The 2022 Mahone Bay Quilt Show and Sale is officially over – and what a show and sale it was! Despite the odds – after two plus years of Covid and an unwelcome visit from Fiona (who invited her anyway!) – the show was a resounding success. Quilts on display clearly showcased the many talents of our Guild members and the Quilt Boutique was a hotspot through the entire weekend. While the final financial results aren’t yet in, there were lots of visitors and lots of sales even though we were all housebound on Saturday as Fiona rampaged through the province.

The October newsletter will give you the lowdown on Show winners – including Viewers Choice! – and all those lucky people who won door prizes and the very fortunate Raffle Quilt winner (hint: he’s the spouse of one of our Members!) Stay tuned to our Flickr feed here for detailed photos of the show (not there just yet but they are coming!). Don’t forget that you can find photos from Flickr on our website home page (scroll way down…) and take a shortcut to our Flickr account just by clicking on a photo.

To whet your appetite, here are a few shots I took while roaming the show. The Best in Show was awarded to Pam Wells for her Winter Wonderland – the beautiful embroidery, meticulous piecing and Pam’s amazing quilting definitely earned this recognition.

The Viewers Choice award went to Ruth Grant, featured below. The quilt was stunning, and featured precise piecing, applique and many hours of excellent hand quilting.

We hope that you made it to the show while the weather allowed, on Friday and on Sunday. For those who couldn’t get there, we had over 130 quilts on display as well as the Challenge quilts and well-crafted items in the Quilt Boutique too numerous to count. I took a few photos while roaming around that will give you a peek, while you are waiting for the Flickr version.

They say ‘it takes a village’ and of course, it’s true of just about anything that requires significant effort. The many hours of planning under the leadership of Annette Fralic certainly paid off – but the show would not have happened without the invaluable contribution of team leaders and Guild members who volunteered their time (and in some cases, the time of their spouses) to pull this off. I know that the show made me quite proud to be a member of this quilting community – everyone involved deserves a big THANK YOU!

Colleen

Many of you have already headed out to shop for your summer projects – perhaps for the items you’ll be selling at our Quilt Show boutique. Nearby shops like The Woolworks, Lynn’s Quilting Studio and Avonport are on everyone’s lists and rightly so – we rely on them!

For those who choose to wander further to do a bit more fabric shopping during this great weather, there are other lovely shops to be found locally, here in the Maritimes. With that in mind, my friend Jan and I recently headed out on a day trip to explore and/or revisit shops within a few hours of home. We had hoped to do this in 2020, but well, we all know why that didn’t happen…

We decided to head to New Brunswick for this first shop hop trip. First stop was The Fabric Cupboard in Moncton. What a treat – a friendly shop owner surrounded by wall to wall beautiful fabrics with a colourful display of quilts on an upstairs railing. We found a wonderful selection of fabric lines, precuts and lots of notions in a bright friendly atmosphere. If you visit, don’t forget to ask where the sale fabrics are – they were well priced and there was a nice selection.

Our second stop was The Covered Bridge Quiltery in Riverview. Quite the surprise! We headed to the original store, which had been fairly small with an emphasis on sewing machines. The Quiltery now has a new owner and a new storefront, just across the street from the original store. We found a store 5 or 6 times larger than the other location, filled with fabric and notions. There is also a fabulous classroom with adjustable, mechanized sewing tables. Long arm quilting is done on site with local drop offs but also for quilts mailed to them. Icing on the cake is that the Quiltery has an on line shop. Check it out here.

Last stop in New Brunswick was a visit to Spruce It Up Quilting in Port Elgin – Jan has been a frequent visitor (and teacher) there, but it was my first visit to the store. Though a bit out of the way (unless you’re headed to PEI), the shop is well worth the detour. The staff were friendly and helpful, with lots of fabrics to choose from. They are known for their one metre fabric bundles – thoughtfully chosen, with coordinating fabrics in the store and a web site where you can also purchase them. The owner has beautiful examples of her wool applique hanging in the shop and lots of hand-dyed wool fabric on site.

We had planned to stop in Amherst but sadly the two shops there – Mrs. Pugsley’s Emporium and Sunrise Trail Quiltery – have very limited opening schedules. Be sure to check before you plan a visit.

Our last stop was Atlantic Fabrics in Truro. This store has apparently become the provincial clearing house for Atlantic Fabrics – discontinued fabrics from other stores end up here at discounted prices. The staff were exceptionally helpful and the selection was great. The fabrics felt new and fresh. The Discount Section offers even better prices.

We had a busy but wonderful day going from shop to shop. Admittedly, the cost of gas for the day competed with the amount we spent on fabric, but we are already planning the next shop hop. Maybe we will just need to squeeze more people into the car to share fuel costs!

So, will you be hitting the road this summer or fall? Going to a Maritime quilt shop that many of us don’t often get to visit? Send us a photo and let us know what you found.

Colleen and Jan

A couple of pictures to remind you we have the June dinner and AGM to look forward to…we hope! And won’t it be a wonderful sew and tell!

