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Friday, April 29, 2011

Superior Quilts 2011, Thunder Bay Quilter's Guild.

This is Luci new quilt shop's logo.
It's a elegant design.









Shown here is part of Luci's display at our
Quilt Show this week-end.

The fabrics are from Moda's new fabrics, Sunkissed. Wendy made and quilted the quilt on the table.




Check out Wendy's blog. Quilting and Life.

http://wendysquilting.wordpress.com/


You will see her quilts and long arm quilting, displayed at our Quilt Show.

Vancouver, British Columbia Winter Olympic 2010


This is Al's.









Summer of 2010, I bought this fabric in Thunder Bay at the Quilters Stash, and with it I made pyjamas for my grandson Brayden, in Utah.
September 2010 I found the same fabric in Calgary at Fabricland. I showed it to Al and we both agreed it would make a wonderful quilt. Dawn Walton and Al both live in Calgary, both went to the Olympics in China and BC. It is only fitting that they have the same quilt. The white background, the backing, the quilting and the label are different.




This is Dawn's.

Circle of Friends Quilt Shoppe. Our new quilt shop

Thursday April 28, 2011
A week ago we needed the plows to get rid of the snow on the roads. Tuesday the city men were cleaning up and raking all the boulevards. Wednesday morning I looked out the window and I saw more snow. Today it was terribly cold and windy. I've lived here all my life and I've never seen the month of April this weird, maybe we'll skip spring and go right into sumer. I'm not complaining, I saw the tornado damage in the southern States. What a contrast, a royal wedding tomorrow, and the horrible
grim death toll from the 24-hour storm period continuing to rise, with 294 counted in six states.

Tuesday night we had our Possibilities meeting at Luci's new shop. We had a good turnout and it was such an interesting evening. We all go a tour of the house. Luci spent many months looking for a place for her quilt shop, but when she saw this older home, she fell in love with it immediately, the deal was done.

Tony, her husband is doing all the hard work to make it into an eloquent quilt shop. They are going to call it, A Circle of Friends Quilt Shoppe. They hope to have the grand opening in mid May. Luci is busy getting ready for our Quilt Show this week-end.





The Circle of Friends Quilt Shoppe










Tony and Luci, how could you not love them.





My friend Wendy, Luci and our other friends.



Luci's wall of colours, 200 bolds of fabrics that she will always carry.
We are all so happy to have another quilt shop and we wish Luci all the best.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

More Snow, yuk

This morning I woke up to snow on the ground. My car was cover in a few inches of wet heavy snow. The sun came out, the snow disappeared quickly leaving the roads wet and slippery. On our way to Mcds we saw an accident. I thanked the Lord it wasn't us, but prayed for the people involved in the accident.

A dear member of my immediate family, who shall remain nameless, had a problem with her expensive laptop.
The open and close CD Rom tray had a slight crack. To solve the problem she used a little bit of crazy glue. Need I tell you more? Before I went to Walmart Mcds, I stopped at the Future Shop to see if they could help her, she can't afford a new laptop.
I began by telling the technician not to laugh. He fixed it with an X-Acto knife, no charge. Sad news, I got a call from her shortly afterwards, she can't open the CD Rom door. She will have to wait till Tuesday for me to bring it back to the Future Shop, because Easter Monday is a holiday in Canada.

September 2010, I bought BC Olympic fabric in Calgary, I finally completed the two quilts, now I need to do the hand sewing on the binding. Photos to follow shortly.

Bill is not sleeping as much as before. The CAT Scan on Bill's head show no change from last year, so that's a good sign.

Tuesday April 26th we will be having our third Possibilities Club meeting where Wendy and I will share ideas, there will be no quilting, just lots of conversation. Wendy has a long arm quilting machine, she does beautiful work. Me, I just contribute my time and the things I've learnt from the quilters blogs. But all in all it's a lot of fun. For the first time it will be held at Luci's new quilt shop.

Thanks Wendy for letting me know our contribution is for the June meeting. You are a good friend.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

A little History of the Slovak immigration to United States.

