Celebrating 150 with Quilts

I've had a crazy busy week with Art with Fabric on Monday and then a two-day surface design course with Hillary Rice. I can't wait to write a post about my surface design experiments, but it'll have to wait a few days, cause today we're going to Celebrate - Fêtons 150 with some amazing quilts from the Ottawa Valley Quilter's Guild Show - Festival of Quilts 2017.

There was an exhibit of  "150 Years of Quilting in Canada" at the Festival of Quilts 2017. The quilt below fits right into our theme. The British Empire Quilt features many of the provinces of Canada. The quilt was probably completed between 1949 and 1956 since Newfoundland is included as a province.

British Empire Quilt

I love this block of New Brunswick since it's also part of the Ottawa region's history - "draveurs" or draftsmen taking the logs down the river.

What a wonderful piece of history!

New Brunswick depicted with
raftsmen on the river

The Canada 150 Interguild Exhibit was featured as part of the quilt show. Many guilds from the Ottawa area created their own Canada 150 quilts. The exhibit is travelling to various quilt shows this year. Here is a sampling:

Almonte Quilters Guild

Cornwall Quilters Guild

Lanark County Quilters Guild

Ottawa Modern Quilt Guild

Common Thread Quilt Guild
Postcard Quilt

Fireworks at Parliament postcard

Do you remember the Common Thread Quilt Guild's Postcard Quilt? It was also part of this exhibit.

Here are a few of the postcards:







Isn't it great how different the postcards are? So many different techniques and colours used.

Embroidered beaver postcard

Canada Goose postcard

This was my Canada Goose contribution.

Moose postcard 

Double Double Coffee postcard 

I couldn't resist ending with our national obsession for a certain coffee.....









There was also a President's Challenge as part of the Festival of Quilts 2017. There were some incredible quilts! I will include these in a later post.



Finally, here is what I'm working on - Quilty Pleasure's Sergent Sesquicentennial block. Don't forget to leave comments or to link-up your projects to the Celebrate - Fêtons 150 in May. You could win your own Sergent Sesquicentennial block kit!

The picture on the left was taken before I fixed the Sergent's torso. Turns out that he doesn't have very broad shoulders and a tiny waist!

Here's the latest photo. I picked up some brass buttons tonight so these will be added on once the block is finished.

Sergent Sesquicentennial block
almost done

Oops version of the
Sergent Sesquicentennial block

What I learned

• I had an amazing time at the Festival of Quilts 2017. On my first tour of the show, I took it all in. Then I took photos on the second pass. Finally I went shopping! After that I was more exhausted than if I had worked a full day! I'm really going to have to pace myself when I go to Quilt Canada!
• It was great to see the Canada 150 quilts. As I took pictures, I felt like a reporter going after the big story :-)
• As you saw, I had some minor misshapes with the Sergent Sesquicentennial block. I really need to stop when I'm getting tired before making the mistakes. Luckily these were fairly minor - nothing that I couldn't rip out!  

Remember to link-up!

Related Links

• Joyce Wieland and Art with Fabric - May 14, 2017
• Ottawa Valley Quilter's Guild show - Festival of Quilts 2017
• Common Thread Quilt Guild Postcard Quilt - More Quilts to Celebrate, April 17, 2017
• Celebrate - Fêtons 150 in May

Linking Parties - Come party with us! Check out the link-ups that are going on! I will be linking up to my very own Celebrate - Fêtons 150 in May. Moving it Forward Monday, Linky Tuesday, Let's Bee Social, Midweek Makers, Needle & Thread Thursday, Off the Wall Friday, Can I get a Whoop Whoop?, Finished or Not Friday, MOP Monday, Main Crush Monday, Monday Making,