Mayflower Quilter's Retreat

Finally, an Update!

It has been a while, my apologies. I have added a lot of pictures as you can see. Thanks to Jamie Pratt, Michele Gagne, Lorna D'Orsay and a few others, I have been able to upload a lot of pictures from the 2007 Retreat. Each one brought back great memories. I hope you enjoy them.

We also have news for 2009, our own Kathy Higgins will be teaching for us along with returning teachers Joen Wolfrom and Heather Stewart. Their workshops will be announced in a few months. For those of you who are Mayflower Quilters Guild members, registration will begin in March 2009. Non-members can request registration information but their registration date will be 2 weeks after Guild members.

Once again we will be fund raising for the Retreat. We are a volunteer committee and we try our best to keep the costs as low as we can. We appreciate and thank all the Guild members and Chapter members who generously support all our efforts.

Thanks to the generosity of Faye Palmeter, owner of Avonport Discount Fabrics we are pleased to announce that we will be awarding a "young" Nova Scotia quilter a full scholarship (travel and supplies not included) to the 2009 Quilters Retreat at Pictou Lodge. Criteria and application information will be posted soon and will also be sent to all NS Quilt Guilds.

For those of you who attended the 2005 Quilters Retreat, please join me in congratulating Lynne Edwards, quilter extraordinaire from England, who will be awarded an MBE by Queen Elizabeth in July, for her accomplishments and contributions to quilting. Congratualtions Lynne, a well deserved honour.

Thanks for your patience, I'll be back soon.

Been there...done that but we'll be back in 2009

After 2 years of committee meetings, planning and organizing the 2007 Mayflower Quilters Retreat is over. We had perfect warm weather, wonderful, creative and inspiring teachers, terrific quilters not to mention the great food and staff at Pictou Lodge (who are THE best). Many people said it was the best Retreat yet.

First of all some thanks, to the members of the Mayflower Quilters Guild and its chapters who continue to support the retreat and all our fundraising efforts, we are so grateful, thank you. Thanks to our great teachers, Michele Gagne, Deb Plestid and Janet Bolton, all gifted teachers who shared with us their knowledge and skills, all very different but equally amazing. Thanks to the staff at Pictou Lodge, they all go out of their way to make our 5 days there the best. Thanks to all who donated prizes, all who made and donated table favours, all who donated to our auctions and to Faye Palmeter for bringing a little bit of her store (Avonport Discount fabrics) to us. And last but not least to the Retreat Committee for all their efforts, patience and commitment to make this the best Retreat experience.

Plans are underway for 2009, Pictou Lodge has been booked for September 23 - 27, 2009, mark your calendar and start saving those loonies. I have been told by Pictou Lodge that the cost is going to go up. We do our best at fundraising but there is only so much we can do.

We will be starting to contact teachers soon, if you have any suggestions just click on "comments" and leave us a name or two and we will see what we can do. And don't forget to send me pictures so they can be added to 2007.

2007 Retreat Workshop Pictures

To see picutres of the workshop projects click on the link to the right under 2007 Retreat workshops. There are pictures there of Michele Gagne's "Flower Graden" quilts and Deb Plestid's "Spider Meadow" to give you an idea of what will be done in class. Janet Bolton's class will include designing your own fabric picture. To see pictures of Janet's work, click on her name under "Our 2007 Teachers" and you will go to her website where you can check out her gallery.

The 2007 Retreat is just 6 weeks away, I hope those of you who are coming are planning to join in our "Fly Swatter" challenge by creating a wonderful patchwork or appliqued (useful!) fly swatter.

The committee has been working hard to bring you another wonderful quilting experience at Pictou Lodge.

See you soon,

Barb

Thank You!

Mayflower Quilters Guild recognizes the support of the Province of Nova Scotia through the Department of Tourism, Culture & Heritage.  We are pleased to work in partnership with the Culture Division to develop and promote our cultural resources for all Nova Scotians.

We are very grateful to the Department of Tourism, Culture and Heritage for their continued support of the Quilters Retreat.

Registration update: We do have a few spaces in Deb Plestid's class and Hermit Study, plese contact me at robsonbh@eastlink.ca for further information.

The Countdown is On!

It won't be long now, the summer always flies by too quickly, it will be September before we know it. We have had a slight delay getting out the "Retreat Racontuer" newsletter and the supply lists. They should be out in the next week (mid July). If you have given us an email address you will receive your package by email, if not it will be snail mailed to you. If you have any questions you can contact Jeannine, our registrar or me, Barb Robson.

We will have a full house once again, so many are coming back and we have some first timers as well. I'm sure you will have a great time meeting old friends and making new ones.

