May Long Weekend

 I had a very interesting May Long. My friends Harold and Lori and I decided to go to a gallery opening at Moosehorn, Manitoba. On the way we passed through Chatfield and discovered an interesting museum. The owners actually live in the museum or maybe I should say that their home has become the museum. They have moved in seven buildings to house their collection. One of the buildings was the Hanky House, containing over 4000 handkerchiefs from all over the world.

These pictures show only a few of them.

This is a collection of old pots. Other buildings had license plates from all over the world, gardening tools, hub caps...you name it.
 

We barely had a look at anything because the people were leaving for a family party but we have decided that we are definitely going back some time. They also have one house that serves as a bed and breakfast.

The gallery belongs to Jeff Monias, front row left. Standing at the back are carver, Irvin Head, airbrush artist, Jasyn Lucas and Lori. Harold is the other person in the front row.

This is the gallery from Hwy 6 North. The Teepee certainly catches the eye!

We stopped again at the Narcisse snake pits. There were still a few snakes around although most of them have gone for the summer.

More circles

I have added some more circles and now it measures about 28 by 35 inches. I'm thinking of a fairly wide border and then some half circles to bring it up to small quilt size. It's too big for a wall hanging and too small for a quilt right now.

I bought a 7 inch quarter circle template at the Barnswallows Quilt show last weekend. Yesterday I had some fun with it, mostly using scraps. I wish now I had bought the 3.5 inch template as well. It's a lot of fun chosing colors and re-arranging the design. I'm not sure how big it will grow to but there's no sign of stopping yet.

Problem Solved

I thought I could go into a quilt store just to accompany a friend and emerge without buying anything. Apparently not.

I may have solved my foot pedal slippage problem. I put my old Yoga mat under the table. So far the pedal hasn't budged. The mat does show every bit of dust though. I may have to clean more often.

I am thinking of getting a proper sewing cabinet. I can chose from Koala, Horne of America or Sylvia, in descending order of price.  Does anyone have any experience with any of these brands?

My Quilt SHow

My granddaughter, Sacha, at the show via Skype.

A serious quilting discussion.

This one sold at the opening and will hang in a theater classroom.

Making a speech in front of the Chickens.

The Tibetan Robe looked nice in this corner on a dress form.

Quilters taking a good look. I didn't realize I had so many cat quilts. There is a story going around now that I am some sort of cat lady. I don't have any cats.

Nobody thinks I'm a chicken lady though. Maybe they should.
The opening was a great success. It was a lot of fun and over 100 people came. I am thrilled to have so many supporters. The show will be open for the rest of the month of May, Tues to Sat, 10 to 5.

Blue Breathe

I was inspired to start a new BREATHE banner yesterday. I had a leftover word from the last banner so I have a head start. I had to search my entire stash to find the right blue to go with the background which is an Indonesian batik that started life as a sarong.

Today, with some help from Cherie and a few friends, I got my quilt show hung. Here is a sneak peek of me with one of my favorites.  I'll show more after the opening reception on Saturday.  It's really nice to see them all hung up at once. That normally never happens.

Snakes

This is where thousands of harmless snakes hibernate for the winter. They are just waking up now and they are writhing around in large clumps.

Unfortunately, I miscalculated on the picture and only got a few of the snakes at the bottom of the photo. Seeing that many snakes is a bit freaky and there was also a TV crew there trying to interview us. I did take a bit of video but it also didn't turn out very well.

Then we went on to Gimli, an Icelandic town on Lake Winnipeg. They still do a lot of fishing. We had a delicious lunch but unfortunately,

There was a quilt shop next door selling some Kaffe Fassett fabrics. What could I do?
I also bought some hiking poles. Now I have absolutely no excuses left. I will have to walk every day.

Here are some links to better pictures of the snake dens.
http://www.manitobaphotos.com/narcisse.htm
http://www.naturenorth.com/spring/creature/garter/Narcisse_Snake_Dens.html#Tour\
And here is the TV clip with my son and granddaughter with a tiny bit of me...

http://www.globalnews.ca/video/snake+den+manitobas+big+attraction/video.html?v=2227536174&p=2&s=dd#video

Not Quite...

The corners didn't match very well except for the upper right. I still like it but it probably won't make it into my show. I may do it again with some changes. I want more space around the letters.  The  e in coffee is too close to the edge. I would make the brown outline a bit wider and I wouldn't try to mitre the corners on that type of stripe. It's almost impossible to match the stripes on the last corner.

On A Roll

I started this one with some of the new coffee fabric that I bought. I had the brown, which turned out to be an exact match, in my stash.  I bought the stripes to go with the coffee fabric. I am trying to get up the courage to make a border with mitred corners, a bit daunting with stripes. Stay tuned.

This is what I am working on now but the configuration will change quite a lot. I am thinking that all the words will go together and the blah blah fabric will be an inner border and the lip fabric will be the outer border, depending on how that looks on the design wall.

This is the first edition of the poster for my upcoming May quilt show. The final version has a different font but the same information. I hope to see some of you there.

You'll Be Fine

The words are done and assembled. Now I have to put the sentences together and add a border or two.

You're Ok

The Chill Out Song by Ze Frank has a message that I really like so I decided to use the chorus as the quote on my next wall hanging. I just have to add "ne" to fine, the last line which is "Just breathe and his name.
I hope it will be done in time for my quilt  show in May.

Words, words

I made some more words today. The blue one will be a pillow. I need to buy a blue zipper to insert into the back to be able to remove the top for washing.  The other will end  up either a pillow or a wall hanging...

Pillows

Here are the pillows I've made so far.  A friend has offered to lend me a small love seat for my art quilt  show in May. I will throw a quilt over it and display the pillows on it.  I also plan to do the same thing with my rocking chair. It's good to fill up a bit of the floor space as well as the walls at a show.

Art Quilt Show

I am back from Australia, almost over my usual long flight cold and getting over jet lag.  Getting there is not half the fun.
I have been asked to do a quilt exhibition in our local gallery for the month of May.  I want to show mostly quilts with words. I may also make some pillows with words.  This one is my first attempt.  There is not much contrast but I don't mind that when the word is Dream.  It may end up being too large for a pillow though and could  possibly become a wall hanging.
I am very happy to be back at my sewing machine, although I did enjoy my travels a lot.

 I have not fallen off the face of the earth, just gone around to the opposite side of it. I am in Australia visiting my daughter and her family for six weeks, two of which have already passed. I have been busy enjoying the beach, wonderful food and a couple of birthday parties.

You can probably see from the photos why I haven't been spending much time sewing or blogging.

Enjoying Mazatlan

Sunset from our balcony.

Delicious food, this one a plate of assorted Mexican treats.

Shrimp and  beef skewers.

Ribs to die for, with pork and  beans and cole slaw.

Shopping treasures.

 Huevos rancheros.

Mazatlan

 I am on holiday in Mazatlan, Mexico with my daughter-in-law, two granddaughters and one of their friends. Of course, the first thing  we did was eat and what better choice than tortilla soup.

 This is the beach right in front of the condo we have rented.

 You can find great deals on mani/pedicures here so why not give it a go?

Lunch yesterday was excellent but I forget what it was called. It was tortillas stuffed with eggs, bacon and smothered in that delicious sauce. Yum!