were encouraged to bring quilts. These quilts were arranged in a gallery featuring the new collection additions. If you look carefully you can see a very early self portrait of my famous professor. Seated on the far right is Marjorie Crawford who chaired the Quilt Exhibit in April 1970 .  We are holding a Grandmothers Flower Garden with names inked  in the center hexagons along with the date 1859, This was the  only quilt that was in the original exhibit. Incidently the name now used for the quilt design was popularized in the 1930's . When it was totally hand made of muslin and turkey red it was probably called a mosaic design.There were over 150 quilts in the gallery in April 1970 and five people at my lecture had attended that original exhibit. Peter Laroque came from Saint John NB where he is a curator at the NB Museum.  John Corey traveled with him and they have since shared some of the pictures that John took at the 1970 show. I hope to find more quilts that were in that exhibit and examine the ones that are at local museums.

Mayflower Quilters

In September before leaving Nova Scotia I was able to go to Halifax for the meeting of the Mayflower Quilters and participated in the Show and Tell by displaying the Mystery workshop quilt which is now in Calgary and was pictured on my last blog .The designer of the Mystery quilt Rhoda Moore of Pfaff was also at the meeting. I was delighted to see the baby version of Ship of Dreams fro
m our book . Pictured below is Davida McKay's version using ginghams for the sailboats, she used the pattern especially designed by co-author Karen Neary for the Spring 2009 Candian Quilter newsletter.

Schedule Fall 2009

       SCHEDULE  2009-2010

       Book signings,appraisals, lectures

         

 

September 26-10:00-5:00

September 27- 10;00-2;00

Laurentian Quilt Guild Show*

Mt Habitant Saint Sauveur QC

 

October  1-4

American Quilt Study Seminar

San Jose California  USA

 

October 17

CQQAnnual Meeting

MOnkland center  West Hill NDG

%14-605-7845

 

November 4  Plattsburgh Ny*

November5 Workshop

 

 

November 12  Art Focus lecture

Canadian Heritage  Quilting           

Westmount Library Quebec                      

514-937-6391

 

December 1-7  pm

December 2-10 am

Aprons as textile documents 

of Womens History

Beaconsfield Ouilters Guild

QC  info at 514-605-7845

 

 

 

End of Summer

Another summer has gone. at least this one brought better weather to Nova Scotia.  It is always difficult for me to leave family and friends to return to friend and husband  in  Montreal. As I closed the cottage and packed my unfinished quilt projects on the last day of summer I had the wonderful experience of a farewell salute form a bald eagle. He flew over the cottage  gliding on the updraft along the bank and to my delight turned around and repeated his flight..My quilting time was kept to a minimum ie, sewing sleeves on quilts and making a few pillows for the cottage. I did manage to get last years Mystery Quilt completed , started at a Timeless Stitches workshop during River John days in 2008 it was machine quilted by Gerene Chisholm on a state of the art Gammil The pictured quilt will travel to Calgary in October so almost lawyer eldest son Phil can use it as a donation to fund raiser for the Children's Legal Education and Resource Center.   

The Century of Stars quilt exhibit was well received at such a lovely facility. During the summer I  attended a number of Book Signings for Canadian Heritage Quilting  the last in  the east was held at my alma mater Mount Allison as part of their homecoming, 
September 20.

Part of my apron collection was displayed at the Northumberland Quilters show in Pictou in early August. I was also to give a brief talk at their Sept. meeting where I gave the last gallery talk at Museum of Industry about the quilt collection as it was being professionally photographed and closed the meeting with a brief explanation about the apron collection.  Although i promised to take August off I also had a small display in Wentworth as part of the Blueberry festival This time with the help of my cousin Ellen we mounted a display about our grandmother Annie Giles and the family quilting traditions.
Please note that during the summer some of my fellow appraisers worked very hard to get a new web site up on Appraising Quilts please check  quiltappraisers.org   for information about the appraisal process and locations for certified appraisers

    My fall schedule is also posted here and I am looking forward to seeing many of my Quebec quilting friends at the annual meeting of Courtepointe Quebec Quilts. This year I will have a table and be there signing and selling the book. Nicole will join me as well so we hope you bring your quilts to the Monkland Center  NDG on Saturday.

Currently I am getting ready to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving in Calgary with our son Phil and our daughter- in -law Laura and her parents. i am en route home form a wonderful seminar in San Jose where I visited the oldest quilt Museum n North America and listened to great research papers presented by like minded Quilt researchers. it was great to see so many of our AQS Appraisers. I am pictured here with Juie Siebler one of my favorite California Quilt dealer who shared some amazing California made quilts with us , unfortunately no pictures of quilts allowed.