Faye Palmeter and her sister Glenice will once again bring their "mini" Avonport Discount Fabrics Store with them so if you have forgotten anything I'm sure they will be able to help you out. If there is something you want Faye to bring and you can't get to Avonport before the Retreat call her (902-542-1308) or email her at fayep@eastlink.ca

Don't forget to do a little sorting through your stash and stuff and bring along some donations for our Auction. Once again we will also have a Silent Auction of handmade and special items that will run through out the Retreat, so if you have a little spare time over the summer consider making something special for the Silent Auction. Thanks!

A Little Help from our Friends at Avonport Discount Fabrics

May 2007 is for the Mayflower Quilter's Retreat at the Avonport Discount Fabric Centre, Avonport Nova Scotia. During the month of May when you shop for fabric, for every dollar you spend (before tax), we will donate 10% to the Retreat fund. The everyday discounts still apply and all fabric sales will contribute to the total. Spread the word, you do not have to present a membership card to take part, simply come and shop the way you always have. You shop and we share! Happy Quilting from Faye, Glenice, Dolores, Dale and Angela

And the winner is...

Congratualtions to Lorna D'Orsay, winner of the Quilter's Retreat Raffle. Lorna won an all expense paid Retreat and the workshop of her choice. Lorna is the Membership Director of the Mayflower Quilters Guild and this will be her first Retreat.

Thank you to all who supported our fund raising efforts. Every little bit helps us to keep the cost of the Retreat as reasonable as possble. Registration has begun and we are all loking forward to the Retreat in September.

2007 Quilters Retreat Workshops

Janet Bolton "Sewing Together From Memory and Imagination"

Janet will start with a slide lecture of her own work. She will then go on to describe her working methods of building up a composition with the actual materials that will be used, rather than transposing an idea developed in another medium. This working method allows for a wonderful flexibility and freedom, design and execution go hand in hand, exciting until the last stitch. Personal help will be given at all stages right through to framing and presenting the work.

Deb Plestid "Machine Quilting and Water Soluble Machine Embroidery"

In this workshop, water soluble machine embroidery stabilizer and free motion machine quilting techniques are used together to create a small nature-scape quilt. Gossamer wings, spider's web, blades of grass, in essence the ethereal quality of nature combined with machine stitching wil bring to life those elements of nature that you love most. Come to this workshop inspired by the infinite possibilities of nature's designs and human imprints and consider what part of nature you want to capture in a quilt. Learn how to create a nature-scape quilt that is part quilt, part lace-work and all done by machine.

Michele Gagne "Flower Garden"

This class might put a dent in your basket of scraps or "not". Let's piece a block using all colours with a light background and join them in a whimsical setting. Your background can be from all your light fabric or you can choose a tone on tome colour family like white or beige. At the beginning of the workshop, we will play with your sewing machine, twin needle and wing needle. You will soon find out that you can sew differently than just straight and create great textures. You do not need to have a fancy machine for this but you must have a zigzag setting and a few more stitches.

Blogging 101

The Retreat blog has been "up" a while now and we are getting quite a few visits. For those of you who are new to blogs I wanted to let you know that you can leave a comment. At the bottom of each post it says "comment", just click on that and a box will pop up where you can write a comment or message. If you want to read what others have commented (there will be a number after "comment" if anyone has left one) again, just click on "comment".

I have heard from a couple of former teachers. Judy Dales writes "I enjoyed looking at the photos you sent. It was indeed a fun time at Pictou. I remember it fondly. Thanks for sending the memories! Judy"  Judy has her own Retreat in Northern Vermont, check out her website for more information. You can get to her website just by clicking on her name in the Teachers List, any that are highlighted mean they have a website or are featured on a website. I have also heard from Heather Stewart who writes "I had a look at the site and I am very impressed!  You certainly have put a great deal of thought and effort into it.  Although I don't have a website, please feel free to put in my email address as the link." Heather's email is heather@stewartettrick.ca Heather will be teaching in Nova Scotia again this fall in Dartmouth, Mahone Bay and Liverpool (so far). Contact Heather for the details and she can put you in touch with the organizers of the various events.

I am still loking for pictures from the first Retreat, Roberta Horton and Terrie Hancock Mangat were the teachers that year. If you have any either email them to me as an attachemnt or if you can't do that send me an email and we can arrange something.

Be sure and bookmark the Retreat blog so you can check back easily and often for updates, news and pictures.

Photo Memories

I am slowly in the process of adding photos from each Retreat. I have very few from the first Retreat in 1987 and what I have aren't very good, I was too busy running around and tending to details I guess. So if you have any  photos or slides you would like to share please email me. Any borrowed pictures or slides will be well cared for and returned. I was unable to attend the 2001 Retreat because my daughter was getting married the next weekend so I am in need of photos from that Retreat. And if you have any special photos from any of the other Retreats you would like to share, send me an email and I will post them.