Just heard on Facebook … Mark Lipinski quits New Track Media and is no longer connected with Quilter’s Home magazine. He is also discontinuing any involvement with Quilt Out Loud, QNNtv.com, and Quilter’s Club of America.

Huge news for the quilting world … I wonder what will happen next.

Read Mark’s blog for more info, or follow him on Facebook.

Here’s the gorgeous mini quilt I received from Bradie in Alberta. I absolutely love it and will hang it in my sewing area for daily inspiration. Thank you Bradie, you are very talented.

This weekend is the quilt show at Upper Canada Village. This is one of my favourite shows as I get to enjoy the historical village and see beautiful quilts at the same time. I love watching the old fashioned quilting bee and talking to all the wonderful staff.

The Village’s Family Activity Centre will be transformed into an exhibit area showcasing over 50 different quilts made by members of four eastern Ontario Quilting Guilds: Common Threads Quilters Guild, Cornwall Quilters Guild, Highland Quilt Guild and Thousand Islands Quilters Guild.

Visitors will also be able to view antique and reproduction quilts from Upper Canada Village’s own collection, which will be exhibited at other locations throughout the Village. This year, the exhibit will focus on "wholecloth" quilts.

Visitors will find a Merchants’ Mall selling and displaying related quilting merchandise, including such vendors as Julee’s Homecrafts, Kelly’s Kreations, and the Quilter’s Rack. The Merchants’ Mall will be located inside the Harvest Barn Restaurant.

Crysler Hall will set the stage for two guest speakers at this year’s event. Esther Bryan will be giving a talk at 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. on Saturday about the exciting plans which are ahead for "The Quilt of Belonging: On Tour." On Sunday, Alicia Boutillier will be speaking in Crysler Hall at 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. about the history of "The Heritage Quilt Collection" at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre.

More information is available on the Upper Canada Village web site.

I took the photo above at the show in 2007. It is a Dorothy Baker Design, All About Bears.

There are still a few days left to enter the Nature’s Best Quilt Contest for your chance to win fabulous prizes. Registration closes on Friday, September 25, 2009. Voting will start on Saturday morning and last until October 4, 2009.

Two of the entries submitted for the small quilts and projects contest caught my eye as they were done by a 5 and a 6 year old from Germany with a little bit of help from their mom. Both quilts have won awards too.

Swimmy by Hendrik, 5 years old, won second place in Birmingham at the Festival of Quilts 2008.

Visit in my Garden by Jonas, 6 years old, won a second place in a German competition from the Patchwork Gilde Deutschland in 2007.

While I don’t have kids of my own, I hope I’ll be able to share my quilting love with my nieces when they get older and come visit me in Ottawa.

Contest Links:

• Guidelines and Prizes
• Register – Small Quilts and Projects
• Contestants – Small Quilts and Projects
• Register – Large Quilts
• Contestants – Large Quilts

Here’s the mini quilt I made for the Good Ol’ Summertime Swap. It will start its journey today to my partner in the States.

I used paper piecing strips that I created to stitch the mini flying geese units. They finish at 2″ wide by 1″ high. It went together really quickly and accurately doing them this way.

For the quilting, I stitched around each goose unit and the sashing, then did free-motion loop stippling in the border. I had tried to free-motion the stitch in the ditch, but it was awful, so I ended up using the walking foot instead.

This is the first quilt where I hand-stitched the binding to the back of the quilt. I used Nadine’s Invisible Hand Binding Tutorial; it was a great help. I was slow and rather awkward at the beginning, but got much quicker and more consistent as I worked my way around.

Reminder: Today is the final mail date for the Summertime Swap. Your mini quilt should be making its way to its partner today. If you are going to be late, please email me and your partner to let us know when you expect to mail it. All quilts should arrive by the end of next week.

Please also read this post and cast your vote: Swap Angels and Administration.