Ricky Tims' Super Quilt Seminar Experience

I'm sad it's over.  It was an amazing experience.

Thursday morning we hopped on the bus and left Ottawa at 6:30 am from the doors of The Running Stitch and headed south to Rochester, NY.

The bus driver made excellent time.. even with a couple of stops and our obligatory halt/check at customs, we made it there in 5 hours.

The information we absorbed over the two and a half days (Thursday afternoon, Friday and Saturday) was mind boggling.  Thankfully we were provided with a book detailing all the seminar information, instructions and tips.

According to their stats, this was the biggest super seminar they have put on, with over 750 quilters in attendance.  There were 56 of us on our bus, and we ran into a few other Canadians as well... so there may have been as many as 100 of us from north of the border.

Ricky Tims, Alex Anderson and Libby Lehman were awesome!  Their presentations were eye-opening and very entertaining.  These are seriously funny people and do really well in front of crowds.  Libby had us in belly rolls almost continuously.  She has the greatest sense of humour.

Ricky put on a piano concert on Friday night and told the tale of his quilty beginnings.  Talk about inspirational.  There is no end to this mans talent.

I didn't take any pictures or video of the concert (as I saw some did with their phones), I thought that was just inappropriate and rude to do.  Especially since they didn't have Ricky's permission to do so.

So I'll just leave you with pictures I took of a lot of the quilts that were on display, quilts they (the presenters) had made, and others they have acquired for their personal collections.

See more of Alex's quilts here.

Libby's circles just draw you in, so exquisite.

See more of Libby's quilts here.

Ricky's Bohemian Rhapsody
See more of Ricky's quilts here

Look at the couching on this... spectacular!

Ricky and Libby signing autographs.

You know how you can never touch a quilt on display?  Well, they set up a table with examples of their techniques, that you could touch/fondle/examine!  How cool is that?

This was The Quilt Show booth, where you could sign up for the online tv programs.

There were several more quilts I would have loved to get pictures of, but as you can probably guess, trying to get a picture without at least 3 people standing in front of them was a chore.

If you ever get the chance to go to one of Ricky's seminars, DO IT!!  You won't regret it.

And if you're wondering why we can't get these world renowned quilting professionals to come to Canada.... one US Customs Official in 2010 screwed it up for us.

You can read about it on Bonnie Hunter's blog here and the original post from a Canadian Quilter Daphne Greig.  Once the quilting world found out about this, the US quilters decided they weren't taking the chance.  So, that is why we have to go to the events in the US.

Ricky specifically said that they plan seminars/events as close to the borders as possible so that those of us who can, travel down to take part.

He will be coming to Canada soon for a Bernina tour but is not bringing any of his quilts.

I don't want to leave this on a sour note... so courtesy of Libby.. here is one of the jokes she told us:

What's the difference between a skinny quilter and a fat quilter?

The skinny quilter quilts all day long, checks out what's in the fridge, and instead heads to bed.

The fat quilter quilts all day long, checks out what's in bed, then heads to the fridge.

:o)

Quilter's Funny

A recent study indicated that fabric gives off certain Pheromones that actually hypnotize women and cause them to purchase unreasonable amounts. When stored in large quantities in enclosed spaces, the Pheromones (in the fabric) causes memory loss and induces the nesting syndrome (similar to the one squirrels have before the onset of winter i.e. storing food). Therefore perpetuating their species and not having a population loss due to their kind being cut into pieces and mixed with others.

Sound tests have also revealed that these fabrics emit a very high pitched sound, heard only by a select few, a breed of women know as quilters. When played backwards on an LP, the sounds are heard as chants, buy me, cut me and sew me. In order to overcome the so called feeding frenzy effect that these fabrics cause, one must wear a face mask when entering a storage facility and use ear plugs to avoid being pulled into their grip. One must laugh, however, at the sight of customers in a quilt fabric store, with WWII army gas masks and headphones!

Studies have also indicated that aliens have inhabited the earth, helping to spread the effects that these fabrics have on the human population. They are called QUILT FABRIC STORE CLERKS. It's also been experienced that these same Pheromones cause a pathological need to hide these fabric purchases when taken home (or at least blend them into the existing stash), and when asked by significant other if the fabric is new, the reply is I've had it for awhile.

Tatting - I'm addicted again

Hand projects are so addictive!  Unfortunately, they're taking me away from my quilting! :)

There are so many beautiful patterns out there.  This one is called Nilakandi and is in Jon Yusoff's book Tatting Gems.

I still have a couple of threads to hide to finish it off.. but I was so excited that I finished it.

More practice is definitely needed... but I'm working on it.

Antiquing Discoveries and tatting

A couple sunday's ago I decided to head out to the Bentley Antique Market because I've seen the sign there several times over the last couple of years but have never gone. 

Jim is not a fan of flea markets, antique markets or shopping of any sort... so I left him at home sleeping... lol

My greatest find.....

A beautiful hanging light!  I have such limited lighting in my sewing room and I knew I needed something that I could position right over my sewing table... and this fit the bill, and it's gorgeous!  Beautiful heavy glass panels in shades of light green and whites, and what looks like brass/copper metal.  The lady told me if any of these glass pieces broke or cracked it would probably cost about $200 to replace just one.  It had a price tag on it of $60, and she had previously had it on hold for another antique dealer, but since they hadn't claimed it yet and she hadn't adjusted the price tag (thinking she had really undervalued it), I purchased it for the price on the tag.  Whoohooo! 

I love the fact that it is a hanging chain lamp, which makes it easy to position it where I need it in my sewing room.

During my tour of the antique market, I also came across these very old quilts.  Most of which are very obviously hand appliqued and hand quilted.

This one had really been loved for a long time.  I'm pretty sure it used to be red, so you can see how much it's faded over the years.

Another red one.

I really enjoyed looking and feeling this one.  It was quite apparent that the applique and the quilting was all done by hand.

Such a pretty quilt.  I could tell it was machine sewed and then hand quilted.  They wanted $85 for this and I almost bought it. 

On another note, something caught my interest a couple weeks back.  For some reason I was teased by some tatting.  I remember years ago I taught myself how to tat, and produced a few bookmarks at the time.  So I went on a search to find my tatting supplies.

I found them, and one little plastic shuttle that I had used... so I thought, let's try this again.  You don't realize how much you've forgotten until you try something you did maybe 20 years ago.

After a lot of false starts, several pieces that ended up in the garbage, and hours of watching video tutorials on youtube, I finally finished a couple pieces I'm willing to show.

Two tatted bookmarks! :)  These are just rings and chains (in tatting terminology), and I can see where I need some improvement still.  I've yet to tackle some of the more difficult techniques like split chains and split rings, but this is a start.

I was just happy to be able to do these, and have another hand project at the ready to work on in the living room when Jake urges me out of the sewing room.... after all, how can you say no to this face?