More Little Quilts for Sale

Here are some more little quilts that will be sold at the Quilters' Stash Sale. They are priced at only $10.00 each. A real bargain! The sale stars at 9 am on October 5 at Christ United Church in Lyn.

Fibre Friends

Our Fibre Friends group meets once a month. Here are some pictures of the hard working members at last week's meeting.

Linda is knitting a scarf. The one she is wearing uses yarn with beads already attached. Stunning!

Some of Linda's great yarns

Trudy is working on the memory quilt for her sister's special birthday.

"Memory Quilts & More" Class

Yesterday I had the pleasure of teaching my "Memory Quilts and More" class to members of the Thousand Islands Quilters' Guild.

Lunch was provided by the United Church women.

The official class photo! Everyone got their little memory quilt top finished. Some got the quilting done and one student even had the binding put on by the end of the day.

Thanks to this great group of quilters who made my day a very pleasant one!

CreativFestival 2009: Day 2

I taught my "Memory Quilts" class to 25 keen quilters on the opening day of CreativFestival. We used a great new fabric called "Cambridge Square" by Northcott. Everyone brought a photograph and because the fabric was black and white all the pictures looked great in this little quilt.


We used my pattern called "Remembering" for this class. Here are a few of the projects which are almost finished.

Thanks to everyone in the class for doing such an amazing job!

CreativFestival 2009 in Toronto

CreativFestival is being held October 16-18 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in downtown Toronto. Every day this huge show attracts thousands of quilters, sewers, knitters, scrapbookers and crafters of all kinds.

I will be teaching 2 classes at this event. In the Memory Quilts and More class you will learn to use paper photographs, photo transfers, fabric printer sheets and scrapbooking techniques to create unique memory quilts. Participants will make a small quilt in class using one of my newest designs. Here are a few pictures of some little memory quilts which use pictures printed on fabric or removable paper photos.


I will also be teaching a Wonky Houses class. You can create these whimsical house blocks using quick cutting and piecing techniques. No templates, no measuring - just cut and sew! Your houses can be as off-square as you wish – crooked walls, doors and windows all add to the fun! Several design options will be available to help you combine your houses into an attractive quilt. This is definitely a no-stress class!


Check out the CreativFestival website to learn more about all the activities coming up in October. My booth number is 509. Be sure and stop by to say "hello" if you are coming to the show!

CreativFestival 2009

The new brochure for CreativFestival 2009 is now available here. You can download all the class listings and get a sneak preview of all the special events. Registration for classes opens on Monday, August 10 and there are several specials offered for 4 days only. Click here to see all the quilting classes.

I will be teaching 2 classes at this event: Memory Quilts on Friday, October 16


and Wonky Houses on Saturday, October 17.

EQ Printables Blog

Electric Quilt Company has just started a new category on their Blog showing some of the many projects that have been created using their EQ Printables fabric sheets. You can check it out here. (Thanks, Andrea, for including some of my projects in your new section!)

I have been a fan of EQ Printables for many years and use the fabric in all my Memory Quilts. These fabric sheets were one of my best selling items at the recent CreativFestival in Toronto a couple of weeks ago. In fact, I ran out of the packages by the middle of the first day of the show. Then I started single sheets from my own "stash" and managed to sell all of them as well.

I will be at the International Quilt Market in Pittsburgh next week and you can be sure I will be stocking up on EQ Printables packages again for my Quilt Canada show in Saskatoon the following week.

More from Creative Festival

Sandy Camarda started out scrapbooking and taught scrapbooking at various stores for years. Her current passion is mixed media art. She loves anything vintage and when she noticed my memory quilts with the vintage photos at CreativFestival in Toronto, she stopped by to take a look. Sandy put pictures of a couple of my quilts on her Blog. Thanks, Sandy!

This is one of the designs in my Down Memory Lane pattern.

African Adventures

Recently I have been making small wall hangings using the embroideries that I purchased from South Africa. Here are some pictures of 2 of them.

Yesterday I put this picture in the Daily Photograph section of my Blog. The picture was taken from the bus window during a recent trip to South Africa. The child was standing on the highway in the Soweto area of Johannesburg.

Now I have made a wall hanging using the same design that I used for the embroideries. This project has taken on a life of its own!

I have decided to make these designs into a new pattern that will be available soon on my website. (Suggestions for a title for this new pattern will be gratefully received!) I will be adding one more design that uses a photograph that will fit in a little pocket on the front so it can be changed whenever you wish. This will be similar to the "Pop-Out Picture Quilts" that are on my web site now. Watch for more information coming soon.