IMMIGRATION

A few Slovaks immigrated to the United States before the American Civil War but their numbers were small. Large-scale Slovak immigration to the United States began in the late 1870s, steadily increased during the following two decades, and peaked in 1905 when 52,368 Slovaks entered. Slovak immigration declined precipitously during World War I and started up again after hostilities ended in 1918. The movement came almost to a complete halt in the 1920s when American immigration laws virtually stopped East European immigration into the United States. According to immigration records 480,201 Slovaks entered the country between 1899 and 1918. The 1920 census found that there were 274,948 foreign-born Slovaks in the United States. Slovak immigrants and their children totaled 619,866.

Statistics on Slovak immigration, however, are imprecise, and it is difficult to determine the number that actually immigrated to the United States. Before 1899 U.S. immigration officials listed immigrants by country of birth. Thus, until 1899 Slovaks were recorded as Hungarians. Even after immigrants were enumerated by nationality, the Magyarization policies had been so effective that many Slovaks did not identify themselves as such. Also, perhaps one-third of the Slovaks who came to the United States were not immigrants but instead migrants. Often called "birds of passage," they worked temporarily in America and then returned to Europe. They wanted to earn money to buy property in their homeland. It was common for Slovaks to make several trips between the United States and Upper Hungary. At least 19 percent of the Slovaks who entered an American port from 1899 to 1910 had been in the United States one or more times before. Not until 1908 did immigration officials subtract the number of immigrants leaving from the total numbers entering the United States. Still, it is clear that temporary migrants formed an especially large contingent of the early stages of the Slovak immigration and remained a common feature of the movement. Between 1908 and 1910, for example, 80,797 Slovaks entered the United States while 41,726 left. Its temporary nature also affected the composition of the Slovak immigration. Most Slovak immigrants were unskilled laborers, and men typically outnumbered women by more than two to one. Between 1899 and 1910, 266,262 Slovak males and 111,265 Slovak females entered the United States.

Over time, many birds of passage decided to stay in America and sent for their families. The reasons for staying varied. Some were unable to save enough money to buy land and in some regions of their homeland no land was available. Others decided that America promised a better future while others married and decided to stay. Whatever their motives, between 1880 and the mid-1920s probably between 450,000 and 500,000 Slovaks moved permanently to the United States.

Slovak immigrants were committed to saving money and fulfilling obligations to families left behind. As a result they routinely sent money to Europe. In 1899 alone more than $4 million was channeled to the Slovak region of Hungary. The determination to save money, compounded by the fact that so many Slovaks were males who had come alone, influenced living standards. In general, Slovaks tried to live cheaply. Laborers often roomed in boardinghouses where they could get a bed and daily meals for as little as ten dollars per month. These boardinghouses were typically run by Slovak immigrants, a husband and wife who either owned or rented a large house. For these Slovak families, taking in boarders became an important source of additional income.

Slovak immigration began during a period when anti-foreign sentiment was on the rise in the United States. The response by Americans to Slovaks reflected the common anti-foreign attitude. Furthermore, the desire by Slovaks to live cheaply, the large number of males, and their concentration in unskilled industrial jobs reinforced beliefs that immigrants were creating social and economic problems for the United States. Slovaks were not usually singled out as presenting special problems. Since Slovaks did not have a separate identifiable homeland and most Americans did not know that there was a Slovak people, they often referred to Slovak immigrants simply as Slavs, Slavic, Slavish, or by the pejorative terms Hunky or Bohunk. Based on their geographic origin, Slovaks fell into the general category of undesirable immigrants. Judging persons from both eastern and southern Europe as biologically and intellectually inferior and a threat to American society, some native-born Americans demanded that these "undesirables" be barred from the country. The immigration laws of the 1920s that curtailed southern and east European immigration severely reduced the number of Slovaks who could enter the United States. Between 1929 and 1965 American quotas permitted only 2,874 persons from Czechoslovakia to immigrate annually to the United States. In the decades after immigration restriction went into effect, Slovaks were lost in popular perceptions and culture, as they were lumped into generalizations about the massive turn-of-the-century immigration.

Slovak Americans rank as the second largest Slavic group in the United States. The 1990 census revealed that 1,882,897 Americans claimed Slovak descent: 1,210,652 listed Slovak as their "first ancestry," and another 672,245 designated it as "second." Nearly three-fourths (74.7 percent) of Americans acknowledging some Slovak descent resided in the Northeast and Midwest. Less than .03 percent of the 1990 Slovak American population was foreign born, and 74 percent of these immigrants had come before World War II.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Saturday April 16, 2011

Here are two more Sleeping Giant Mug rugs.



