Friday Felicities - My QuiltCon Challenge Block made it!

Mondrian-inspired QuiltCon Challenge block by Holly Broadland, photo by Elizabeth Hartman

I'm so excited! My QuiltCon challenge block is one of twenty blocks that Elizabeth Hartman selected for the raffle quilt! After seeing the display of nearly 400 amazing blocks on The Modern Quilt Guild's blog this past month, I'm honoured to have my simple Mondrian-inspired block selected for the quilt. I've been considering writing a tutorial (it would be my first!) for this block. Do you think people would be interested? It's pretty straightforward, but I haven't seen any tutorials out there that walk you through it. Thank you, Amy, for emailing me at 4:00am to let me know that the post with the final four blocks was up and that my block was in the group! Good thing I've already registered for QuiltCon so I can go down and see this quilt in the show! Guess I'd better work on getting some plane tickets, eh? This is a Friday Felicity indeed! Friday Felicities is a new linky party by my VMQG friend Felicity. It celebrates the positives in our lives and I think it's a great way to wrap up the week. I'm linking up today for the second time. Other felicities on my mind this week:

1) Eleanor turned a year and a half old yesterday! She's very affectionate and loves to give hugs and kisses. 

2) Sophia is five and a half today! (yes, the girls have birthdays just one day apart) We went to her school's open house last night and I got to see her writing book. She's written, "I love dinos. I'm Sophia. Do you know I love you, Mom & Dad?" If you've got older kids, tell me, how long will she stay this sweet? 3) I got happy mail twice this week! My Heather Ross free fat quarter from Spoonflower arrived and my October fabric for the Fab Bee came super early. I get to make a Super Mario block for Eryn! Now to decide which character to make... Have a wonderful Friday! 

Retreat!

On September 15th, I had the joy of attending an all-day quilt retreat with a group of Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild friends. I had been anticipating this day for over a year and I was thrilled to finally be going. I present the video evidence of my excitement:

The view from the community hall.

It was heavenly! The retreat was organized by Krista (Poppyprint) and it took place in a great space in beautiful Lions Bay. The day was full of sewing, chatting, eating delicious food, show and tell, more sewing, more food, and more chatting. There were also door prizes (I won a book!) and candies and fascinating debates about topics such as scones vs biscuits.

Here's the scene in a quick video:

Katie working on her Out to Sea quilt

I had the pleasure of meeting blogging friend Katie (There and Back) who lives a ferry ride away. She'd be a VMQG member in a heartbeat if it weren't for that pesky ferry! She sat next to me and showed me her amazing Winterkist selvedge pouch and rainbow charm square quilt top. I love meeting online friends in real life!

You may be wondering what I accomplished sewing-wise in a 13 hour retreat. The answer is: two blocks. Yup, unlike Janet, who quilted and bound an entire quilt, I completed two bee blocks.

Berene's fabric package included candy!

Churn dash top right, "sprinkles" for Berene's block being cut

The first was a churn dash for Felicity for a mini bee that we're doing to help out with each other's bee quilts. Secondly, I made a colourful and fun 100's & 1000's block (aka Sprinkles) for Berene for the Fab Bee. I go into these sewing days aware that I love to chat and wander around to see what everyone's working on. I know that it impacts my productivity, but I certainly enjoy myself! Here are some photos of people who got a lot done at the retreat:

Janet quilting the charity baby quilt

Elke getting an early start on a Christmas gift

Laurraine hand quilting her Scalloping on the Bias Cafe quilt

I enjoyed every moment of the retreat and will definitely be back! Next step, an overnight retreat! Have you had the pleasure of sewing with your quilting friends?

Friday Felicities

It's technically still Friday here in Vancouver for another hour and a half, so I'm going to participate in my friend Felicity's inaugural Friday Felicities linky party! Felicity is a lovely person who likes to celebrate the positives in her life. I agree with this philosophy and I love the idea of spending time to record things that make you happy. Here are a few of mine from this week:

1) Happy mail! The FQ bundle of Bella by Lotta Jansdotter that I won in Katie's Winterkist blog hop arrived. It's just beautiful and the Fat Quarter Shop staff packed it up so neatly. I almost want to keep it this way!

2) Happy kids! My daughter, after two weeks in kindergarten, has declared that school is great. She's adjusting to the full days very well and my younger daughter is enjoying the extra trips with mom to the family place and library.

3) Happy husband! Dean is looking forward to his first league hockey game tomorrow night. This will be his third time playing hockey this week and he loves it. I love the fact that the hockey bag is now living on the porch instead of the storage room in our condo.

3) Happy Holly! I'm going on a full day retreat with my VMQG friends tomorrow! We'll be sewing from 9am-10pm only taking breaks to eat the delicious food Krista has prepared for us. I've been anticipating this retreat for months and I'm ready to savour a kid-free day!

QuiltCon block challenge

If you've been reading this blog over the past few weeks, you may have realized how excited I am about a little event called QuiltCon that's happening in February. I've been anticipating this event since it was announced six months ago and one way I could keep busy while counting down the days til I head to Austin was by making a QuiltCon challenge block.

Here's the Mondrian-inspired block I made for the VMQG's second anniversary. We asked members to create a modern block in the colours of the VMQG logo. I first made a block like this in the red and aqua bee and I thought it epitomized modern quilting.

 I expanded on my VMQG block to create this QuiltCon challenge block in the colours of the QuiltCon logo. It measures 12 1/2 by 18 1/2 inches.

Back in July, I sent in my block, and it is featured on the Modern Quilt Guild's blog today (along with the block by the talented JoAnn Lee, also of the VMQG!). Twenty of the nearly 300 blocks submitted will be chosen for a special raffle quilt and the others will be made into charity quilts for the Austin Children's Shelter.