Grateful

Ellen's Fab Bee request. So colourful and fun!

My contribution to Ellen's Hundreds and Thousands. Two blocks, no leftovers!

Whew! August rushed by! The photos are of September's Fab Bee blocks. September already!

    July seemed to lope along, but by the time August was here things were moving fast.
Stacey and I, with lots of help, prepped and hung and hosted the Quilt Forest, then the Conspiracy team got up and running again with the Creative Threads Conspiracy,  (we are giving presentations to local quilter's guilds, which seems to be better publicity than the print advertising we have been doing, but both things are getting the word out, and resulting in registrations. Live and learn!), we had some wonderful guests here, and my husband's trio had a gig at the local bistro. Our visitor and friend John sat in with them, so it was a trio of four, and the show went over well!
    We participated in the Croquet, Not Coal tournament and I brought home a trophy, (having never won a thing for an athletic (*ahem*) endeavor, I was pleased!) and funds were raised for the Denman Opposes Coal group to battle against the proposed Raven Coal Mine.
    The tomatoes in the hoop house are actually turning a colour other than green (fantastic!) and I have harvested a couple of cucumbers, plenty of potatoes, a feed or two of green beans, a trombone squash- which I should have photographed and didn't, plenty of peas off the trellis, beets, cilantro, basil, parsley, greens and kale and some carrots. That's better than last year, so we are pleased.

Miss August of the Fraser Valley Modern Quilt Guild (a lovely and talented bunch of sewists) was super complimentary toward me. It makes it all worthwhile, if even one person is changed by what I do.

First, she said "Barb Mortell’s course has made me love sewing", and then... this is how she answered question #12 in an interview...
 

"12. Who is your favourite quilt designer? And why?
Barb Mortell. Because she doesn’t care if the lines are straight! And she taught me that! I can’t thank her enough. The pressure of perfect lines has disappeared. I can just relax and sew."

And then she said "I loved my Barb Mortell quilt top! Did I mention she’s the best?"
Gosh! I am torn between blushing and swelled head! And Miss August is no slouch in the creative department.... her photographic documentation makes you want to be where she is, and be grateful that she is there with her camera and her unique eye. Thanks Carol Browne!

Who?

I've been doing patchwork by mail! (I talked about it a while ago)
Last spring Cynthia Frenette invited me to partake in a quilting bee she started, and it's been really fun! Each month, one member of the Fab Bee sends out a request and some fabric to all the participants, and we all follow the instructions and use up the fabric and send a finished block back to it's rightful owner.

the fabrics and request for hearts

the block I made for Cynthia and Norm

Cynthia started it off with "hearts" in April, and explained that the quilt was for her hubby Norm, who chose the colours and fabrics. Some of the pieces are Cynthia's own designs that she printed at Spoonflower, and since this time, she has had her own line of fabric printed by Robert Kaufman!

In May, we used a spark of colour and neutrals to make improvised blocks for Holly.

the fabrics....

and the block I made

June was my month. I sent out neutrals and asked for stripes. Such a fantastic array of stripes I got back! I decided not to worry too much about putting them together - and I just went ahead and did it. I am still mulling over different ideas for the quilting design. You can see I have a grey thread laid out there - to see if I like vertical lines on it ... hmmm, still thinking.

July was fun too! Darlene, who is a lover of all things vintage, asked us to do a "stack of books" block. I slipped in some vintage fabrics - and I sent along a bundle of coloured plastic knitting needles for her.

 

What I didn't know about Darlene is that she is generous to a fault! She sent me two lines of bunting that she made as a thank you! I hung them up at our house during our Quilt Forest event. 

Then came August....

and the request from Ellen to make..... an OWL!

Here are things I have rediscovered about myself this month-

I don't do representational art, and I especially don't do animals!

I live in a wonderful natural environment, surrounded by trees which are full of birds, including owls.

barred owl, photo taken from the porch at dusk. "Who Cooks For You?"

I am surrounded by this natural wonder and I really feel like I could not do it justice by trying to make it into art. It already is art. I can't dream of improving on it, it's perfect.

Winging it - free piecing, applique, embroidery and machine couching

So, I let most of the month slip by. I picked up Jan Mullen's book Reverse Applique With No Brakez and read through it. That helped a little. Then I drew an owl. And I waited some more. Then I realized the month was almost gone, so I just went ahead and did my block. Here it is. I'll mail it to Ellen today. Hope she likes it!

More, more more!

Our collaborative pieces. We have 2 more in the works.

 

more stars by Stacey

more views - back down the main walk

more of Stacey's beauties

my Striped studies

Keep Walkin'

Sunlight through quilts and stars in the distance

Stars and Sticks and Spiderwebs!

More Pix of the Forest Walk

Churn Dash on the woodpile. by Stacey

Enter here.

3 on the line.

Pie Party, Xes and Cotton Reel

2 Indigo beauties

3 more indigo quilts

Back in the box

Whew! The quilts are down and back in the box! Actually not literally in a box, I roll mine, 4 or 5 at a time, on a tube and cover them and store them in the loft of our little house.

view from afar

The Quilt Forest Walk, which we mount for the Denman Island Studio Tour, went really well for us. We had over 150 visitors (wow!) to the forest and we chatted all day - about our favourite subjects (quilts, fabric, sewing), we visited with friends and family, we ate well, and we even sold a few things.







Stacey and I hung 45 quilts in the trees this year, with plenty of help from our spouses, family and lovely farmer-neighbours who came at closing time on Saturday to take down all the quilts in case it rained, and came back again on Sunday morning to hang them all back up again. 

Good friends, John, Oli and Stacey.

Playing nicely together. I made the quilt in the centre, and Stacey made the other two.

I will keep posting a few pictures at a time over the next little while. Then it will be like walking through the forest, coming around the bend to see the next "gallery". Enjoy!