A couple of hours and a few good friends

A few months ago, someone I know was diagnosed with breast cancer. I really wanted to make a quilt for her but didn't have the time to do the whole thing with out help.  One Saturday, I called a few of my friends together and  and in several hours we had the quilt blocks, sashing and first border done.

 One of the women took the quilt home and added the outer border.  The next day she passed it on to me to quilted it. When I had completed the quilting, I passed the quilt on to another lady who put the binding on and made a label.

We had so much fun working together and I was totally amazed what you can do with a few good friends and a couple of hours!

Thank you to everyone who helped!  I delivered the quilt on the weekend and the recipient was so touched.

Cranbrook Girls Bugle Band

When I was growing up, every girl wanted to be in the Cranbrook Girls Bugle Band.  Joining was like a right of passage.  When you went into 8th grade you were allowed to join. Most of us girls could hardly wait.

The band was started by a man by the name of Pop Price during the second world war. He was a military man so the band was set up military style.  My aunt Eleanor (Armstrong) Hayward was one of the original members.  She is the drummer in the front row, 2nd from the left.

Since her time, we have almost always had a family member part of the band.  My cousins were in it and both of my sisters and I spent a number of years in it.  And now one of my nieces are in it.  We had a great time, we met new friends, and travelled to many places in the USA and Canada.  In my youth, families didn't travel like they do now. But if you were in the band, you got to go lots of places. We travelled in school buses and slept on the floors of school gyms or church halls. It was great fun!

 My cousin Bonnie played with the band at the Montreal Olympics and was able to see the Beatles in person while she was there. My sisters and I played for Queen Elizabeth at Fort Steele. We went to the Calgary Stampede yearly. The band has won many awards there. We attended the parades in places like Spokane Washington, Seattle Washington, and  Vancouver, B.C.and of course our local towns.

 One of my favorite trips was when we went to Victoria. We took a ferry from Vancouver B.C. to Victoria. And no sooner had we arrived on Vancouver Island, the ferries went on strike. The trip was supposed to be a couple of days on the island but soon turned in to a couple of weeks. Can you imagine taking 100+ girls for a few days and having it turn into a few weeks? What to you do with that many girls for that length of time. We went site seeing. We saw the Buchard Gardens, the Wax museum, we saw the parliment buildings and saw the Giant Redwood forest. And we played for whoever we could. It was amazing!

This past weekend, we had a reunion. All members from those early days until now were invited.  Did it ever bring back memories. We marched in the Sam Steele parade along with the present day members. Some of us played our old instruments or twirled our battons or flags. It took a bit of practise.

At first I was a little hesitant to join in. When I was a member of the band I was a Flag Majorette. I was slim and trim back then. I really didn't know if I could do it.  But the band no longer has enough members to have Flag Majorettes so if we didn't do it, there would be any. With a little encouragement a group of us made up a simple routine and we joined in. I'm sure we didn't look as good as we did twenty or thirty years ago but we had a great time. Our families laughed so hard when they saw us coming.

My two sisters are the blond women in the second row and I am the flag majorette that looks like she is going to have a heart attack.

My niece Derrien plays in the band today. She is the smiling blond. They still play those original bugles. (They haven't been made since 1940.)

We missed all of you who couldn't be there!

Cranbrook Quilter's Guild Quilt Show

The Cranbrook Quilter's Guild is hosting a quilt show June 3 and 4. They are a talented group of ladies so I'm sure you would really like it. I hope to see you there! The quilt on the poster was the winning quilt at their last show. It was made by Ileane Sampert and was quilted by me.

Here are a few quilts that I recently completed for one of  my clients. Ev made this beautiful sampler quilt to improve her skills. She completed all the block in a Fons and Porter book to learn all the different techniques in it. Then she used her imagination and made up a few of her own blocks. She made guitar block to honor her husband who is a musician (among other things) and fills their home with joyful sounds.  The dog quilt was also made by Ev. It is so cute!

HMQS

A quilting trip to Salt Lake City is not complete without my two good friends Stephanie and Laurie. We only had to drive an extra 5 hours to pick up Laurie. (My husband seems to like that is a big deal.)

HMQS was fantastic! I had the opportunity to take some wonderful classes.

My first class was "Quilting in the Dark" with Dustin Farrell. Believe it or not, the class really was in the dark. Dustin quilted with the aid of a black light. It was amazing! He is a very talented fellow and he opened up my eyes to try something new. Dustin encouraged everyone to play and he made that play so fun. Imagine turning off the lights, listening to your favorite music and doodling on your longarm. (I was lucky enough to be able to take home part of his sample.

One of Dustin's quilts recently won best of show at MQX East.

The thread just glowed under the black light.

Dustin also likes to draw in a sketch pad. Can you imagine doodling like this?

Irena Bluhm makes some wonderful whole cloth quilts that she colors with pencil crayons and seals the color with some kind on medium.. Often she put bugs on her quilts. Not your average everyday bugs, but beautiful stylized ones from her imagination.

I took at class from Irena and learned how to make my own bugs. My first attempt was a scary but it turned out alright. Now I will have to try it using my quilting machine.

Many of you have made a "Disappearing Nine Patch" quilt. My next instructor, Mary Anne Ciccotelli added a twist to it. She called her quilt " Disappearing Rainbow" Can you guess why?

