Hands Across the Water..Pt. ONE

I just downloaded 135 pictures from our quilters’ excursion to Mayne Island…don’t panic I’m not going to show them all..maybe just two days worth!!

Now if you didn’t read yesterday’s post then you have no idea what ‘Hands Across the Water’ is…so here’s a brief recap…Quilters from our Heritage Quilting Guild went over to beautiful Mayne Island for a mix and mingle of quilters from all over…places like Galiano Island, Saturna and the Pender Islands, and the Cowichan Valley (which is where Heritage is from)…

Here’s our motley crew…twenty members from Heritage braved the sunshine and the smaller ferry to venturing across the ‘ocean’ to Mayne Island.

I had never been to Mayne Island so I was in for a real treat!!  What a gorgeous, spectacular island!!  Here’s a picture taken from where the event took place…what do you think?  Stunning!!

This banner was hanging proudly and will be passed to the Pender Island quilters at the end of the day as they will be hosting next year’s Hands Across the Water. 

 

You can see that the build hosting our luncheon was open air…so thankfully we were blessed with gorgeous weather! 

We were greeted royally…everyone got to choose a bag as a thank you gift for coming…how sweet is this!!…This is the one that I picked…

See it’s a sewing bag…complete with pockets and Velcro closing…

Here is what it looks like packed and ready to roll…

There were also raffle prizes…over 25 prizes!!  Cost for the raffle was by donation and the money was put towards buying supplies for their charity quilts!  (No, I didn’t win but it was so exciting as the prizes were wonderful!)

The highlight for me was meeting Arlene Neely, designer of Rabbits Haven patterns and fabrics!!  What a sweet lady!  (More on her tomorrow!)  Her sister is in the above picture at the raffle table. 

We had a wonderful lunch and man…the desserts…let’s just say, I said to heck with any dieting…

BUT here’s Delores being VERY good…she HAS been dieting and has lost over 25 pounds!!  You GO Delores…and please pass me another brownie…that BIG one over there!!

Then with tummies full and satisfied…more like “I can’t believe I ate the WHOLE thing!!”…. the Show and Tell began…all I can say is Quilting is alive and doing VERY well in our area!!  Talk about talented quilters!!  WOW!  Let me give you just a glimpse at some of their creations…

This is Pender Island’s raffle quilt…they each took a square and after lots of practice put together this beauty, which they are raffling off…money to go to their local hospital.

Tons of gorgeous quilts…one after another…

Here’s our Carol…a Heritage quilter with her Funky Flower quilt…absolutely wonderful…so cheerful!!

The Heron Quilt…STUNNING!!  A real work of art!

This one was lovely and REALLY different…the front was made of beige squares…sandwiched with a brown backing then free motioned embroidered with coloured threads…like a painting.

 

This is the BACK!!  Stunning!!

 

This beginning quilter stitched a little pillow as her first project and then made THIS!!  incredible! So ends a gorgeous day!!  THANK YOU SEW MUCH, MAYNE ISLAND QUILTERS!! 

One more group photo before heading home…

Hope you enjoyed our little excursion…more tomorrow!!

Have a Fun Friday and Happy Quilting!~P