To Nova Scotia and Back - In Person!

We've just returned from a wonderful vacation in Nova Scotia. For those who aren't familiar with it, Nova Scotia is one of our provinces on the East Coast of Canada (red on the map). My grandmother was from Cape Breton (northern island of the province) and my husband's family is from the South Shore. It's a two-day drive for us, which can be kind of crazy with three kids under 6, but it is so worth it.

I took this photo this year in Hubbards Cove, where we stay. It epitomizes Nova Scotia for me.



Hubbards Cove, Nova Scotia

 While we were there, we celebrated some birthdays. This is Micah excited about one of his birthday gifts:

And this is me, excited about mine (fabric from Avonport Discount Centre - more on this later in this post):

Hmm, I'm not sure who is more excited!

For my first post back though, I think I'll share the quilt-related stuff of our visit (fabric!), as well as some finds from my virtual visit of the blogs for Nova Scotia. I started visiting the blogs before our trip and boy, did they get me in the mood for our visit!

Valerie Hearder, author of Points of View and Beyond the Horizon, has posted a beautiful wallhanging about Shangaan Life, on her blog African Threads. It was made by a Shangaan embroidery group from Limpopo province, South Africa. It tells the story of how a Shangaan family lives. So bright and the detail is wonderful!

To get a great feel for the colours of Nova Scotia though, a visit to Barb Robson's blog is a must. She also has a great post about children's books about or featuring quilts. What a great resource! Who knew there were that many books about quilts for kids?! Now before you go thinking that Barb is all sweet and charming, you need to know that she's a member of a Quilt Mafia there. ;) I don't think you'll hold it against her though, especially if you check out her Quilt Show. Wow!

I found a beautiful Christmas Tree Quilt on Cindy's Crafty Creations -- appropriate since Lunenburg County in Nova Scotia is the Christmas Tree Capital of the World. If you are into vintage quilts, the Hall's Harbour/Nova Scotia Quilts blog has vintage quilt kits available for purchase and Quilting with Janet is selling her collection of vintage quilts.

The Mahone Bay Quilters' Guild looks like they had a great time at their end-of-year dinner. And check out their Photostream - what a talented group! You also can't go to Nova Scotia without sampling some of the great seafood (lobster, mussels, clams...mmm!). Check out this great Fish Quilt, made by one of the members of the Mahone Bay Quilter's Guild. Love it!

For those who may want a good quilting reason to visit Nova Scotia, the Mayflower's Quilting Retreat is coming up this September and it looks like it's going to be a lot of fun. A great line up of teachers too (Elaine Quehl, Daphne Greig and Jane Sassaman!).

One of my favourite blog finds though, has to be Ouvrages d'une Acadienne (Projects of an Acadian). Beautiful quilting and a great view into the Acadian culture of Nova Scotia.

The Paradise Village Quilters Guild is running an Ostrich Challenge this summer. I'm keen to see the results so I'll be checking back in September.

I love that Patchmaker has a series called Monday Oldie where she posts old block patterns. Great idea! And what gorgeous New York Beauty-style quilts in her gallery.

I also found a great Canadian Snowball quilt and a Bottled Rainbow quilt on Linda's Scrapmaster blog. Linda also posted some beautiful pictures of the Halifax Public Gardens. According to Linda, the Gardens "date back to 1836 and is considered one of the finest surviving examples of Victorian gardens in North America. It became a Canadian National Historic Site in 1984." I also learned about the FMQ Challenge from Linda's site. I'll be checking out that one in more detail.

Linda also recently posted some great pictures of the Halifax Waterfront. I love the Halifax Waterfront. Sigh! See the picture she posted of The Wave? Well, my two oldest children climbed it this year and then slid down it. Oy! There's a reason there's a Do Not Climb sign on it (that everyone ignores). Thankfully, Aunt Julie-Ann was prepared with some bandaids for my little wave riders and no real damage was done.

Back to the blogs...Karen Neary's blog, Sew Karen-ly Created, is another treat. I love her String Theory Quilt and Farrago Quilt, which was shown in Paducah in April. Karen has a great tutorial on marking quilting motifs. She is also a beekeeper so I had fun learning more about that from her blog. Very cool!

I could hang out in Sheila's Quilt World all day. I love the Calla Lilly quilt (that's a practice piece?!) and Christmas Row by Row quilt that she has in her blog header. Fun! Now, have you ever seen anything like this? Me either. That is some snow!

That's it for the blogs, but no visit to Nova Scotia would be complete without a trip to one of my favourite fabric shops. Last summer, a good quilting friend of mine suggested that I check out Avonport Discount Centre. I was in heaven the moment I walked into that place! There was no question that I'd be making a return trip this year.

Here are the goodies I walked away with this year (my birthday present that you saw in the picture above). :)



Some Castle Peeps




For an Easter wallhanging




Sigh!




Sashing and binding material for the boys' Bottled Rainbow quilts



A couple of charm packs and a couldn't resist fat quarter!

The design for the Castle Peeps fabric and the Easter wallhanging were sketched out on the way home so I hope to start on those once the Bottled Rainbows and Project Y are finished.

Psst...I also picked up some goodies for a giveaway so stay tuned!

I hoped you liked this visit to Nova Scotia. If you'd like to see where else I've travelled, check out my Around the Quilting Blogosphere page. Happy trails!