Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly linkup where we celebrate the art of hand stitching! Make a cup of your favourite beverage to enjoy while you visit the blogs of slow stitchers around the world. It's the perfect way to start your Sunday! 
Today I want to share with you a bit about the Mennonite Relief Sale that I attended yesterday. This is an annual auction of over 200 quilts.
It was a lovely day with great weather, yummy food, and a good turnout of generous people ready and willing to donate to this worthy cause. These are some of the tents where you can purchase food, plants, crafts, and I'm not really sure what all because I was over at the quilt auction.

Here is a photo of what the quilt auction arena looks like. The tilted bed on the right is where the next quilt being auctioned is viewed. You can see they are just putting a version of Celtic Soltice on the bed to be auctioned next.

hand quilting with Judy

Last year when I attended the Creativ Festival in Toronto, I enjoyed some hand quilting time with my friend Judy Pearce. This was a project that anyone could add a few stitches to, so of course I did. It was hard to tear myself away from visiting and quilting. At the time it was like finding an oasis in the middle of a desert!

Yesterday I saw that finished quilt auctioned and it sold for $275. 

This quilt is called Whirligig and was made by a small group of my sewing friends. It's the 6th quilt we have made specifically for this auction and we were delighted that it was sold for $700!

It was very inspiring to see so many gorgeous hand quilted treasures being appreciated and sold to new homes.

So now it's your turn! What are you hand stitching this week? 

   

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

More about the quilt auction...

As I wrote last month, I attended the quilt auction in New Hamburg and as always, it was very exciting. My blog report on the auction can be read here. Someone took a video at the auction of the featured Africa quilt - you can watch it here.  Seeing the red faces of everyone reminded me how hot it was that day!
This year the auction raised approximately $350,000 for international relief, as well as justice and peacebuilding efforts! It's so rewarding to be a small part of this wonderful event. Just think of how many people will be helped by this money!

I wanted to show you two more quilts from the auction that I thought the rainbow scrappers might like to see. This quilt called "Scrappy but Organized" was made by the Waterloo County Quilters Guild from scrappy 4 patch rectangle blocks. You can see a better photo here, which shows the wonderful scrappy border. Wouldn't that be a fun rainbow scrap challenge project?

And look at this one. It is called Dazzling Diamonds and was made by the Shakespeare Quilt Club. It's a log cabin variation with each block made from white and a colour. This would also be a great scrap quilt idea.
Should I start one?
My small sewing group is planning to get together soon to get working on our quilt top for the 2016 donation quilt... stay tuned for that update :)

Slow Sunday Stitching & Auction Report

Life is Beautiful Block #9

What crazy weather we had yesterday! It was so hot in the morning, I didn't know if I would be able to stay at the quilt auction, and you just know it must be really  bad when I can't stay at a quilt event! I did work on some hand embroidery to distract myself from melting, and finished block #9 of Life Is Beautiful.






My little sewing group's Sunshine Quilt was sold for $450 and we are very happy about that! We have raised over $2,000 for the relief efforts of the MCC.






In February I made a block for the "Canada: What it means to me" quilt. You can see my block to the top left of the centre medallion. You can read more about it here.
This quilt sold for $3,200!!

Photo by Dolores Sedore

The top seller of the day was the "Threads of Africa" quilt (read more about it here). This photo was emailed to me by Dolores and is much better than the photo I took at the auction. It really is a spectacular quilt... 
it sold for $42,000!
For real! It was very exciting to be there, and made the heat exhaustion worthwhile.

In the afternoon there was a huge downpour, and the temperature became more bearable. When it was time to leave, we had to swim to our cars! Just look at all that rain. The gardens needed the rain, but so much rain fell so quickly that the ground couldn't absorb it.

Don't little boys love to play in puddles? And this was a very big puddle for them to enjoy. I watched these guys have fun for quite a while.
I think they enjoyed the puddle as much as I enjoyed the quilt auction!


And while I waited to leave, it continued to rain, and I continued to stitch. The stitches are a little wobbly so don't biggy size the photo. The traffic was at a stand still, and look how much I got stitched on my next block! I will be putting more stitches in today.

What are you hand stitching? Link up your blog post below and share a photo of where you do your hand stitching. In a car, at the park, in the waiting room, on the patio... any place is a great stitching place!

Mennonite Relief Sale 2013

It was another fun day at the annual quilt auction in New Hamburg. I have attended annually with my Mom for as long as I can remember. Various friends have joined us over the years, and this year my Dad even stopped by to get in on some fun! We didn't actually buy a quilt this year, but it was the coldest year I can ever remember, and I was ready to buy a quilt so that I could wrap up in it and keep warm! 

