Now I am blushing!!

Goodness me! I am just home from Cambridge ON , having collected my little Bluebells quilt as the show is over now. Imagine my surprise when I was handed the quilt all nicely wrapped AND a big shiny foil gift bag for winning Viewers' Choice!!! How very nice! I thought of sending a thank you to McDougall Cottage, but I realize it is the VIEWERS whom I should thank! Not sure how many of them follow my blog, but for those who do, Thank You so much! I do not do this for prizes or recognition but this feedback IS very nice and VERY much appreciated. Thanks so much, Folks! In case you do not recall which quilt I am on about , here it is....

The "wee " quilt and the big purple rosettes!

And the big purple rosettes all by themselves.

Part of the prize in the shiny gift bag was a little jug of THE best Maple Syrup I have EVER tasted. Deevine. I shall have to dole it out ever so delicately, being a diabetic woman myself :-( I am pretty strong in the self discipline department though so I will be careful . DH will help me too. Anyway, lovely day today, a gorgeous ride in the countryside and we discovered the graves of two of DH's rellies whose death dates we did not have. Good day all round!

Very nice!

The Peony piece is coming along nicely but I have totally changed my thoughts on doing the stamens! Nothing special to show yet but I intend to paint the anthers today so they can be set in place and then the filaments made. My original plan was to use Reemay for them too but I cur them the other night and did not like them at all so I am going with a less formal, less organized look made from my hand dyed fabrics. Gotta find, or MAKE the right colours today. So, stay tuned!

And now, I am honoured and pleased to report that we attended the Artists' Tea at McDougall Cottage in Cambridge, ON where the Wee Quilt Challenge is underway and I received an Honourable Mention for Excellence for my entry, Tangy Wood Bluebells! In case you have not seen the piece, here it is!

Hah! I did what so many suggested and typed first , THEN added the picture. Seems to work well. I will be interested to see what happens if you want to add more than one picture. Thanks folks!

The show's theme this year was Memories of the Old Sod. Bluebells are one of my very favourite memories of Kintyre!

I am posting this to the needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.com thanks again for all of the suggestions to solve my picture problems!

A Week of Surprises!!!

This has been an interesting week! A few weeks ago, I submitted three pieces of work to two quilt shows- two to the Grand National in Kitchener and one to the Wee Quilt Challenge in Cambridge. The GN was in touch very smartly to say that both pieces I submitted to them had been accepted- YAY! BUT, I heard nothing from McDougall Cottage in Cambridge. I waited patiently, surprised that they did not even acknowledge receipt of my entry form , and then called them. I was told I SHOULD have gotten an email , but that I would be informed as to whether my work was accepted or not. More waiting. Deadline for entries came and went and I just put it out of my mind. No prob! BUT, two nights ago, just at supper time, I got a call from them asking when I would be bringing my quilt to them??!! I was flabbergasted, to say the least. To make a long story short, I WAS accepted but the emails had been sent to an incorrect address. Easy error to make, I guess. Anyway, patient DH drove me to Cambridge yesterday with the quilt so now three of my babes are out for public scrutiny!

Last evening, I got a lovely surprise from Remy, one of six really FUN ladies from Guelph ON who took my Urban Cubes class last fall, with a nice attachment- see below- of her finished piece. It is so nice I really wanted to share it with y'all.

Didn't Remy do a lovely job!

This is not a pattern , per se. I taught them how to make each of eleven cool, 3D blocks and then they arranged them as they liked. Remy chose the hexagonal shape similar to the one I used as my teaching sample. It is on my blog somewhere I think. The blocks are a combination of ones by Sara Nephew, Maxine Rosenthal and Joy Pelzmann. Great fun to do and a very effective little wall quilt.

The pieces I submitted for jurying into the two shows are Red Iris, Smokebush Leaves and Tangy Glen Bluebells. See below...

Smoke Bush Leaves 

Red Iris

Tangy Glen Bluebells

The top two are at the GN , this year's theme being Local Colour, and Bluebells is the late arrival at the Wee Quilt Challenge.

Now, here is the last nice surprise. I have JUST learned that the Red Iris has been chosen to be used as the photo advertising the opening of the Grand National - 21 April at Homer Watson House and Gallery in Kitchener,ON. The Wee Quilt Challenge opens 10 April at McDougall Cottage, Cambridge, ON. Maybe we shall see you there?