I have had a couple of fabrics lately that have decided that they do not want to keep all their dye. One of the fabrics was a deep blue batik and the second was a red cotton. Both fabrics can be bad for bleeding, but really, after 6 washes? I tried vinegar and salt and had to luck. Finally, I found a source for Retayne locally. After one wash with Retayne, the fabrics stopped bleeding. I could not believe it. I did a test wash with Color Catchers after the Retayne treatment and the Color Catchers came out of the wash as white as they went it. I will be using this product a lot more often now that I know how well it works!
Friday, I spent my time making a Mother's Day present for my Mom. This is the table runner that I made for her.
Today, we started the day with breakfast out at a local restaurant--my DH, DS, Mom, Dad, and myself. After presenting my Mom with her table runner, she took it home and put it on her coffee table and took this picture for me. I was worried that I had not made it long enough, but it looks like it works on her coffee table.
Saturday, I finished putting the last of the sashing bits on this quilt top and then added the inner and outer borders. The outer border fabric is suns on a black background. I loved this fabric. I had enough backing fabric and batting in my stash so by the end of the evening Saturday, I had this quilt loaded on the long arm and had started the quilting.
This afternoon, I was able to finish the quilting on this one.
I used a new to me batting on this one -- Soft and Bright by the Warm Company. This batting is 100% polyester. It is needled to hold the batting together without glue, resin, or hard coatings. This batting has a bit of loft to it which shows off the quilting perfectly. Because the fibers are needled, they stay in place and the batting doesn't shift or go thin in some places like other polyester battings do. My long arm did not object to this batting at all and unlike other polyester battings, this one did not slip or shift. Because this quilt top was heavy from the weight of all the seams in the string blocks, I really did not want to add more weight to the top by using a cotton batting. I also have intended this to be a utility quilt so I expect it to be used and washed frequently. I am hoping the polyester holds up to the frequent use I expect the quilt to receive.
This last picture shows the gold thread i used to highlight the Wave quilting design.
My plans are to bind this one in black. The binding will have to wait for another day though as I am short of black fabric in my stash. Running out of stash fabric is a good thing though--it means that I am using up what I have on hand!
This was a cute flower arrangement on the registration desk. See the cute "button" flowers.
The guild had sponsored the traditional quilt challenge and an additional challenge that you don't see at every show--a pin cushion challenge. I had a hard time voting for my favorite pin cushion.
I have seen this quilt pattern several times before. However, this is the first time I have seen it made up as an "I Spy". What a great idea.
One of the features of this show was the Hungarian Canadian quilt display. "In 2006, Iren Szabo and Sue Dobray initiated a Hungarian/Canadian quilt exchange. All participants created a twelve inch quilt block - the Hungarian blocks were sent to Canada to be matched up with a Canadian participant who in turn sent their blocks to Hungary. All participants added 4 1/2" around their exchange block or brought the size up to 21" and that piece was returned to the original block creator to increase the size to an approximately 45" quilt top. All quilts (21 Hungarian and 21 Canadian) were finished by the original block creator and the completed Canadian quilts were sent back to Hungary to join the Hungarian quilts...this collection of 42 quilts was displayed in the capital city of Budapest in November 2006. This is the first time they have been hung as a group show in Canada" (taken from the FVQG's show brochure) The next 5 pictures are some of those fabulous quilts.
This next quilt featured incredibly small squares in the 25 patch blocks.
Because it is hard to imagine just how small those squares were, I took a picture of one of the blocks next to my hand so you can see the perspective.
This next hexagon quilt belongs to Val Smith. I met up with two other quilters from Agassiz at the show and I was introduced to Val. The four of us enjoyed a wonderful boxed lunch outside in the sun at lunchtime. Be sure to visit Val's web page to see some of her other fabulous work. http://web.me.com/myraottewell/Vals_Quilts/Welcome.html
Val used 5 different sizes of hexagons in this quilt.
The next two shots feature some great cat quilts.
This next quilt really interested me. All it said on the note that was hanging next to the quilt was, "I made this quilt from a napkin".
This next Canadiana quilt was for sale for $800. It features some fabulous cross stitch pieces and the most interesting maple leaf block in the center of the quilt.
This maple leaf block was a cross between a poppy and a maple leaf-very interesting.
This quilt featured a farm in Swift Current, Saskatchewan.
I have always admired this quilt pattern. I believe the pattern is called, "All Lit Up" and is intended as a Christmas quilt. This quilter said the trees reminded her of the forests around Harrison and so she hangs this quilt all year round in her house, not just at Christmas.
I have seen this quilt pattern before many times. I still love it! The expressions on the faces of these birds are priceless.
This was a cute quilt. The workmanship was perfect! Despite the use of triangles, this quilt hung perfectly flat--no friendly borders here!
These next two quilts featured a unique curved and dimensional half square triangle block. 
Sometimes a quilt just makes you smile, this was one of those.
This is a two colour BQ. 
This quilt was cute.
The quilting design featured chocolates and really made the quilt.
This was a great show. 
This is not my Heidi, but a machine very similar to her. (I pulled this picture off the Internet.)
