HOLIDAY Happenings

It's been a BUSY few weeks & I must admit that I LUV it!
 
I dropped off 222 Placemats that we all made for the "MEALS on WHEELS" recipients. Yesterday I received a call saying that Donna Dunbar made about 35 more mats. ( Last year Donna made 78 placemats - what a Generous person! When I delivered them to the Pickering office I had quite a Surprise....the Meals on Wheels association had made 2 plaques to acknowledge our Donations of Many quilted placemats (over 1,500) I cannot wait til January to present it to our 2 Hard working groups....they will be SEW surprised!!!!!

The "ROUGE VALLEY QUILT GUILD" & a smaller group "HELPING HANDS" have worked their talents to bring a smile for those recieving "M on W". For the last few years, before the holidays we hosted a Workshop @ the RVQG. We fill the room with eager members & sew placemats for the entire day. The Helping Hands group meet every month & work all year to produce a Vast amount of placemats. It is a group effort that brings isolated seniors a special placemat for their Holiday dinner. Prior to 2003 it was the hard work of the "Yorkshire Rose quilt guild" members.
We now make Non-holiday placemats that are given on other occasions.

I started this Xmas "M on W" placemat drive about 15 yrs ago, but this is the 1st time we were bestowed a wonderful "Thank You" gift!!!
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I should also mention the other groups which make this possible.
The 43 divison "Police" station in Scarborough. They have provided us a great place to work for the last few years...Free of charge.

Also the "Art Of Fabric" quilt store on Brock Rd in Pickering has allowed the "Helping Hands" group to use their facilities to sew....Free of charge.

It takes alot of hard work & generous spirit to make this many placemats possible. MANY MANY THANX to Everyone for their participation.
I will post pics of the plaques asap!!!!!    "I'm doing a Happy dance"

Rouge Valley Quilt Show

Well the Quilt show was Fabulous....we have Sew many talented quilters @ our guild! It took me forever to see all the quilts.I wish I had another 5 hours to inspect the beautiful stitches. 
I think the thing I find most facinating is the diversity of ideas. I know I am stuck in a mind meld because all I want to make is quilts with critters, but everyone is not as crazy as me - right?
There were appliqued quilts that looked like they were done with invisible thread, as well as precision pieced quilts with Perfectly matched points ( who does that? Not This gal -  LOL)
It is Inspiring to be @ a Quilt show, the ideas just flow....I Need to get back to quilting every wk....with the cold weather, perhaps that will happen.

I worked the RVQG Tea room, which is Always alot of fun. I can be the crazy waitress that no one can possibly forget. I worked with a few ladies that I didn't know before....we had a great time laughing, serving & cleaning. Wish there were more Quilt shows on the horizon @ RVQG - it's a Blast!

**** Foot note, I Missed the guild meeting following the quilt show. Jean Reid sent a little note to me via Facebook, saying "surprise"  
My "Precious Eleven" quilt won "Viewers Choice" for wallhangings - it really was a Big surprise. I am Elated that sew many people luved the story of "11"

I have a few Xmas presents to make & then I'm onto my next quilt - will send details once I start the project.....I'm Anxious to start! For now I am posting a few closeup pics of "Precious Eleven" 

The Dragon flys were made with Beads & "Wonder under" 2 sided wings.
I used opal paints for the details on the wings.

The Hosta plant has a Garter snake hidden inside. The leaves have wire inside so they can be moved...the flower bells also have sparkle beads @ the mouth of hte flower. It was Fun to  embelish the quilt, hope to explore more on the next few quilts. Of course the subject matter determines if embelishing will work.
OK - signing off - hope you enjoy the pics.

Well the Rouge Valley Quilt show is over & it was a Great Success! I LUVED the quilts, jackets, & craft market. There were a few screams of elation when the Silent Auction was over.
Everyone seemed to Luv the show. I was pooped out from being a "Tea room server" for 1/2 a day....but it was FUN!

This is my "Precious Eleven" quilt, which was entered in the "Canada Quilt Association" show in the spring of 2011. I also entered this wallhanging quilt in the RVQG show this weekend.

The Hosta leaves have Pipe cleaner inside, so the leaves are moveable. A small snake is woven thru the bottom leaves with only a glimpse peeking thru. The tiny flowers are 3 dimensional & have tiny colored beads inside. The Dragon flies are also 3D with Beads as their bodies & the wings are painted with an Opague fabric paint. I have a tiny TREE Frog on the tree limb, & a family of Lady bugs walking on the log.

It is from a picture I took of "11" She was trying to Hatch golf balls & the only way I could get her to stop was to remove her from the nest. Eleven saw "Precious" sitting on a log.....so Eleven pushed Precious OFF & flapped her wings in triump. My camera caught the action & it inspired my quilt....footnote of my story of "11" follows, so if you are bored with my Tale, STOP Reading now - IF YOU CAN....ha ha ha ha

((Eleven was the 11th egg in the nest. The other 10 had hatched & mama kept pushing the last egg out of the nest. I saw a dime size hole with a tiny beak peeking thru the hole, & it was constantly quacking. I read in my duck book to leave the egg alone....so for 2 days I put the egg back in the nest, & mama would kick it out again. Finally I couldn't stand the poor duckling being trapped anymore. I brought the egg into the house, & peeled a dime size piece of hard shell off the egg. I sat & watched in Wonder as "11" fought her way out of the shell. It took a few hours to free herself & she was fully fluffed out about 15 minutes after that. I kissed the cute Fuzzy duckling a few times while she quacked for mama. In the middle of the nite, I let "11" join her family. She grew up to care for 2 adopted ducklings "12" & "13" She passed away in 2010. She was a special mouse hunting Muscovy Duck!

2 Quilts Entered @ RVQG - yippeeee

Whew - I am SEW happy to have completed my "Prairie Poultry" quilt for the Rouge Valley Quilt Show on Oct 15th 2011.

I Luved the block pattern & decided to make a giant Prairie Point rooster for the centre. While the blocks were in pieces I flew off to Calgary to see my niece. I Should have completed the quilt Before going anywhere, but that would have been too easy.

I had figured out I could piece, & machine quilt my Prairie Poultry within 2 wks but had not figured getting busy @ work. I noticed some of the blocks had stretched a bit wider in places & i Knew I should take the blocks apart....but I didn't have the time. I will Always wish I had spent more time re-aligning the blocks....such a newbie mistake for a non-newbie - sigh.

To finalize my quilt drama, I did Not have any extra needles. Thanksgiving long weekend I broke my Last decent needle & had to use a 80/12....which continued to shred the thread & skip stitches. I practiced my cuss words that weekend. I finally changed to a heavier Gutterman thread but ran out of 3 different colors...leaving my quilt top Multi-colored, ha ha ha

I was ELATED to hand the quilt in & to get it the heck out of my sight!