Hello Friends. Well, I just missed a whole month. It happens in the fall and again in the spring, I miss an entire month! I think it has to do with year the additional chores and set up involved to get ready for the approaching season. In this case, summer. You see, May has Mothers Day – we went to open up the camp. Victoria Day Long Weekend – we went to camp, and planted and cleaned some more, mowed the grass. Then there is all the stuff to do at home like the gardens and getting the yard ready. I take comfort in knowing that I am not alone and find planting flowers and being outside with the thousands of mosquitos a nice break from the studio. So lets get you caught up with what has been happening.

May 4, 5, and 6 was the Northern Ontario Quilting Symposium. Kathy Wylie came to Sudbury to share her knowledge and enthusiasm for “turned edge applique”. We started off the event with Kathy’s trunk show which was amazing! First her applique pieces are so little, then her micro-stippling! I really don’t know if I would have the staying power to spend that amount of time on one project. But, WOW us she did, and the evening trunk show was so inspiring. Saturday, Kathy had the quilters stitching “Hexies” on their sewing machines using the precut fusible hexie pieces. The quilters had a hand at trying the “Apliquick tools” that Kathy teaches with, and by the end of the day it was hexies all around.

On Sunday, with the use of the Apliquick tools, the quilters dove into making a small applique block of flowers and vines. Kathy showed us how to turn edge ona ¼” circle with the use of these very helpful tools. I have not tried this small circle yet but if anyone has we would love to see pictures - Perfect or not, it's the trying that counts.

All in all, it was a great weekend and I sincerely thank everyone who came out to support the second annual Northern Ontario Quilting Symposium – quilting education for the north! I have the dates set for next year, and you can mark your calendars for April 13, 14, 15 2018. I have booked Tracy Russell of Whirls and Swirls Quilting to join us. Tracy is the Ontario APQS dealer and educator and is wowing quilters with her free hand quilting designs. Her workshops are for all machine quilters, domestic to longarm. If your not into free motion quilting, I will be holding a “finishing class” for the weekend. This is for all those quilters who have unfinished projects from past classes and need both time and a little help from me to get them finished.

Here at the studio things have been humming along. Here is a peek at what got our Ooh’s and Ah’s today.

That’s alley news for now. Thanks for dropping by. Until next time, stay safe, enjoy the flowers and don’t let the mosquitos bite!