My tiny (and perhaps virtual) contribution to Spring Market

I tested these two patterns that will make their debut at Quilt Market. The top picture is called Strip Plus and is a table runner from Gundrun Erla's new Stripology2 book. I believe she will also be debuting this pattern in a regular size. Regular meaning using 2 1/2" strips rather than the 1 1/2" strips that her Stripology patterns use. It was a fun little pattern to do. Each of the 6 patterns in the book is presented in 3 different sizes. A mini quilt, a table runner and a baby quilt. The mini's would make cute little doll quilts if there is a little doll lover in your family.
The bigger quilt is called Charlotte's Lace. The pattern was designed by Raija from Quilters' Treasure Chest. She uses a lot of the Deb Tucker rulers in her designs. Her design will be featured in fabric from Timeless Treasures in their booth. It is a complex pattern but the result is worth it.
It is so nice to be able to talk about a test before it becomes a distant memory. I gifted the larger quilt to my sister in law who now shares a birthday with the new Princess Charlotte. The quilt had the name before the new princess arrived. But timely choice of name.
The testing for Quiltmaker's 100 blocks Volume 12 has started so I am back to work on that one. Piecefully, Joanne

I am a guest blogger today

Be sure to visit Sarah's Blog (here)  for my guest post for the Hands to Help Quilt Challenge. I talked about my favourite "go to" quilt block for charity quilts. Piecefully, Joanne

Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Volume 11 coming out very soon

Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Blog Hop is happening this week. Visit their blog at http://www.quiltmaker.com/blogs/quiltypleasures/ to see who you can visit. This block was one of my favourites from the testing I was assigned. It is called Bicycle Path but when I looked at it I saw tumbling blocks. Testing has started for Volume 12. I can tell you in all certainty that there are still hundreds of talented designers out there. This magazine series has only highlighted a few.  Piecefully, Joanne

Finally something gets finished

This wee little quilt was a paper piecing test for Janeen at Quilt Art Designs (here). I finished it up with a couple of borders and it is now a good enough size for a small Project Linus donation. I was disappointed in my central yellow star because it rather disappears so I stitched around it with a dark orange and it shows up a little more. The border was a scrap piece donated to the Scrap Bag Quilters that I thought was perfect...oranges, limes and lemons.
The daughter of one of the Kincardine Sunset Quilters is quite technically talented and she made labels for us to use on our donation quilts. All we have to do is add the year.
My two other finishes this week will have to wait. One is a pattern that will debut in the Timeless Treasures booth at the spring Quilt Market and the other project will debut as part of the Stripology2 book that is coming out at Spring Market. I merely tested the patterns for the designers. Piecefully, Joanne
Edited to Link up with Cynthia at Oh Scrap!http://quiltingismorefunthanhousework.blogspot.ca/
Edited again to link up with Janeen at Quilt Art Designs http://quiltartdesigns.blogspot.ca/

Paducah...what can I say?

What an amazing week! Many highs and a few lows. The Kincardine Sunset Quilters Guild left early Wednesday April 22 for Paducah Kentucky. It took us two days to get there. We left the snow behind after the first couple of hours of driving and were treated to beautiful flowering trees, roses in bud, irises, and all manner of spring flowers. (Of course we did return 6 days later to no leaves on the tress, no flowers in bloom and the ice back in at the shoreline).
The group attended the National Quilt Museum (unfortunately my bad gut decided that was a good time to make an appearance). But after that episode I was able to take in most of the rest of the experience. For the quilt show itself I found there were so many amazing quilts it was overwhelming. As any of my blog followers know I am not an art quilter so really felt out of my league. The quilts were beautifully displayed and you could get a good look at them. We went early in the day before it got too crowded.
I got to meet Marie Bostwick at a book signing booth. She was a delight and I purchased her latest book, The Second Sister. I met Shannon of Fabrics 'n Quilts. We were in the same tester group for Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks magazine a couple of years ago. She now runs a Scrap Quilt Challenge. Visit her blog or her store web site for further details (http://fabricsnquilts.blogspot.ca/)
Our bus driver was a quilter so we had not trouble convincing her to make a couple of stops at Hancocks of Paducah. Our hotel was actually quit close to Hancock's. Our hotel was the worst thing about Paducah. Our entire bus was made up of non-smokers so it was a horrible shock to find out that our travel company had signed a contract permitting the hotel to put us in smoking rooms. Our poor tour guide was totally blind sided. 10 women from our group went to another hotel altogether for the second and third nights of our stay.
This was likely my last big trip of this kind. I am getting older and the knees don't want to wander around as much as they did a few years ago. The younger ones on the bus were talking about Houston in three years so never say never. Piecefully, Joanne

Leaders and Enders a continuing battle to use up the little bits

I am back to making windmill blocks. This time I decided I should be a little "controlling". So the background pieces are various neutrals in the beige range of colours and the blades for the windmills are blue. Any blue, just need 4 the same, although when I was talking to someone on the weekend she was going to try scrappy blades. I am not certain I am there yet. All my pieces are cut 1 1/2" by 2 1/2". I do have some L&E that I am working with that are 1 1/2" square but I can't bring myself to go any smaller. To do this effectively you need the pieces ready to sew and you must be patient. A few at a time while the main project is happening. Otherwise you have two projects that you are trying to complete.
Today I am packing my suitcase and picking up a few last minute things at the store. Tomorrow the Kincardine Sunset Quilters bus trip to Paducah leaves town. The weather here is looking yechy so I hope we drive out of that. Have checked the Paducah weather and it looks like some rain is in the forecast but milder temperatures than we are having. Looking forward to this great adventure. I just hope my knee holds up. Piecefully, Joanne

Linking with A Quilting Chick for her leader and ender project

My G7

Sometimes life gifts you and I feel as though I have been gifted with my own G7, not to be confused with what most of the world sees as G7. My G7 started just over 25 years ago when 14 grade 7 & 8 Family Studies (Home Economics) teachers got together to share teaching ideas. Most of us knew one other person at the three day session but no one knew everyone in attendance. At that time most grade 7 & 8 Family Studies teachers were the only one in their school, so unlike a Math or Language teacher you did not have anyone close by that could help you implement new ideas or share strategies with. We had such a great time and got so many ideas at the first event we decided to do it again. Now, 25 years later we are all retired, our numbers are stabilized at 7 and we call our selves the G 7 because it is simpler than Grade Seven and Eight and Nine Teachers group. We have been SET, then SENT but G7 works for us now.
This past weekend we had another get together. What a great time! We share the cooking duties and everyone brings their sewing machines and their works in progress. No two members of the group work in the same style so it is like a mini quilt show to see what every one is working on. This time we also took in a play at the local theatre. Once we knew about the play I got the book out of the library and read it. I wondered how in the world it could be made into a one woman play. It was beyond fantastic. The book and the play are called Confessions of a Fairies Daughter.
Most of the time we spent indoors doing our thing, cooking, eating, sewing, laughing so we missed the big tree falling in the back yard. The wind was very strong and it didn't surprise us to see the tree down but we had not heard a thing. So for my photo to go with this blog post I am adding a tree falls down in the back yard.

Piecefully, Joanne