This was the line up for strawberry pie at 8:30 am! 
I kid you not!
I had to taste test the pie to make sure it was safe for public consumption.
No, I did not eat the WHOLE pie!
My small group of quilting friends (the "Sew 'n Sews") have made 4 quilts for this quilt auction over the years: 
*Wings of Friendship - $475
*Split Decision - $400
*Chicklets - $325
This year our quilt was a Bonnie Hunter pattern called "Bricks and Stepping Stones" and it sold for $375! It looked great up there on the auction block/bed!
There were so many gorgeous quilts to enjoy, which you can view on the website catalogue (click here). And you can see some video footage that someone posted of last year's auction (click here). The video gives you a feel for the auction and features one of my favorite bid "spotters"...he is quite a character and entertaining to watch!

The featured quilt this year was made by the amazing and talented Judy Pearce. Here she is with her quilt, which was inspired by a photo taken at a previous quilt auction (which is clipped to the left side of the quilt). 





Judy gave me permission to post this photo of herself with the new quilt owner Brenda Jewitt (on the left) and Judy's parents (on the right).
Guess how much this quilt was sold for?!?
$10,000!
Yep... that is with 4 zeros!
We are just so proud of you Judy!
On the local news tonight it was reported that they raised over $310,000 at the sale this year. Here is the local news report.
It was truly an inspiring day. I will count down the days until next year... and we better get to work on planning our next donation quilt!

Mennonite Relief Quilt Auction

Yesterday was the Mennonite Relief Quilt Auction, which I attend every year (to see last year's report, click here). This year I petered out a bit earlier because it was soooo hot in the arena, or maybe because I am getting old?! There were many wonderful quilts for sale and I was sad that I didn't get to see them all, but I just wilted in the hot humid air :(

I did see the log cabin variation quilt sold, for which I donated a block  (see this blog post). My block is half hidden in this photo...on the left column in the middle. This quilt was sold for $650!

I also made a block for the
"Community Garden" quilt.
I don't have a good photo of this quilt, but the first one here shows the bottom right corner where my block is :) 
I can't find a blog post where I wrote about making this block, so maybe I forgot to? 
This is the block that I made for the "Community Garden", for which I drafted the paper piecing pattern, based on a block pattern on Quilter's Cache. 
My favorite part of the block was the little beaded yoyo's, which I added in the center because there was just too much yellow and open space. 



All of the gorgeous donated blocks were put on pointe, with either a green or a purple fabric on the corners. I thought the yellow piping before the purple border was a great touch. This quilt sold for $600!
Of course, the food is always a highlight for me! I got a big bag few tea balls, and may have also had a piece of strawberry pie.  I discovered a new (to me) treat this year called "Fleisch Piroschki" (pastry meat pockets). I just love trying new things and these were delicious!
The amount raised by the quilt auction was almost $130,000 this year! And one of the things I love about about this quilt auction is that 100% of the money  raised goes directly to world relief efforts. 

Quilt Auction 2011 Report

It was quite a cool day for the New Hamburg quilt auction this year and the turn out seemed better than ever, perhaps because the lack of sun, cool temperatures, and the constant threat of rain caused all the gardeners to come to the auction (to read the local newspaper report- click here).

I missed out on buying some tea balls on Friday night, so I foolishly stood in line for one hour on Saturday morning for these darn things (yes, during the quilt auction... won't do that again!) ...but OMG they are so good! There are few things in life that I enjoy more than coffee and tea balls, while watching a fabulous quilt auction!

Our "Chicklets" quilt was #15 (of 201 quilts) and it sold for $325. This is a very washed out photo of the quilt being auctioned. We hope that this quilt has found it's way to a happy home with lots of children to cuddle!


The feature quilt was #150 and sold for $9,000! To see this quilt and description - click here. This is NOT a cuddle quilt...it's an amazing piece of art!

Remember the paint chip block challenge I worked on in March? (You can see my blocks here and all the blocks here).


This was quilt #186 and it was sold for $1,050!!
You probably can't see the fabulous hand quilting on the border in this photo, but it was amazing. And it had a very cool label that I wish I had a better photo of.


What else do you want to know?
The 75 block kits that we made up (to create a quilt for next year's auction) are gone! If you desperately wanted one and missed out,  I might be able to get my hands on an extra one for you... just let me know!
And if you want to see the arena where the quilt auction is held, someone posted a video on YouTube of the choir - click here to see the video (turn on your sound). Maybe next year I'll be technically sophisticated enough to post a video of the quilt auction on my blog...wouldn't that be something?!?!

