In my element

Here it is, folks. You've read about Quilt by the Bay (probably more times than necessary), you know that it is a 13 hour day retreat I run about every 6 or 7 weeks during the school year. It's the small business I started five years ago that keeps my stash stocked and my creative energy fed. It's where 25 friendly quilters come together to create, eat, laugh, listen to awesome music (thanks to the playlists that B puts together for me), baste big quilts, share show and tell and win fun door prizes.

But you've never really seen it until now. Thanks to Berene, who had the brilliant idea to just jump up onto the basting tables with my iPhone to snap this picture of me in my domain.

Everyone gets there very own table and plenty of room to spread out. We have a ball. Sometimes, I just have to turn the music off because the cackling gets out of control. I wish you could all come!

A Dresden Day

Just home from running my 13 hour retreat Quilt By the Bay. As luck would have it, I received Corey's fabric packet just yesterday. It's Corey's month in the VIBees and she put together the most adorable dresden fabrics. Fun, modern prints all floating on a dotty centre and background. The plate went together in a jiffy because Corey very kindly pre-cut all of the blades for us!

Almost a third of the regular 24 or so quilters that attend my retreats are proud owners and users of Featherweight sewing machines. I have not properly introduced you to my family's 'Agatha'. She deserves a full post because I have to share her back story with you...but for now this is what she helped me with today.

I completed the block with the help of my secret quilting weapon, the incomparable Roxanne's Glue-Baste-It. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I love this stuff.

It is incredibly helpful for so many jobs. In this case, it held the centre circle in place so that I could topstitch without having to deal with pins. The glue dissolves instantly in water and with this new teensy container, it is easy to apply in small dots wherever you need a hit of glue!

I made another Dresden today as well, but it needs a bit more work before I share it with you.

Have a fabulous Sunday. We'll be busy here preparing for the arrival of Grandma and Grandpa on Monday. The blog will take a back seat to visiting with my parents for the next couple of weeks. We only get to see each other about once a year so you'll understand if posts are a little sporadic for a while. We are all excited to spend Easter together and the timing works out perfectly for my Mom to attend a couple of guild meetings with me, too!

Chinese Coin Swap - Success!

Another successful swap! Mary received the one I made for her (rather quickly, I might add. She lives in the Portland area, so our mini's didn't have too far to travel....just a quick jaunt up and down the I-5).

Here is the selvage mini I sent south:

It is all selvage strips that have been topstitched onto a 3" strip of muslin. I sew a line through the white edge of the selvage, which catches the coloured part of the overlapped selvage and attaches both to the muslin foundation. I purposely cut generous strips of selvage when I take them off my FQ's and yardage. I want to retain some of the fabric print so that any selvage projects are not merely white strips of words, but also a fun record of the prints I've been using. For these coins, I tried to include as many colour dot sections as well as some fun words....like "Wild Thyme". The blue sashing and binding is a Kaffe Fassett shot cotton and I simply quilted it with running stitches in a hand-dyed perle cotton.

It was so much fun and really quick to put together (after all, it's only 13" by 9") that I made myself one, too! You only need a 3 1/2" long piece of selvage, so they go a long way.

And now, here's the mini that Mary sent to me. The coins are only 1/2" high!

I love that it's so scrappy. It's beautifully pieced and she attached the binding to the front with a machine blanket stitch. She also sent along some really fun scraps (including some selvages!!) Thank you so much for this sweet swap, Mary!

Quilting retreat tomorrow, so I must get into the kitchen and prepare. I hope you find time to do something you love this weekend, too.

This and That

Last Saturday was another fun QBTB retreat day in Lions Bay, B.C. which is just up the road from Vancouver en route to Squamish and eventually Whistler. The village of Lions Bay has a wonderful view of snow-capped peaks and Howe Sound (one of the most gorgeous marine inlets-near-a-city you'll ever see). There's a new piece of public art right in front of the community hall where we gather to sew every couple of months.

This incredible relief carving was designed by local painter Michael Tickner and carved by a group of community residents, one of whom is married to a QBTB quilter! Darrel Loppe and his carving group interpreted the artist's design beautifully in cedar, don't you think? If you look carefully, you'll see the roofs of the village houses in amongst the trees.

