Unpacking and Repacking

Sunday night I returned from a week of teaching around Ontario. It was a whirlwind! Just before I left I looked at the weather forecast and decided to have my snow tires taken off. Next time I decide to do that in April I will remember this trip. Snow and ice appeared in Midland and Barrie. But I am happy to say that it didn't affect my specific routes too much, but other people encountered some dangerous situations. I'm glad for the pair of gloves I popped in my glove compartment just before I left and for the snow brush I decided to leave in my car!

First stop was Shelburne, Ontario to teach a workshop for Cobwebs and Caviar. Shelburne is not too far from Orangeville. The store is an eclectic and charming one with quilting and sewing supplies on one side, and funky ladies wear and accessories on the other. I couldn't resist buying two polka-dotted infinity scarves :-), one in black and white and the other in red and white. The shop carries my full line of "Falling Leaves" fabric from Northcott, and has my "Poppy Passion" line on order. By now it may even be in the store.

The shop has a small classroom, so our workshop took place at the Shelburne Library. A couple of students sneaked out before I had the chance to take this photo. In the front row, second from the right, is AJ Cavey, co-owner of the store with her beautiful magnolia quilt. These quilts were all made with curves cut and piece free-hand. The applique is "liberated". Some of these works still need to be cropped and of course all of them still need to be quilted.

Here are a few details. Loved the splash of purple on the complementary orange background!

I also loved how this sunflower is spreading out in the lower right corner.

It was a fast-paced day so I failed to get the names of the makers. If you see your work here, please let me know and I will be sure to add credits.

That night it was off to Midland, Ontario where I spent the following action-packed day with the Georgian Bay Quilters Guild. We spent the day making hosta leaves.

In the evening I gave a lecture. 

Sales of Poppy Passion were brisk! It is also a lot of fun having a new fabric line and getting to be the fabric fairy with door prizes at all the places you teach and lecture.

A few students brought their hosta leaves to Show and Tell that night. Some of these still need to be placed on a background.

We spent the entire day at the Midland Library, and I want to extend a HUGE THANK YOU to all the students who helped me get all my "stuff" down the stairs into the library. An entire team of women surrounded my car and made the job very easy!! And at the end of a long day a team of women showed up again and helped get everything back upstairs to load into my car. I can't tell you how much I appreciate this. A special thank you to Pearl who did this twice in Midland, and then helped me pack up again in Barrie the next day.

The next morning I was off to Barrie to give a lecture to the Simcoe County Quilters Guild in Barrie, Ontario. This is my second visit to their guild. Big thanks to Korleen and Adrianna for their help moving in and setting up and moving out, and to Korleen for the very touching speech she gave to introduce me. Korleen has been to my classes in various places, but especially Haliburton School of the Arts, for many years now.

I enjoyed a little free time that evening and the next day it was time to head to the Kempenfelt Conference Centre in Innisfil, just outside Barrie, for the Simcoe County Quilters Guild's retreat. By this time the snow had melted and the sky turned blue.  This view outside was a big bonus!!

I taught for two days: "Fast & Fun Fused Designs"on Saturday and "Beyond Stippling, Part 1" on Sunday. Here are a few pictures of some finished and almost-finished designs.

Coreen Zerr from Nanaimo, BC was also at the retreat teaching and gave a lecture on Saturday night. Here is a photo of the trees students made in her class on Saturday.

A few photos from my "Beyond Stippling" class on Sunday.

I don't often do this, but I drove the 6 hours home after class on Sunday.  Yes it was tiring but I wanted to be home to unpack and repack and dye more fabric.  I am flying out to Timmins on Friday where I will be the guest speaker and workshop teacher at their show.  I will be back Sunday night. In the mean time, I have unpacked, finished two weeks of laundry, am dealing with administrative stuff (shipping patterns, doing up teaching contracts, revising supply lists, communicating about upcoming workshops) and dyeing up a storm again because the Ottawa Valley Quilters Guild's Festival of Quilts is coming up on Mothers Day Weekend and I need a good stock of fabric to sell!! Never an idle moment at this time of year. But I won't forget to appreciate and notice the beautiful spring weather we are having!!

Dye Happy, Session 5

This blog post brings to you photos from Friday's session (and the last of 5 days) of my "Dye Happy" class at Wabi Sabi.

Is this work by Barb not drop dead gorgeous? I used to teach stitch resist dyeing, but stopped because I was never happy with mine. Sylvia, who took my class on a previous occasion, gave a lesson to Barb, and look at what she turned out on her first try! Part of the secret is that it turns out far better in an immersion dye bath than a low-water immersion bath. I am going to give it another try when I have time (haha ... when is that?)

Here are some soy wax batik results.

Nancy's:

Sylvia's:

Barb's:

Everyone seems to love parfaits, and fits them in around other subjects. These are Nancy's.

Parfaits by Chris:

Marion overdyed her folded and clamped piece and is much happier to have covered up the white spots.

The masked woman is Barb!

The topic this day was Painting With Thickened Dyes. You can see a couple of pieces in progress here. This one by Heather.

This one by Nancy.

Meanwhile, I have my own firestorm happening in the dyepots. Trying to up my offerings for my upcoming three days of sales at the Festival of Quilts at the Ottawa Valley Quilt Guild's show on Mothers Day Weekend. 

The Poppy Passion Party

Yesterday was about the finest day, weather-wise, that one could ask for to have a fabric launch party! It took place at The Pickle Dish in Carleton Place, Ontario.

This is the sight that greeted me when I entered the store. So fresh and spring-like.

I pulled my poppy sweater out of the closet for this occasion.

 A closer view of the fabric.

This is Jan Kittle, the owner of The Pickle Dish.

 Look who I ran into at the restaurant next door, on my way to the party.

Thanks to all the quilters and sewists and fibre artists who turned up for the event.

We asked people to bring Show and Tell of work they made with my previous fabric line, Falling Leaves. This one is by Lisa Smith. If you click on the photo you might be able to better see the striped binding she used. That is exactly what I envisioned for this stripe, that it would become a binding on something! I just haven't gotten there myself yet. 

This piece is by Emma Russell, and uses a lot of the leaf prints from the line.

Now I'm hoping my fabric arrives before I head out on my next teaching trip to Shelburne, Midland, and Barrie, Ontario.