Portland Quilt Market - Almost Ready!

I have just finished a smaller version of my Thanks for the Memories pattern (#330) for my booth at Quilt Market in Portland. This quilt has removable pictures so you can change the photos whenever you like. The photos in these pictures were all taken during my trip to South Africa last November. You can see how versatile this quilt is because you can change the pictures.




Here is a picture of the large quilt made from this pattern. The pictures in this one are all printed on EQ Printables fabric.


Here is a picture of the blocks that didn't work! I really wanted to use this bright, colourful fabric to show off these wonderful houses in Capetown. Unfortunately, the fabric design was too large and busy, and the pictures just seemed to disappear.

Another New Pattern

I have just finished this little Memory quilt pattern. It is called Remembering (Pattern #332). This quilt is 12" x 14" and it makes a quick gift for someone special. You can use a picture printed on fabric such as EQ Printables, or make a picture pocket so you can change the picture whenever you wish. The picture is framed with Crazy Quilting and embellished with stitchery, 3 dimensional fabric flowers and ribbon.

I used silk fabric and metallic thread for the stitchery in the black and white version. The beige quilts are made with cotton fabrics and the pictures are framed with lace.

Click here to see this new pattern on my web site.

Daily Photographs

If you missed seeing the daily photographs during the last few days, you can find them all here. More great pictures of the International Quilt Festival coming soon!

Quilt Festival, Chicago

I am still at Quilt Festival in Chicago. The quilt show is amazing and the booths are very tempting. There is a wide variety of styles, and lots of Memory quilts, which, of course, I always enjoy. I will have lots of pictures to post when I get home on Sunday.

Another New Pattern!

I have just put the "official" photos of my newest pattern (Portraits in Lace) on my website. The pattern will be added to my shopping cart later this week. These little quilts can be hung on the wall in the "normal" way, with a hanging sleeve on the back, or they can be hung on the Ackfeld hangers that you see here. Ackfeld has a wide variety of these hangers that are perfect for small wall hangings.

Portraits in Lace

My newest pattern, "Portraits in Lace" #331, is now finished. It will be on my web site in the next few days. The pictures are printed on fabric and then framed with lace. You could also make photo transfers of the pictures. You can use lace applique shapes as shown in these pictures, or use lengths of new or vintage lace to frame the pictures. I used the "Memories" and "Family" hangers from Ackfeld Manufacturing to display these little quilts.

More from the Marianne van Silfhout Gallery

Here are pictures of some of my favourite pieces of art in the "Past, Present, Future" show at the Marianne van Silfhout Gallery, St. Lawrence College, Brockville.

"Ancient Angkor" Mixed Media Collage by Diane Godwin-Sheridan

Gnome Sculpture by Jean Marr

"Mad Hatter's Teapot" by Jean Marr

Marianne van Silfhout Gallery

I am pleased to have 6 of my quilts hanging in the Marianne van Silfhout Gallery at St. Lawrence College, Brockville, as part of the “Past, Present, Future” exhibit by former and present faculty of the College.

My "Working Girls" and "Thanks for the Memories" quilts

My "Hang Ups" quilt

This state-of-the-art community art gallery, opened in September 2007, is a focus for the visual arts for Brockville and the larger Eastern Ontario area. Creation of the gallery was made possible by a major half-million dollar bequest from the estate of Marianne van Silfhout, a graduate of the Fine Art program at St. Lawrence College, as well as numerous donors to the St. Lawrence College Foundation.

The Colour of the Year

Pantone Inc., the global authority on colour and provider of professional colour standards for the design industries, has selected PANTONE 18-3943 Blue Iris, as the colour of the year for 2008. I wonder how this choice will affect the fabric and quilting industry. Pantone has a fascinating web site, with colour information for everyone. You might like to check it out!

The Country Quilter

The Country Quilter quilt shop is located in Richmond, Ontario, just a short drive from Ottawa. It is situated in a heritage home that, over the years, has also been occupied by a post office, shoemaker, tailor and undertaker. The shop, owned by Ann Mclean, was the site for the filming of The Great Canadian Shop Hop for QNN last Friday.

Stairs to the upper level where my segment for the show was filmed.

The shop is full of interesting nooks and crannies for fabric, patterns and quilting tools and the dedicated and helpful staff is most hospitable. Be sure to visit this great quilt shop if you are in the Ottawa area.

Display of Northcott "Quilt For A Cure" fabric.

More fabric!

Even more fabric!

The Great Canadian Shop Hop for QNN (continued)

After a busy morning of filming the Great Canadian Shop Hop for QNN, we all sat down to a healthy lunch. Ann McLean, owner of the Country Quilter, had arranged for our “catered” meal and even made the chocolate cake sometime during her busy schedule in the morning.