I had planned to spend the day working on a bunch of small projects for swaps and giveaways, but I received some unfortunate news from far away. A lifelong family friend is heading into battle, undoubtedly involving some tough decisions, treatment and illness before what we all hope will be a full recovery from breast cancer. This news comes only several days after learning one of our QBTB friends also has the disease. That's two in the space of two weeks. Thankfully, I had this very pretty Double Irish Chain quilt top & backing on hand (truth be told, it's been hanging in my closet for....ummmm....5, maybe 6 years).

Obviously it was waiting for just the right person. That is what I worked on all day Saturday. I finished quilting it yesterday. Today is for binding. I want to get this off as soon as possible, because I'm sure my friend could use some cheering up and I find this fabric utterly cheerful (it's Holidays in Paris by In The Beginning). I think I'll take this opportunity to direct you to my sidebar where you'll see that I've signed on to walk 60 km in the Weekend to End Women's Cancers in August. I'm thankful for all of the support so many friends have given me already - my goal of raising $2000 is getting closer and closer every day and that means more women will benefit from research, treatment and support funded by this walk. If you would like to donate, click on the link for more info. No amount is too small and every donation is gratefully received.

For the first time ever we had a spinner with us at retreat! Susie brought her wheel and some yummy roving which she deftly spun into yarn. Taking pictures of spinning is fun!!

It was another great day with friends.

Then I got home. My husband B is so calm and always a very positive person. He treated this incident with his trademark low-key "it's okay, it's nothing personal, we can get it fixed", but I was really upset.

Not because of how much it would cost to fix, but because our beautiful, original glass windows have been in place for almost ONE HUNDRED YEARS and some idiot decided to throw a ceramic mug through one of them on Saturday night. A neighbour down the street had a bunch of "free stuff" on the curb which a roving group of teens decided to use as projectiles. The family across the street saw them run away afterwards. Just more fuel for my kids' classic line "ooooh, those teenagers!" Luckily we line our windows with shrink wrap plastic in the winter months (because, although beautiful, those single panes are useless at keeping cold out!). The plastic prevented most of the glass from landing on the couch.

To cheer me up, I bought these during our Sunday morning walk.

The glazier is coming over later today.

Golden Post

I can't believe it. This is my 50th post!!! It really snuck up on me. I've got nothing extraordinary planned...no giveaway....no shocking revelations....no list of what I'm planning for the next 50. All I've got for you is lasagne.

That's turkey on the left and spinach on the right. Tomorrow is Quilt By the Bay, that means today is what I've come to refer to as my 'cooking day'. Everything's ready, I just have to get the pomegranate seeds out of the pomegranates for the salad and that'll be it.

On a very positive note, I did have a flash of inspiration for my Doll Quilt while cooking this morning. This is exciting. I need to make some sketches. I'm considering leaving my machine at project bin at home tomorrow and just taking a sketch book, my Christmas mags and some hand work. I can't believe it...January 15 and I haven't even read my new mags yet (skimmed yes, absorbed, no).

I can also report that after 40 mm of torrential rain last night (and who knows how much more since Monday), there is a faint glimmer of hope on the southern horizon...quite possibly something blue-ish emerging....

I know it is hard to see below all of that gray, but it's coming, I just know it. Sun, sun, sun, here it comes!!!!

Yesterday I mentioned that Greg Mortenson is in town for a few days and I was fortunate enough to attend his presentation last night. Certainly not disappointed. For all of his remarkable success (after years and years of struggle and hard work!!) he is the most humble, kind, down to earth guy ever. As soon as he arrived in the auditorium, he sat on the stage stairs and immediately the children in the audience started to approach him. He patiently signed all of their books (after making a point to first shake their hand, make eye contact and find out their names). His talk started 30 minutes late, but who could complain? If a child didn't have a book, Greg reached behind him, grabbed one off the publisher's stack and gave them one. He signed an extra young readers version of Three Cups of Tea for my 10 year old friend Ben, so that Ben could donate it to our school library. This man is a gift to the world. His message of "promoting peace one school at a time" and his undying commitment to educating girls is very powerful, but what also impresses me is his capacity to listen, form meaningful relationships, and facilitate change through empowering the people who need that change. Awesome.

While we are on the subject of helping others, check out Craft Hope . They are raising funds for Doctors Without Borders in Haiti through their Etsy shop. You can help in two ways: either donate an item to the shop, or purchase something from the shop.

