The Show is Over

The Grand National Quilt Show 2013, "Local Colour" has come to a close.
The exhibition ran for 9 weeks and I was absolutely thrilled to have my work included. 

"Going to Seed" is now back home and up on my wall. 

I have placed a link to the full catalogue on my side bar if you are interested in seeing the other works that made up this fabulous show.  (check out page 5 to see what the Curator had to say about my piece)

a huge THANK YOU! to the organizing committee,  judges, volunteers and sponsors......these show can't happen with out them.

Raffle ticket winners

I have drawn 3 names from the comments left on my last post. Congratulations to Sherri D, Cathy H, and Glenda. I will send you a private email for your personal info so that I can fill out the ticket stubs.

Thanks to everyone who entered .....I will do this again in a few weeks so be sure to check back

Did you know that Jaye over at Artquiltmaker posts a different word each week and invites everyone to be inspired by it in the way of a drawing, a photo, a short story...whatever you like.........it has been quite a while since I have participated, so I was definitely due, and since I needed an image for this post.... here is my response to #212 of The Creative Prompt Project.  "Ribbon"

A Chance......at a chance

Over the past few years, I have entered the annual block contest at Joseph Schneider haus. The Friends of Joseph Schneider haus, is a dedicated group, always striving to contribute to the growth and health of this historic site.  One of the ways they raise funds for various projects, is by holding a raffle, the prize is the quilt that is made from the blocks submitted to the contest each year.

My entry, 2nd row, 3rd from the left

I have tickets....I am going to purchase tickets and give them away here.....so you see, you have a chance...at a chance....to win this quilt.  You don't have to be in the region to win......if your ticket number is the lucky number drawn, the quilt will be mailed directly to you. It is a chance to own a quilt containing original work by 20 different Canadian quilt artists, expertly hand quilted by women from the local Mennonite community.

Hot off the quilt rack

here it is ready to be trimmed and bound

The draw for this quilt is not until early December, meaning, I have lots of time to have random giveaways in the coming months........So would you like a chance....at a chance?  Just leave a comment for me in this post. I'll draw a name.... or maybe a few, on the weekend

Please note that the winner (or winners) of this giveaway.......need to be willing to provide me your address and phone number so that I will be able to properly fill out the information on the ticket stub.....I promise that information will be used for this purpose only and NOT be shared. I will send the winner a scan showing the ticket and stub 

Wool Batting

A couple of months ago, I purchased some wool batting, I generally use cotton batting in my pieces but wanted to experiment to see what effect wool batt could give to my quilting.

I set out to pre-shrink a large piece of the batting ( first lesson learned...wool batting is extremely absorbent!)....oh Yes!, I learned this quickly, as I put a couple of inches of water into the tub and placed the hunk of batting into said water....at first I thought the tub had drained on me.....nope! The batting sucked up every bit of water instantly, so after much squeezing and squishing, I managed to get enough of the water out to be able to move the piece to a rack to dry.....the drying process took a couple of days....anyone have any advice on pre-shrinking wool batt?  I am fairly certain there is an easier way   :-)

I took a small piece to play with and I have to say I am LOVING this batting.
The following photos show the progression.....I began by stitching to define a few sections, added feathers, then used sticky dots to mark circle placement......and, as you can see, just had fun stitching a variety of patterns.

Hand dyed cotton on wool batting, stitched with Aurifil 40wt cotton