Where have I been??

It must be said that my time on the Internet is quite curtailed these days; that with the shop and the activities of summer, it feels great to be busy. Even Hurricane Arthur which came to our shores Saturday morning as a tropical storm didn't deter our plans.

Even before the shop opened, I had plans to be a vendor at the Annual Lupin Quilt Fair and Market (in its 33rd year) in our little town of Port Elgin NB. Ever since I made those plans, I've been preparing for that weekend. Quilters are a hardy bunch; attendance was down on storm day but it picked up on Sunday.

This was Spruce It Up Quilting's booth!

My husband made the quilt rack and added the signs!

I had no expectations for this venue since I was a newcomer... the point of being there was to meet quilters and non-quilters who had great interest in the art and to have a chance to share my love of it. I achieved that and more! The reception I got was overwhelming... I hope quilters see the shop as a friendly place to visit, to shop and especially to come show me their works of art... after all it goes both ways! We all learn from each other. I love to see what others are making!

As you can see, Deauville is front stage. A lot of people commented on it... after all, this is cottage country. Many asked if it was for sale! Many more took photos! 

I had a few of my own quilts on display in the gym... the one on the left was made in 1994-95 and finished a few years later. The pattern was featured in Fons and Porter's For the Love of Quilting in the second or third magazine issue. It is called Fat Stars because I used over 120 fat quarters to make the pieced blocks. I hand-quilted this one myself.

The quilt on the right was made with leftover fabrics from a signature quilt I made for our parents as a Christmas gift in 1994. The colorful fabrics were chosen by each family member to represent themselves. I couldn't let those leftovers go to waste so I used 30s reproduction fabrics to frame the jewels. It's called My Family Jewels because I can identify each family member in this quilt. This one was hand-quilted by the Anglican Church Women's group in Westcock NB. Both are queen sized and not for sale!

Barnside is also bound and ready to send off to our dear friend diagnosed with cancer. After finishing the binding, I tossed it in the washing machine and it came out so lovely!

While I was photographing this quilt, Sadie was busy putting the final stitches to her large quilt! Excuse the bright light from the window behind her. Sadie spent yesterday quilting hearts on her top and after finishing the last row, she wanted to add more quilting. She decided to return today to do some free-motion quilting in the spaces between the hearts. She found her groove and in no time, she was done! She was so excited to be in front of the machine and plans to return in August with another quilt for more practice. I must tell you that she is also a dedicated hand-quilter who does beautiful work!

You too can rent time on Lolah! Bring your project in and we'll look it over, choose a design, thread and we'll book a time! If you already do free-motion on your machine, you will be amazed at how fast you can transition to the longarm. There's a learning curve and it takes practice but you'll surprise yourself! Sadie went home with a smile, so proud to have done it herself.

Spruce It Up Quilting shelves are just chock full of fabric bolts: Riley Blake, Jo Morton, Kona Cottons, Blue Hill, Maywood Studios, Andover Fabrics, Robert Kaufman, In The Beginning, RJR's Cotton Supreme and many more! We sell batting too: 100% poly, 80/20, 100% cotton on the roll... 

Monday morning, we'll have 21 new backings; 108" X 108". You won't believe our prices! Perhaps I'll see you soon!

Toodles!

Lorette

PS I'm linking to The Needle And Thread Network and to Let's Bee Social... go on over and browse what others are doing... 

East Coast quilt shops visited!

While away at our summer home, aka: soon to be our year-round home, we decided to make a special effort to visit a few "local" quilt shops. Yes my husband comes along; he's even been known to suggest or point out certain items he's found while cruising the store! He's a wonderful quilt store shopper in-training! :)

But first, I attended the Fibre Arts Festival in Amherst Nova Scotia and had a chance to meet with the wonderfully talented Jennifer of Sister of the Brush, a sister blogger, longarm quilter, fabric dyer, and a great artist, for a quick introductory visit. We had a great chat, albeit too short, (my husband waited in the car). Plans to meet again just wasn't in the cards this trip unfortunately! However we will be together again soon...

The Fibre Arts Festival (see Jennifer's post!) included a quilt show by the Cumberland Quilt Guild as well as a small vendor's mall. This is where I made my first purchases. The Fabric Cupboard is a quilt shop located in Moncton, NB. I haven't been to this store yet but plan to rectify this in the next few months. I hear they have quite the selection of wonderful fabrics.

These stripes may of course show up in my De Deauville A Cape Cod:

And who doesn't like a few more Valdani threads? Just picking up colors I don't already have.

The Zonta Arts Bazaar vendor and Fiber Artist (Rug Hooking) Felicia Knock was selling some wonderful wools. These I bought in 1/2 yds:

These are some of her hand dyed 100% New Dorr Wool and they're 1/8yd cuts. Aren't they beautiful? and sooo soft!

Visiting with friends in Riverview, NB, I had a chance to check out The Covered Bridge Quiltery where I found a beautiful display of this quilt: "In The Meadow We Can Build a Snowman" and I just fell in love with their colorway! Since they have a "NO PHOTOS PLEASE" policy, I can't show you their quilt although she let me take a picture since I was buying the pattern which happens to be a BOM (block of the month) since ended. Their colors were darker 

They used a combination of cottons and wool flannels so I helped myself to some of their plaids. Did I tell you that I love plaids?? It's really a passion!

On display in the shop was a Christmas table runner I knew would make an excellent gift for someone special. They even had kits made; such a cute design on the bag!

The runner is found in Disa Designs book. I came home with 3 of her books... I fell in love with her adorable Santa Polka Dot pattern while cruising Pinterest last year... perhaps I can make one this year?? 

These 2 half-yards are meant for backgrounds in Yoko Saito's Quilt Mystere for Quiltmania. One of them was used for the church in "In The Meadow" quilt.

By the way, if you get to The Quiltery, whether on the website or in person, have a look at their Quilter's Homes and Quilter's Garden BOM quilts going on now. Specifically, look at the wonderful quilting done by Penny Bubar. She does fabulous work which you can also view on her FlickR page and drool some more!

Next day trip was spent on the island! Prince Edward Island that is! We love to trek over there any chance we get so on this day, we were headed west to the town of O'Leary to visit The Quilt Gallery & Fabric Crafts N' More. You can also like them on Facebook to learn all about their sales, promotions etc. They have a wide variety of beautiful quilts for sale displayed in a "room" at the back of the store. I was on a mission to find the yardages below which appeared in "In The Meadow" quilt. 

And of course I'm always on the lookout for architecture and landscape fabrics. This time, it was mainly textures in fat quarters.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about all this shopping is that it fit in our suitcases! :)

Toodles,

Lorette