Moo

Over the holidays I ran into a lot of people that I haven't seen for some time. That was nice. Meetings like these seem to me like a gentle badminton game, the conversational birdie volleying back and forth, answers hanging in the air until a new question is formed: How are your kids?, Did your kitchen reno work out?, How was the camping holiday in August?, What grade is your son in now?, Are you still riding/running/skiing?....and eventually, the one we've all been waiting for. How's work? What are you doing?

Lucky for me, I am gushing with enthusiasm over my current occupation: Quilting Blogger. I quit my job at the end of October to focus on creative work, try my hand at blogging and finish (some) of the zillion projects that occupy my brain and sewing room.

So (eventually they ask), how do I find your blog? Therein the problem. If this is my work now, I need to be somewhat professional, no? So yesterday I decided to explore the world of MOO cards. I have known about them for some time, after my first Etsy purchase last winter that came with the most adorable mini business card.

MOO cards are the easiest, most fun online order I have ever made. I had such a good time making Poppyprint cards with photos of my projects and poppies, I took some more pictures to make some for my Mom. Soon, she'll receive 100 minicards for Sybil's Socks. The best, most comfortable, handknit socks in the universe.

My family alone has at least 20 pairs. I think she's knit around 115 so far over the past few years since learning how to turn a heel. She and Dad spend a LOT of time traveling by car. She's one of the lucky ones that can ride shot-gun, alert Dad to wrong/missed turns, spy quilting/knitting/gourmet shops and knit all at once.

The MOO cards are the least I can do to thank her for sending a pair of coveted-door-prize socks for every QBTB!

One home, 5 communities: a quilter's story

WARNING: Long Post Ahead. Refresh your tea/coffee/wine.

Recent reading has left me feeling the need to share some thoughts on community...and in particular the creative communities I have become a part of since I fell in love with (ahem, became obsessed with) quilting. First, Jacquie blogged at Tallgrass Prairie Studio about her four neighbourhood quilts that she made in response to visiting a gated community, then Sew Mama Sew blogged a list of 10 things that have positively influenced home-sewing in the past decade. Both of those posts got me thinking. So naturally, I need to write some stuff down. Perhaps by sharing my thoughts & experiences, I can generate more discussion on creative community and encourage others to become a part of something a little bigger than their own sewing room if they are not already. Please leave a comment, share your thoughts, tell me what you love about your creative community!

I started quilting because I couldn't do woodwork at home. Really. After my son T was born 13 years ago I felt very isolated at home since none of our friends had babies yet. To bust up the full-on mothering schedule, I decided to take a night class at the local high school wood shop. I loved it! The 'class' really consisted of a retired shop teacher who seemed to be there only to ensure no one lost a limb on the table saw. Left to my own devices, I managed to design and build this pine bookcase:

In the second class, out of maple, I made this Dutch tabletop shuffleboard game popular in Holland. The game is called Sjoelbak (we pronounce it shule-buck). It gets a major workout over the holidays when there is lots of company over for after-dinner tournaments.

Thoughts of becoming a cabinet-maker's apprentice briefly occupied my mind. Lack of a basement or garage space for tools lead me to consider my collection of unused fabric, instead. I had been buying it for years, not really knowing why. My mom had taken up quilting after I left for university and there was a shop close to my new house in North Vancouver that looked very inviting. So, I checked out their newsletter and signed up for a beginner class. After that first course, I was hooked (sound familiar?). I had found Creative Community #1: local quilt shop, or LQS. There I made friends with the staff and other women in the numerous classes I took. I visited when I needed help or advice. As I was reminded the other day, you just can't find that kind of community at a discount fabric warehouse!

Eventually my first quilting teacher, a longarm quilter named Jackee, invited me to be a part of a small stitch group. There were five of us. We met monthly for a day-long home stitch-in that included lunch by the hostess. Creative Community #2! I know of small stitch groups that have been together for more than 10 years. Some do challenges together, some create blocks for everyone's birthday each year, some go away for a long weekend retreat every spring or make charity quilts. I am no longer a part of that first group, but now I stitch with a group on fairly regular Friday mornings. We went without a name for a long time, but have settled on The Gathered Threads. I've posted about us here and here. Small groups can be a wonderful source of community (and quilting magazines!). We have lively discussions, are compassionate friends, and share food, creative advice and fabric regularly. Our age range is about 30 years and it suits our group just fine. In fact, it's something I really love about us. That, and the fact that we are a no-pressure gang. Sometimes we go out for lunch after stitching for a couple hours, other times we head out for errands on our own. Occassionally we share a meal to celebrate a holiday or birthdays. Perfect!