I will soon be back in Montreal where I will be completing appraisals on the amazing quilts made by the Laurentian Quilters group as an exchange with an Abbotsford BC the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

Book Signings, Appraisals, Lectures

A century of Stars Quilt Exhibit

July 1- Sept 7 Hours- Daily 9-5

Museum of Industry, Stellarton

 NS. 902-755-5425 Exit 24 -104

 

August 7  12:00-6:00

August 8-  10:00-6:00

Quilt appraisal and apron display*

Northumberland Quilt Show

Decoste center Pictou NS

 902-351-3033

August 19-20  10:00- 5:00

Wentworth United Chirch

Quilt exhibit & Luncheon Wentworth

 Wentworth      NS  902-548-2289

 

September 20.

Homecoming Mount Allison Univ,

Sackville NB    Owens Art Gallery

 

September 26-10:00-5:00

September 27- 10;00-2;00

Laurentian Quilt Guild Show*

Mt Habitant Saint Sauveur QC

 

October1-4

American Quilt Study Seminar

San Jose California  USA

 

November4  Plattsburgh Ny*

November5 Workshop           

 

November12  Art Focus lecture

Behind the pages: Writing the book         

Canadian Heritage  Quilting           

Westmount Library Qc

514-937-6391

 

Summer Web Site 2009

The weeds are still growing in my garden but flowers are doing well, colours are changing from pink roses  to yellow and orange and the day lilies start open in a variety of warm colours. Along with roses they seem to be happiest in the Cape John soil  so now I plan to expand the flower garden with carpet roses. Lots of work so I am thankful that Bob is here to help . Still not spending mush time with sewing machine or needle but the swimming is good and not many chances in a lifetime to teach a grand nephew to swim. Just returned form seeing two tall ships in partial sail go past the end of our cape quite a sight.

A week form today we will be setting up for the Northumberland Quilt show. Please try to attend the hours are 12-6;00 on Friday and 10:00 to Six on Saturday. You will find me at my appraisal table in the DeCoste center ,Water street in Pictou. I will also be at the Museum of Industry in Stellarton at 11:00 on Friday morning for a personalized tour of my Star Quilts exhibit.This year some of my vintage aprons will be on display as well as my recently made quilts. My main winter project, a King size log cabin quilt will not be there but you can see a picture of it as presented to my son Greg’s best friend Daniel Kieley and his bride Berenice Gorahh Thursday night the 23 rd of July. The center landscape of Montreal from the St Lawrence river was done by Anne Kaufman , I dyed the sky fabrics and Jocelyn Martel quilted it with lots of Fleur de Lys. I returned to Montreal  for the wedding and during the festivities our Greg proposed to his wonderful Laurel Johnson so there will be two family weddings in our family next year.

I am suppose to be taking a break in August so just have 2 shows planned. I will also do a  display to my grandparents who farmed in Wenttworth for most of the 20th century. The quilt show at the Wentworth United church will have quilts displayed over the pews and lunch will be served in the basement That show will be be doing a August 19 & 20 United Church Women’s Quilt Fair and Luncheon, Wentworth United Church, 10 am to 5 pm during the Wild Blueberry Harvest Festival in Wentworth. They will have a display of materials and quilting machine by Sandy Rice of Timeless Stitches; a display of family heirloom quilts; and the new book by Diane Shink and Karen Neary. They also have hourly door prizes. Admission $2 for the quilt show and $5 for the luncheon.

Wedding Log Cabin Quilt Made for Danny and Berenice

June

I have been in Nova Scotia for a month and the only time I have had a needle in my hands was when I added a label and sleeve to a wonderful Lemoyne star quilt purchased during the trek east to Nova Scotia.

My flower gardens are finally looking better, after many hours of TLC.. The iris and peonies are finished and the wild daisies are super. My ladies mantle loves the soil here too. I purchased more perennials and another lilac. My yellow rose bush seems to love the cape John soil.. My containers will  look better with a bit of sun and some heat. Temperature was down to 6 degrees last night Wonderful high tides with the full moon but air is too cool for even me to swim.

It has been a busy month installing two exhibits. The apron in Fort Point Le Harve comes down next week, July 15, and that is also the day I will be doing book signings and appraisal at the Museum of Industry in Stellarton. The Canada day opening was really well attended friends, relatives, neighbours and a few quilters all came to see a Century of Stars. The interpretitive staff even had star cookies for the kids to decorate and tea and oat cakes for the older folk. A few pictures are included here. and there was a good report on CTV that night.

Download MoI Star Quilts Poster P5

The Strawberries are ripe and I have picked and made 3 batches of wild strawberry jam. This happens to be another of my passions. I am heading to the tame fields today. It is easier picking but not as tasty. Seems weird to be picking berries while wearing polar fleece. It used to be that I could sit in the fields in my Bikini but those days are long gone. Every year the body seems to get a bit stiffer and it's not easy work. Between berry picking and shoveling mulch on my garden I do not need to visit a Gym.