Quilt Auction Report

I said in my blogpost on Saturday that I would report on the quilt auction on Sunday, and now that Sunday is almost over... I better get typing!
I took a little video at the auction but I can't figure out how to upload it to my blog, so I'll keep working on that.
In the meantime, here are the photos. This is a shot of our group quilt being auctioned:

It was quilt #17 (of almost 220) so it was auctioned early in the morning and the crowd was about half the size it is around noon. But still it sold for $400 and we were happy about that. To read more about the above quilt - click here.
This was the first look I got of the basket block quilt...isn't it wonderful!?!

To see the blocks I made for this quilt - click here. This was a challenge for the quiltmakers to set together the great variety of blocks they received...some were set on pointe and some not.
The basket quilt was # 60 at the auction and it was sold for $1,200!
The highest selling quilt this year was this a block sampler quilt:

It was sold for $6,400! This seems like a lot of money, but relative to other years it was "low". You can read my report from the 2008 auction here  (highest selling quilt was $25,000) and the 2009 auction here (highest quilt was $7,000).  Every year we say that the prices are lower and the crowd is smaller, because we were very spoiled by the most exciting quilt auction in 2003, when the highest selling quilt went for $44, 000!! Click here to see that one.
Now it is time to start planning for next year's donation quilt!
***Update....I read in Monday's newspaper that $115,000 was raised at this year's auction. 
That sounds fabulous until you compare it to last year's report that stated $320,000 was raised by the quilt auction. It wasn't just my imagination that the crowd was smaller and the bids were lower. ..I guess the economy is really taking it's toll on this event.
*****Tuesday update...apparently the newspaper misreported the amounts brought in. In this article, they must have been referring to the total amount of money raised by the event last year, not just the quilts. This year the quilt auction total was just $500 less than last year, which is good news for relief efforts of the Mennonite Central Committee!

Quilt Auction

One of my favorite quilting events is the annual Mennonite Relief Sale and Quilt Auction.  I have attended this event for many years, sometimes having worked on a quilt being auctioned, and/or having donated a block to one of the group quilts. Last year I helped create a butterfly quilt - you can see it here, and this year I was excited to see the Black and White block challenge quilt auctioned (you can read more about it here).  Here is the quilt hanging on the rack waiting to be auctioned. Unfortunately they placed the quilt way down the list (quilt #179) and I had to leave the auction before it was sold, so I don't know what the sale price was. Does anyone out there in blogland know? I will call the organizer tomorrow and see if I can find out.

On the right is a photo of the quilt auction. New this year was a big screen which projected a large photo of each quilt being auctioned. There were less attendees at this year's auction for sure, and the highest selling quilt when I was there was the featured quilt (click here to see it) which was sold for $7000. 

Here are the 200+ quilts hanging and waiting to be auctioned. I will check the newspaper tomorrow to see how much money the quilts raised for world relief efforts.

**Update**

I just talked to the challenge organizer and she said that the B & W quilt sold for $2,600!!  And the little wallhanging (9 blocks) that went with it sold for $500!

Our butterfly quilt has flown away!

Today was the 42nd annual Mennonite Relief Sale and Quilt Auction. It is a long day since of course you have to get there early to have pancakes and sausages for breakfast. The quilt auction started at 8: 15 am and we sat on those hard arena bleachers until 3:30 pm! The only reasons to leave your seats are a) bathroom breaks and b) buying strawberry pie!Here we are - me on the left, my long time quilting friend Linda from London (this is Linda's blog here), and 2 of my co-conspirators on the butterfly quilt, Marg and Joanne of the "Sew 'n Sews".

Throughout the day they auctioned over 230 quilts, including all sizes of bed quilts, wallhangings, and baby quilts. Here is a photo of about 1/3 of the quilts hanging before the auction. This year we noticed that the crowd was smaller and the prices were generally lower than in previous years. The most exciting moment was the auction of the quilt that was featured on the program cover, which sold for $25,000 (you can see that quilt, which is a cross stitched quilt here)!! The second most exciting moment was when our butterfly quilt was auctioned...and raised $475 toward the relief efforts. This is a photo of the auction at the moment when the butterfly quilt was being sold. It was a very exciting day and we had a great time!

We are already planning our next group quilt, and as Joanne says: "We are solving the problems of the world, one block at a time".

Now I am hungry and the kids are asking what is for supper...guess what? Strawberry pie! This looks like a good piece for me - I probably don't need that much whipped cream on the top, but too late now...yum yum!

Added Information: In the newspaper today it said that the $25, 000 quilt was made by Mrs. Schlegel, an 87 year old woman, which she made while she was recovering from kidney surgery. It was purchased by her daughter who came from her home in Texas to attend the auction. The quilts from Mrs. Schlegel have raised more than $60,000 over the years! Now that's a goal to aim for ...let's beat Mrs. Schlegel's total! The total amount raised at this year's sale was $335,000 towards their goal of "alleviating global poverty and hunger"!