After joining that first stitch group, I got up the nerve to attend a meeting of my local quilt guild. I had resisted for quite a while, thinking I wasn't really a quilter. That my work wasn't good enough. That everyone would have gray hair and think I was a no-talent young whippersnapper. Well, self-confidence issues aside, I was wrong on all accounts. I am now Vice President of that guild (and have a few gray hairs myself!). Eureka, Creative Community #3. By this time, I had left my career, was now a part-time employee at my LQS and getting to know a lot more women through guild workshops and committees. I discovered that I really loved hanging out with wise, relatively older women who had wonderful life/parenting/quilting experiences to share. Plus, my own mom lives 4000km away, so it was really comforting to have these women in my life. Quilting had taken over all my free time (and some cooking, cleaning & laundry time, too) and I seemed to be on a personal mission to spread the gospel of fabric and thread. I am prone to cheerleading and enthusiatic encouragement (and, truth be told, occassional unsolicited advice) when I believe in something!

The number of young professionals returning to home-sewing was growing and soon more and more peers of mine (we're talkin' late-ish-30's at this point) were shopping at the store. Conversation often turned to the fact that quilting for them was a solitary activity and all of their friends who were clubbing on the weekends thought they were batty for staying home to sew. I saw an opportunity to start a Friday night drop-in club of sorts, for quilters not yet confident enough to join the guild (I'd been there myself!), but who were yearning for community. This was the first time I had taken it upon myself to actually create a community. It felt great to share my passion with others. Once a month about 8 of us would gather in the store classroom, work on our own projects and share some snacks. If people needed help, I was there to provide it. Sometimes I did a demonstration of a new product or technique I had learned. An unexpected result of this group was the number of close friendships that formed amongst the regular participants, and I can proudly say that almost all of the approximately 20 regulars have now joined the guild.

This brings me to Creative Community #4. Sadly our LQS closed up shop several years ago. We Friday nighters were bummed. Many worked full time, had small children at home or had no other venue to sew in, or friends to sew with. Our gatherings had become a cherished event each month. What to do? On the urging of my friend and regular attendee Marsha, I planned an entire day of quilting in her community's village hall. I was nervous. Would enough people sign up to make it worthwhile? Could I pull off the catering? Could I gather some prizes to make it fun? Yes, yes and yes!! Now known as Quilt By the Bay (or QBTB), I've been holding these 13-hour-long-day retreats about 5 times a year ever since. The hall can fit 25 quilters and the days sell out in a matter of 12 hours by email. Amazing! The wonderful part of creating community is that you can surround yourself with like-minded people who all have fun together! Luckily for me, QBTB has become a successful small business that (a) I LOVE and (b) supports my fabric obsession. We all enjoy each other's company so much that every November we go away for 3 nights/4 days to quilt, quilt, quilt together!

Last, but not least is YOU. Yes, you are Creative Community #5. You already know everything fantastic about blogland and Flickr groups: the sharing, support, free tutorials, beautiful photos, inspiring fabric and designs, swaps and giveaways. For me, being part of a global community has been SEW exciting and invigorating to my creative work. Just yesterday I received the nicest email from Pennsylvania with photos of two beautiful Crop Circle Table Runners made by Kathy. I can't tell you the feeling of joy and validation it gave me to know someone liked a project that I designed enough to make it twice! Very zingy, indeed.

Big breath. That was a long post. Thanks for hanging in there. Each and every one of my creative communities and all of my quilting friends are dear to me. When I left university with a geology degree and headed north to study landslides 20 years ago, I had no idea that one day I'd find quilting. I am so happy to have an early start on this journey that too many people 'save' for retirement. Honestly, I can't imagine my life without stitching and I know you feel the same.

I'd love to hear about your creative community and what it means to you.....

Weekend Work and a Shout Out for Democracy

After a biblical start to the day (rain-wise, that is) Monday turned out just ducky. The clouds parted, the sun shone down and everything started steaming. Thick rolls of steamy mist curled off the cedar shakes of our garden shed, off the top rail of the fence, off our neighbour's garage roof, off the bark of the trees. It was a little Hallowe'en-ie out there for about half an hour! All misty, spooky-like. Except it was sunny, so I wasn't afraid.

In fact, Flynn and I went for a mid-morning stroll. I never realized how camo he is at this time of year. Spot the mini-dachshund (just follow the blue leash):

After lots of sniffing, investigating, looking up at falling leaves and generally holding up our walk, he discovered this sweet little faerie-land of mushrooms, with water drops still clinging to their caps.

