Creativ

I was at the Creativ Festival a couple of weeks ago and was excited to see all the wonderful things displayed - the fabrics, threads, notions, books, and tools. Hamels Fabrics from British Columbia had displayed a wonderful winter quilt done in whites, creams and reds with redwork but by the time I was at their booth, they had only one kit left and no patterns. So,when I got home, I ordered it online and I received it yesterday! That's exciting! It measures 64" x 71", but I want to make it for our queen-sized bed, so I'll have to add somethings to it. This is, of course, a project whose completion is next winter, not this one. This year, I still have two pieces that I want to finish - the quilt my mom started (see the bottom of this page) and the yellow quilt for my daughter. I have some blocks put together for the latter and as I finish more I put up some photos.

The Quilting Patch in Scarborough had a booth there, and I picked up some lovely fat quarters. But they also had this very cool tiny toy-looking travel iron for $13. I thought I'd wander around the show a bit then go back and pick one up, but of course, they were all gone by the time I got back. It was so cute! Like a child's toy, but it seemed to work really well. I am always burning my finger tips when trying to do delicate ironing and have thought many times about getting a small iron - at first I was thinking of the Clover iron, but this little one might be better. The woman demonstrating it was using it on fusible interfacing for a nature-scene wall-hanging and it seemed to do just fine for this. One day I'll travel the loooong way it is from downtown out to their location and have a gander at their store and pick one of these babies up. Unfortunately, they don't have an online catalogue.

There were so many beautiful things and so many wonderful fabrics. I picked up several fat quarters from Sew Sisters. They had such good deals - $2 fat quarters and 4 for $5. Can't beat that! And, A Great Notion was there and they had just about everything one could want in notions, except the thing I really wanted: blades for my large Fiskars rotary cutter. Oh well. I did get some dissolving thread and other things from them, and they seemed to do brisk business with women lining up to cash out!

One criticism I have is that the food offered was not the best and there were almost no vegetarian options - all the sandwiches were provided by the same company and they all had meat in them. There was over-priced sushi but the ones I saw also all had meat. So, being vegetarian I had to make do with a mass-produced danish and yucky coffee. Next time I'll be sure to take my own healthy food and drinks.

That puts me in mind of what I think was the only food-type booth there the Little Rock Honey Farm. They had hand cream that was fantastic and smelled wonderful (as beeswax/honey-based products do), and amazing honey butters, honeys, and sauces. I bought the chai honey, which is delicious and great in tea - the only problem is that there are some chunky bits on the top of the honey that you have to either scrape away to get at the non-chunky honey, or that you have to swallow in your honey-sweetened tea. And I bought some blueberry honey which is amazing. My partner and I are real honey-lovers and both of us rave over both products. Any of their products would make great Christmas/Solstice gifts. All in all, it was a fun, productive, and educational time. I look forward to the spring festival.

Cheryl from the online guild I belong to, the Maple Leaf Quilting Guild, is sharing with guild members her new method of creating a double wedding ring quilt. If you're living in Canada, I highly recommend joining the guild as the women are friendly, very creative, and share wonderful methods and tips.

I'm off for my morning shower and then into my crowded sewing room! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

keep your foot on the dogs