I left Rockford after lunch for the short drive south to Ottawa. The hotel was expecting me. I just had time to sort my bags out and change ready for my fun evening.
It was arranged for me to meet the ladies of the Illinois Valley Quilters Guild for dinner in the downtown area. Parking was not a problem and Google Maps showed me I was only a block away from the Radium Girl statue. I read the book Radium Girls by Katy Moore a few years ago and had made a note on my calendar to make sure to see the statue when I was in town.
And here’s the statue.
Of course I needed a closer look.
Follow the highlighted links to find out more. The book was very sad but well worth reading.
Dinner at Corner 230 was very good. Now it was time to head over to the Historical and Scouting Heritage Museum to get set up.
IVQG is not a big guild but they gave me a very warm welcome. I couldn’t quite get everyone in the picture that’s at the top of today’s post. Here are the ladies I missed on the left!!
We shared my Language of Flowers lecture. I discovered one of the members was celebrating her birthday that very day and another had three children including a two year old at home (with another on the way). They definitely both deserved a fat quarter of floral fabric!
Time for some Show and Tell.
There were vintage quilts. This one included dimensional flowers.
This appliquéd one had finished edges but was just the one layer, probably made for the summer as a lightweight coverlet?
There were lots of bags, made to send to a project in Africa.
Here’s a framed wool piece ready for the Holidays!
Show and Tell finished with the unveiling of this year’s Opportunity Quilt.
I don’t think there will be any trouble selling tickets for this one.
I was able to leave everything set up overnight in the secure space which made life very easy. I was soon back in my hotel room for a good night’s sleep. (there was just one un-nerving moment when I nearly turned the wrong way up a one way street…)
We were ready to start our hand stitching class promptly at nine o’clock the next morning. I managed to remember to take a few pictures of the ladies hard at work.
Progress was made on my Pretty Paisley design, starting with chain stitch and wrapping techniques.
Beads and sparkle on this one!
Wrapped chain stitch and beautiful french knots…
Everybody started with the same design but there won’t be two the same when they are finished.
Good times in Ottawa!
Time to get back to Naperville. Steve was off to Montreal (Canada) on the Monday and I needed to get to work at home. I do have a couple of things to show amongst all the secret-ish sewing I am currently engrossed in.
Our Naperville Modern Quilters Guild had been making star quilts for an exhibit at the STITCHES Midwest show coming up in August. They have to be 24″ square, display some aspect of the Modern Aesthetic as it relates to quilts and be appropriate for the theme Seeing Stars.
As the exhibit organizer it was about time I made my piece?
Here’s what I made, Looking for the Stars.
One thing about waiting until the last minute is that you see what everybody else has made, and many of my thoughts had been somebody else’s thought… So, I made a simple whole cloth mini quilt with straight line quilting… The stars are formed at the intersection of the bold High Definition quilting lines…
There are some very nice quilts made by the members of our group. You can see them all by coming to the show in August. We are also having a booth where you can meet us and find out more about what we get up to!
I was packing my bags for my next trip yesterday. I’m off to Lewes, Delaware tomorrow. I’ve never been to Delaware before. I’m going to visit the Ocean Waves Quilt Guild. I’m booked for a free motion quilting class so I decided a bit of practice might be a good idea?
What better piece to choose than one of the lovely batik panels I carry in my pop up shop from Turtle Hand?
This is one of the medium size ones, just big enough to finish in a very reasonable amount of time.
I’ve embellished the panels with hand embroidery in the past but this is the first one I’ve machine stitched. I used some black batting. It seems to keep the colors brighter than a white batting, especially when there is a dark background. All the stitching was done with an off white thread.
My bags are nearly packed. I put my new little piece in too. I’m looking forward to seeing the sea. Lewes has an interesting history. A new adventure awaits!
