Lessons learned

This was the day I had to take my quilts to Guelph for my show at the Gallery at Greenwood Quiltery. So with 26 quilts, both big and small, old and new , and a few other items I drove over the snowy roads to Guelph. They will be hung on Thursday and be there till the end of the year. It was a good feeling to have it all done No more quilts without bindings or borders, though a few are in need of a label yet. From there I had to go to Elmira. It got blustery, but not anything to worry about. That changed, when I wanted to go home. The wind had picked up and I could not see the road through the blowing snow. A good enough reason to visit my friend. An hour later it looked better, so I did drive home, but it was not good driving. Seeing a few cars with dints on the side of the road did not help either. But I did make it home. Tomorrow Jeanette,my friend Lois and I have made plans to go to the One-of-a-kind Show in Toronto. Let's hope the wind will quiet down.
I made this wallhanging "Victorian Bouquet" as a workshop proposal for Quilt Canada in Winnipeg, so it must have been about 6 years ago. I taught it a few more times and never got it quilted. When Florence ( who quilted the crane quilt for me) wondered about quilting something for the Mennonite Relief Sale I thought right away about this one. She loved the idea and had it quilted in no time. Once I got it home it was time to put a binding on.
Lesson one: When you make a quilt top and have some extra fabric, cut enough for the binding right away. Put this in a bag with a note what it is for and put it in a safe ( and in my case somewhere I can find it again) place.I did not do that and could not find the right color. As a last resource I rummaged through my fabrics and found some left-overs. Once I cut it all out and sewed the pieces together I needed about a 6 inch strip.

Lesson number 2: Never give up. I went through my stash 2 more times and on the last time I found a small piece, rolled up in a back corner of the shelf. It was the right width and at the end I had 3 inches to spare. This is one of the quilts I took in today

The rest of the week looks very busy, but by the week-end it will be back working on the Mariner Compass blocks. 3 finished, 6 more to go.