Retreat Memories

Browse our galleries of quilters, friends, and teachers past and present - and let us know if you've got contributions to add to our collection of photographs. We'd love to share yours here.

inspiration
  • Old Nova Scotian Quilts
    Old Nova Scotian Quilts
    by Scott Robson, Sharon MacDonald
  • Visual Coloring: A Foolproof Approach to Color-Rich Quilts
    Visual Coloring: A Foolproof Approach to Color-Rich Quilts
    by Joen Wolfrom
  • A Garden Party of Quilts: 7 Pieced Projects for Flower Lovers
    A Garden Party of Quilts: 7 Pieced Projects for Flower Lovers
    by Joen Wolfrom
  • Points of View: Landscape Quilts to Stitch and Embellish (That Patchwork Place)
    Points of View: Landscape Quilts to Stitch and Embellish (That Patchwork Place)
    by Valerie Hearder
  • Fat Quarter Frenzy Two
    Fat Quarter Frenzy Two
    by Susan Purney-Mark, Daphne Greig
  • Simple Stained Glass Quilts
    Simple Stained Glass Quilts
    by Daphne Greig, Susan Purney Mark
  • Fat Quarter Frenzy
    Fat Quarter Frenzy
    by Susan Purney-Mark, Daphne Greig
  • The Quilted Garden: Design and Make Nature Inspired Quilts
    The Quilted Garden: Design and Make Nature Inspired Quilts
    by Jane Sassaman
  • A Month of Sundays - Family, Friends, Food & Quilts: Slow Down & Sew - 16 Projects, Precut Friendly
    A Month of Sundays - Family, Friends, Food & Quilts: Slow Down & Sew - 16 Projects, Precut Friendly
    by Cheryl Arkison
  • Sunday Morning Quilts: 16 Modern Scrap Projects Sort, Store, and Use Every Last Bit of Your Treasured Fabrics
    Sunday Morning Quilts: 16 Modern Scrap Projects Sort, Store, and Use Every Last Bit of Your Treasured Fabrics
    by Amanda Jean Nyberg, Cheryl Arkison
  • Canadian Heritage Quilting: Quick Creative Designs
    Canadian Heritage Quilting: Quick Creative Designs
    by Karen Neary, Diane Shink
  • Japanese Garden Quilt: 12 Circle Blocks to Hand or Machine Applique
    Japanese Garden Quilt: 12 Circle Blocks to Hand or Machine Applique
    by Karen Kay Buckley
  • The Joy of quilting.
    The Joy of quilting.
    by Swim. Laurie.
Tuesday
May102011

Fabric Baskets Fund Raiser

The Retreat Committee has just a couple of more fund raisers before the 2011 Quilters Retreat in September.

We have 2 baskets filled with approximately 7.5m if fabric. One basket is batiks and the other has a lot of Jane Sassaman's fabrics from her Garden Diva line along with some to coordinate.

As a bonus, we have a copy of Jane's book The Quilted Garden which will be drawn for after the 2 baskets at the MQG's annual June diner on June 2. 

We are so appreciative of the support from members of the Mayflower QG and the Mahone Bay QG who always buy tickets!

Update - the lucky winners of the fabric baskets were Uta Reiner and Cynthia Schwekowsky and the winner of the Jane Sassaman book was Fiona Oxford! Thanks again!

Saturday
Apr092011

Quilters' Quarters House Tour

The Quilters' Quarters House Tour is back! Mark your calendars for Sunday June 5, 2011 from 1-4pm. Tickets will be available at the April 14 meeting of the Mayflower QG.

One of Meredith Annett's sewing spaces

 Also on the house tour will be a chance for you to see and purchase from Valerie Hearder's collection of "African Threads". More about the house tour soon! 

Sunday
Mar202011

Congratulations and a Reminder

Congratulations to Kelly Booth, Gillis Point, Cape Breton, NS! Kelly has been awarded the 2011 Avonport Award for a Young Quilter. We had 6 excellent applications for this award, it was a tough decision. Kelly is a member of the Baddeck Quilt Guild and we are all looking forward to meeting her at the Quilters Retreat in September.

