Long Point - Quilting weekend

My sister, Nicola, used to sew and quilt and recently Christine mentioned that she still uses the quilt Nicky made her decades (well, more than one decade anyway) ago. Books from the library, pinterest, and emails back and forth resulted in a few days set aside to make a quilt for the double bed. There was mention of me learning to quilt but that thought was left by the wayside.
I picked Nicola up on Thursday morning and we stopped at Lens Mills in Guelph for a cutting board. We found that they had everything we needed so we didn't have to go to Ottawa St, Hamilton, as planned.

We found a book called "Man Cave Quilts" (really!) and this one is called
"Sea Journey". We both liked it.

Nicola says she didn't quite realize what she was getting in to with this quilt. She has done strip quilting in the past but I gather this is more complex. We had great fun wandering the aisles and deciding on fabrics.
Down to the cottage and everything had to be washed and dried. So that took the rest of Thursday. We walked, chatted, ate, drank.
Friday Nicky got down to business - ironing. Personally I would hate spending most of the morning ironing but she liked it.

It helps when it is lovely material.

Supervising

All ironed and ready for the next stage - cutting. We opted to use the picture of the sailboat
as the centre panel rather than appliqueing the galleon.

Cutting is about precision, control, attention to detail and Nicky wondered
how many accountants also quilted.

Strips, squares and triangles. Glad Nic enjoys this kind of thing. I just enjoy the
beautiful end product.

While Nicky was ironing and cutting I was experimenting with needle felting.
Great fun and I was quite pleased with the results. Painting with roving and yarn on wool.

There was of course also yoga, eating, drinking, chatting, walking, drinking coffee on the deck, hot tub in the evening and lots of 70s music on the CD player.

Saturday there was just a bit more cutting and then Nicky could actually get into some sewing.

First she had to test her sewing machine, which she hadn't used for a while. I bought
these tea towels in Barcelona, thinking they would make a nice cushion. Nicky put them
together for me, with a velcro opening and this will now be available for those who like to
nap on my couch.

Strips were sewn together and then cut, then sew to other strips that had been sew together
and then cut. Does this sound complicated? It was all too much for me and I am very glad
my sister is a quilter because I love quilts.