Because the focus of the show was on the Breast Cancer Support project, there was pink everywhere. Ann had beautiful pink quilts throughout the shop, a pink tablecloth on the table and most of the participants in the show were wearing pink as well. Even Barry, the camera guy, wore a pink shirt!

The Great Canadian Shop Hop for QNN

Filming for the Great Canadian Shop Hop programme for QNN (Quilters’ News Network) was done yesterday at the Country Quilter quilt shop in Richmond, Ontario. Shop owner, Ann McLean, was at the shop very early in the day, baking muffins and coffee cake, and welcoming the many quilters who were part of this event. The show, produced by Tricia Sherman from Vancouver, focused on The Quilt: A Breast Cancer Support Project. Co-ordinator of this event, Carol Miller, was there and it was a great pleasure to meet her.

Here I am with Barry (the camera guy) and Tricia Sherman, producer of the Great Canadian Shop Hop

I was thrilled to be the guest pattern designer on the show. I did a demo using some of my newest patterns, including my Hang Ups, Pop-Out Picture Quilts and Pop-Out Picture Books. I also talked about how easy it is to print pictures on fabric and incorporate vintage linens and lace in memory quilts.

Barry, the camera man, was amazing! He was interested in the whole quilting process, even to the point of wanting to film underneath the frame as the quilters were working, so he could show what was actually happening on the underside of the quilt.

Shop owner, Ann McLean was a wonderful hostess throughout the day. She remained calm and collected, while multi-tasking constantly. And of course, the shop was open, so Ann and her staff were dealing with the regular customers while all the filming was happening throughout the store. More information about this wonderful shop will be included in a future post.

"The Quilt" project co-ordinator, Carol Miller (l) and shop owner, Ann McLean

Here's Tricia getting a quilting lesson from one of the experts at the Country Quilter

Back in the Land of Ice and Snow

I am back home, the temperature is minus 19 degrees celcius, and I am not happy. After 2 weeks with temperatures in the high 20s and 30s, this is pretty hard to take. The good news is that I have now had over 1000 visitors to my blog since I put the counter on my site in late January. It is always fascinating to see where all the visitors come from.

I am doing my interview for QNN with Tricia Sherman tomorrow and I will have pictures of the event on my blog. This should be an exciting day!

More Pictures from Winter Park

This is such a beautiful city, I thought you might like to see some more pictures.

A Visit to Winter Park

Today I visited the city of Winter Park near Orlando. The city was founded as a resort destination by wealthy New England Industrialists before the turn of the 20th century. It is recognized as the first centrally planned community in Florida; its main street includes not only public civic buildings and retail, but also art galleries, a private liberal arts college, museums (the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art houses the largest collection of Tiffany glass in the world), a park, a train station, a golf course country club, a historic cemetery, and a beach and boat launch.

Winter Park is celebrated for a sense of place and history, uncommon to many parts of Central Florida. Many structures are more than 100 years old. The scenic “olde Winter Park” area is punctuated by small, winding brick streets, and a canopy of old Southern Live Oak and Camphor trees, draped with Spanish Moss. The city draws thousands of visitors to annual festivals including the Bach Festival, the nationally ranked Sidewalk Art Festival, and the Winter Park Concours d'Elegance.

If you are from a land of ice and snow in the winter, as I am, you are sure to enjoy these pictures of the green grass and flowers!

Thanks for the Memories!

Last November, I traveled to South Africa with my quilting friend, Colleen. At Christmas, we were part of a quilt exchange group. I had 3 weeks to design and make a quilt for Colleen using fabric that she had given me 10 months earlier. We had shared so many wonderful experiences on our South Africa trip, that I decided to use some of my pictures in her quilt. The quilt is 41" square and uses 20 photographs that were printed on EQ Printables fabric. And yes, I did get it completely finished in 3 weeks! It’s amazing how the job always takes the amount of time you have.

This quilt then became my newest pattern called Thanks for the Memories (#330). It is now ready to be printed and will be available on my website at the beginning of March.

When I wrote the pattern, I also included instructions for using removable paper photographs instead of printed ones. This makes the quilt even more versatile because you can change the pictures whenever you wish.

Close up views

Statistics

It is fascinating to watch the statistics for my Blog and website and to see where all the visitors are coming from. To date, I have had visitors to my Blog from 25 different countries. Most are from Canada and the USA, but there have also been visits from Australia, Brazil, Chile, Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Morocco, Netherlands, Panama, Peru, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

My web site, Upper Canada Quiltworks, has had visits from even more countries (27 in total) including Austria, Belgium, Costa Rica, Finland, New Zealand, Norway, Saint Lucia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Sweden Switzerland, Thailand and Venezuela.

I guess it is a small world after all!