This quilt is so bright and cheery! And so easy to make. Mary Anne also did a presentation on 6 generations of her family and the quilts that they made. It was great!


Every year I try to take a class from Carmen Geddes. She is wonderful teacher and her classes are relaxing. She is never in a hurry even if she has 30 people in her class. This year she taught a class on using QuiltSmart. QuiltSmart is a foundation that allows you to make difficult patterns very easily. We made this Black Eyed Susan design. Can you believe curved piecing can be fun!

I also took a class from Vicki Shetter. She makes some wonderful family history type quilts that contained photos and other memorabilia. They were almost like scrapbooking with fabric. I was so interest in the class, I forgot to take pictures.

The quilt show was amazing. Here are a few quilts that I really liked. There are so many talented quilters

Well Sue McCarty did it again! Her quilt took best of show.! It is thread, all thread. She does amazing work. 

The quilt show had a section of pictoral quilts that were very beautiful.

This quilt is a picture of someone at the Hawaii Temple.

This farmer quilt was really large. It looked about 7 or 8 feet wide. When you looked at it, it almost looked like a photograph. I really liked this one.

This was my favorite pictoral quilt. I would have sworn that the seals were real. I wanted to reach out and touch them.

Of course there we traditonal quilts too.

No trip is complete without doing some research. As a family history buff, I like to visit cemetaries in the cities I visit. This time we went to the Salt Lake cemetary. where I looked for prominent LDS leaders.

I saw the nicest headstone that included the decease's family history. If I was doing family history on this family it would have been a great find. There definitely was some thought put into this marker.

After a week of fun, it was time to head home. Good bye HMQS! See you until next year.

I don't think we shopped quite enough. We still had a bit of room left.

Only one more sleep!

I am so excited! It is only one more sleep until I leave for Salt Lake City to attend HMQS. HMQS is a machine quilting conference and show. It is absolutely wonderful! This is the third time I've been able to attend. For me it is a week full of learning, a wonderful quilt show and merchants with every quilting supply you will ever need. To me it is almost heaven.

This year I signed up to take classes with Dustin, Farrel, Irena Bluhm, Mary Anne Ciccotelli, and Carmen Geddes, Vicki Shetter.  I love learning new things!

Each time I go I am so amazed at the talented people there are. I love looking their work. Several years ago there was a quilt made by Sue McCarty that honored J.R.R. Tolkien (the author of Lord of the Rings series) It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.  And the design was only thread. It was the show winner that year. Here is a picture of it.



Last year there was a display of quilts made by David Taylor. I just love his work.




I think it is wonderful that we have conferences like this that get the best teachers in the quilting world together to share their talents. It allows a quilter like me to learn from the best.

I also like spending this week with two very good friends. Stephanie and Laurie are the best! We have so much fun laughing, quilting and site seeing,  Oh did I mention we talk? Boy do we talk! It starts the minute we get in the car and doesn't stop until we hit the pillow at the end of the day. Good friends are the best!

I don't know whether I'll sleep tonight or not. I'm so excited!

When life throws you a curve ball

Have you ever wondered what you would do when life throws you a curve ball? You know what I mean. Life just doesn't turn out the way you wanted it to. You wanted something and you got something else. Life takes you down an unexpected path.Well, I would like to tell you about an acquaintance of mine. She is a beautiful young women about 30 years old that goes to my church. She is a wife, the mother of three wonderful children and she likes to decorate cakes. She has the best sense of humor and finds joy in the simpliest things in life. She laughs a lot.

She recently found out that she has breast cancer.  Her unexpected path. She has decided to share her journey in a blog. I have been reading it and I have to say, I'm glad it is not my journey.  But, I have been so touched by her candidness. She is just starting her journey but I can tell that she has amazing strength. And I've never laughed so hard. She counting the number of people that have seen her breasts and is having a bit of a contest, like counting the number of jelly beans in the jar.

I can honestly say that I have always been terrified of breast cancer. A very good friend of our family died of it some years ago. I saw the suffering that she went through. My Mother-in-law had breast cancer and had a scare when the doctors though she had it a second time. My husband's aunt died of it. A good friend of mine is a survivor, It seems it is everywhere.

So I'm going to face my fear and I'm going follow her journey. I'm going to laugh when she laughs, and probably cry when she cries. And hopefully I'll be able to lend a helping hand.

I'v been trying to come up with some ideas to cheer her up when things get rough. If you have any ideas, I'd love here from you.

What I've been up to

I thought some of you might like to see some of the quilts I've worked on recently.

 This quilt was made by Helen Etherington. Helen recently passed away and she left some wonderful quilts for her grandchildren.  I'm sure the recipient of this one is going to appreciate it

My husband loves to do Sudoku puzzles. So I made this quilt out of one of his puzzles. This quilt is a sample for a class I'll be teaching at the Cotton Tree Quilt Shop.

This quilt was made by Bonnie McKinnon. I just love that fabric line.

Bonnie's Christmas Quilt has a wonderful array of Christmas fabrics

This lovely Crown of Thorns Quilt was made by Diane Bjorgaard.  It is just beautiful.

This fun quilt was made by Helen Ball for her husband. It is so bright and cheery that I'm sure he is going to love it.