Friday’s Feature…

I couldn’t end the week without some eye candy…

This quilt was brought in by one of the Heritage Quilters!  Would you believe she wasn’t happy with it as the Homespun was so difficult to work with (fraying)… but for me, it was SEW worth the extra work! :o) LOVE IT!!  The Quilter…(geeze, sorry I can’t remember your name) is going to supply us with the name of the pattern, hopefully on Monday…so stay tuned!

Don’t you just love the simplicity of this quilt…a little bit of piecing, a little bit of appliqué!  My kind of quilt..and it looks warm and cozy too! 

Are you a Homespun kinda’ gal?  I think Homespun fabrics are like batiks…your either love them or you don’t!  What about you?  Love ‘em…or leave ‘em?  Hmmm…tell you what, you take the batiks and I’ll take the Homespuns and we’ll call it a draw!:o)))

Before I go, I need to send a HUGE THANK YOU to Karen from Sew Many Ways…I won her very generous GIVE AWAY…which was a $25 Gift Certificate to shop at my favourite online store!!  I wonder if the FQS sells Homespuns…hmmm?!  Thanks again, Karen!

Thanks for stopping in…and happy stitching!

Off to the Merchant Mall…and The Threaded Needle…

It must have been a good Quilt Show on the weekend because I am STILL talking about it!  Either that or I really need to get out more!

For the last two days we have hung out with the quilts in the show…now let me take you into the Merchants Mall…where the venders were located!  Now remember this is definitely not the Road to California where you would find hundreds of venders!  There were maybe twenty booths…and each booth had something to look at and appeal to a quilter…BUT…it was this booth that I wanted to share!

The ‘Threaded Needle’ is a quilt shop of sorts that sells patterns, fabric and threads from Japan.  What I love is the yarn dyed cotton fabrics made by  Daiwabo in Japan.  These fabrics have a rich antique look with a subtle mingling of colors. The Taupe's prints take their inspiration from nature…lots of soft leaves and flowers and the yarn dyed fabrics are linen like but with way more interest…lots of texture, lines and subtle colours…LOVE this fabric.  But it’s hard to find…none of our Quilt Shops carry it.  Down south you can find it here and there…it is always a pleasant surprise to stumble on it!

Well A Threaded Needle carries it…if fact they have the best supply EVER…even better than the two shops who carry it at the Road to California!  EUREKA!!

See the right corner of the table…all lovely linens…gorgeous stuff!

Here are the yarn dyed fabrics…FOUR huge bins of it!!  Oh to own one FQ of each colour!!

She also carried all of the Japanese Quilting books!!  The eye candy in these books is incredible!

Look at the purses…I can SEE that hexie purse on my arm!  Love the way they hand appliquéd each hexie so that the darker  brown background fabric frames each hexie!  And look at that thread keeper at the bottom with the wee little birdhouses…cute or what!!

See that runner with the beige squares…well picture this…get rid of the circles and add some wool applique…maybe a basket with flowers or those sweet birdhouses…ARE YOU FEELING IT?!

And it stands to reason that the Threaded Needle lady would have lots of different threads and needles!  Lovely stuff…better than candy!

AND lookie here…The Threaded Needle is starting to dabble in WOOL…REAL WOOL!!  You know the woven kind!  Hallelujah!! 

You can have your own religious experience too :o))…because she has an on-line shop!!  Just go HERE to see all her wonderful things!

Looks like the Quilting economy is alive and well and doing a very brisk business!

I had to take a picture of this booth…well not exactly the booth but THAT hexagon quilt!  The pattern is called Science Fair by Jaybird Designs…and it’s modern.  My middle daughter picked out this pattern so I bought it while down south…but after seeing this quilt in the beige linen and browns I have other plans…for ME!!  Stay tuned…

The other fun thing in the Merchant Mall was listening to and watching the Antique Quilt Appraiser.  She was checking out this crazy quilt made by the lady on the left’s great grandmother in the late 1890s!

It was wonderful to see all the beautiful fabrics and stitches.  Did you know that at this time quilters would stitch their Quilt Prize Ribbons into their Crazy Quilts and they would have the name of the Fair and the Date. Of course back then the ribbons were made of silk. This can increase the value of the quilt!  Who knew?!  Isn’t it a shame that our prize ribbons are made out of an acrylic almost plastic like material!!  Who would want to stitch these ribbons into their crazy quilts?  I just couldn’t do it!…:o((

I loved listening to the appraiser talk about this quilt and the old fabrics…you could tell that she REALLY loved and enjoyed her job!

So there you have it!!  The Nanaimo Quilt Show is over for another two years!  The quilters really out did themselves and put on a great show!  I can imagine how much work goes into hosting something like this…it would take a village of quilters for sure!!  Just to let you Nanaimo Gals know that we APPRECIATED it and enjoyed every moment!

