Maritime Trip Coming Up

It's October 22, and that means tomorrow I leave for a 15 day teaching trip to the Maritimes. Since I am visiting four groups and have lots of things to bring, and hope to enjoy a few days there as well, I decided to drive. I'm giving myself three days to get there so I will never have to drive more than 6 hours in any day. 

My first workshop will be Collage Tree at a two day retreat for the Northumberland Quilt Guild's retreat at Liscombe Lodge. From there I plan on driving to Lunenburg to visit my friend, Canadian Quilt Artist, Laurie Swim. Then I head to Prince Edward Island to teach an In Full Bloom class for the Northern Lights/Green Shores Quilters' Guilds. From there it is back to New Brunswick to teach a one day Collage Tree class at Spruce It Up Quilt Shop, and finally an In Full Bloom workshop for the Gorge Quilt Guild in Perth-Andover, NB.

Peekaboo is enjoying crawling on and into the bags as I am packing them.

I've done a lot more dyeing this past month because I needed floral kits for the In Full Bloom class and tree kits for the Collage Tree classes. When I ripped the fabric Wilma was there to help me.

Tree Kits. This photo shows backgrounds for three different options, and leaf options.

Barks fabrics in darks, mediums and lights.

 Floral kits.

My dyeing was made a bit stressful when my fabric wholesaler ran out of my favorite white cotton, and it continues to be back-ordered until today. I borrowed 57 meters from a friend, and then had to order another 75 yards of other cottons to finish my jobs. While the alternate cottons are nice, they in no way come close to the combed cotton lawn I purchase from TrendTex. I'm told the shipment is expected this coming week. It has been delayed a couple of times so I hope this is true. While I have put my dye pots away (I'm out of fabric and I need to work on the commission) until January, I am going to be needing lots of cotton to prepare for my booth at Quilt Canada Ottawa in June 2019.

I am pretty close to being finished creating the patterns for the triptych commission I am making. When I return I will have them enlarged and begin work. This is the design for the central panel.

copyright, Elaine Quehl, 2018

I had planned to dye more yardage for the sunflowers but since I am out of my favorite cotton I will wait until my return. I want to use the best quality cotton for this commission. Should the cotton be further delayed I will delve into my store and my own stash. For example, these bundles in my store would work well for the sunflowers themselves, and I have a lot of greens in my stash and my store.

The leaves here in the Ottawa Valley have been gorgeous this year. We've managed to get out and about on a few nice days to enjoy them.

I'm hoping there are lots of leaves left on the trees across Quebec and New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, and even PEI. I'll post a full report of my trip upon my return, however, I will be doing more regular updates on Facebook. Please feel free to "friend" me there.