Gibsons Fibre Arts Festival

I belong to a little Friday stitching group sort of know as the "Gathered Threads" although we also call ourselves the "Loose Thread"  as it is a pretty casual bunch and we quite often will invite any one that happens to wander by looking remotely like a quilter to join us for the afternoon.  I also will lovely refer to them all as my "Quilting Peeps"  Last Friday a few of us took a little day trip to the Gibsons Landing B.C. for the Fibre Arts Festival.  It was a very small show - with a quite a large Merchants's Mall - we was heavily weighted in the Fibre end of the Arts.


Here is Dianne and Sharon - smiling for the camera as we have our morning Starbucks fix waiting to get on the Ferry at Horseshoe Bay.  It was a gray day in the morning but it quickly became a lovely sunny afternoon.



A few photos of some of the items on display at the Festival.   Some items I took pictures of the labels and some I did not.

This was an amazing little fruit bowl all made from felted wool.





This small quilt was made by Gail Hunt.  Gail was one of the founding members of the quilt guild I belong to and she wrote a book called Quiltworks across Canada.
It is a great book. 



The photo doesn't really do the quilt justice.  It is just full of texture and detail.





This is called "The Eyes Have It" by Trisha Joel of Gibsons B.C.  "It is screen printed fabric suggesting eyes and the red suggests danger"  I was quite drawn to this quilt - must be the eyes!






There were a series of quilts hanging together on a wall with this label.  The picture is a bit blurry. Jim had the new camera and I was back working with the small little Canon - obviously not working well with it!








They were all done by a Carola who is a local quilt shop owner in Gibsons.  I have no idea how she found time to make these quilts.  I have had Carola at our quilt show's Merchant's Mall a couple of times and Carola works non stop - she is always at the many quilt shows with a booth.  She is a great person and has a  shop in Gibsons called Carola's Quilt Shop.
After seeing her booth at so many quilt shows I finally got to go into her actual shop and spend money there!



There was this beautiful piece - it is all felted wool.






Here is another piece that caught my eye.  Of course I don't have a picture of the label and I can't remember the details. 




 
This one is called "Mandala" and it is felted wool.  It is by Hieke Fink of Prud'Homme Sk.





This one is called "On and Off the Grid" by Janet Tufnall of Sechelt B.C.  It is layers of fabrics that have been slashed and sewn and maybe slashed again.  Quite interesting.



The were a few items there that would not really be in the Fibre part of Fibre Arts - but lovely to look at none the less. 


My favourite of these was this hand painted little gourd.  It is by Gloria Micheal from Half Moon Bay B.C. 
It was for sale for $200.00... which I thought was a pretty reasonable price.






This shawl was the piece that won Best of Show.  It certainly was lovely.






Most of the items were for sale and I could have bought a couple of things!!  But I didn't.  I'd love a dragon fly gourd....


The show was really heavy in the wool - knitting, weaving, felting etc and only a few quilts.  The merchant's mall was also mostly wool shops with only a couple of booths selling fabric.  So ---- I decided maybe I should try my hand at KNITTING..... LOL.  But I found a little free pattern and bought the required supplied and decided to try making a pair of socks. 



I am hoping that the knitting ladies at my Friday Stitch group will guide me along.  I started the "tension test" piece last Friday and I think I maybe should knit a scarf first.  Maybe socks was a bit ambitious.  But it is supposed to be a very simple pattern.... no heel as they are tube socks. But really....... socks....... what was I thinking!!   I have done some knitting in the past but I think it was probably 30 years ago.  So first maybe I will head down to somewhere like Micheal's and get a pattern and wool for a scarf.  It seemed like such a good idea at the time!

It is raining today - it hasn't rained here in a long time and we really need the rain so I won't complain.  I am hoping to finish up the quilting on the table runner and put the binding on today.....but first coffee and maybe a bit of  the Y&R!!

Abbotsford Air Show

At the Abbotsford Air Show this year there was a flying Avro Lancaster on display.  Jim's father was a pilot in the RCAF in Second World War and flew this airplane in Bomber Command.

Jim had the opportunity at the Air Show to spend some time with the crew and go up in the plane and even sit in the pilot's seat.  He was pretty thrilled with the day.  We got the see the plane fly.  There are only two flying Lancasters left in the world and one of them is in Hamilton Ontario.  I think the other is in England.

Jim belongs to a Lancaster Forum on line and has met some of the crew involved with this plane on line but he got to meet a few of his internet friends in person this weekend. 

A few pictures of Jim's adventure. 

Jim in the pilots seat -- the fellow standing beside him is a crew member and a member of Jim's online forum as well.  All the crew members are volunteers and spend hours and hours maintaining this plane.


Jim was just so thrilled to be able to sit in the pilot's seat - even for just a few minutes.  Jim's dad flew a lot of operations in these planes.  His dad died in 1994 - just a few weeks after we got married.

Jim has a picture of his dad just like this one - taken during the war. 

This is Lisa - one of the members of Jim's online forum as well as a volunteer member of the crew.  Lisa's grandfather was a pilot in the war as well and belonged to the same Squadron as Jim's dad and flew a couple of the same planes as Jim's dad although they did not seem to know each other during the war and Jim and  Lisa discovered their connection through the forum.

Here is Jim walking beside some of the crew and the plane as it is being towed out to the runway for a flight.

It was quite a special day for Jim and his friends from the Lancaster Forum made it all possible for him.

What have we been doing this week!

First of all I just finished working a couple of night shifts!!  This past couple of week has been very busy.  My sister and her husband came for a short visit - driving through on their motorcycles.  That was fun!


I have been quilting a bit here and there.  I am working on the table runner that will go perfect with the new "decor"  which we call -- Whistler West Coast Contemporary - or WWCC for short!




The fabric is Moda - Misty Mountain or Misty Evening or something like that - the table runner was a kit for our LQS --  The Cloth Shop

See how well it goes with the slate stones on around the fireplace.



It was hard to get a picture with both the table runner and the fireplace in view to get a real feel of the new table runner.  I am very happy with it.  As you can tell it is not finished - but I did buy some backing fabric for it on my travels this summer so I hope to finish it soon.


I have also been puttering away on my Fat Quarter Club BOM Civil War Quilt.  I am sewing it together on my Featherweight - so that is sitting on my sewing table and I work on it every so often.




Jim has been busy as well.  He is working on the painting and re-finishing the back of the house.  We need to repaint all the white trim brown and he has been busy sanding and re-finishing the soffits and fascia board and posts at the back of the house.



The Soffits were all...... hmmm the word ... crappy looking???  anyway they have all been sanded and refinished now!!  Jim has been working hard.  The goal is to get rid of ALL the WHITE!!




White posts ---- soon become brown posts...... actually I think they may eventually become cedar posts!

They now look a bit like they have been carved out of chocolate..... but better than white!




We have also had a couple of "events" here this week.   First of all - the day my sister was here my Whirlpool Duet Sport Washer that we bought in December 2008 blew out all it's bearing with a lot of noise and excitement!!  Apparently it is not under warranty and the cost to fix it is the cost of a new washer..... buyer beware - Whirlpool was not very helpful and we are now getting a new LG washer delivered on Saturday.  Unfortunately -- Jessica and the babies are coming for a week on Friday - so going without a washer is not an option!!  What timing!!

And today Jim blew out another tire on his car - so apparently he needs a new set of tires....... so needless to say Jim is a bit cranky tonight.  I --- am happy to have finished my night shifts and have my little grandbabies come for a visit.....so Life is okay.... and tomorrow I will go for a lovely walk with Jenny and life will be a bit better..................