NSQBQ RR Reveal for 2017

On Saturday the NSQBQ (Nova Scotia Quilt Bloggers Quartet ) got together to exchange our RR's at my home. Just Five years ago this little group emerged from meeting up through our blogs , Linda of Scrapmaster , Karen of Kaholly and Lesley of The Cuddle Quilter and I feel very blessed to have each of them in my life , our friendships have blossomed over these years and we have a kindred spirit relationship . The past three years we have done an exchange and last fall we decided on a RR , each of us making our own 12" block which was passed along to each of us with plenty of time to work on the next 6" round , so thankful for those long schedules ;-) Well we finally were able to arrange to meet up and since I am at the half way point we felt it best to meet at my house . I appreciated their efforts to travel the distance so I provided lunch of a variety of salads and strawberry shortcake for dessert. But you don't want to hear about all of that , you want to see these amazing quilts right ! Here we go ......
 You can't imagine the excitement we all had for the big reveal but this photo of Linda will give you a good idea :-)

She just couldn't stand the anticipation of what she would fine when she unfolded the quilt , well it was worth the wait , just look at this ..;.

Linda created the colorful middle block and Lesley was the first to add to it with a wonky star with plenty of negative space for Linda to work her magic with her quilting . Next I added the arrows after much searching for inspiration of modern quilts and trying to think how Linda would think , well I did a really good job of how she thinks as just a short time after I finished and passed this along to Karen , Linda revealed her newest pattern , an arrow runner , that just made me smile . Then Karen added the amazing pick up sticks in which she so creatively added the names of each of us as well as the year and the fact we are known as the Nova Scotia Quilt Bloggers Quartet , now wasn't that smart . I can't wait to see how Linda will quilt this , I know she will do an amazing job.
  I was next to open my quilt top but I will save that for last . Lesley was more than excited when she opened her quilt , I thought she might have a heart attack lol .

Lesley's block is a hand embroidered block which Karen then added the row of perfect little spools , my heart gave a little extra beat when that arrived at my house , I love the spools . She also added the little red and white border along with the navy then Linda added the lovely ribbon border in blue and deep red and then it arrived at my house . I will be totally honest here , I looked at this top for a very long time before I could come up with a plan to do my round , to me it was already finished . So after much thinking and planning I decided to use Lesley's own blog as an inspiration and if you follow her blog you will notice she always signs off with " Its always a good day for Quilting" . That was it , I knew that had to go on this top so I hand wrote out the letters to this along with other quilty quotes and hand embroidered them added lots of applique to fill in the space . I knew Lesley liked house quilts so I added a three dimensional little house quilt hanging from a clothesline, something else you often see on Lesley's blog . Sorry the writing doesn't show up well here , if you open the photo that may help. Note the four friendship star blocks I added to the corners to represent each of us .

 Karen did a lovely modern block for her center and I had the first round on her block. I had a little brain fog here too but I used the block that was Karen's inspiration to add my border . I hand appliqued some hexie flowers , a vine with leaves picking up the colours in Karen's block . I then passed it along to Lesley who added the wonderful colourful nine patch border , just perfect , again picking up those colours used previously . Finally the top traveled to Linda and she added a  raspberry kisses border  which really sets off the block bringing us back to the center .

Lastly my gorgeous quilt , I was blown away by the talent of each of these ladies . Linda added the large sawtooth star block around my star block leaving lots of open space for hand quilting ,  she knows me well , this is perfect , then Karen added the flying geese border in various sizes which just shows the patience she has , wow and such perfection and I love the colours , oh plus she added the square in a square blocks to set off the corners . Next it went to Lesley who added all those pretty scrappy sawtooth star blocks with the four blue blocks to represent each of us , how appropriate . I am thrilled beyond words with the result and can't wait to get started on the quilting and yes I think this one will be hand quilted by Holy Name Quilters, are you ready girls, I will bring it along tomorrow so we can decide how to quilt it to perfection .

 Our plan is to have our quilts all quilted ready for display for the Nova Scotia Fibre Arts Festival   being held October 10-14th in Amherst , Nova Scotia .The NSQBQ Quilt Show and Sale will be held at the Amherst Curling Club on Prince Arthur St. on Friday, Oct. 13 from 10 am til 5 pm and also on Saturday, Oct. 14 from 10 am til 3 pm.  We hope that you will come visit and check out all our quilts . 
  To read more on this amazing experience be sure to hop on over to visit each of the girls who have already posted with pictures for you to see . Thanks as always for taking the time to stop by for a visit and have a great day .
Hugs Sheila