Retreat Memories

Browse our galleries of quilters, friends, and teachers past and present - and let us know if you've got contributions to add to our collection of photographs. We'd love to share yours here.

inspiration
  • Old Nova Scotian Quilts
    Old Nova Scotian Quilts
    by Scott Robson, Sharon MacDonald
  • Visual Coloring: A Foolproof Approach to Color-Rich Quilts
    Visual Coloring: A Foolproof Approach to Color-Rich Quilts
    by Joen Wolfrom
  • A Garden Party of Quilts: 7 Pieced Projects for Flower Lovers
    A Garden Party of Quilts: 7 Pieced Projects for Flower Lovers
    by Joen Wolfrom
  • Points of View: Landscape Quilts to Stitch and Embellish (That Patchwork Place)
    Points of View: Landscape Quilts to Stitch and Embellish (That Patchwork Place)
    by Valerie Hearder
  • Fat Quarter Frenzy Two
    Fat Quarter Frenzy Two
    by Susan Purney-Mark, Daphne Greig
  • Simple Stained Glass Quilts
    Simple Stained Glass Quilts
    by Daphne Greig, Susan Purney Mark
  • Fat Quarter Frenzy
    Fat Quarter Frenzy
    by Susan Purney-Mark, Daphne Greig
  • The Quilted Garden: Design and Make Nature Inspired Quilts
    The Quilted Garden: Design and Make Nature Inspired Quilts
    by Jane Sassaman
  • A Month of Sundays - Family, Friends, Food & Quilts: Slow Down & Sew - 16 Projects, Precut Friendly
    A Month of Sundays - Family, Friends, Food & Quilts: Slow Down & Sew - 16 Projects, Precut Friendly
    by Cheryl Arkison
  • Sunday Morning Quilts: 16 Modern Scrap Projects Sort, Store, and Use Every Last Bit of Your Treasured Fabrics
    Sunday Morning Quilts: 16 Modern Scrap Projects Sort, Store, and Use Every Last Bit of Your Treasured Fabrics
    by Amanda Jean Nyberg, Cheryl Arkison
  • Canadian Heritage Quilting: Quick Creative Designs
    Canadian Heritage Quilting: Quick Creative Designs
    by Karen Neary, Diane Shink
  • Japanese Garden Quilt: 12 Circle Blocks to Hand or Machine Applique
    Japanese Garden Quilt: 12 Circle Blocks to Hand or Machine Applique
    by Karen Kay Buckley
  • The Joy of quilting.
    The Joy of quilting.
    by Swim. Laurie.

Entries in Workshops (3)

Friday
Jul112014

2015 Quilter's Retreat

Plans are beginning to take shape for our 2015 Mayflower Quilter's Retreat at Pictou Lodge. We are happy to announce our lineup of teachers for the 2015 Retreat - first of all the dates are Wednesday September 23 - Sunday September 27, 2015. Registration forms will be really early in January 2015, registration will begin mid March 2015.

And the teachers are...

Fiesta Mexico - Karen Kay Buckley

Karen Kay Buckley from Carlisle, Pennsylvania 

Karen has over 300 quilts to her credit and her personal work has received numerous awards including nine Best of Show Awards, including the 2013 Best of Show at the American Quilter's Association Show in Paducah, Kentucky. Karen was voted "Teacher of the Year" by the Professional Quilter Magazine in 1997. Her work has been featured in numerous magazines and calendars. Karen has fourteen "cover quilts" to her credit (she considers herself very lucky!). She has appeared on Simply Quilts and AQS show American Quilter. Karen has a very busy schedule teaching, judging and designing.

Karen has written four books and has numerous patterns published. As well Karen has developed several of her own products and useful tools including her amazing scissors!

In A New York State Of Mind - Ana Buzzalino

Ana Buzzalino from Calgary, Alberta 

Ana Buzzalino is a fiber artist and quilt instructor living in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. She has taken numerous workshops with renowned quilt and fiber artists throughout the years to improve her skills. Some of the workshops have been with Hollis Chatelain, Laura Cater Woods, Katie Pasquini Massopoust, and Elizabeth Barton among others. She has also attended various classes at the Alberta College of Arts and Design. 

Ana has been a teacher on a variety of quilting techniques for the past 22 years. Some of the recent workshops have been on Machine Quilting with focus on free-motion quilting, and New York Beauties Blocks quilts, which is one of her interests. Her present focus is on Art Quilts, incorporating different elements for surface texture. 

Ana's quilts have won several awards at local and national shows, and have been juried into major International shows.