This one is Laura's.

Marlene owns this one.




I started out making mug rugs, I added the flying geese and strips, the mats grew into placemat.

Early this morning I went out to get my car started and found it covered in three inches of snow. This is the last time I will mention Spring this year. Nature is very tricky, if I quit waiting for it, maybe, then it will arrive. I guess we are getting Calgary's snow, they had a bad day yesterday.
I went quilting for the day but came home earlier, Bill is still sick.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

More of the Same.

This week I made two more bags using the BC totem pole fabrics.
Heather made a blue bag for me and I liked the style. I copied a little of everyone's idea and I made these two totes.
I prefer to make ties on the sides of the bag instead of snaps. Isabel was on an escalator in Toronto this spring, she was standing behind her daughter, Lisa turned to talk to her mom and saw a man putting his hand in her mom's purse, it startled both of them. Using the ties on the sides allows you to open the bag wider when you need to. I like a button in the front for the same reason, plus, no one can put their hand in your bag without you knowing. I gave Isabel the orange tote bag. Now I feel she is safe. She will never use an escalator in TO again.

Here is the bag Heather made for me.














This bag has no pockets on the outside. I cut the lining on the fold, eliminating a side seam. I made one pocket to go around the whole inside lining, then sewed vertical lines to make small pockets. Next I sew the side seam and bottom, leaving an opening in the bottom for turning.













This is just a plain tote bag with no pocket on the outside or lining.
This bag was made with 2 1/2" strips, using the sew and flip technique.



Hoping it's Spring Time.

A week ago I was sure Spring had arrived. The green grass was sprouting up, the roads were dry, most of the snow banks were gone then God fooled us, it snowed for 24 hours. The roads were so bad my nephew's car skidded out of control, went off the road and hit a tree. The car was a total write-off but Pat was okay. The next few days were great, the sun returned and melted all the snow, back to Spring Time again. Sunday I took Bill to Walmart to pick up his meds, and for coffee at McDonalds, (Mcds). We left and walk into an unexpected hail storm. The hail was the size of golf balls. I wanted Bill to wait inside while I got the car, but he insisted on walking to the car. Needless to say, I got soaked, he is slower than a turtle. Bill had been in bed for almost two weeks and he chose this day to go out. The last few days have been great. Dare I say, Spring is here once again.





Thanks for the photos Christine.




In a few weeks we are going to have a new quilt store in Thunder Bay, I can hardly wait. Luci's shop sounds so exciting. I'm also grateful her shop is close to my home.

I received my Easter mug rug from Carol in Florida. I now have a collection of 3 sitting on my table. The other two are from Carol, Ct., and Joan, Co.







I enjoyed the emails from my Easter Mug Rug swap partner Carol in Ct.. I've never met her but I feel like I've known her forever. She is interesting and kind. Years ago, on his way to work, my brother John, would stop and take random pictures of Thunder Bay at 5:30 am. I used "Printed Treasures" to copy and print John's photo to make a mug rug using the Sleeping Giant picture and I sent it to Carol.

I've been using Printed Treasures for years, it's the best, great for making labels.

Here is Carol's email to me.


THANK YOU so much for the beautiful mug rug, and card.
I was so surprised when I got home today and found your package....completely unexpected.
I LOVE the mug rug....thank you so much. The funny thing is, we have a "sleeping giant" about 5 miles away from where I live!
Here is a link to a website that shows a picture of "him" in autumn. http://www.sgpa.org/ Seems even our landmarks link us!!!!

So not only does she live near my mom's family, they also have a Sleeping Giant.
Here is the Carol's Thunder Bay Sleeping Giant Mug Rug.










Fabricland carried many of Vancouver's 2010 Winter Olympic fabrics with British Colombia's totem poles and fabrics with the birds from the top of the totem poles. Heather and I bought more than we needed and now I have to find ways to use it up.
Here is a bag I made using the charm bag pattern and some of Sharon's ideas. Sharon was my Halloween tote bag swap partner. Check out Sharon's Blog, and click on Friday, December 3, 2010. I have her on my blog list. You will see how she made my beautiful bag.
I love my bag.

SHARON ZACK
Quilting With A Marmalade Cat





I love this fabric, it's wild, colourful, and unique.

It's for you Marlene.