Bermuda Quilt Guild

On Thursday evening I was able to visit the Bermuda Quilt Guild. I had searched on the web to see what sorts of quilt related things might be in Bermuda. I found that there was a guild, and emailed the president and learned their last meeting for the summer would be on the Thursday evening that I would be in port. We made arrangements that I would be able to attend. Nancy Frith is the president. I had a taxi take me to their meeting place. (Nancy is the lady in the black and white top.) I took a 2 gallon zip lock bag full of magazine, patterns, and fabric to share. What a great time I had.

The quilters are making pennants to be sent to the UK for participants of the Olympic Games in 2012. These four have gotten them done. The guild has 35 members. Some meet one morning during the month the rest meet the 3rd Thursday. They are currently planning a quilt show in October.
This evening they were showing some of the quilts, and table runners they will be displaying. They are also working on quiltie items to sell in a boutique, and a raffle quilt is in the making.

This is the banner for their quilt guild. Their logo is a lovely pink house that you see all over the island.

We had a lovely time chatting, and show and tell. They don't have any quilt shops, so rely on mail order, and anyone coming to the USA to pick up fabric and supplies. Any time someone comes, they leave Bermuda with lists of things someone needs. They share magazine, and patterns.

This is Diane with a quilt she has made. She is leaving the island soon and wanted to be sure her quilts are going to be displayed in the quilt show.

Brenda is showing off her "Garden Twist"

At their meetings they have a raffle. You can buy one ticket for $1.00 or 6 for $5.00. I figured I would put my $5.00 in the pot. Little did I know I would pull my own number out. Here is what I won. A charm pack that had 42 batiks, a button mail file, pattern and tape measure and of course Chocolate in the shape of scissors, thread and thimble. I had taken muslin squares to have members sign. I have already surrounded the squares with the batiks. I am planning on making a small friendship quilt to remember my trip by. I have a few other things I will add to the quilt.

Last but not least they presented me with a piece of fabric they had printed with their logo on it and a guild pin.

This was one of the neatest things I did on my trip. I so enjoyed meeting other quilters. We all have a wonderful common interest. It is one great enjoyable passion.

Pieceful Quilting.

Bermuda

We arrived in St. George, Bermuda on 14th of June. We did take a Island Tour, to see what Bermuda had to offer. It is always fun to see the highlights of the area. This first picture is of a graveyard at St. Peter's Church in St. George. This church was founded in 1612. The graveyard has gravestones dating back to then. It almost appears that the graves are on top of each other, the stones are so close together. There is a separate graveyard for slaves and free blacks. The graveyard is described as the last resting place for generations of gentry and commoners, governors and slaves, privateers and statesmen.

This is the front of St Peter's. It is the oldest Anglican Church outside the British Isles, and the oldest Protestant church in continuous use in the New World. It is so beautiful.

This is the front of the Royal Naval Dockyard. Cruise ships can dock here.It has been made into a shopping mall. We only had about half an hour to check it out. It looked like it would have been a fun place to go back to and wander around.

One of the most interesting things to see were the houses. They are painted in a rainbow of colors. All of the roofs are white. The roof is built in tiers and painted in limestone. When it rains the water is collected in the groves, and routed to a downspout that flows to a holding basin. The rainwater is then used in their houses. The white roofs also help keep the houses cool. I loved looking at the colors of the houses. They were beautiful.

This is the worlds smallest drawbridge. It is the Somerset Bridge, and only opens 18 inches. It open just enough for a mast on a sailboat to get through.

This the Gibbs Hill Lighthouse. This is looking out from the lighthouse. Bermuda is actually 6 small island connected by causeways. The island is made up of parish's. The view from the lighthouse overlooks the Great Sound and Western Parishes.

The view was spectacular. There are a lot of wonderful beaches, and golf courses. Michael Douglas has a house somewhere on the island. The waters around the island were some of the prettiest shades of blue.

It is expensive to live there. Their dollar was the same value as ours. No surprises there. The cost of gas is $8.50 a gallon. Housing rents around $2400.00 a month for a studio or 1 bedroom. There were apartments built by the government to help. The driver of our bus said a lot of the Bermudians have more then one job.

Here is my sister Linda and I enjoying a "Rum Swizzle" at the "Bermuda Bistro on the Beach" on Front Street, Hamilton. Later in the afternoon on Tuesday, we pulled up anchor in St George and sailed around to Hamilton. We were docked in Hamilton until sailing on Friday afternoon.We did a lot of walking while in Hamilton. One day we did take the bus back to St George to wander around there some more. It was $4.50 one way. We visited the Perfumery. The company is called Lili Bermuda. The perfume is made from special recipes, bottled and packaged there. Some of the scents were wonderful. Linda and I each just had to purchase one. Linda got one called "Petals" and I bought, "Fresh Water."

I will have more to tell. I did get to meet the Bermuda Quilt Guild on Thursday evening.
Until tomorrow!

Almost Ready for Bermuda and a Surprise

I am almost ready for my trip to Bermuda. I still have to pack a few things, and to pick up Dad. Our flight is at 6:00 am tomorrow, so it means an early evening. I thought it would be easier if Dad stayed here tonight as we have to leave for the airport at some awful hour. Look what arrived in the mail this week, "Annie". She came from Nicole who makes the most awesome dolls. Annie is trying to talk me into taking her with me. Since she traveled, from California, Annie now want to see even more places!!

