Teaching - Powell River, BC and MORE!

I spent this past weekend with member of the Timberlane Quilters' Guild in Powell River teaching 2 workshops. First up was Give & Take Applique Design Discoveries.  Here are some of the designs the enthusiastic students created in class.

I always intend to take more photos of the designs students create in fabric but time always slips away as they learn the method and try the various stitches for applique. Students used a vast range of fabrics and I asked them to send photos so I can share them with you.

After class on Saturday, Yvonne took me on a tour of the townsite area of Powell River before we joined guild members for dinner at a local restaurant. We stopped to see the Patricia Theatre. The theatre was opened in 1913 and is thought to be the oldest BC theatre business still in operation.  The building is currently undergoing renovations due to a flood but they plan on re-opening on December 5th.  Learn more about this historic theatre here.

On Sunday students learned all about bobbin quilting and how to embellish with fat and fuzzy threads. This is a process-type workshop, without a specific project. Students went home with lots of samples and ideas for incorporating these techniques in their work.

Thank you to everyone for making my visit so enjoyable.

On the way home on Monday I stopped at Serge & Sew in Nanaimo. Bev and Linda shared a quilt they had on display.

and the quilt uses Northcott's Artisan Spirit Shimmer Multi-colour Chip Pack (63 5" squares - one of each fabric in the collection).

The pattern is from Joan Ford's book Scrap Therapy® Scraps Plus One!

The quilt is called Georgia's Garden and Joan told me the story of the quilt. Here is what Joan told me:

Georgia was a quilty friend of mine who had a huge stash like any of us. She had a heart condition and passed away a few years ago. Dolly, her good friend took on the challenge to disburse the fabrics in Georgia's stash for the benefit of the quilt guild. The day that Dolly scheduled to sell Georgia's fabric, I was going to be out of town, so I asked Dolly if she wouldn't mind snagging a piece of fabric for me. The fabrics (she actually chose two fabrics from Georgia's stash) were used in the original quilt (the one in the book). The quilt was named Georgia's Garden, in part because Georgia liked flowers, gardening, and one of the fabrics from Georgia's stash used in the quilt was a floral print. 

Anyway, shortly after Georgia died, Dolly took the microphone and spoke to the guild about Georgia. Dolly and Georgia went to many quilt shows together and Georgia would always insist upon getting the gloves you get at the show entrance, so she could touch the quilt. Not because she felt the need to inspect the quilts in the show, but because if Georgia saw a stray thread on a quilt, it would just about drive her off the deep end if she couldn't pick the thread off the quilt. The gloves allowed her to do that without getting 'in trouble' with the show organizers. 

Dolly said that from now on every time she went to a quilt show and saw one of those pesky threads on a quilt in the show, she would remember her friend Georgia. It was a way to keep Georgia with her, even though Georgia has passed. 

Dolly then challenged the room, and when I speak at guild or shop events, I tell this story and similarly offer a challenge: The next time you are at a quilt show, and see a stray thread (it's inevitable that you will), who will you remember fondly: a grandmother, a mother, a good friend? Whose memory will be summoned by the loose, stray thread on the quilt?

I love this story and will think of Georgia and my dear friend Moira whenever I see a stray thread on a quilt show quilt.