Quilt It For Keepsakes Magazine

Yesterday I received my copy of Quilt It For Keepsakes magazine. This great magazine is published once a year in December and shows many ways to create memory quilts.

I have 2 little projects in this year's edition of the magazine. Little Cowpoke is a picture of my brother taken many years ago when the pony came around the neighbourhood and all the kids had their picture taken. I printed the photo on EQ printables fabric and then incorporated it into some pre-printed fabric. It is shown on the left in the photo below.

My other project is called Ancestors. It is the brown/beige quilt in the picture below. Actually, I call them my instant ancestors because I really have no idea who the people are. I collect antique photographs and often use them in my work. This is a small piece about 9" x 7".

Both of these pieces are in the article called Picture This on pages 12 - 15 in the magazine. The magazine was printed with 2 different covers this year. The other cover features a beige and pink quilt. The magazine is conducting a survey to see which cover is more popular. Details are included on page 4 in the magazine.

Great News From the Electric Quilt Company!

I have just learned that the Great Canadian Shop Hop video filmed at The Country Quilter in Osgoode, ON has been linked to the Blog on the Electric Quilt site. Look for the EQ post from May 23. I always use the EQ Printables fabric sheets for my memory quilts and was happy to be able to talk about them on the video.

I also discovered that there is so much good information on the EQ Blog. If you use any of the Electric Quilt products, be sure to check out their Blog for lots of good tips and suggestions.

Here I am during the filming of the Great Canadian Shop Hop at the Country Quilter in Osgoode, Ontario.

Quilt Market Revisited #4: Schoolhouse

Schoolhouse is a wonderful event for Quilt Market attendees to meet with dozens of designers, publishers, fabric companies and "famous quilters". Each teacher makes a 15 or 30 minute presentation about their products or designs. I had 2 presentations about my Memory Quilt patterns and was delighted to have over 100 people in attendance.

Here is Faye from Michell Marketing, waiting to hand out the Schoolhouse class lists.

Susan and Carole from The Quilting Quarters in Almonte, Ontario
choosing their Schoolhouse classes

Some attendees sat outside in the beautiful sunshine amid the rhododendrons to choose their classes.

I was able to attend one Schoolhouse session with Mark Lipinski, editor of Quilters Home magazine. Mark is also designing fabric for Northcott fabrics. I now have some of his black and white Califon fabric and hardly wait to start using it. Lots of ideas - not enough time!

Greetings from Quilt Market!

Here we are in Portland! I made 2 presentations about my Memory Quilts at the Schoolhouse Seminar this morning that were very well received, the booth is all set up and I am now getting ready for Sample Spree this evening.

Sample Spree is a huge event for shop owners to obtain models, patterns, notions etc for their shop. There will be about 100 vendors there. The event lasts for 2 hours and there is always a real feeling of excitement in the room.

Portland has been very warm. 85 degrees today and 95 degrees tomorrow. This about 20 degrees warmer than normal. Thank goodness the Convention Centre is air conditioned!

I will have lots of pictures of this event that I will post when I get home next week. The daily photographs will be updated at that time as well.

One More Day Before Quilt Market!

I finally have everything packed for Quilt Market which starts on Wednesday May 14. I just finished this last sample of my new Remembering pattern (#332). The fabric is from the Northcott collection called Seems Like Old Times.

The picture in this sample is removable, so you can have a different photograph whenever you like.

The picture in this sample was printed on EQ Printables fabric.

The pattern gives instructions for using both types of pictures and for making the fabric flower embellishments.

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.

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.

Little Picture Quilt #3

I am still making samples of my patterns for the International Quilt Market show in Portland, Oregon using some of the new Spring fabrics. Here are some new models of my Little Picture Quilt #3. The photograph is removable so you can change it whenever you like. A great gift idea!

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.

A Photographer’s Dilemma

My photographer, Glyn Davies, had a real challenge this morning. He was photographing my “Portraits in Lace” quilts for the cover of my newest pattern. When we hung the quilts on the wall, there were large shadows behind them because of the wire hangers I used to display them. So Glyn came up with a very high-tech way of photographing them. Using duct tape, a piece of string and a 4-foot length of dowel from Home Depot, we suspended the quilts from some metal poles that were in the studio. My job was to hold the string at just the right angle, so the wire hanger would stay straight.

Glyn is now working his Photoshop magic to remove the background from the photos, and by tomorrow, I will have some wonderful pictures to put on my pattern cover!

And now I have to figure out how to photograph these quilts?

Glyn Davies, quilt photographer extraordinaire!

Notice the high-tech equipment we are using. The string was especially important!

Watch for the finished photo coming soon!

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.