I needed to get a few things done before I left, as I won't be back until the 22nd of June. This will be put in the mail today for a great swap I had signed up for. Need to send out my secret pal box for June, too.

I will be packing up the things I am going to take to the Bermuda Quilt Guild. I will be visiting with them on Thursday next week.

My son Andrew and his girlfriend Alicia came back from their vacation in California on Monday. Sounds like they had a super great time. Last evening we received a phone call from him and he told me to get to my e-mail and open the one from him. Not knowing what was going on, I did and what a surprise. Andrew had received a certificate from College of Lake County for the Spring Semester 2011 that he was on the "College Honor List". This is for students that have received a 3.0 or higher grade point. He is taking college courses while he is working full time as an assistant manager at a hotel near the college. He is taking hotel management courses. I am so proud of him. I knew he could do it!!!!



I am off to finish packing!

Quilt Teacher for a few Hours

I had a great time today working with these young ladies. My friend Jo Sheppard started a beginning quilt program at the Oswego Library, Montgomery campus. These 7 students were beginners last summer. This year they are learning more techniques, and are helping with the beginner quilters this year. In order from left to right are, Holly, Sam, Brittany, Tiffany, Abbey, Addelle and Courtney.
Today I was there to help with the technique of Paper Piecing. The basket they made today is an enlarged copy of a basket block from "Block of the Day". They cut over-sized pieces and followed the numbers.

They are practicing using a sewing, rules, and rotary cutters. They had to pick out fabrics from the pile that had been donated. They were hard workers and a lot of fun to be around. The class started at 11:00 and was to go until 1:00. As you can see by the clock on the wall behind them, they all finished by 1:00.

This is the quilt they are going to make during the month of June. Jo is teaching them hand applique,and piecing with cured seams. During July, I am going to help Jo put the quilts together for the presentation party August 9. Jo was able to borrow several sewing machines for the classes. There have been donations of, thread, scissors, rulers, pins, as well as fabric and batting.

It was an amazing 2 hours. The girls were fast learners. They were attentive, and polite. My husband was teasing me, that I was helping teach the next generation of quilters. It gave me goosebumps. It was so much fun. I have to admit I was apprehensive, but Jo kept telling me I could do it. I have enthusiasm if nothing else.

Abby's Treasure Box #2

Ok, this is last nights challenge. I also had a pattern for "Mallory's Big Box" same pattern company. After measuring and trying to set it up, thought, this may be a bit big. I had the rail fence blocks done, and decided to pay on the Abby's Treasure Box pattern and see what I could do. I made it longer, and and even though I used a two inch strip on top to replace the patchwork and 3 1/2 cut on bottom, they some how came out as more of a frame around the blocks. Wonder how I did that??? The fabric is just a charm pack I purchased of brights, and the fat quarter for outside and inside is stash. I was able to use a 12 inch zipper I already had on hand, in lime green.

Maybe I will try another later today. It's not like a have nothing to do. I signed myself up to work on greeting cards at Archiever's today for 7 hours. I have a lot of cards started, but not finished. Thought that 7 hours of uninterrupted time might get a lot of them done. Plus, a week from today I will be flying to New York with my Dad to start our 7 day cruise to Bermuda. I still have things to pack, and decide on what to take. Have to drop clothes off to my Dad's that I washed and ironed. (I think he is packed already!)

Until next time, there is always something to play with!!

Abby's Treasure Box

I love a challenge. Today, Barb at Be Jeweled Quilts, made a cute toiletry bag for her son. She is always making wonderful things. Well I thought, I can do that. I have had this pattern, "Abby's Treasure Box", from This & That patterns for a couple of years, and had not made it as of yet. She said she made hers in about 20 minutes, as she had made others before. Well, mine took about 3 hours. Now granted, I did do mine in patchwork. I was thinking that the pattern would make cute birthday gifts for my son Andrew and his girlfriend Alicia. Their birthdays are 3 weeks apart. Now I guess I need to come up with one for him! I think it did come out cute. Once you know what the instructions mean you can zip along in the making.
Back to the drawing board!

More finishes

This block is for another of the clubs through our local quilt shop. Jill gave us the pattern and a little kit for Mother's Day to make this block. Then the question was asked, "what do you do with just one block?" I bought more of the yellow, and am going to make this as the front of a tote bag! Works for me.

I was working on this over the weekend for the Patrick Lose club. It is done!! I thought it turned out pretty good. My fabrics, his pattern. Last but not least, I finished another top!! On Sunday night for some reason I got to thinking about this quilt. I pulled it out of the UFO's. I thought I still had applique to do for it. Guess my surprise when I opened it up and found I had finished the fence row, and the three applique flowers in the next to last row were done, just not added on. I added them and finished putting on the "brick" (brown) border. I made the 4 nine patch corner stone blocks. I did not have the dark green border fabric. Tuesday when the quilt stores were open, I found this green batik that I thought would go just right. Today, I made it happen. I sewed all of the borders on. The quilt was an Internet pattern from Jeanne Rae Crafts.

The pattern is call Cottage Garden Path. It was a free BOM in 2006. Jeanne has the pattern for sale. Now for the quilting. It was fun to dive into the UFO's and be pleasantly surprised with how much I had done. Why had I not finished this before now??

I picked up my pinwheel quilt on Wednesday from my quilter Wendy. It is ready to be bound. I am probaby down to only about 50 projects that need to be finished! One is better then none.

Have a great day. Hope everyone has the time to get one more project done.