Today We Celebrate - Fêtons 150

Happy Birthday Canada!

Northcott's Map of Canada

Today is our 150th and Canadians are celebrating across Canada.

In Ottawa it's going to be crazy busy. I hope to celebrate quietly at home with my sewing machine :-)


I'm very happy to share with you the finished version of my Canada 150 Art Quilt.

Canada 150 Art Quilt

A lovely maple leaf with a sheer overlay
and paper snowflakes encased within.

This quilt was a great opportunity to practice many of the techniques that I learned at Hillary Rice's embellishment workshop. In my progress post of June 11th (see Related Links), I mentioned some of the techniques that I used on this piece.

appliquéing

sheer overlay

encasement

free motion embroidery

couching

free motioned appliquéd

Since my last post, I added to the free motion embroidery of the northern lights and then free motion quilted the entire piece.

English Paper Pieced Diamond Shapes
into a Flag with a Metal Appliqué Leaf

Metal Appliqué

I used some of the metal that I had softened with a blow torch and cut and shaped it into a maple leaf with 150 inscribed in the middle.

I did some beading along the printed fabric insert using Hillary's bead trail technique. Essentially you bead on top of a quilted line so that your beads are nestled in place and don't wobble. You can also adjust your stitch length and then follow the stitches to get uniform spacing between beads. I didn't follow the stitches, but beading over a quilting line is great since I didn't have to struggle to keep the line straight.

I also appliquéd a feather near the right bottom corner. Over it I attached a feather charm. I added this to pay homage to our First Nation people who were here long before us.

I decided to try some new finishing techniques for this quilt. First I finished the quilt using the pillow case method. Then instead of a sleeve I used triangles quilt hanging sleeve. I found a great tutorial on YouTube (see Related Links).

Details of the bottom of the art quilt

Sesquicentennial Quilts of Valour Challenge Results

In the Countdown to Canada - Fêtons 150! post I had pictures of some of the Quilt of Valour Challenge quilts. I just found the results of the Challenge on the Northcott website (See Related Links).

My favourite quilt didn't make the top 3 but all the quilts were great.

In that same post, I promised that I would share with you some of the other quilts presented at Quilt Canada 2017. Here they are!

My Place in Canada 2017 Youth Quilt Challenge


















The winners are posted on the Canadian Quilters Association website (see link below).The quilts were really great. We have many budding artists if they keep it up! I just wanted to show you my favourite - it didn't win but for me evokes many memories of my childhood.

1967 Centennial 

I don't have any information on these two quilts but I did want to show them to you. The first quilt is more traditional but the second one must have been very modern for its time since it could easily pass as a modern quilt now.

Traditional quilt celebration Canada's Centennial

Modern looking quilt celebrating Canada's Centennial

What I learned

• I had a really great time trying new techniques for the Canada 150 Art Quilt. I now have some ideas for the two art quilts that I started during Hillary Rice's workshop. I'm looking forward to working on them and trying more of Hillary's techniques.
• Aren't the Youth and Centennial quilts amazing? It was a real treat getting to see them all at Quilt Canada 2017. 
• I've really enjoyed hosting the Celebrate - Fêtons 150 link-ups. It's been a great experience. I was going to keep the link-up for the rest of the year but I don't think that it will see much action. I will keep it for this month, so hopefully you will post whatever you have created around the theme of Canada.
• Next month will be the start of a new link-up theme. I haven't figured out the details yet (or a catchy name and image) but the theme will definitely be around learning. I want to make it as inclusive as possible, so it will include trying all kinds of things such as new techniques, new colours schemes etc. I will be announcing it August 1st, so please come back!

Related Links

• Map of Canada by Northcott
• Canada 150 Art Quilt post - Playing and Trying New Techniques, June 11, 2017
• Hillary Rice
• Easy Triangle Quilt Hanging Sleeve YouTube video with Heirloom Creations
• Countdown to Canada - Fêtons 150! post - June 22, 2017
• Northcott's Sesquicentennial Quilts of Valour Challenge Results
• Youth Quilt Challenge Winners

Project Details

Canada 150 Art Quilt

13 ½" x 13"

Materials: eco-printed cotton, cotton, novelty yarn, beads, charm, metal, thread, tulle, paper

Techniques: crafted appliqué technique, sheer overlay, encasement, free motion embroidery, couching, metal appliqué, free motion quilting, embroidery, bead trail, 

Prize - I will be drawing the prize for the June link-ups soon.

Linking Parties I will be linking this post to many link-ups. Check out what everyone is doing, including Canada day and the Fourth of July! I have linked-up to Joanne, of Canuck Quilter's linking party. Check out her great Canada 150 quilt that she designed! Needle & Thread Thursday, Off the Wall Friday, Finished or Not Friday, Oh Scrap, MOP Monday, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, Moving it Forward Monday, Design Wall Monday, Linky Tuesday, Let's Bee Social, Midweek Makers, Free Motion Mavericks

Update: Claire (aka Briarose) has these two lovely quilts to add to our link-up. She made them for her grandsons, Jacob (who is not yet a month) and his older brother, James, who is almost 6! The patterns are, of course, by Lorna of Sew Fresh Quilts.

Quilts made by Briarose for her grandsons

Quilts made by Briarose for her grandsons

To download the button, click here.

An InLinkz Link-up