Congratulations also to Linda Fanning of Port Williams, NS. Linda has won the Retreat Raffle which was drawn for at the March meeting of the Mayflower Quilters Guild. Many thanks to so many who supported this fund raiser and bought tickets.

And more congratulations to Jamie Pratt and Valerie Hearder who each won a $500 bursary from the Mahone Bay Quilters Guild. The bursary is to go towards their registration fee for the Retreat.

Registration day is fast approaching, mark your calender for Friday March 25 and be sure and get your envelope hand cancelled at the post office with the date to ensure your best chances at getting the workshop you want. We do this so that everyone who is a member of Mayflower or its chapters has an equal chance no matter where they live.

Non-member registration begins on Friday April 8, same procedure!

The committee is working hard to make this another memorable Retreat!

Saturday
Feb262011

The 13th Quilters Retreat Teachers and Workshops

Daphne Greig

Daphne made her first quilt in 1980, after years of sewing as a child and in later years for her family. She began teaching quilting classes at local quilt shops in 1990. She has extensive teaching and presentation experience including lectures to over 300 attendees. Daphne has co-authored four quilting books, designed over 100 published patterns, has regularly written articles for quilting magazines and teaches internationally and online at Quilt University.com. Daphne's work has been exhibited in Canada and the US. Her goal as a teacher is to encourage students to try new techniques, to expand their skills and, most importantly, to have fun and enjoy the creative process. Sheconsiders herself a 'student' of fibre arts and works at developing her own skills by attending workshops and participating in associations that further the art of quilting.

GIVE AND TAKE APPLIQUE

 Learn a surprising 'no waste' way to create positive/negative appliqué designs in this workshop. With careful cutting you will have the motifs for two blocks. In a one-day class, students will use the pattern provided. Longer workshops will explore other design options. The workshop also includes machine appliqué instruction using many decorative machine stitches.

Elaine Quehl

Elaine Quehl is an award-winning Canadian quilt artist and teacher who specializes in colourful and intricately stitched pieced and appliquéd art quilts. Her quilts are recognizable for their depth and contrast, exuberant colour and abundant texture. Her work has been juried into numerous shows and exhibits at the national and international level. Elaine travels across the country delivering workshops and lectures to colleges, summer art programs, guilds, conferences and shops. She is recognized for her expertise in free-motion machine quilting, fabric dyeing, and many innovative techniques for creating original quilts.

MACHINE QUILTING A to Z

This workshop will be a combination of 2 of Elaine’s most popular classes on machine quilting. Expand your repertoireof beautiful free-motion stitches! This course is designed for machine quilters who are familiar with free-motion stipple quilting, but need creative ideas to venture beyond stippling. Experiment with cotton, rayon and metallic threads. The best thing about this method of quilting is that there is no need to mark your quilt top, and nothing to wash off after. Bring along a quilt(s) for advice on how to quilt them. You will take home samples of at least 20 more free-motion designs that you learn in this course, and we will study free-motion feathers in depth. Time will also be devoted to learning how to combine motifs.

Jane Sassaman

Jane is a contemporary quilt artist, fabric designer, author and teacher whose critically acclaimed work inspires creative confidence in aspiring artists of all backgrounds. Her internationally known quilts are known for their bold designs, celebrating the energy and miraculous beauty of garden flowers and plants (and the occasional skeleton!). Jane's quilts are shown worldwide and can be found in many private and corporate art collections. Her quilt Willow was named one of the best 100 American Quilts of the Century. Jane is also an accomplished teacher of design and quilting for guilds and conferences around the world. She travels internationally, teaching groups and individuals how to nurture creativity, sharpen powers of observation and overcome creative obstacles. Jane spends part of her creative time designing fabric for the quilt fabric manufacturer Free Spirit.