Make and Break - Laurie Swim

Laurie Swim from Lunenburg, Nova Scotia 

Laurie has worked as an artist for some 40 years, developing unique and innovative treatments to fashion her imagery in textiles with fabric and thread. She has written three books, two published internationally, on quilt art. The Joy of Quilting with an Introduction by Alex Colville, 1984, made her an early leader in the art quilt field. Laurie's third book, Rags to Riches: The Quilt as Art with an introduction by Mary Pratt, was published in Canada in 2007.

Laurie's works grace many private and public collections, including the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Nova Scotia Art Bank, Nova Scotia Designer Craft Council, the City of Toronto Art Collection and the Museum of Arts and Design in New York.

Del Mano Gallery in Los Angeles, California has represented Laurie since 2007. She is also represented by Zwicker's Art Gallery in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Amicus Gallery in Chester, NS.

Laurie is recognized as one of Canada's best living artists. 

We are so excited to have these three exceptional teachers at our 15th Quilter's Retreat,be sure and visit their websites to see more of their work. The pictures shown in this blog post do not necessarily represent the workshops they will be teaching. Workshops will be announced in September.

Saturday
Jan122013

2013 Retreat Workshops

Presentation of the Pictou Lodge Quilt "Waiting" to the staff at the Lodge, September 2011. The quilt hangs in the main diningroom. The quilt was designed and made by Faye Brown and Debbie Vermeulen. It was machine quilted by Debbie.

The 2013 Mayflower Quilter's Retreat is fast approaching. The brochure and registration form will be ready this week and we are so excited to announce the workshops. Each workshop is 3 days in length so you really do get a chance to have an in-depth workshop experience.

Registration is done by mail only and to insure fairness to everyone, regardless of where you live, the post mark is critical. If you really want one workshop be sure and have the envelope hand cancelled on March 25, 2013 (for Mayflower QG members and Chapter members) at the post office so that the date is clearly marked. For non-Guild members the date is April 8, 2013.

As in other years we will also be offering an Independent Study for those who wish to work on their own projects. A room and tables, irons etc will be provided in the main Lodge or you can work in your cabin/room. We do encourage those who chose this option to gather together and see what each other is doing throughout the Retreat.

Please visit the teachers websites to see their quilts - Cheryl Arkison, Penny Berens and Karen Neary

Improvisational Piecing with Cheryl Arkison

Does working without a pattern feel like walking a tight rope without a safety net? This class will ease you in to improvisational quilting. Improvisational quilting is about technique and process, rather than a pattern. You start with some fabric, attack it with your rotary cutter and maybe an idea of what you want to do with it, then finish with a bold design. Your final product will look anything but simple, but is very easy to create.

We’ll begin with some favourite fabrics, then work through a handful of different improvisational methods.  We will also discuss where one can take these techniques and subsequent designs.

Learning the techniques of improv will help you create your own designs and adapt patterns when you need to change the size or run out of fabric. It is about embracing the spirit of improv more than some crazy piecing.

 

Exploring Traditional Quilt Designs Using Hand Embroidery and Layered Scraps with Penny Berens 

Being quilters we all have scraps.  Being Nova Scotians we have Frenchy’s.  We are very knowledgeable about repurposing bits and pieces of fabric.  This workshop is for those interested in hand stitching and using up bits and pieces of cloth.  We will draw a traditional block or your own personal design on a foundation fabric and then ‘colour’ in the lines with bits and pieces of cotton, silk, linen, velvet and other scraps that you might bring along.   You will be encouraged to give your traditional block an individual personality by adding your own unique touches with appliqué and embroidery.  The final step will be to use our familiar quilting/running stitch to bind all the layers together creating a quilt-like wall hanging.

 Roundabout Again © Karen Neary

Roundabout Again© with Karen Neary

Conquer the fear of curved piecing – let go and embrace those curves! In this workshop students will create a dramatic table centerpiece or wallhanging (31” x 50”) using 4- Patch and New York Beauty blocks. Roundabout Again looks equally gorgeous pieced in coordinated fabrics or in colourful scraps. We will cover the basics of foundation piecing to produce sharp spikes. Foundations on an easy tear-away paper will be supplied. Students will sew curved seams using a regular ¼” foot to produce blocks which come out true and flat, needing little or no trimming. This workshop is suitable for an advanced beginner or intermediate quilter. Students should have some experience in the use of a rotary cutter, familiarity with their sewing machines, and the ability to sew a consistent ¼” seam.

Monday
Oct032011

Workshops

We had four options for workshops with some excellent teachers. 

Daphne Greig's class "Give and Take Applique"

Elaine Quehl's "Machine Quilting Boot Camp".

Jane Sassaman's class "Abstracting From Nature".

Some of the "hermits" in the Independent Study.

Everyone had such a great time, can't wait for the 14th - September 25-29, 2013!