Canada 150 Quilting Events and Projects

There is a whole lot of celebrating going on! Canada's 150th anniversary is a big birthday, although compared to many countries, Canada is really only 150 years young! As you'll see, quilters across the country are doing what we do best - celebrating by buying fabric :-) as well as making and giving quilts.

150 Canadian Women Quilt

Here are a few of the events and projects that I’ve come across. The links to these items are at the bottom of the post. If you find more of these, please let me know and I’ll include them in a post.

150 Canadian Women Quilt by Next Step Quilt Designs from Calgary, Alberta.

The block patterns are free to those who sign up from their blog. If you haven’t signed up yet, you won’t have access to some of the first few blocks. Not to worry. Next Step Quilt Designs will be creating a CD near the end of the year with all of the blocks on them. You also don’t have to make all of the blocks to create a great quilt.

Canada's Big Quilt Bee, organised by the Canadian Quilters' Association / Association canadienne de la courtepointe

The Big Quilt Bee will be held June 14-17, 2017 at Quilt Canada 2017 in Toronto, ON. Volunteers will be making quilt tops from blocks made by quilters across Canada (and elsewhere!) as well as quilting the quilt tops. The goal is to make and donate 1,000 quilts for kids at Ronald McDonald Houses across Canada.

One of the many logos for the Canada's Big Quilt Bee - designed by Jill Buckley

The slab block is designed by Cheryl Arkison. They are 12 ½" blocks that incorporate at least one piece of special Canada fabric in them. At three sew days, members of the Common Thread Quilt Guild have made over 90 slab blocks so far, as well as many quilt tops. If our guild is any indication, there will be more than 1,000 quilts completed at the Big Quilt Bee. Way to go!

Follow the link below to get their logo, designed by Jill Buckley, the slab block pattern, fabrics to use, and other important details.

Canada Mystery Quilt

Nova Scotia block

Designed by Shania Sunga, to commerate Canada's 150th birthday, Canada Mystery Quilt consists of 13 blocks featuring 10 Provinces and 3 territories of Canada. These have been available in quilt shops across Canada as Blocks of the Month kits and finish in April 2017.

Manitoba Wall Hanging

It looks as if some BOM have started over, and it’s now possible to buy individual blocks as kits to make individual wall hangings. They are absolutely gorgeous! Check your favourite quilt shop or online shop to see if they stock the kits.



Canada 150 Fabrics

Canada 150 Fabrics

Many fabrics have been created to celebrate Canada's 150th. The links to the fabric companies are below. Check out your local fabric shop or favourite online store to see if they carry them.

• Discover Canada by JN Harper
• Stonehenge Oh Canada by Northcott
• Northcott’s Sesquicentennial fabric
• Trend-Tex Fabrics With Glowing Hearts by Moda
• Cantik Batiks

Trans-Canada Block Party with Northcott

Quilty Pleasures' block:
Sergeant Sesquicentennial

This program has three components based on Northcott's Sesquicentennial fabric line. 

Trans-Canada Block Party:  From January to September 2017, participating quilt shops will provide a free pattern (or have kits for sale) for a block to customers who visit their store. Kits from participating stores must consist of only the Canadian Sesquicentennial Celebration fabrics and the blocks range from 6” x 6” to 18” x 18”, in 6” increments. Northcott even created a google map of participating stores.

Vote for your favourite block from the top 10 blocks. The link is below.    

Canada Quilt Challenge:  Make a quilt using at least 6 blocks from 6 different participating Trans-Canada Block Party stores with the Canadian Sesquicentennial Collection and enter to win prizes. 

Sesquicentennial Quilts of Valour Challenge:  Quilts made from the Canadian Sesquicentennial Celebration fabric line can be donated to Quilts of Valour through Northcott, The top 15 quilts will be displayed at Quilt Canada in Toronto in June and prizes will be awarded to the top 3 viewer’s choices.

Canada's 150th quilt blocks

Common Thread Quilt Guild members designed and made 4.5 x 6.5 inch blocks that represent what Canada means to them. These will be made into a quilt that may be a part of a travelling exhibit in 2017, I'll let you know when I find out more about this,

My Canada Goose block for Canada's 150th quilt

What I learned:

• There are a lot more events and fabrics available than I thought. I guess it's a great marketing opportunity for the fabric companies. The upcoming events look like a lots of fun!
• I'm sure that it will take a while for the Celebrate - Fêtons 150 linking parties to attract participants. It feels like cheating, but I'm going to try to link this post to the linking party. Maybe having one post will encourage others.
• I just ordered some Canada 150 fabric from the Stonehenge Oh Canada collection....guess what will be in this month's give away? I'll add a photo 

Features Links:

• 150 Canadian Women Quilt block patterns and Next Step Quilt Designs' blog
• Details on Canada's Big Quilt Bee
• View the Canada Mystery Quilt on your favourite online fabric shop's website
• Discover Canada by JN Harper
• Stonehenge Oh Canada by Northcott
• Cantik Batiks Canada 150th Birthday fabrics
• Trend-Tex Fabrics With Glowing Hearts by Moda
• Northcott’s Sesquicentennial fabric
• Northcott Canada Quilt Challenge
• Northcott Sesquicentennial Quilts of Valour Challenge
• Northcott Transcanada Block Party
• A sample of Canada 150th blocks by Common Thread Quilt Guild members
• Vote for your favourite from the top 10 Northcott Trans-Canada Blocks 

Come and celebrate Canada's 150 with Quilting & Learning - What a Combo!

There will be a linking party and prizes each month! See the Celebrate - Fêtons 150 page for details.

I will be linking this post to some great linking parties. Check them out:  Midweek Makers, Off the Wall Friday,  Fabric Frenzy Friday, Moving It Forward Monday, MOP Monday,