ABSTRACTING FROM NATURE

 Nature is an endless source of inspiration. In this class we will examine a wide variety of artists interpretationsof nature before beginning to manipulate natural forms ourselves. Through a series of exercises we will experiment with abstraction and exaggeration to capture the essence and energy of your favorite flora and achieve dramatic visual effects. We will then translate these ideas into fabric in the 3 day workshop. Drawing skills are not needed but participants should have a strong interest in developing their own design language and unique visual symbols. This class is especially beneficial for the drawing impaired and the tragically literal. Nature is an endless source of inspiration. In this class we will examine a wide variety of artists interpretations of nature before beginning to manipulate natural forms ourselves. Through a series of exercises we will experiment with abstraction and exaggeration to capture the essence and energy of your favorite flora and achieve dramatic visual effects. We will then translate these ideas into fabric in the 3 day workshop. Drawing skills are not needed but participants should have a strong interest in developing their own design language and unique visual symbols. This class is especially beneficial for the drawing impaired and the tragically literal.


Tuesday
Jan112011

The 13th Quilters Retreat

The registration brochure for the 13th Quilters Retreat at Pictou Lodge are available now. To receive a brochure, contact us. We are excited to have Daphne Greig, Elaine Quehl and Jane Sassaman as our teachers for our 13th Retreat. 

Registration begins, by mail on March 25, 2011. Please do not mail in your registration any earlier. This gives everyone a fair chance no matter where they live, just ask at your post office to have your envelope hand cancelled with the date clearly stamped. We recommend going to the post office to have this done as some people have learned that by posting it in a mail box on the day does not mean it will be stamped with that day's date! Be warned!

If you are able to get to the Mayflower Quilters Guild meeting on Feb. 17, 2011 the Retreat Committee will be presenting a program of slides of the 2009 Retreat as well as slides of this year's teacher's quilts and their workshop projects. Come join us!

Saturday
Aug292009

Not Long Now for the 12th Quilter's Retreat...

In just 4 short weeks, 65 quilters will gather at Pictou Lodge for our 12th Quilter's Retreat. I still find it hard to believe that we are still going strong! So much credit for that is due to our hard working committee and the fundraising which is carried out for each Retreat. We are very grateful once again to be the recipient of a grant form the Nova Scotia Government, Department of Tourism, Culture and Heritage which will help to cover the costs of our 3 teachers.

We are looking forward to welcoming our first Avonport Scholarship Award winner, Krystal MacLaughlin to her first Retreat along with Anna Davison and Donna Veinot from the Mahone Bay Quilters Guild. Anna and Donna were the lucky winners of a $500 scholarship from the MBQG made possible through funds raised from a sale of the contents of the  late Betty Hutchison's quilt/craft supplies. The Guild is hoping to continue this scholarship to help members attend such events.

Every year at the Retreat a challenge is issued and this year, quilters have been challenged to make an apron. The aprons will be judged by our talented teachers Kathy Higgins, Heather Stewart and Joen Wolfrom. Prizes will be awarded thanks to Andrews McMeel Publishers who have donated 3 books, "The Apron Book", "Kitchen Linens" book and "Apronisms" all written by EllynAnne Geisel. 

Thursday
May142009

Devastating Fire

As many of our regular Retreat quilters know there was a devasting forest fire in the Purcell's Cove area of Halifax two weeks ago that destroyed eight homes. As many of you know, one of those houses was home to our own friend, quilter and Retreat supporter Anna Healy. She and her husband have lost everything, from treasured family heirlooms to quilts to her stash to pins and needles and rotary cutters.

Now, Anna has to make a list and show proof to the insurance company that these items were in her house. Do any of you have photos of Anna's quilts from past Retreat show and tells? Please check through what you have and if anything at all comes up please let Barb Robson know through the Contact Us form here at the blog. In particular, Anna is looking for pictures of her appliqued flowers quilt that she did through a Block of the Month class at the Hope Chest.

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