Countdown to Canada - Fêtons 150!

Quilt of Belonging coming to Ottawa

Countdown! In 9 days Canada will be 150!

As you can imagine, there are many events already under way and many more planned.

Quilt of Belonging

On June 23 the Quilt of Belonging will be displayed at the Ottawa City Hall until July 5. This should be on your list of things to see if you're in Ottawa during these dates. There are also visits planned to other Canadian cities, but if you can't make it, their website is well worth a look. See below in the Related Links.

The quilt of Belonging is a collective work of art that was created to celebrate the diversity of Canada's people. Everyone that I know who has seen it was very impressed. I've made plans with a girlfriend to visit it on Monday. Yeah!

Quilt Canada 2017

Last Friday I took the train to Toronto to attend Quilt Canada 2017. Wow! The quilts were incredible. It was so awesome to see these works of art. The highlight was the National Juried Show. This year they offered tours of the winning quilts. The tour I attended was lead by one of the judges of the show. What a great way to learn about the judging process and find out what they look for.

I'm not posting any pictures of the National Juried Show because I didn't take any (I can't believe it either!) The organizers created a booklet of all of the quilts in the show and I bought two copies :-) I just found the link to the winners of the National Juried Show, so it's below in the Related Links.

Sesquicentennial Quilts of Valour Challenge

Another quilt exhibition at Quilt Canada 2017 was the Sesquicentennial Quilts of Valour Challenge.

Quilt #3 of the Quilts of Valour Challenge

Quilts were created using Northcott’s Canadian Sesquicentennial collection and then donated to the Quilts of Valour. The top 15 quilts were exhibited and everyone attending the show was asked to vote on their favourite. I've been checking the Northcott website but haven't seen the results of the voting yet. I will add the link to Related Links as soon as I find it.

Here are some of the quilts.









I heard many people talking about quilt number 15!

Quilt #15 of the Quilts of Valour Challenge

Check out the details of Quilt #12 below.

Quilt #12 of the Quilts of Valour Challenge

Quilt #12 details - "For your service & dedication"

Quilt #12 details - "Canada Thanks You"

Quilt #10 of the Quilts of Valour Challenge

Quilt #8 of the Quilts of Valour Challenge

Quilt #7 of the Quilts of Valour Challenge

Quilt #6 of the Quilts of Valour Challenge

Canada's Biggest Quilt Bee

Slab blocks I made in March

Do you remember these? They were scrappy slab blocks made for quilts going to Ronald McDonald House. Many of the quilts were pieced and quilted by volunteers during Canada's Biggest Quilt Bee, held during Quilt Canada 2017.

Here are some pictures of the different work stations at Canada's Biggest Quilt Bee. I got a lovely guided tour. It was near the end of the day, so it was rather quiet at the Quilt Bee. Volunteers had worked hard all day and were taking a well deserved break. I'm sure it started all up again the next day!

There were stations spread out efficiently through out 3 rooms. The blocks and quilt tops were received at one end and progressed through the many stages. There were 6 or 8 people sewing slab blocks together to make quilt tops. The quilt tops were then pilled up to be sandwiched while the batting and backing were cut.

Quilt tops to be sandwiched

After being sandwiched, the quilts were piled, ready to be quilted in the other room. 

Ready for quilting

Volunteers at several long-arm and domestic machines free motion quilted them. I spoke to one volunteer who was FMQ a quilt on a domestic machine that she had never used. It was a challenge!

Free motion quilted on a long-arm

After being quilted, they were piled on another table for binding and the label.

Quilts ready for binding and labels

Big Quilt Bee labels

Once completed, the quilts were placed on another table for folding. These were placed in bags or boxed for shipping.

Finished quilts ready to go

Quilts ready for shipping

As I was leaving Canada's Biggest Quilt Bee, I noticed this on the door. The original goal was to donate 1,000 finished quilts to Ronald McDonald Houses across the country. Based on how many quilts my own guild donated (Common Thread Quilt Guild sent over 100 blocks and 50 finished quilts), I'm not at all surprised that they exceeded their goal. Quilters are incredibly generous people!
The final count was 2614 quilts!

Status as of Friday late afternoon

I also have a few images of the Youth Challenge, the Guild Rosette Invitational as well as quilts made for the Centennial in 1967. Come back on July 1st for these.

Practicing the stem stitch

While I was travelling on the train, I practiced my stem stitch. Before I left, on a fat quarter, I drew some free motion quilting designs that I typically use and proceeded to embroider them using a stem stitch. I practiced for about 6 hours during that trip and my stem stitch is getting better.

My secret is not just practice! I purchased the Craftsy course, "Design It, Stitch It: Hand Embroidery" with Jessica Marquez. She is an excellent teacher - and her secret to stem stitching is well worth the price of the course :-)






Finally, here is Block 6 of the Growing Up QAL. It's a "Famous Jane" style block. I had never seen this before. It was interesting and had a bit of the improv feel when adding the final 4 pieces.

Block 6 of the Growing Up QAL

What I learned

• This was the first complete national juried show that I've attended. It really changed my perspective on juried shows. Because I had only seen pictures of the winning quilts, I didn't think that I could ever submit a quilt. However, at the show, there were many quilts in every category that were great, but much more achievable to make as a quilter or artist.
• Great news! Quilt Canada 2019 will be hosted in Ottawa!!!!! I have two years to try to add some accuracy to my quilting so that I can submit them and hopefully get accepted. Now that's a BAHG (Big Audacious Hairy Goal!)

Related Links

• Quilt of Belonging -  coming to Ottawa - view each block
• National Juried Show Winners
• Sesquicentennial Quilts of Valour Challenge
• Quilts of Valour Canada 
• Canada's Biggest Quilt Bee at Quilt Canada 2017
• Concurrent Shows at Quilt Canada 2017
• Design It, Stitch It: Hand Embroidery with Jessica Marquez at Craftsy
• Growing Up QAL

Posts on the slab blocks and Canada's Biggest Quilt Bee

• March 1, 2017 - Celebrate - Fêtons 150 in March
• March 13, 2017 - More Celebrating the Quilting Way

Linking parties: I will be linking this post to the link-ups at Celebrate - Fêtons 150 in June and the Growing Up QAL as well as many other excellent linking parties. Please check them out! Let's Bee Social, Midweek Makers, Needle & Thread Thursday, Linky Tuesday, Off the Wall Friday, Finished or Not Friday, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, Moving it Forward Monday,