Minot Prairie Quilt Festival

Beth, Yvonne and I had a great time in Minot last weekend.  We attended the Minot Prairie Quilt Festival for the first time.

Here is a photo of an applique lesson with Nancy Odom.  She had some great tips.  She was the guest speaker at the Saturday banquet.  She kept us entertained for ages, taking us from belly aching laughter to tears and then back again!

The festival committee arranged for lots of prizes at every class and meal.  Also, at every meal, there was a favour for each of us to take home.  What a treat!!

The merchant mall was also very good.  We each bought a few items to bring home.....   I bought three kits, two books, a jelly roll and needling felting supplies.

I tried needle felting for the first time and loved it.  We had Bonnie as our instructor.  She owns Willow Wood Market in Bemidji, ND, and is a wonderful teacher and delightful person.  Here's hoping we see her again!!

The near finished project for needle felting workshop.

The needle felting class members and their projects.

Bonnie, her husband and I in front of her stall at the merchant mall.

I also took a course in making fabric jewelry.  It was very finicky, but fun.  I'm sure I will use ideas from this book written by the instructor from Arizona, Heidi Pridemore.

Edyths Paintings

Here are photos of Edyth's paintings that we have hanging in our house. Edyth is going to be having a show at the Portage art gallery soon. Perhaps she will borrow some of these to include in her show!

Spring soon

For two weeks (read - since we got home from Africa) we have had snow either every day or every other day. Gee, thanks for waiting until we got home to have winter!! It is supposed to be warm this weekend and next week. I sure hope so!

One good thing about snow is that it keeps me in crafting. I have been finishing up some UFOs (Un Finished Objects). Two baby quilts, quilt top and bottom for our bed out of Bali batiks, Xmas tree skirt, lunch bag, etc.

I also have spent time with friends - FQJR quilt group, book club, THAA board and lunch gang. Also, have had visitors.

 Photo of the completed lunch bag.

Photos of Annette and her 1600 quilt done on the long arm this week.

Security Blanket Providers

A small group of quilters met in Brandon to sew quilts for kids. These quilts are donated to Women's Shelters all over Southern and Central Manitoba. Any children arriving at a shelter are allowed to choose a quilt for themselves. Shelter workers say that the children find these quilts very comforting.  Here is a quote from a shelter worker....

Sometimes when the children come to the shelter they act out.  They have learned that there are only two choices in life – be the abuser or the abused.  So the children test everyone in the shelter to see at what point they will become abusive.  There were three brothers that were particularly hard to deal with.  The brothers were brought to an area where the blankets were displayed.  They picked their own blankets, immediately wrapped the blankets around themselves and curled up on the couch in front of the T.V. and stayed there for the rest of the day.  The entire shelter felt the effects of that moment.  Our blankets were able to do something where nothing else had worked. 


To see more about Security Blanket Providers and how you can help click on the link below.
securityblanketproviders.org


We had a great day.  I was able to complete one quilt top before lunch and was working on the second quilt top when I was distracted while cutting.  Never look away while using a rotary cutter.  The cutter slipped over the ruler and sliced into my index finger.  It was a clean cut, but very deep, so I wrapped it up with paper towel and a zip lock bag with snow in it (thanks Lorna) and headed to the Brandon General Hospital.  Well, after waiting for over an hour to be stitched, I got up enough nerve to look at my finger again.  The bleeding had stopped and the cut had sealed.  The nurse put on some steri-strips and a bandage and Donna drove us home.  Moral of the story - Either pay attention while rotary cutting or wear a chain-mail glove while cutting!  (Actually Fons and Porter sells cutting gloves and I always scoffed at them.  Well, no longer!)  The photo below shows me demonstrating correct use of rotary cutter while sporting my hospital bandaged finger.

Winter weather

So, apparently, the winter weather waited for us to get home before it hit Manitoba this year! Lucky us!

Notice that I am wrapped up in my down feather coat to be outside. Charlie, our dog, was pretty happy to have us home. She wraps herself around my legs whenever I am outside

The next two photos show fog, hoarfrost, and ground drift snow on the road from our house to town. (Buket, you are right, our town of Holland is very small!)

Oh well, better to live here with a bit of cold weather than in the mid-US where they have had wicked tornadoes!