*A quick post to let you know that our regular Guild meetings on April 6 and May 4, 2020 have been cancelled. Should anything change  (and we sincerely hope it does!) we will be in touch via email as well as here on the blog.

The executive also wants you to know that we are still working on your behalf. We managed to have a meeting before the stricter size of gatherings went into effect. I expect we will now meet online until things change.

While we were very disappointed to cancel our EQ Mary Elizabeth Kinch this year but you can go back and see all the other 19 (!) Extraordinary Quilters that we have hosted in the last 19 years! Take some time and see the incredible quilters who have come to our Guild. To find the go here, the main page of our Guild blog, then scroll down, watching the right hand side, where there are several lists, the last one is called “Extraordinary Quilter Workshops: The Teachers. Just click on a name and you will go to their website or a page with information about the teacher. If you end back at the Guild page, that means there is no longer a link. Who is your favourite? Did you know that one EQ came back a second time? Did you know that we have had 13 Canadian EQ’s, 5 from the US and 1 from England. I have updated all the links, two of our past teachers are no longer active on the internet and do not have websites, Sharon Pederson and Rosemary Makhan but I have left their names on our list to recognize their contribution to our EQ events.

Be sure and stay in touch. You can find us and many members and friends on our Guild Facebook page here (please ask to join and you will be included soon after). There are also many quilt related pages on Facebook – the Nova Scotia Online Quilters, Canadian Quilters etc. no need to feel alone! We are also on Instagram. Just search for the Mahone Bay Quilters Guild and start sharing your pictures.

*Cuddle Quilt Day – Sat. March 28 has been cancelled.

BUT YOU ARE NOT OFF THE HOOK…… Why not take that day (or any other day that something has been cancelled) and make a cuddle quilt top or complete quilt for our Cuddle Quilt recipients?  

To make it more fun and enticing, we would like you to post a picture of your creation on the MBQG Facebook page. The photo can show your completed Cuddle quilt or completed quilt top. If your picture is posted by midnight on March 28, you will receive one entry per posted item into a draw for a great quilter prize to be given when our next meeting is held. (Posting on our MBQG Facebook page is easy.  If you have not joined our page, just click on the request to join at the top of the page, then one of the administrators will approve the request and then you can post your picture. Or if you aren’t on Facebook, email your photo to Barb Robson (robsonbh@eastlink.ca) and she will post it for you.) Let’s hope we can make a nice pile of quilts to deliver to those who need them as soon as our world gets back to normal.

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*Slow Quilting at the Biscuit Eater Cafe has been cancelled for the time being, they are open for take-out only, their diningrooms are closed. We will be in touch when they re-open and we can get back to our regular slow quilting days. Support your local small businesses, order some takeout!

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 *2020 Extraordinary Quilter Tea and Workshops is cancelled with Mary Elizabeth Kinch. Many of you have already bought tickets or reserved a space in a workshop or two. The MBQG executive will be meeting on Friday March 20 and will be in touch soon after that meeting with information about refunds/credits etc.

This would have been our 20th Extraordinary Quilter event and we were really looking forward to it. The best thing you can do is make a quilt or two, order some fabric from a local quilt shop, stay in touch online. We can do this!! Support your local quilt store through this difficult time!

Hope to see you there!

There is a small but lovely show of quilts at the DesBrisay Museum in Bridgewater for the month of July. About half were chosen from the museum’s collection and the rest are from members of the Mahone Bay Quilters Guild. Many thanks to Donna Veinot, Angela Clifton, Angela McGinnis, Anna Davison, Diane MacMillan, Barb Robson, Polly Greene (from Val Hearder’s collection and Andrea Swinamer. All the quilts are made primarily by hand and are hand quilted.

Quilts from the DesBrisay Museum collection plus Diane MacMillan (folded on the quilt rack).

 Pictures from the lecture by Diane Shink can be found here and pictures from the opening can be found here   Be sure and check this link to find many more quilt shows happening this summer in NS, NB and PEI.

Many thanks to the staff at the DesBrisay Museum for including our Guild members in this show. Please go and see the exhibit!

Next time you see Judy, be sure and thank her!

And thanks to Beth Lawrence and Linda Macdonald who looked after all the decorations (including rounding up all those tea pots and cake plates!)! Beth and Linda made all the tea cup pin cushions, all 20!

Elaine gave us a wonderful presenation and shared with us many of her exquisite wal quilts. Such artistry and so beatifully pieced and quilted!

Be sure and see all the pictures from the tea in our Flickr album here.

Pictures from the 2 day “In Bloom” workshop can be found here, where workshop students learned to create depth and dimension and see value, while creating a stunning quilt using close up floral photographs.

The beginnings of a beautiful tulip! I am sure will see lots of these finished pieces at future Guild meetings.

Gail, Linda, Louise and Rose working hard at slow stitching!

We were also invited to use one of the rooms in the library for one of our Slow Quilting afternoons. We filled the room with about 17 quilters! We will be back at the Biscuit Eater Cafe in Mahone Bay on Monday February 11 from 2-4 pm. Come see what we are up to!

See more pictures of our quilts at the Library here.