That certainly was an unexpected little break in our day.

Yesterday I promised photos of my QBTB finishes (and I gotta tell you, I don't have much success making big things while working a retreat, I stick to smaller projects that I am familiar with...that don't require a lot of complicated instructions, so I can socialize, entertain and have fun!) I finished two of Rae's Buttercup Bags that I will donate to a fundraiser silent auction.

Rae offers this bag pattern FREE on her blog Made by Rae, or you can buy a licensed version if you want to sell them!

Okay, here's the Shout Out for Democracy segment of today's post. If you've been following along here lately, or anywhere in crafty blogland for that matter, then you know about the sew, mama, sew Scrap Buster Tutorial Contest. They received 114 tutorial entries!!!! The prize: 3 chances at $50 of fabric from their gorgeous shop. Amazingly generous. The girls decided it was too many entries to judge, so they've thrown it back at us and asked us to VOTE for our favs. The good news is, everyone gets 8 votes, so USE 'EM! Scoot on over there now and exercise your democratic right! Don't delay! And, you know, if you're having trouble deciding which box to tick, the Crop Circle Table Runner can be found in group 2.


The following statement is not a bribe, just a friendly little fyi: If I win $50 of fabric, there's gonna be a giveaway....right here, right quick. With $50, I could buy 5 yards of LOVE! Then, as stated in yesterday's post, I could Share The Love! And, in case you haven't noticed, I really like to share.

Winning Weekend

I am completely exhausted. In a good way. Well, except for the head ache. So many exciting things are going on, I don't know where to start....I think I'll make a list.


1. On Friday during my whirlwind cooking, packing, fabric preparing, grocery shopping, entertaining kids while getting ready for QBTB, I took a wee latte break & checked my Flickr page. Lo and behold a message! An ad agency wanted to contact me regarding one of my pictures because they wanted to buy it! Like, with real money! Nothing like the offer of $ for something you weren't even trying to sell (and not far from Christmas, either!). Naturally, I called right away. After some nice conversations about pixels and potential prices (but without first obtaining consent from my model) I agreed. It is not a done deal; they still have to present it to their client, but if all goes well, B may be gracing the cover of a tourism magazine for the interior of British Columbia next summer.

I'll keep you posted as I should find out in about 2 weeks. Even if it doesn't happen, the thrill of being asked will last a lot longer than those 2 weeks!!

2. For 13 hours on Saturday, I got to hang out with 23 of my quilting buds sewing, eating and having a generally fabulous time. I can't believe it, but after all of the packing up and driving to the hall and setting up, I realized I had left my camera at home, charging. Rats!

3. B came to pick me & all my gear up, help pack away the tables and clean the hall. Then, we came home and transformed ourselves for a Hallowe'en party (sorry, he's too shy to share - it was his first event in drag and it may take a few more before he's up for posting photos). I can let you know that he totally rocked it as HRH, the Queen of England. Super fun time with friends, complete with impromptu group line dance to Disco Fever! Burn, Baby Burn!

4. Then today, after returning from a killer soccer game (killer-bad due to 8 a.m. start, after 2 a.m. bedtime, and killer-good due to D scoring several amazing goals!) I finally sat down to peruse blogland. Well, much to my surprise and sheer delight this is what I saw at the top of my dashboard:

Hey, that's me! Really? I won a giveaway? I LOVE sweetjessie's fabric garland and think that she is indeed sweet to be sending it to me. Thanks Jessie!!

5. Ok, nearing the end of the report. For me this is a biggie, just cuz I've been a major follower and fan of everything they do at sew, mama, sew. I think the sms gals run an incredibly efficient shop, blog and forum, provide tons of resources for 'the modern sewist' and generally do a wonderful job helping creative people connect and share. And I'm not just saying that to win $50 in fabric from their shop. Honestly. But check it out, my Crop Circle Table Runner tutorial made it onto their post yesterday amongst other fab entries to their Scrap Buster Tutorial Contest.

Wow. What a weekend. Like I said, totally exhausted, in a good way. Looking forward to a nice hot bowl of chicken soup, the Amazing Race and my pillow.

After a good night's sleep, I'll take some pix of my finishes from retreat yesterday and I do believe I should get busy devising some sort of giveaway - Must. Share. The. Love.