Itchy fingers

Wednesday evening I went to the Pomegranate Guild meeting. I was tired, as usual, and wasn't terribly able to assimilate the lecture about the history of Jews in the textile dyeing industry, although it was interesting.

The evening was not, however, a total write-off. One of our members brought in upholstery fabric sample books for people to take and some did. Whatever was left, I took. I brought them home, and dismantled the sample books. I will cull from them the samples I like and take the rest back to the next meeting.

I have been mulling over an idea for an art quilt -- I've never made one -- based on a mosaic pattern I saw. The samples should work wonderfully with other fabrics I already have. Yesterday, Menachem and I went to Perth to check out the winter damage at camp. There wasn't any visible damage except for the raccoons who apparently have moved into the Beit Tarbut (rec hall) again...
But on the 3.5 hour trip in each direction, I had time to think about the technical aspects of doing the art quilt and think I may have solved one of my dilemmas.

We also visited Dee, my quilting guru. She is quilting my first quilt and has finished it except for the borders. It looks quite striking. She is coming into Toronto next Friday evening for a camp board meeting and I wouldn't be surprised if she brings it with her. And then I will have to bind it. Et voila. It only took two years to finish...

Saturday, I am spending the day with Lola, a quilting friend from Israel who I haven't met personally yet. We had originally made plans to go to Cock-a-doodle Quilts and then down to Queen Street to the buttons/beads/fabrics/ribbon stores but while surfing, I found out that there's a quilt show in Newmarket and I think she may enjoy that more. The creative needlework and craft festival is also on this weekend so maybe we'll go there Sunday. It will take some creative scheduling because Menachem has his first Raptors playoff game on Saturday and a camp meeting on Sunday.

And I've received the go-ahead for Alana's tallit. I want to buy fabric and trims -- on the trip, I had several ideas about how to make it. I'm just waiting for Alana to tell me what kind of a design she wants and her colour choices. She had orginally chosen lavender but I'm not sure I'll be able to find it in duppioni. I actually thought of make stripes using duppioni, organza, lace and ribbons between them. I'll have to run it by her, although I think she's pretty easy in that respect.

Anyways, off to work.