Now to the LOOT!!  Several of you wrote that you wanted to see my LOOT!  Well it was nothing earth shattering…(remember I just unload our RV after 3 1/2 months down south…after attending TWO Quilt Shows, a Shop Hop, a whirl wind quilt shop hop of our own when Claire came down, topped with hitting every QS going up the coast of CA, OR and WA…not to mention a million trips to JoAnn’s!!  Ahhh…good times…)  Gawd…I love flashbacks like that!

Sew here are the yarn dyed fabrics that I bought to add to my Daiwabo Bin…Ok…OK… binS!  I forgot to take a picture of my new ruler…I bought a Bloc Loc 6 1/2” square ruler…paid a huge price for it but it is so worth it!  No more wobbling or slipping for me!  And once I lay off the bottle it will be even better!! haha

Thanks for stopping by…hope you enjoyed the Merchant’s Mall!  Have I wet your appetite for some nice Daiwabo yarn dyed fabrics…yet.??  Just askin’… ~P

The Nanaimo Guild’s 2013 Quilt Show…continues..

We are still wondering around the Nanaimo Quilt Show…I think that I have saved the best for last…I hope you ENJOY!!

I loved this Monsters in a Bubble quilt..very sweet…but what a lot of appliqué!

No this picture is not blurry…makes you feel wonky, doesn’t it!!

I loved this I SPY hexagon quilt…notice how everything is fussy cut and it was all hand pieced!!

   Any child would have a lot of fun with this quilt…The wee owner of this quilt must have a love for teddy bears…because look at the focal teddy in the centre of the red hexie flower and all around the border!  Great idea!  A very sweet and intricate appliquéd quilt.

A magnificent Dear Jane quilt…takes your breath away for sure!

BUT it was the one beside it that got me excited!  Love a scrap quilt that is made from totally random (and ugly) fabric!  A true scrap quilt for sure…and this one SINGS!

Just take a look…yup…there are ugly pieces in this quilt…but all together they are gorgeous!

The whole quilt is made up of only TWO blocks…can you see them?  They are the nine patch and the snowball block (with a beige centre)!  That’s it!  So easy, yet it looks intricate!  My kind of quilt!

This quilt took years and years to make as it was all hand pieced and all hand quilted…stitched while commuting daily on the ferry!  Can you imagine carting this around EVERYDAY?!

Yup…I liked this one A LOT!

And just feast your eyes on this hexagon beauty… 

Magnificent or what!

I recognized this beauty from the cover of American Patchwork 2010!

It was so nice to meet her in person!

I wish I had taken some up close and personal shot of the fabric…DARN!

  Loved this quilt too!  What a good way to use up left over jelly roll strips or scraps!

And you can’t beat a nice Tumbler quilt…

And how sweet is this old fashioned baby quilt.  Reminded me of my mom’s pillowcases…all embroider like this!

Another sweet baby quilt…

And loved the puppy quilt!

Grrrreat!  This quilt is in it to win it…dawg!

This won my vote for most spectacular quilt…I mean just LOOK at it…and ALL those baskets!!

Beautiful machine quilting!!

Yup…this is why we go to quilt shows!  Such inspiration!

I must have stared at this sweet Christmas quilt for ten minutes…how effective…and how easy!  Look at the blocks…star and snowball..appliqué a Christmas motif in the snowball and she is done!!  OK…sew maybe I simplified it a bit…(haha)…but totally do-able!  And you could make this quilt for ANY season!  Just think about it…Summer flowers, Fall Pumpkins, Winter Snowmen, Spring Rabbits…YIKES…SEW many quilts, SEW little time!!!

Another lovely scrap happy quilt and in my colours!!

Love this Laundry Basket Quilt…even though it was made out of batiks! :o)))

How adorable is this quilt!…I could kick myself as I forgot to take a picture of the blue info sheet!  It reminds me of the Japanese quilts that are often found in the Quiltmania Magazine.  I’m wondering if the pattern can be found there?

Such cute kitties!

…and the houses!!  If you know the name of this pattern please leave a comment…not that I NEED another pattern…. :o)

 

The last pictures that I am going to share are Art quilts…this one was stunning!  VERY realistic!

The the write up for the next three pictures is at the bottom..Very interesting as no fabric was used! 

So there you have it…I think the quilters in Nanaimo out did themselves!  Such a talented group of ladies…and very diverse!  Sorry..I didn’t show you any of the modern quilts (and there were a TON!)  To see those you need to go to the show! :o))

Thanks for coming a long!!  Hope to see you tomorrow…I want to show you my favourite vender’s booth!  Yup…I said, TOMORROW!  I’m on a roll!!~P