Another landscape

Still working away on putting my triangles and hexagons together, but at times it is just getting too boring, so I end up doing something different. I found this small landscape in a box while cleaning. It was hand appliqued and was ready for some machine embroidery.

I used a variety of threads and did this free motion with the feed dogs of the machine down.
This morning I put the border on, so now it is back to my other project.
Once that has been stitched together I'm ready to start with the landscape I drew up of the farm in Friesland where I grew up.
I could not find the right color fabric for the bricks and tiles on the roof, but I finally found those on Saturday at the Creative Sewing Show in Toronto.
I had not been there for many years and I enjoyed seeing all the new things that are available.
Even I stocked up on some new threads, which I used for this landscape.
Now it is back to the flower beds. We have had some gorgeous weather and the daffodils are blooming. It is almost time to get the plants to put in my large pots and urns. I always like them to sit for a few weeks before I put them outside.
And Laurence is busy working up the first fields. In a few days it should be dry and warm enough to put the first corn in the ground.Than it will get busy for the next few months.
And last week I received some good news. Both my entries in the Ontario Juried Show have been accepted, so I better get busy and put the sleeves on and make up the labels, my least favorite part of making a quilt. It seems I only get it done if there is a reason to, like the quilt going to the show

Pansies

Today was our guild meeting and we had a very good trunk show by Debbie Beirnes from Elmira. Lots of quilts, both large and small. On the way home I stopped at a nursery and bought my yearly box of pansies. Tomorrow they will be potted up and I will put them in my urns. A small taste of spring. The weather still will not cooperate, but there are promises for a sunny week-end.
Last week was busy with trunk shows and workshops . As usual it takes lots of time to get ready.
I find that putting things away after coming home is the biggest chore. And if I do not get it done right away, it seems it will not get done. Now I have a break for a few weeks.
I'm working hard on hand stitching my triangles and hexagons together, but it is slow process. At the same time I'm working on a small landscape. Both should be ready to show by next week.
This small quilt with daffodils I made a few years ago. It is hand appliqued and machine quilted with some trapunto in the corners. This time I wanted to see if I could quilt close together without making too many mistakes.
The flowers are made with wired ribbon and the roots are 4mm wide overdyed silk ribbon, twisted and sewn down. On Monday evening we were at the annual dinner for the New Hamburg Mennonite Relief Sale. As usual there were about 25 large quilts hanging around the hall. It promises to be another great auction. Over 210 quilts have been donated this far. This also means, that the Waterloo County Quilt Show is nearing. I will give 2 trunk shows at the Church Theatre in St. Jacobs on the evening of May 22nd and the afternoon of May 23nd.

I do hope that by this time next week I will have real daffodils blooming around the yard.Besides that the corn planter is ready to go out to the field and the tractor is fueled up. Time to get going I was told.

Mennonite Relief Sale

Each year, on the last Saturday in May, there is the Mennonite Relief Sale in New Hamburg, Ontario, Canada. The Sale includes one of the largest quilt auctions in the country. On average, around 250 small and large quilts are sold each year. But this is only a small part of the sale, and more information you can find at www.ontario-mennonite-relief-sale.org

All the proceeds of the sale go to the work of the Mennonite Central Committee.To pay for all the costs of the actual sale, there is a big dinner at Bingeman’s Park. The hall and most of the food are donated, so the ticket price (around 600 to 700 people attend) covers the sale costs.

The quilt committee hangs about 20 quilts around the hall to show what will be available at the sale. Many are large bed quilts, and most are hand quilted. These pictures show you a few of them. Since they were hanging high on the wall, it was hard to get a good picture. 

A lot of the quilts are from traditional patterns. In the last few years, there has been an increased demand for smaller wall hangings and they can bring very good prices.

This year the feature quilt is “A Bird's Eye View”. I have been the coordinator of this project. I asked Carl Hiebert, a local photographer who takes a lot of aerial pictures while flying in his ultralight plane, if we could use images from his books for this project. He graciously gave us permission. Once I had an idea of what to do, I asked members of my guild, the Waterloo County Quilter's Guild to interpret one of his pictures. With help from 2 friends, Carol and Rosemary, the quilt was put together and then hand quilted by members of my church, Listowel Mennonite Church, with members of the guild invited to help.

The quilt was finished in time to be entered last year in the Grand National Show in Kitchener. Since that time it has travelled to different churches and quilt shows. It will hang, with other quilts, for 2 weeks in May at City Hall in Kitchener and it will be sold on May 27th.

Sashiko

This has been a busy week. I was gone for a few days to give a workshop and a trunkshow and once home again we had the accountant here to go over the farm books. But that's all over for the time being. It does not look like it is Good Friday outside. We have snow again and it is cold and windy. I have to go out for my walk yet, but I will wait till Laurence goes up the road to do the chores. He can take me with him and I can walk home with the wind in my back.
This week I have finished my hexagons with sashiko. Everything has been basted unto paper and now I will have to sew it all together by hand. That will have to wait till I come back from the next set of workshops/trunkshows next week.
I ended up with 2 extra pieces of sashiko. The one was not big enough and the other I cut out on the wrong angle. So I made these 2 cards, using some Japanese looking fabric I had on hand. The cards are about 5 by 8 inches.
Next week I will be gone for 4 days, so this might not get updated till I will be back. I hope to have some pictures of warmer weather and blooming daffodils.
To everybody I wish you a wonderful time at Easter.